King Of Swing primed for Queensland

By Adam Hamilton

A BLAZING private trial has King Of Swing primed to snare his third Grand Circuit win of the year in Saturday night’s $175,000 Group 1 Blacks A Fake at Albion Park.

Driver Luke McCarthy was buzzing after partnering the Miracle Mile and Hunter Cup winner in a private workout with a stablemate at Menangle yesterday (Sunday) morning.

“He’s as good as we’ve ever had him. I can’t wait to get to Queensland. We head-up Thursday,” McCarthy said.

“He worked behind another horse in 2min57sec for 2400m and absolutely jogged home in 25.8sec. He felt fantastic.”

King Of Swing is $2.40 Aussie TAB favourite ahead of the barrier tomorrow (Tuesday) and he heads four, maybe even five runners Craig Cross and McCarthy will have in the Queensland’s marquee race.

“Balraj will run as well with Jimmy Rattray to go up from Sydney and jump back aboard him,” McCarthy said. “Cruz will be there with Leonard (Cain) on him, while Bright Energy will run and we will nominate and have a think about giving No Win No Feed her chance in it as well.”

McCarthy’s confidence with King Of Swing was further boosted when stablemate Cruz continued his love affair with Albion Park, winning his fifth race from his last starts at the track and again downing a brave Colt Thirty One in the $50,000 Group 2 Queensland Cup last Saturday night.

“He’s a ripper Cruz and he loves the track, but King Of Swing is a much better horse. So seeing Cruz come out and win again really makes you feel good about King Of Swing’s chances this week,” he said.

While King Of Swing is the standout class runner, the likes of Colt Thirty One, Turn It Up, Balraj and the emerging One Change provide plenty of depth to the Grand Circuit race.

“I think Balraj would be our main danger, especially if he drew to get a cold sit on the pegs. He’s beaten King Of Swing before and none of the others have done that,” McCarthy said.

In a huge boost for the local industry, Racing Queensland has worked with Sky Racing to snare an hour of free-to-air TV coverage around Australia to showcase the Blacks A Fake meeting to a broader audience.

It’s the first time an Aussie harness race has been on free-to-air TV since Tiger Tara’s Melbourne Inter Dominion final win in December, 2018.