Yayas Hot Spot will take his place in the Kriden Park Bathurst Lord Mayors Cup and will be pitted against the Darren Reay-trained and last -tart winner Better Than Max.

Tritton will then harness up My Sweetchilliphilly in the $104,000 Airr Fish & Sons Bathurst Gold Tiara Final (Group 1) with the Betterthancheddar two-year-old filly having two starts for two wins.

Divine State will then take his place in the $104,000 Bathurst Gold Crown Final for two-year-old colts and geldings and with three starts for three wins the Tintin In America gelding is looking pretty slick – especially after he went 1.51.6 for 1609 metres at Menangle two starts back.

With regular driver Lauren Tritton sitting on the sidelines while the couple expect their first child, Sydney driver Chris Geary will take the reins and maybe become the second driver since the Gold Crown Carnival inception in 1987 to make history by winning both big finals on the one night.

Ricky Thurlow already has that crown in the rich double in 1998 with Flubber (Gold Crown) and Terricherry (Gold Tiara).

Armidale Harness Racing Club will host the first of their two big TAB meetings this Sunday with an eight event card. The meeting has attracted some nice horses from Queensland, Hunter Valley and great support from the locals.

This Sunday’s meeting will be a prelude to the April 2 Carnival of Cups meeting where there will be four $10,000 feature races on the program – including the big race for three year old’s – the Golden Horse Shoe – Armidale’s signature race. First race for this Sunday is set to roll at 1.30pm.

Dubbo reinsman Nathan Carroll better eat his Weet Bix for breakfast on Sunday before he heads to Armidale where he has seven driving engagements and that is on the back of having seven drives at Newcastle on Saturday night. Carroll is in good form as he drove four winners at last week’s Newcastle meeting. The big tip …..follow him in your formguides!

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