By Adam Hamilton \u00a0<\/p>\n
Luke McCarthy is sure he\u2019s got the right horse, but now he needs the luck.<\/p>\n
The champion driver today got the all-clear to partner star Kiwi pacer Marketplace in Saturday night\u2019s $350,000 Group 1 Rising Sun at Albion Park (10.32pm).<\/p>\n
Most assumed he would, but it took a stable reshuffle to formalise it with McCarthy\u2019s pacer Hesitate joining Todd\u2019s stable.<\/p>\n
Under Aussie rules, that then cleared McCarthy from having to drive a horse he trained (Hesitate) in the Rising Sun.<\/p>\n
Common sense prevailed.<\/p>\n
Now McCarthy\u2019s focus switches to trying to overcome a wide draw in an extraordinarily strong Rising Sun field.<\/p>\n
Marketplace is $5.50 second favourite from gate six (second from the outside) in the 2138m feature.<\/p>\n
The calibre of pacers, most boasting terrific gate speed, drawn inside him is remarkable.<\/p>\n
Hot favourite Captains Mistress ($1.45) has gate three, classy three-year-old pair Zeus Lightning ($15) and Hollywood Strip ($10) are drawn one and two respectively.<\/p>\n
Former Kiwi and last start Redcliffe Cup winner Final Deadline ($6.50) has gate four and last week\u2019s epic Albion Park winner, Double Lou ($16), is in five.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got no idea what\u2019ll do early,\u201d McCarthy conceded. \u201cIt\u2019s just an amazingly strong race with so many good horses drawn inside me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got to focus on my horse. I\u2019ve been so impressed with his two runs here (Australia) and he felt great last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure the run brought him on again and Regan will have him right at his top, which he\u2019ll need to be in one of the strongest races you\u2019d see.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know I\u2019m on the right horse, one certainly good enough to win it, but lots of other drivers probably think the same in this race.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo much of it is going to come down to luck in running at the right time and how the race is run.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCarthy is hoping to turn around a disappointing week on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
A minor setback forced him to scratch 2024 Inter Dominion champion Don Hugo from this Brisbane series.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe pulled with what you would compare to a sprained ankle after his latest Menangle win,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s nothing serious, but it\u2019s the sort of thing that if we raced him hard three weeks in a row, could become something really serious.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s out for a break now and we\u2019ll look at the big races at the end of the year and early next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
In contrast, his untapped two-year-old Don Hunter, a winner of four of his five starts, scorched to a Albion Park trial win by a huge margin yesterday.<\/p>\n
He is one of the main chances in Saturday week\u2019s $500,000 Group 1 Protostar.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019ll be another amazingly strong race,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cI really like him.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCarthy also has star mares Steno and Eye Keep Smiling humming for the carnival.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I really like my three-year-old, The Niteshift, who runs at Menangle this week and will then head up for the Queensland Derby,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Adam Hamilton \u00a0 Luke McCarthy is sure he\u2019s got the right horse, but now he needs the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-504225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}