Next month's Miracle Mile has had an injection of speed with connections confirming WA Pacing Cup winner My Hard Copy will head to Sydney after the conclusion of his Victorian campaign. Harness racing driver Clint Hall is excited to be heading across to the eastern states to drive the son of American Ideal and believes Tabcorp Park Menangle would be a perfect track to unleash his top speed.
"His recent mile record is pretty good and when he won a heat of the Inter Dominion at Bunbury he became WA's fastest pacer so with the right run I think he would be competitive in anything he contested," Hall said.
"He will fly to Melbourne on Thursday week before getting ready for the Victoria and Hunter Cups and the only thing that will stop us going onto Sydney is poor form or bad health."
My Hard Copy finished fourth behind Alta Christiano in the 2013 WA Derby and competed in the Golden Nugget as a four year old but was forced to undergo throat surgery last year after breathing difficulties.
"I think the operation has taken him to the next level and he has really grown in confidence since then, we suspected there were some breathing problems and then one night I heard them in the warm-up.
"It is hard to describe, I guess the best way to describe it is that he sounded like a vacuum cleaner that had something stuck in its pipe, you could hear him whistling."
Three or four different operations were suggested but connections opted for the least intrusive – a tie-forward operation.
"He went for a break in July last year and it was while he was off that he had the operation, it is something that you have to be aware of and something that you need to keep listening out for.
"He did make the sound once or twice after he resumed but the more racing he has had since the operation, the better he has been."
Hall has only driven at Menangle previously on one occasion when he drove Livingontheinterest in the 2014 Inter Dominion. The qualifiers for the 2016 Miracle Mile will be conducted at Menangle on Saturday February 13.
Greg Hayes
