Locomotive too good, while Artiste springs an upset

The Locomotive. Photo by Club Menangle.

The Locomotive ensured leading Goulburn horseman Brad Hewitt would be the leading scorer in both the pacers and trotters’ heats of this year’s TAB Inter Dominion Championships with a fighting win in tonight’s first trotting heat of round three.

It gave this find of the series a stunning clean sweep of the series with three wins from the three heats.

“Full credit to the horse He’s handled it really well . . . just one more to go,” said Hewitt as he returned after defeating Keayang Chucky and Mufasa Metro with an all-the-way win.

“I was mindful and I had a lot of respect for the horse on my back, Keayang Chucky.

“I was just a little bit concerned that he might be able to outzip me but in the end they couldn’t get near my bloke.

“He’s not similar to Captains Knock in that he’s not the greatest eater in the world.

“But now we can look forward to a normal week; get back on top of things with him and look forward to next week’s Grand Final.

“It’s just really good to get this week out of the way.

“But there’s now one more week to go and hopefully we can repeat that run next week.

The second trotters heat saw an upset when Parisian Artiste wore down Queen Elida to score a smart one and three-quarter metre win in heavy rain.

Queen Elida (Chris Alford) enjoyed a charmed run behind polemarker Royal Dan for most of the race and when Chris Alford called on her to kick away she looked home until Parisian Artiste came out of the chasing pack and ran her down in a 1:56.9 mile rate. Aldebaran Vera was more than 11 metres further back in third place.

Queen Elida did hang a bit and tired in the straight to end her unbeaten run.

Tayla French was an excited young driver as she returned after the win with the Alex Ashwood trained six-year-old by French sire Love You, which secured her start in next week’s $150,000 Final.