McCarthy picked up the plum drive on four-year-old Victorian mare Carlas Pixel from ace Victorian trainer Emma Stewart a couple of weeks ago.
Carlas Pixel qualified for the Ladyship Mile at Menangle two weeks ago when successful in the Canadian Club Sprint and it paid dividends tonight when McCarthy brought the daughter of Courage Under Fire with a flashing finish from well back in the field for an impressive victory – breaking the magical 1:50 mile rate in the process, rating 1:49.5 to score a one a quarter metre win over Delishka (Blake Fitzpatrick) with Rocker Band (Ash Grives) five and a half metres further back in third place.
The stunning time was made possible by bold front-runner My Rona Gold (Lauren Tritton) who surged out of the gate in a slashing 25.5 seconds for the opening quarter.
The flashy grey then ran them along in fine style with a 28.1 second split before fading in the straight the finish fifth as the pace began to tell and the first two placegetters emerged from well back in the field.
Stewart later paid tribute to the McCarthys – Luke and Belinda for making Cobbity a home away from home for them when they come to Sydney.
"I was quite nervous when I got her because she's a super mare and you never know how you are going to go when you get a good horse like that," said Stewart.
"But full marks to Luke, he drove her superbly tonight."
Luke added: I've been lucky enough to win this twice and its a huge thrill.
She went so well last week we had a lot of confidence going into tonight's race.
"Dean Braun picked this horse from the yearling sales and deserves some of the credit to as he did a great job with her."
4 | 7:46pm | MACARTHUR SQUARE LADYSHIP MILE (GROUP 1) | 1609M |
$200,000 Mares. RBD. Mobile | Results |
Pl | Horse | Prize- money |
Row & Br |
TAB # |
Trainer | Driver (C = Concession) |
Mgn (m) |
Starting odds |
Stewards' Comments |
||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | CARLAS PIXEL | Fr5 | 6 | Emma Stewart | Luke McCarthy | $ 7.20 | |||||
BAY MARE 4 by COURAGE UNDER FIRE NZ out of PIXEL PERFECT (ART MAJOR USA) Owner(s): S J Nixon, M E Denyer Breeder(s): R J (Robert) Watson |
|||||||||||
2 | DELISHKA NZ | Fr9 | 11 | Brad Mowbray | Blake Fitzpatrick | 1.3m | $ 23.80 | ||||
3 | ROCKER BAND NZ | Fr1 | 1 | Mark Jones | Ashlee Grives | 6.7m | $ 14.70 | ||||
4 | A PICCADILLY PRINCESS NZ | Fr8 | 9 | Mark Purdon | Natalie Rasmussen | 11.2m | $ 8.70 | ||||
5 | MY RONA GOLD NZ | Fr7 | 8 | S P Tritton, L R Tritton | Lauren Tritton | 11.2m | $ 24.50 | ||||
6 | IMA MYSTERY GIRL | Fr4 | 5 | Jarrod Alchin | Jarrod Alchin | 11.8m | $ 71.00 | ||||
7 | SHAKAHARI | Fr10 | 12 | Stephen O'Donoghue | Rebecca Bartley | 13.4m | $ 139.30 | ||||
8 | AMERETTO | Fr2 | 2 | Kerryn Manning | Kerryn Manning | 14.8m | $ 1.80 fav | ||||
9 | MISS RIVIERA BELLE NZ | Fr6 | 7 | S P Tritton, L R Tritton | Chris Geary | 16.8m | $ 69.10 | ||||
10 | OUR GOLDEN GODDESS | Fr3 | 4 | Kerryn Manning | James Rattray | 21.6m | $ 5.40 |
Scratchings | |
---|---|
PARTYON NZ | 3 |
BERISARI | 10 |
Track Rating: | Gross Time: 1:49:5 | Mile Rate: 1:49:5 | |
First Quarter: 25.5 | Second Quarter: 28.1 | Third Quarter: 28 | Fourth Quarter: 27.9 |
Margins: 1.3m x 5.4m |