A fine Daniel Morgan drive earned The Muse first entry into the July 30 $7650 Marathon Final (3110m) yesterday.

Morgan, 19, had The Muse well placed throughout making a few decisions along the way to overpower favourite Signory Shannon for a head win in first 2730m heat. Trained by Craig Clegg The Muse made it back-to-back wins and clocked 3mins 33secs, a mile rate of 2:05.5 for a neck win.

The second heat was won by Ken Natty’s Leighmont, the six-year-old gelding winning in 3mins 50.2secs, a mile rate of 2:15.7.

It was a staggering 17.2secs slower than the first heat.

He sat outside leader Sissies Beach Girl, who clocked some slow sectionals before the heat developed into a last lap derby with a final 800m of 58.9secs.

“He was well graded,” Peter Hedges told on-course interviewer Mark Lowe.

“I was happy to sit there and then run on from the 1200m.”

Hedges said not to worry about the vastly different times.

“He’ll race well in the final. Pete’s (Bullock) horse (Signory Shannon) is a real bulldog and Craig’s (Clegg) horse (The Muse) will be right in it, but Ken’s horse is versatile. Hopefully we’ll get a good draw.”

n Catch Your Breath made start 102 a winning one when the eight-year-old Dubbo won yesterday’s Tamworth Video Productions Pace (1980m) at Tamworth Paceway.

Owned, trained and driven by Dubbo veteran, Spiros Calligeros, the eight-year-old gelding son of Blissful Hall was back early but then made a winning 1100m from home.

Calligeros took Catch Your Breath to the front a lap and a half from home and was never headed, holding off Mithrys Magic to win by a metre.

He hasn’t been to Tamworth for a long while.

The veteran trainer-driver had hoped to run at Dubbo but that was washed out.

“Handy having one with a bit of speed,” he said of Catch Your Breath.

“Couldn’t take the risk of not getting a run at Parkes, so I came here.”