THE best that Bathurst has to offer will be taking on Australasia's kings and queens of the pacing circuit in this Friday night's Inter Dominion Heats at Auckland.
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Chris Frisby's 2018 runner-up Our Uncle Sam returns in his bid to go one spot better while Steve Turnbull brings Conviction and Atomic Red across the ditch for a shot at the $500,000 Group 1 prize.
All three Bathurst-trained runners are down in the betting but, as proved last year with Our Uncle Sam running second at $34 odds, you can never write any horse off in the star studded field.
Our Uncle Sam has five New Zealand starts to his name in preparation for the heats.
He bounced back from his horror New Zealand Trotting Cup attempt, where he botched the standing start, by winning at Auckland last Friday.
However, Turnbull's duo only made the trip only Tuesday night after recent thunderstorms delayed their journey.
Both horses have come back into the racing scene after lengthy spells away from the track but Turnbull's pleased with how the pair have worked their way towards the big event.
"I couldn't be happier with both of them," he said.
"The delay with them coming over is the only real worry I've had, and that's not really that bad."
Turnbull's pair went against one another in their latest start where Atomic Red ran fourth and Conviction ran seventh in the Group 3 Kevin Robinson Memorial.
Conviction lines up alongside Our Uncle Sam on the back row for the opening Inter Dominion heat while Atomic Red landed the dream inside draw for the second of the heats.
The Auckland track is almost identical in size to Bathurst (1,006 metres to Bathurst's 1,064m) so Turnbull hopes that plays into the hands of his contenders.
"Atomic Red is a very tough horse but Conviction doesn't go quite as good at Menangle," he said.
"At the smaller tracks he's breaking records all the time but doesn't seem to be at his best in the city so I'm hoping with the 1,000 metre track that he'll go alright.
"Atomic Red's had a long time off racing but, touch wood, he's sound as a bell at the moment. He's had a couple of hard runs and he seems cherry ripe."
There's currently a fierce three-way battle for Inter Dominion favouritism around the $4.50 mark between Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen's Ultimate Sniper, Chase Auckland and Cruz Bromac.
Belinda McCarthy's Bling It On ($9) is currently rated the best chance of the visiting Australian field.
Cruz Bromac was a close third to Our Uncle Sam in last year's final.
Tiger Tara has not made the trip over to New Zealand to defend his title.