Good to see you back Hustler! And, hey mate, there’s no pressure for your pipe-opener

Northview Hustler returns to the fray on Saturday night freshened up nicely after a busy campaign leading up to the Blacks A Fake Championship.

But even though he drops a rung on the top free-for-all grade, trainer Al Barnes says at just 90 percent fitness all he wants to see is the horse running on from his outside second row draw.

“We don’t expect him to win first-up, as it’s a good field, but he’ll still be competitive.”

Barnes gave the Hustler a week off after his unlucky seventh in Queensland’s A$250,000 winter feature on July 20, when he was dragged right back to the tail of the field by the tiring trailer.

“I was going to give him longer, thinking he might be leg weary from those hard runs he had, but he didn’t take long to recover and was just feeling too good.

“He’s one of the better free-for-allers around but he was eligible for the weaker race this week so we dropped him down a grade.

“It’s still a pretty good field of horses who aren’t far off free-for-all grade.

“I see the second row draw as a bonus. There’s a fair bit of speed in the race so we can be patient and let him run on and hopefully he can earn a cheque.”

With Barnes son Hayden suspended, the hot seat on Saturday night goes to younger son Brendan.

“But he’ll have no trouble, he’s not a hard horse to drive.”

With all the feature racing over, and interstate stars gone, Barnes says the Hustler, who earned $49,328 in the season just ended, “will rack up some coin” in the next few months.

“He’s right up to the best here when he’s right and will be more than competitive.”

Barnes himself will pilot Vasari one race later and, while up in company, he looks a strong chance to run first or second.

“It’s a good race for him and he’ll go close,” says Barnes.

Vasari boasts a formline of 121 and ran arguably his best race in Queensland last Saturday night when coming from the tail to run down hot favourite Tennyson Bromac in a 1:55.8 mile rate.