STEVE Turnbull knows all about horror draws in Group races, so when he heard that his colt Smooth Baht would go from barrier one in Friday night's Gold Crown Final he could not help but smile.
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Though The Lagoon trainer-driver knows a good draw is no assurance of success in the $100,000, Group 1 decider for two-year-old colts and geldings, he knows it is a big help.
It's much better than when he had to overcome the extreme outside for the 2002 Inter Dominion Grand Final with Smooth Satin.
"When someone told me that I drew one, I said that I could remember the time in the Inter Dominion that I drew 15, I'd never heard of that number let alone drawn it," Turnbull laughed.
"So one, yeah that was pretty exciting, that was a bit different."
While Turnbull certainly enjoyed the draw, his opinion of the Somebeachsomewhere x Shoutaloud colt is even higher.
Before Smooth Baht, who is unbeaten in his two career starts, even stood at the barrier for his first race Turnbull thought he had potential.
"I've had a lot of luck with the broodmare, the mother Shoutaloud - Power Of Red, Runaway Red, My Dandy, Atomic Red, Smooth Cash, they're all out of the same mare and they've all been lovely horses," he said.
"I paid fairly dearly for him - 50 grand - I've never really brought a dear yearling, it was just that the mare had been so good to me.
"My owner, Rod Davis, he'd already bought down in Melbourne, so I thought 'Oh well, I'll give it a go and see what happens'."
So far what has happened has been good. He came from five back on the pegs with a lap to travel to blaze home for a win on debut, then took out his 1,730 metres Gold Crown heat by swooping down the sprint lane.
That ability to turn on the pace in the run home has Turnbull hopeful he can lift the Gold Crown trophy in front of a home crowd for the second time in his career. He previously drove Burrell to victory in 2002.
"Yeah, it would be nice to win in front of the home crowd," he said.
"He's not brilliant out of the gate ... but I really haven't pushed him that hard. I was always going to get the sit on the leader his last start and his first start I let him go out pretty steady and he went to the back."
Though Turnbull rates Smooth Baht as his best chance of winning the Gold Crown, he will have two other runners contesting the prestigious final as well.
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Yianni will go from barrier two with David Moran in the gig, while two-time Gold Crown winning driver Luke McCarthy will take the reins of Sonny Weaver from barrier nine.
Both placed second in their heats.
"I haven't had them long, they've just come up from Melbourne. I've only had them for about a fortnight, so I don't know that much about them," Turnbull said.
"But they seem like nice, honest little horses and they are really nice to work with.
"We try every year to be competitive in it, that's what you always look for with your two-year-olds because it's a local event. We go with our young horses to try and get them ready for this race, some make it and some don't."
The Gold Crown Final is set to go at 9.40pm on Friday night.
