King Of Swing earned his Inter Dominion heat victory at Bathurst tonight according to driver Luke McCarthy.
He worked forward when they went hard, he looked beaten on the home turn after racing outside the leader when the tempo never eased, yet the son of Rocknroll Hanover came away with the victory in the $30,000 qualifier.
Albeit a narrow victory over the leader Boncel Benjamin, King Of Swing put his nose out on the line when they rated a slick 1:51.4.
“He had to earn that tonight, Boncel Benjamin is a hard horse to get past over the mile,” said McCarthy.
“Barrier eight is hard to go forward with the camber of the track so it was always going to be hard.
“He had to really dig in the straight and went super.
“Him and Ego (Expensive Ego) just have a great constitution and are horses that thrive on hard runs, they eat up and take it in their stride.”
After a lead time of 8.6 seconds, Boncel Benjamin worked his way to the front from barrier five and the quarters were rolled through in 26.1, 28.3, 27.7 and 29.1 seconds.
This gave McCarthy and his wife trainer Belinda McCarthy a clean sweep of the Inter Dominion pacing heats at Bathurst tonight after winning with Expensive Ego and Spirit Of St Louis earlier.
“It’s really hard to do this and all three horses had tough runs,” said Belinda McCarthy.
“King Of Swing’s run, horses just don’t do that.
“They won’t do much between the next heat.”
By Amanda Rando for Harnesslink
