Galatos will be the one to beat on Friday night
Galatos won his Winter Championship heat like a star last week and if top trainer Peter Tonkin is any sort of judge, the former Kiwi may just be one.
The Smythes Creek horseman has high hopes for the son of Courage Under Fire, starting with Friday night’s $25,000 Metro Printing Winter Championship Final (2240m) at Melton’s Tabcorp Park.
“I think he’s a nice horse and he’s going to make a very nice horse and he’ll go a fair way,” Tonkin said. “It’s too early to tell (how far), but I’m tipping he’ll go a long way. I like him a lot.”
The five-year-old showed why Tonkin holds him in such high regard last week, recording his third win from just five starts in Australia after being purchased by Mark Gurry following six wins from 39 starts in New Zealand.
Punters had their doubts about Galatos after the gelding was beaten as favourite as his previous two starts, but he laid those doubts to rest with a dominant win.
Master reinsman Gavin Lang overcame a second-row draw by working around to sit outside the leader before taking over rounding the turn and pulling away at the end of a slick 56-second last 800m for a soft five-metre win over Wartime Sweetheart in a 1:58.5 mile rate.
That was the same time the John 'Bulldog' Nicholson-trained Landscape recorded in his gritty all-the-way win in the other heat.
Galatos again has a back-row draw (barrier 9) to counter in the 8:42pm final, but he will trail speedy beginner Matty Chrimes if emergency Radical Impact (1) – also from the Tonkin Camp – doesn’t get a run.
“It would have been nice to get a good draw, draws do make a big difference, but he is versatile,” Tonkin said.
“He’d been a bit unlucky the couple of runs before (last week), when he was just kicking the wheels on the cart and got pulling a bit, but we were pretty confident last week and I’m pretty confident this week as well.”
Galatos is the $2.30 favourite in HRV price assessor Bill Hutchison’s Winter Championship Final market with likely polemarker Sapphire Lil ($4.50) and Tontine winner Seefeel Pocket ($7, barrier 5) the others under double figures.
The Winter Championship Final is the highlight of an eight-race Tabcorp Park card that also features the $20,000 Group 3 Harness Breeders Vic Lightfoot Laurels for the female trotters and $20,000 2Construct Our Maestro Free-For-All, featuring star mare Make Mine Cullen.
