Swayzee winning the 2023 Blacks A Fake
YOUNG gun driver Cam Hart thinks champion NSW stayer Swayzee faces his biggest challenge yet in tonight’s (Friday) $1.25mil Group 1 Nullarbor at Gloucester Park.
For all his greatness, Swayzee will have to overcome a bad barrier and the hardest run in the race to add the Nullarbor to his bulging CV.
And he will have to do something he hasn’t done before in a major race, win without working his way to the lead.
Local star Minstrel looks a certain leader from gate four, meaning Swayzee will have to circle the field from the back row and sit outside the leader to win.
“I’d say it’s as big a challenge as he’s had, on that (small) half mile (800m) track and with the respect I’ve got for Minstrel, who has been the main beneficiary of the draw and looks the leader,” Hart said.
“I was definitely a bit disappointed when I saw the draw, but what can you do? It’s only a starting point."
“I definitely believe he’s the best horse in the race, but he’ll just need an ounce of luck now, too.”
Hart is hoping he can “punch through” from the back row rather than have to settle last as the lone back row runner.
“There could be opportunities to punch through, especially with a couple of the other big guns (Mister Smartee gate seven and Catch A Wave gate nine) drawn so wide,” he said.
“Whatever way you look at it, I’ll be outside Minstrel at some stage and it’s going to take quite an effort to do that and win, but Swayzee’s the sort of horse who is good enough to do it.
“He’s definitely got the class edge on his rivals when you look at his CV and those two NZ Cup wins and he’s a strong staying trip like this (2536m)."
Swayzee has raced beyond 2500m on 11 occasions for seven wins, two seconds, a third and a fourth. The wins include his two NZ Cups, a Hunter Cup and a Blacks A Fake.
But in his five biggest wins, Swayzee has been able to work his way to the lead by at least the middle stages of the race.
In contrast, the three major races where Swayzee hasn’t found the lead, he has run a second, third and fourth.
Champion local trainer Gary Hall Sr, who has $8 chance Mister Smartee in the Nullarbor, can’t see Swayzee winning from the draw.
“He can’t beat Minstrel now, maybe nothing can beat Minstrel the way the barriers have landed and with Minstrel almost certain to get an easy lead,” he said.
“It’s just so hard around this small track to sit outside the leader and win.”
Swayzee’s always confident trainer Jason Grimson, who won the inaugural Nullarbor in 2023 with the vastly inferior Betterzippit, disagrees.
“He’s good enough to sit outside them and beat them, so the draw doesn’t really bother me,” he said.
“He’s tough enough to get around them, bully them and keep going. This is a different horse I’m here with this year; he’s a superstar.”
PHOTO: Dan Costello
