The big Bathurst Gold Crown Carnival might not just be all about Shane and Lauren Tritton.
For the past two weeks, all the Bathurst talk has been about the Tritton’s star duo – filly My Sweetchillphilly and colt Divine State.
On what we’ve seen so far, whatever beats them will win their respective finals.
My Sweetchillyphilly is the first of them to step-out in the heats of the Gold Tiara for two-year-old fillies at Bathurst on Wednesday night.
The daughter of Betterthancheddar won her only start at Bathurst on February 19 by a staggering 59.7m … and rated a blistering 1min55.3sec mile rate for 1730m.
Just for good measure, the filly she beat, Now Eye See, bolted in at Parkes at her only run since.
My Sweetchilliphilly should work to the front from gate six and win her heat (race nine) on Wednesday night.
Excitingly, Kiwi trainer Tim Butt’s decision to whisk impressive debut winner Lady Chatto across the Tasman to Bathurst has added another dimension to the series.
Lady Chatto won her only start at Addington last Sunday week by almost three lengths at Addington and clocked a solid 2min0.5sec mile rate for 2000m.
Butt, renowned to travelling and taking on challenges, is well aware of the buzz around My Sweetchillphilly and not afraid to take her on.
Lady Chatto has drawn the pole and will dominate betting in race five on Wednesday night.
The other Tiara runner with Kiwi interest is Passions Delight, who is trained by Nicole Molander, driven by Chris Alford and owned by the US-based Marc Hanover and Gordon Banks.
As exciting as My Sweetchilliphilly looks, the hype around the Trittons’ colt Divine State is even bigger.
And you can see why when he won by almost 20m on debut at Menangle in a 1min52.8sec mile on January 31.
He then raised the bar against the best babies seen so far this season when he strolled home by 12.8m and broke the Australasian two-year-old mile race record with a 1min51.6sec dash again at Menangle on February 18.
Fans will have to wait until next Saturday night to see him in action in the heats of the Gold Crown.
