McCarthy brothers Big M mastery

After his younger brother Andy McCarthy won four races at The Meadowlands in the United States on Friday night, top harness racing driver Luke McCarthy stepped it up a notch landing five winners at Menangle, Sydney Australia, tonight.

“I had to keep up with Andy,” McCarthy said.

“It was a super night.”

McCarthy won two of the main feature races on the program but the success started when he guided Kingmaker to victory for his wife, trainer Belinda McCarthy.

Leading most of the way, Kingmaker remained unbeaten in his five Australian starts since arriving from New Zealand.

A race later, McCarthy was back in the winners’ circle with another pacer trained by his wife in La Bella Vita.

Another New Zealand import for the stable, La Bella Vita has won three races in-a-row and tonight clocked a personal best 1:52.7.

McCarthy then went into feature race attack mode, taking out the Bulli Cup with noted Menangle speedstar Cash N Flow.

Working to the front from the outside barrier, Cash N Flow found the top and remained there to win effortlessly in 1:51.3.

Cash N Flow has now won 21 of his 34 victories at Menangle.

“It’s nice to have Cash back to his best,” McCarthy said.

Watch Cash N Flow’s win below:

A race later McCarthy combined forces with Victorian horseman Brent Lilly to take out the Group 2 NSW Trotters Derby with Kyvalley Hotspur.

Once again McCarthy found the front and dictated terms letting Kyvalley Hotspur roll through the quarters evenly in 30, 30.5, 29.4 and 29 seconds.

The colt crossed the line untouched, spacing his rivals by 14m in a mile rate of 1:58.6.

Watch the replay below:

Kyvalley Hotspur is by Muscle Hill, which McCarthy drove to victory in the 2009 $504,000 World Trotting Derby at Du Quoin State Fair in Illinois.

With rain delaying the meeting by six hours, driver Brian Sears could not make the commitment and McCarthy was asked that day by trainer Greg Peck if he could drive Muscle Hill.

Jumping at the opportunity of a lifetime, McCarthy made the four-and-half hour trip (295 miles) to the track to drive the champion trotter, and the rest is history.

McCarthy’s fifth winner tonight was on the Lisa McDonald-trained Master Catch.

He now has a clear lead in State and Metropolitan Drivers’ Premierships in New South Wales.

At the age of 38, McCarthy has driven 2745 winners in Australia.

Kyvalley Hotspur winning tonight’s NSW Trotters Derby at Menangle.

By Amanda Rando for Harnesslink