Fullerton Cove trainer, Lisa Mcdonald believes that her dream run with MASTER CATCH to the TAB Hunter Region Championship Final “was meant to be”. In a serendipitous twist, MASTER CATCH was the horse featured in the advertising promo for the Million Dollar Pace so she was always going to set him for it.
Preparation didn’t start well, with a flat tyre in last year’s Inter City Pace and galloping at the Golden Guitar. Then the regional championships was introduced to replace the Million Dollar Pace as a result of the COVID-19 regionalisation plan. Had luck have gone her way in those doomed aforementioned races then MASTER CATCH would not have qualified for the revised series, “everything happens for a reason” says McDonald.
MASTER CATCH, owned and bred by Lisa and husband Phil, qualified in the first round of heats and the week off “has gone to plan” says McDonald. Drawing Barrier No. 5 McDonald is very happy, “it gives him the option to go out, have a look and come back”.
McDonald is full of praise for the series and hopes it’s here to stay, she’s only sorry that spectators aren’t allowed “I reckon I could have pulled at least 50 friends along to watch” she says.
This is McDonald’s first Group 1 event as a trainer, she drove PROMISES KEPT in the Ladyship Mile, recorded feature training wins at a Consolation of the Golden Guitar and a Hawkesbury to Hunter Final and placed in an Inter City Pace. MASTER CATCH took out a Country Series Final in August 2019 at Menangle.