Not even bad barriers will stop trainers Shane and Lauren Tritton having hot favourites in both major Bathurst finals.
Three days after the Tritton’s buzz filly My Sweetschilliphilly demolished her rivals in a Gold Tiara heat, colt Divine State looked every bit as dominant winning his Gold Crown heat at Bathurst last night.
Shane Tritton instructed young driver Chris Geary to stay out of trouble and give Divine State time to balance at his first race around Bathurst, wary of it being a fair bit tighter than Menangle where he won his first two starts.
“I honestly thought the only danger was him not handling the track because he he can knock himself a bit,” Tritton said.
Geary certainly did his part, basically sitting off the pace and in the middle of the track for the first 500m before surging forward to take the lead.\
Despite being wide in a 28.8sec opening quarter then running the next in 29.3sec, Divine State put the race beyond doubt down the back straight in a blazing 27.8sec split.
Geary essentially let Divine State run to the wire under his own steam in a soft 31.1sec last quarter as he won by 37.5m.
Despite being eased down, the 1min56.2sec mile rate was by far the fastest of the five heats on the night.
The second quickest was the 1min57.3sec by Stone Cracker in the opening heat.
Divine State has won by huge spaces and run blistering times in all three starts and looks a league above his rivals for next Saturday night’s final.
In the Tiara, My Sweetchilliphilly’s only possible threat looks to be Kiwi raider My Chappo from the Tim Butt barn.
The other Crown heat winners were Castalong Shadow (1min58.8sec), Maximus Red (1min59.1sec) and Royal Aurora (2min1sec).
Adam Hamitlon