Bling's blazing return

By Adam Hamilton

THAT was one heck of a return.

Bling It On didn’t just win his comeback race at Menangle last night, he blew his rivals away and made quite the statement.

First-up after injury and stints at stud sidelined him for 16 months, the former superstar pacer scorched a personal best 1min50.2sec mile and won seemingly without fuss by 7.5m.

The win didn’t surprise co-trainer and driver Luke McCarthy, who gave him a superb run behind the leader Loorim Creek, but only after buzzing off the gate from barrier five.

Bling It On saw daylight at the top of the straight and quickly put the race beyond doubt, cruising to the line in closing splits of 54.6 and 27.3sec.

“It’s great to have him come out and do that, but he was ready. We had him very fit,” McCarthy said. “He’s been in work six months and, as I said before the race, he’d had a couple of private trials before that Menangle trial the other day.

“We’ve been so happy with him. There’s no way we’d have gone this far unless we felt he was as good as ever. We think too much of him.”

McCarthy confirmed Bling It On would now go straight into the Group 1 Victoria Cup at Melton next Saturday week (October 12).

“We’re not worried about going straight into the deep end because we have him so fit and this win just reinforced that,” he said.

“We’re sure he’ll be very competitive in all those big races the way he’s come back.”

 As McCarthy said before the stunning return win, Bling It On is set to head to Auckland for the Inter Dominion, starting on November 29.

 “We’ll probably freshen him up a little after the Victoria Cup, then have him peaking again for the start of the Inters,” he said.

 Bling It On’s comeback win was his first victory since scoring at Menangle on December 16, 2017.