King Of Swing “50-50” for Vic Cup

King Of Swing is a “50-50 chance” to tackle the Pryde’s EasiFeed Victoria Cup and Cruz will be the only Craig Cross/Luke McCarthy representative in Saturday’s TAB Smoken Up Sprint.

They were the two key takeaways when McCarthy joined RSN927’s Gait Speed today to preview an enormous fortnight of Victorian pacing, when the New South Wales camp hopes to pull off another successful southern raid.

A decision on King Of Swing, who’s last Tabcorp Park Melton trip secured the Del-Re National A. G. Hunter Cup, remains in the hands of his owners, McCarthy said, but the door had certainly not closed on the camp’s brilliant front runner.

“I’ve spoken to the owners, particularly Gary Hall Snr, they felt more comfortable if we could take him down and myself or Gary Hall Jnr could drive him,” McCarthy said, but New South Wales and Western Australia border restrictions due to covid-19 made that troublesome.

“If that can’t happen it’s still not a definite that it won’t. It will be totally up to the owners, they’ll make a decision on Sunday. I’d say he’s 50-50 at this stage.

“I love Melton and have had a lot of success there. Hopefully I can come down. If not at least have some of the horses from the stable there. We are really looking forward to being a part of it.”

McCarthy all but ruled himself out if he had to quarantine upon returning home, with New South Wales in the midst of Breeders Challenge and “just the busyness of the racing up here”.

However, there was no doubt the $300,000 Grand Circuit feature was a priority for King Of Swing.

“His whole preparation has been aiming towards the Victoria Cup. He’s ready for it and his preparation’s been purposely set for the Vic Cup,” he said.

“That run on Saturday night just a fortnight out was ideal for him, we won’t be able to make a decision until probably Sunday. He’s definitely ready if we can bring him down.”

King Of Swing is one of six the camp has in the mix for the Victoria Cup, with reigning champion Bling It On, Cash N Flow, Balraj, Cruz and Alta Orlando also in contention for a race start, but Zennart’s Melton flirtation is over after Saturday night’s failure.

McCarthy told RSN 927 only Cruz would contest this Saturday’s $50,000 TAB Smoken Up Sprint.

“He had a good campaign in Brisbane, he’s work has been really good since he got back to Sydney. He’s a good miler, so he will be set for the Smoken Up.”

He also gave a runner-by-runner breakdown of his others.

BLING IT ON:

“Really happy with him. His Menangle mile form is probably not his best. He ran a really good third on the weekend following King Of Swing. They ran a really quick last half and dad (John) was rapt with the way he hit the line. He’s spot on. He loves Melton, he’s won a lot of really good races there. We’ve got him exactly where we want him, just hope he could draw one or eight in that race, where he’d be behind leader or two (back the) fence (and) he’d definitely run a really good race.”

BALRAJ

“He’s flying, his form couldn’t be any better. In that last start he beat King Of Swing, got home in 52.6 I think it was. He’s ready to go. We’ve purposefully not run him again and just set him for the Vic Cup. He’s 100 per cent ready to go.”

CASH N FLOW

“We are going to give him a crack at it. Obviously his best form is over the mile. Smoken Up would have been a really good race for him, but we thought his runs have been spaced in Sydney every two to three weeks and to give him his best shot at a Vic Cup we’d have to miss the Smoken Up, so that’s the reason why he’s not in this week. He’s purely been set for the Vic Cup.”

KING OF SWING

“I think if he drew the lead they wouldn’t beat him. I think he’s the best horse from our stable and let’s hope he can get there.”

ALTA ORLANDO

“He made a mistake his last start, which is a bit out of character for him. We’ve given him an easy week to forget about that run and his work’s been super privately. His form before that he’s run three seconds in a row behind Balraj and King Of Swing. He’s definitely coming down, he’s ready to go.”

ZENNART

“It’s disappointing, because his run in Sydney the week before he went 51 for that longer trip and actually beat Balraj, that’s why we were confident he would handle that grade of race, but maybe mentally he just has to stay at Menangle on that big track. He did do that quite a lot at Gloucester Park on the 800-metre track. He can just come home and stick to Menangle.”

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HRV – Michael Howard