TWELVE-year-old pacer Karloo Mick and his trainer Barry Lew know all about competing in the Inter Dominion.
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The pair finished second to Blacks A Fake in 2006, won the Inter Dominion consolation in South Australia the following year, chased home Mr Feelgood when third in Queensland in 2009 and competed in the Sydney heats in 2010.
This year will see the son of Panorama (USA) attempt to qualify for a third final Inter Dominion and Lew is counting down the days to the Tabcorp Park Menangle heat.
"He won on Saturday night at Menangle and there was 21 days between that race and his Inter Dominion heat in Sydney," Lew said.
"Ideally I would have loved to give him one more run about halfway between the two races but that isn't going to be possible so I'm just going to give a good run up at home and hopefully a hit-out at Dubbo behind the mobile with a couple of stablemates in the lead-up to the heats."
Karloo Mick has competed in a group one race in every season since his debut as a three-year-old at Forbes in November 2003 except the 2007/2008 season that was marred by the outbreak of Equine Influenza.
"He's been a great old horse for Rhonda and myself and to see him continuing to step up every year has given us a great deal of pleasure," Lew said.
"The win on Saturday night in the Australia Day Cup wasn't totally unexpected.
"I knew he could run the time he did, I just thought a few of his rivals might go a little bit quicker but the old boy never gives up and Ronnie must have known something because she had a few dollars on him."
Karloo Mick has now had 159 starts in a career that has spanned almost a decade, winning 65 races and placing in a further 59.
The gelding took his earnings past $1.5 million dollars with his win on Saturday night.
"I'm really happy with how the team is going overall and I even have a two-year-old getting ready for the Bathurst Gold Crown," Lew said.