Tact McLeod a different horse

Having showed excellent form at New Zealand Cup time, Canterbury harness racing trainer Mark Jones says Tact McLeod (Sweet Lou) is ready for his next challenge – the $1,000,000 Garrards Miracle Mile at Menangle on Saturday night.

The six year old gelding went a huge race in last Saturday’s Cordina Group Sprint, getting within a neck of champion Swayzee.

“He’s come through it great. He’s an amazing horse like that. It’s going to be another step up this week and harder from the draw (7) but it’s a privilege to be in that field,” Jones said.

He says Tact McLeod has become a more complete racehorse since heading across the Tasman.

“He’s toughened up. The racing in New Zealand is so soft and they go so slow. We took him over there to do that (toughen up). It’s like a senior rugby player going into the All Blacks. The harder racing has made him and he’ll come back to New Zealand a far better horse for it.”

Jones says he was always confident the gelding would front up and cope with the hard Australia style of racing.

“After a hard run back here, he got better with racing. He’s like a 1990s horse. He’s a big powerful brute who can cope with the work and the racing. Some of the new finer bred horses can’t.”

Following Saturday’s mile feature, Jones says they’ll decide whether Tact McLeod will compete in The Race at Cambridge in April.

“We’ll find out in the next week. If he doesn’t go to Cambridge he’ll come home for a break and we’ll aim at the New Zealand Cup.”

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink