Bring On the Muscle flexes at Southern Surge

By Jonny Turner 

Bring On The Muscle lived up to his name with his powerful winning performance at Winton on Sunday.

The classy trotter returned from a brief freshen up in the best possible style, running away from his rivals for a big win for trainer Clark Barron and driver Brent Barclay.

In doing so, the four-year-old broke a winless run that stretched back to his outstanding win in last year’s Group 3 Hambletonian Classic.

Though Bring On The Muscle had gone some nice races in between, he had been down on his best according to Barron.

“Last time in he was probably 10% down on his best,” Barron said. 

“There didn’t seem to be any real reason for it, but we gave him a freshen up and we have been really happy with him since he’s been back.”

A Group 1 placegetter as a two-year-old and a Group race winner at three, Bring On The Muscle’s class has never been doubted by Barron and wife Jackie, who races the trotter.

But after winning six of his first 16 starts, Bring On The Muscle faced racing hardy older horses from tough handicaps early in his career.

“It has been traditional that when horses like him come back from age group racing, they can go through a bit of a flat patch back in the grades,” Barron said.

“Hindsight is a great thing, the slot race (The Ascent) was never on his radar and maybe we shouldn’t have pressed on to those bigger races.”

“He got a bit crook and a few other things happened which set him back.”

“He has also raced off big handicaps, he’s been 40m behind at times, you can’t do much about that.”

“But we have never doubted his ability.”

Bring On The Muscle faced another tough 20m handicap on Sunday but an electric beginning helped him overcome it.

After leading at the bell, the four-year-old powered to victory in an impressive 3.01.8 time for 2400m.

Bring On The Muscle’s victory assured him a place in one of the Southern Surge series finals at Gore on August 24.

Barron will now assess whether his trotter will start in the second round of heats at Ascot Park this Sunday, or head straight to finals day.

The trainer also qualified Mr President for the Southern Surge Finals with the pacer running the 15th second placing of his career on Sunday.