Eminem stressed “you only get one shot” and that suits just fine for Victoria’s Mufasa Metro after connections drew the dream polemarking gate for Saturday Night’s Inter Dominion Trotting Championship final.
Laurence, son of the gelding’s owner Mark Gurry, drew gate one for the second year in a row on Monday afternoon and Mufasa Metro’s trainer-driver John Justice couldn’t have been more delighted.
“We are very, very happy drawing the number one barrier,” Justice said.
“I was very pleased with Laurence who got up and has done it two years in a row now, so he is a good boy.”
Mufasa Metro has taken some time to adjust to the humid Queensland conditions but, despite temperatures expected to top 36 degrees on Saturday, Justice said the five-year-old had since settled well.
“He’s 100 per cent and by Saturday, unless something catastrophic happens, he will be at his very best,” he said.
Justice and Mufasa Metro will face tough competition from their fellow southern raiders with the likes of Just Believe, Ollivici and Queen Elida also starting on the front row.
“It’s going to be difficult they are all good horses,” he said. “The top four or five horses are great, they are world class. We have beaten them all and hopefully we can do it again.”
The son of Father Patrick finished fourth in the last of the heats on December 9, when “he was a little bit unlucky”.
“He didn’t quiet handle the last turn sitting back very well, so we will do a little gear change with him,” Justice said. “That will hopefully straighten him up a little bit.”
Mufasa Metro will launch from gate one in the Inter Dominion Trotting Championship at Albion Park at 9:22pm on Saturday night.
