SHE was already Bathurst's undisputed queen of harness racing, but on Saturday night Amanda Turnbull was handed a crown as well.
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A Gold Crown trophy.
Turnbull was given the drive on the Nathan Jack trained Chart Topper for the $150,000 Group 1 Gold Crown Final and she made sure the colt delivered.
The 33-year-old got Chart Topper to the front in the two-year-old colts and geldings decider ($4.20) from his barrier one draw and kept him there.
It was the 14th Group 1 winning drive of Turnbull's career and added to her previous success in the Gold Bracelet (Art Series, 2018), Gold Chalice (Might Gift 2014, Atomic Red 2017) and Gold Tiara (Pixies Parlour 2015, Joanna 2020) Finals.
Only one other driver in the history of the carnival - Chris Alford - has managed to salute in all four of the major finals.
"It's one you try hard to win, but it's so hard to win and you've got to have the right horse," Turnbull said.
"It was a red hot field ... it's good to have one good enough to go in it, let alone win it. So that's awesome.
"Most of the pressure was on because he had the good draw and the main aim was to try and hold the front early. Lucky enough he had good gate speed and got it pretty soft after that.
"It was good he could sprint home."
Lemnos based trainer Nathan Jack said that having Turnbull in the gig was a key factor in the win.
"Yeah she goes alright," he laughed.
"There's no better, especially in front like that and with a horse like that, so a big thanks to her."
While Jack had qualified Chart Topper for the 1,730 metres final via a convincing heat win, he handed Turnbull the reins at the Bathurst Paceway on Saturday night.
Turnbull was able to hold the front as she had hoped, Chart Topper getting away well once the arms on the mobile folded.
She soon got company from Soho Spectre ($5.50), with trainer-driver Rickie Alchin making a four-wide move to take up a spot outside the leader.
Alchin was hoping to become the first driver in the history of the carnival to win the Gold Tiara and Gold Crown Final on the same night.
There was just over a metre between Chart Topper and Soho Spectre at the 600m mark, then with 400m to go, $1.50 favourite Timmy Rictor set off from the rear.
But Turnbull had Chart Topper travelling well and he held them all off.
The Captaintreacherous x Queen Of Pop colt won by 1.8m over Timmy Rictor, with $151 outsider Maurlen Boy getting home well for third.
Chart Topper clocked a 1:56.6 mile rate as he not only helped Turnbull create some carnival history, but Jack as well.
He joined his father Russell Jack (Albert Terrill 2004) on the honour role of Gold Crown victors.
"He was pretty emotional when he rang, so I'm sure he'd be pretty happy," Nathan Jack said.
"It's a race we've targeted and Dad's had a lot of success in it, yeah, it's been lucky enough to continue tonight. But he is a quality horse and hopefully he's got a bright future.
"I sort of thought he had the best draw in the race. He was a little bit disappointing in the heat but we changed a couple of things, a driver change, and it worked tonight."
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