Karloo Mick will not have another start before competing in the New Zealand Cup on November 10th after winning the Ashburton Flying Stakes on Monday. The “Dubbo Destroyer” enjoyed a quiet Tuesday after defeating a strong field that included cup hopefuls Changeover and Mr Feelgood and trainer Barry Lew will now turn his attention towards fine tuning the nine year old for the biggest race of his career.
“Before we competed at Ashburton I still hadn’t made my mind up in what direction we would head towards the cup” Lew said.
“I didn’t know whether to go to Kaikoura or start in the Cup Day trial a week before the main event and I basically wanted to leave it up to Greg (Bennett), the driver. We spoke about it on Monday and Greg seemed to think that he would be best suited in the Cup Day trial. Kaikoura is a big track, it is very flat and there are going to be a lot of horses in the race.”
Karloo Mick’s Gr.2 victory on Monday was explosive with the gelding coming from behind the leader running 26.4 seconds for his final quarter. While the win didn’t surprise Lew the final 400 metres was a shock.
“They went 26 and a bit for the final quarter and Mick has never gone that in his life.”
“Greg said if the horse had been right up on his game he wouldn’t have let Bondy cross him and he would have held the front. Greg had a lot of trouble getting him down into the sprint lane when they turned for home because it was the first time he had used it and it was the first time that he has really come inside other horses.”
The speed Karloo Mick showed in the concluding stages may have surprised a number of people and Lew is still waiting to hear from the New South Wales Harness Racing Club before deciding what to do with the horse after the New Zealand Cup.
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