Melton hitout for Mufasa Metro before Queensland raid

Star Victorian trotter Mufasa Metro (Father Patrick) will sharpen-up for another Queensland harness racing raid when he returns to racing at Melton on Saturday night.

The last time John Justice’s stable star headed north he beat all bar champion trotter Just Believe when second in the Brisbane Inter Dominion final at Albion Park on December 16, last year.

Justice, who has driven Mufasa Metro in most of his races since coming from NZ, will hand the reins to his daughter, emerging young driver Ewa Justice, on Saturday night.

Time will tell if she keeps the reins for the planned two-race Queensland campaign.

“At this stage I’ve booked myself to drive him in Brisbane, but if Ewa comes out and wins well on him this week, she might twist my arm,” Justice said.

“She’s driven him three times before and knows him well and gets her chance on him this week.”

Justice paused when asked how confident he was about a first-up win in the Wagon Apollo Trotters’ free-for-all at Melton on Saturday night.

“He seems well and his latest trial was very good, albeit he didn’t beat much,” he said. “It’s in the back of my mind he hasn’t fired as well as we’d hoped a few times first-up in the past.

“I’m confident he’ll run well, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if he got beaten from that draw (gate 10, outside the back row) in quite a good field.

“Depending how he goes this week, there’s another suitable race the week after so he could have the two runs before he goes north.”

Mufasa Metro’s two Brisbane targets are the Group 3 Pryde’s Easifeed Trotters’ Sprint on July 20 and the Group 1 Queensland Trotters’ Cup on July 27. Both races are at Albion Park.

“He thrived up there (Queensland) late last year and loves it at Vic’s (Frost) place, which is out in the country,” Justice said.

“The one thing I’ll change is to take him up a bit earlier this time, maybe the Monday or Tuesday before the race. I think getting there late contributed to him getting beaten in that first round of Inter Dominion heats.”

Beyond Brisbane, Justice is focused on a third tilt at the Inter Dominion – this time in NSW – with Mufasa Metro.

The gelding has contested eight Inter Dominion races (heats and finals) for two wins, three seconds and never finished further back than fourth.

“He doesn’t have to improve that much to win an Inter Dominion final,” Justice said. “That’s part of the reason we gave him a long break. He’s still relatively young and can keep improving.”

Also at Melton, classy four-year-old Captain Hammerhead will be out to book his trip to Brisbane in the opening race.

The David Moran-trained pacer looked terrific winning three of four starts before a short break, but was beaten as favourite into third place when he returned and had to do all the work at Melton last Saturday.

Moran would love to tackle the $350,000 Group 1 Rising Sun at Albion Park on July 13 to continue to push Captain Hammerhead’s case for a slot in the world’s richest harness race, the $2.1mil TAB Eureka at Menangle on September 7.

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by Adam Hamilton, for Harness Racing Victoria