The Hunter Cup is the next big target for newly crowned Inter Dominion hero Don Hugo.

Trainer-driver Luke McCarthy said a “hit and run” trip on Victoria’s marquee race at Melton on February 1 was most likely.

“There’s a chance he could go to Ballarat, but more likely I’ll just keep him at home where he loves it and go for the Hunter Cup only,” he said.

McCarthy ticked the only missing big box of his career with a monstrous Inter Dominion pacing final win on Don Hugo at Menangle last night.

McCarthy added the iconic race to the Miracle Mile, Hunter Cup, Victoria Cup and TAB Eureka on his trophy cabinet and this time trained the winner himself, too. It was his 11th drive in a pacing final.

“It’s a great one to get off the Bucket List, it’s taken me a few goes,” McCarthy said.

Don Hugo capped a stunning rise to prominence, having burst into the big league winning the world’s richest harness race, the $A2.1mil TAB Eureka at Menangle back on September 7.

“He was good then, he’s better now. That’s the great thing, every time he goes out for a break he comes back better and he’s still only a four-year-old,” McCarthy said.

“If he keeps building, he’ll be up with the best I’ve driven. He has to be.”

Don Hugo, who survived a stunning slugfest with star WA warrior Minstrel over the last 700m, obliterated the track record with a 1min50.4sec mile rate for 2300m, taking a full second off the previous mark.

McCarthy, 42, has been a megastar of the sport for 15 years. He boasts almost 3000 wins, 80 at Group 1 level, plus a World Trotting Derby win in the US.

Minstrel’s effort for second was outstanding, while David Aiken’s remarkable rising nine-year-old Max Delight ran a terrific third.

In the trotting final, The Locomotive did a “Just Believe” and completed a clean sweep of all three heats and the final.

Trained and superbly driven in front by Goulburn’s Brad Hewitt, The Locomotive left his rivals standing on the home bend and cruised home by nine metres over Victorian-trained stablemates, Keayang Chucky and Keayang Stuka, who ran second and third respectively for Marg Lee.

Hewitt was pinching himself with the biggest win of his career at his first drive in an Inter Dominion final.

“You don’t get an easier drive than that … it’s like winning a Grand Final by a huge margin.”

It’s the third successive year the winner has won all heats and final, following the injured Just Believe’s heroics in 2022 and ’23.

 

 PHOTOS: Courtesy HRNSW