PACING
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AUSTRALASIA’S richest two-year-old colts and geldings race will feature a pair of The Lagoon-trained hopefuls after Steve Turnbull and Ben Settree qualified their runners in Saturday night’s Australia Pacing Gold Semi-Final Two (1,720 metres) at Melton.
Requiring a top-five finish to gain entry into this Friday’s $322,000 final, Turnbull’s Atomic Red ($27.50) finished third and Settree’s San Domino ($8.30) snuck home in fifth spot.
Race favourite The Storm Inside ($1.20), from Emma Stewart’s stables, made it five consecutive wins to start his career thanks to his semi-final success and looks the runner to beat in the big one.
The winning mile rate was 1:54.6, with The Storm Inside seeing off Redbank Blaze by a comfortable 9.5m margin.
Turnbull was pleased with Atomic Red, who put in what the trainer-driver described as his best performance to date.
“He didn’t let me down. He did really well. We’ll be hoping for a nice draw in the final,” he said.
“How he’ll go will depend a lot on that. That horse that finished second got the inside run along the pegs and I don’t think he’s a lot better than my fellah.
“We went almost a second faster in our semi-final, so it looks like we could be very competitive in the final.”
Redbank Blaze got the best start from gate two to take up the lead, crossing to leave Soho Rugaru (barrier one) in the trail.
But The Storm Inside soon pushed forward from gate seven and after sitting in the death seat, went on to be the new leader.
Mat Rue on San Domino was caught three wide in the early stages and had to work to take control of the outside line.
Turnbull had Atomic Red directly behind San Domino as the field made their way past the post for the first time.
The moves kept coming as Bettor Be Gold surged into the death seat under the guidance of former Bathurst resident John McCarthy, shuffling Atomic Red and San Domino back a place.
Into the home straight with 200m to go, The Storm Inside surged clear which left the chasers to battle for the minor placings.
Atomic Red finished with plenty of gusto down the outside to come within a nose of snatching the runner-up spot away from Redbank Blaze ($12.10).
San Domino briefly challenged for second place in the run for home, but faded late to take the last qualifying place.
Rue was never in danger of losing that all important spot, the next closest runner almost 10m behind.
“Johnny [McCarthy] came around us three wide to put me three back, but it wasn’t too bad at that stage. He [Atomic Red] was a bit funny coming around the top corner. He lost a bit of ground when I was looking for the outside, but he’s always been able to find the line really well,” Turnbull said.
“This is the best I’ve had him so far. He’s just been really unlucky over his first few starts to have come up against Shane Tritton’s runner [Blue Moon Rising], who is a very good horse.”
Earlier in the evening Stewart won the opening heat with Our Little General.