3 minute read

Heat 5, Night 2

Champion reinsman Luke McCarthy admitted Spirit Of St Louis  was just a rung or two below the stable's two superstars, King Of Swing  and Expensive Ego .

Yet no-one explained that to Spirit Of St Louis, who scored a stunning win, albeit in slower time than his illustrious stablemate Expensive Ego in the previous heat as he scored the strongest of wins in the second Bathurst heat of the TAB Inter Dominion Pacing Championship.

With two from two for the next, McCarthy was keenly looking forward to driving his favourite pacer King Of Swing in the night's third heat.

But for the moment Spirit Of St Louis deserved his time in the spotlight as he put away stablemate Alta Orlando and Malcolms Rhythm – both plucky in defeat but no match for Spirit Of St Louis, who rated 1:54.5 to secure valuable second-round points following his narrow defeat in the first round of heats at Menangle on night one.

"I was pretty proud of him – he went really well in the first round to only just get beaten.

"I was hoping to follow Balraj out of the gate tonight but things didn't quite play out like that and it dawned on me that we were going to get pushed right off the track the way the race was being run.

"So, I let him have his head for a quarter and he just went super and strode up to them.

"While he might not have the class of the other two, he's still a great horse and if he could somehow get behind a leader or sit three-fence in the final he's certainly the type of horse that can make the most of it.

"He probably cannot beat my other two – but you never know."