Fearless Sets Gold Rush Benchmark

The John Barbara trained Fearless has set the time standard for the semi-finals of the Jarrod Larkin Concreting Gold Rush Maiden after posting 23.764 on Thursday night, faster than Vince Tullio's Submission, a 23.930 winner on the same program.

Third fastest heat winner, and fastest Friday heat winner, was Reggie Keeping for Glenn Rounds, hanging on to score in 23.974 to defeat the fast finishing Napa.

While Fearless clocked clearly the fastest heat time a little more than five lengths separates the next seventeen fastest qualifiers, meaning the semi-finals will be high pressure races with little margin for error for these youngsters.

John Barbara also has Darklight, a litter-mate to Fearless, through to the semi-finals, after posting the equal fastest first section of round one of 6.53, before scoring in an overall time of 24.019.

Mark Delbridge has qualified six runners for the Gold Rush semi-finals with Idria Bale progressing to the semi-finals after posting 24.09 chasing home Submission. The daughter of former top-line stayer Dyna Willow was made work from box six in her heat and she is one to watch for improvement during the series.

Other impressive performers in the Gold Rush heats included Ultimate Bling for John Westerlo, using the box eight draw to perfection to score a strong 24.127 win, while Neo Bale showed good speed running 6.56, 11.31 and 24.148 for Mark Delbridge.

The four semi-finals of the Jarrod Larkin Concreting Gold Rush Maiden will be run this Wednesday afternoon.

 Fields Set For Belle & Beau Finals

THE fields have been finalised for two of the five feature events of the Bendigo Gold Rush Carnival after some exciting heats were conducted on Sunday of the Aussie Infrared Belle of Bendigo and McIvor Road Vet Centre Beau of Bendigo series'.

The Belle of Bendigo looks set to be a battle between speed and strength following the respective heat wins of Barinya and Rothwell Gal.

Rothwell Gal gave her opposition a start after being second last out of the boxes but exploded to the line with a 12.45 run home time to post a slick 23.857 win in heat three. Not to be outdone, local speedster Barinya stepped out in the final heat and scorched around the track in 23.613, including sizzling sections of 6.46 and 11.21, taking her record to six wins from seven career starts.

Rothwell Gal moves from box six to box one for the final while Barinya will carry the yellow rug.

The boys were not as fast as the girls in this year's heats with Inkling posting the fastest heat time of 23.947 – the only heat of the Beau of Bendigo to break 24 seconds. Inkling was very strong in his heat as was evident in a recent smart 25.43 Ballarat win and he will be hard to beat in the final as will the speedy pair of Tickle My Fancy and Havelock Keith.

Both Tickle My Fancy and Havelock Keith clocked 11.43 to the second marker before scoring to 24.067 and 24.128 wins respectively. Tickle My Fancy has posted 23.74 at Bendigo previously and Havelock Keith was resuming from a brief let up and both are likely to show some improvement come finals day.

The Aussie Infrared Belle of Bendigo and McIvor Road Vet Centre Beau of Bendigo finals carry a first prize of $3,000 plus a Vicgreys bonus and will be held at the BGRA's big Easter Sunday race meeting on April 21 alongside the Jarrod Larkin Concreting Gold Rush Maiden final, the Grays Bendigo Stayers Cup and Ag Tyres & Wheels Easter Cup.