Gold Crown Carnival starts with a bang

THE Bathurst Gold Crown Carnival could not kick off in a better way, tonight hosting six harness racing heats of the Gold Tiara, five heats of the time-honoured Honouree Stakes and the running of the prestigious Hondo Grattan Sprint.

Despite the unknown ability of many of the two-year-old fillies, there are short-priced favourites quoted in five of the Gold Tiara heats with talented Rickie Alchin trained youngster Lux Aeterna (Captaintreacherous) demanding early favouritism for the series following impressive wins at her only two race starts.

The recent Pink Bonnet winner will start from barrier four in the second heat (Race 6) and is likely to lead and take a lot of beating.

Powerhouse Victorian trainer Emma Stewart and her reinsman Mark Pitt are heading to Bathurst for the carnival and will combine with two first starters tonight with both Tough Shaz (Race 7) and Perpetuity (Race 10) making their racetrack debuts.

With no exposed form to guide punters, supporters will be banking on both fillies being up to the mark for their initial outings.

But with Stewart’s strong reputation for producing smart pacers and with such an imposing strike rate in feature races, it is expected that they will perform well.

The Bathurst Club’s announcement of the Davis family from Browns Creek as this year’s Gold Crown Honourees was a popular one among the Western District harness racing fraternity.

Staunch supporters of the Carnival since its inception, Ray and Pat Davis and their sons Brett and Leigh have been actively involved, both as buyers at the yearling sales and racing horses of all age groups throughout the Gold Crown series.

In recent times, Ray and Pat’s grandson Jake does the majority of the training and driving of the family’s team.

And the Davis family could feature in this year’s Gold Bracelet Series with their three-year-old filly Studleigh Melise.

Last Friday night Studleigh Melise took out the Young Oaks, her ninth win from 16 starts.

Bathurst CEO Danny Dwyer said that it was a unanimous decision by the club’s board of directors to select the Davis family as it was an honour they thoroughly deserve.

“The club is proud to announce the Davis family as this year’s honourees,” said Dwyer.

“They have been an important part of the fabric of this iconic carnival since its inception and deserve this recognition.”

For complete race entries, click here.

by Michael Dumesny, for HRNSW