THE filly he was driving was called Just Hope, but Zac Phillips had more than just hopes of winning Saturday night's Group 1 Gold Tiara Final when he got in the gig - he had confidence.
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It was well-founded confidence as Just Hope lived up to her status as the $1.45 favourite for the two-year-old fillies feature and posted a commanding 16.2 metres win at the Bathurst Paceway.
Though Phillips had previously steered 11 Group 1 trotting victors, his winning drive at Bathurst was his first on a pacer at this level.
It was a drive he played down, giving the credit to Just Hope.
"Horses like this just make me look good. She just has so much raw speed you don't even have to ask her out of the gate and the good horses are like that," he said.
Just Hope had been a convincing winner in her Gold Tiara heat, blowing away her rivals as she won by 16.1m.
Her Lemnos trainer Russell Jack - who had previously won the Bathurst fillies feature on Sheza Lobell (1992) and Yeronga Songbird (1995) - had a high opinion of her as well.
It meant Just Hope, one of three Jack runners in the final, was favoured to win the Gold Tiara but that did not weigh on Phillips at all.
"What will be will be, I try not to let the nerves get to me," the 25-year-old said.
"I've been in enough races now to know things can go wrong and when they do you've just got to cop them on the chin. But you know, I was really confident with the horse I was driving in this and that makes a massive difference, when you know you know you're on the best horse in the race it can take the nerves away.
"We've had a really long association me and Russell, he's put me on since I was a young fella and I have a tremendous amount of respect for him.
"You know when their horses are turned out that they are always turned out pretty good."
From the inside of the front row, Just Hope showed good gate speed to take the lead in the 1,730m decider and once there she was never troubled.
A 27.9 seconds opening split for the first quarter of the last mile saw the favourite with a four metres lead over Oppenheimer Blue as the bell sounded, with stablemate Captains Queen sitting third and Tony Higgs' Bathurst hope Silk Cloud fourth.
Down the back straight heat winner Martini Stride moved up on the outside. Luke McCarthy, who had been locked away four pegs aboard Silk Cloud, was then able to get her clear with 500 to run.
But in the end none of that mattered. Just Hope kicked again and a 27.7 final quarter saw her cruise to victory, Jack enjoying a quinella as Captains Queen ($11) was the best of the rest. Third went to Silk Cloud ($5).
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