Inter Dominion: Big Jack Hammer and Tough Monarch in desperate bid to reach trotters’ final

Australia’s two remaining trotters in the Inter Dominion series need to pull something out of the bag and quickly if there is to be a national representative in the final.

A horror first half of the Inter Dominion has left Australia in danger of not having a finalist in the trotting series.

It all comes down to Friday night’s last round of qualifying heats for the two remaining Aussie trotters in the series, Victoria’s Big Jack Hammer and NSW’s Tough Monarch.

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Our other hopeful, McLovin was scratched with a heath setback before the series even started.

It is a simple equation for our best hope, Tough Monarch, who needs to make the most of a gun draw (gate one). A top-four finish would cement him a spot in Saturday week’s Grand Final.

Tough Monarch (right) wins the Group 1 trotters’ free-for-all in Addington last month.

Trainer Rickie Alchin says all the signs are finally great heading into this crucial race.

“He’s really well. This is as happy as I’ve been with him since he came up to Auckland,” he said. “The way I see it, he needs to finish top four to be safe. I’ll be surprised and disappointed if he doesn’t. Everything points to a big run.”

Tough Monarch is precariously placed in equal 11th spot, along with Monty Python and Valloria, on 12 points after the first two heats.

Everything needs to fall in place for Tough Monarch but he does have a favourable draw.

Big Jack Hammer, is slightly better placed in 10th spot on the points table with 13, but appears to have a harder task from gate four in his last heat, especially with big guns like Winterfell, Majestic Man and Massive Metro among his rivals.

One of Big Jack Hammer’s great strengths is his gate speed and Luke McCarthy will likely use all of it early to try and find the marker pegs, especially given the trotter looked “lost” away from the pegs on Tuesday night.

The fields for the trotting and pacing finals will be declared tonight with the barrier draws on Sunday.

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Originally published as Inter Dominion: Big Jack Hammer and Tough Monarch in desperate bid to reach trotters’ final