FOR fans of juvenile horse racing February is always an exciting month.
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It's where the next crop of runners make their first forays into the world of racing, experience the competitive atmosphere and leave a lasting impression with punters.
At this Wednesday's Bathurst Harness Racing Club meeting a collection of potential Gold Crown Carnival two-year-old contenders will be lining up.
Thirteen of the 17 horses across the two events will be making their debuts, and some of them carry promising trial form into the meeting.
One of those is Josh Turnbull's gelding Thebestisyettocome, who hit the line well to finish a close second behind Bernie Hewitt's filly Infinity Beach in his recent trial.
Turnbull said the preparation for his up-and-comer has been on point, though he's not reading anything into it until the first race is done and dusted.
"He's not exciting at home but with every trial he's been getting better. He hit the line good in that last one and we've been happy with those trials but race day is a whole different thing," he said.
"There's not many outside horses in this race so they've all been trialling against each other but it's too hard to get a guide on who's going to step up when it comes to race day."
Turnbull's Artspeak x Atworthy Maid gelding was a $14,000 purchase from the 2019 Australian Pacing Gold Sydney sale.
There's been promising signs from some of Atworthy Maid's progeny, like two-time Group 1 contender Desirable Guy (by Real Desire), and this was the mare's first service from Artspeak.
Thebestisyettocome is the fifth of her eight foals to reach the race track.
Josh Turnbull enjoyed success at last year's Gold Crown Carnival with Hit The Track in the Gold Chalice Gold Consolation while Bettor Jiggle was a gallant seventh at huge odds in the Group 1 Gold Chalice.
Trying to pick a winner in Wednesday's colts and geldings race is a tricky task, given the number of debutants lining up, but there are a couple of horses who will certainly attract attention.
Brad Hewitt's Icanbolt has drawn the inside gate ahead of Thebestisyettocome. Hewitt's colt, out of former Gold Crown Consolation winner Jo An Rowa, was a strong trial winner at Menangle.
John Boserio fields two runners in the race, Hes Sweet and The Grogfather, the latter of which has been superb over his three trials.
The Grogfather is a half brother to consistent veterans Imthevillagestar and Star Play, and Boserio will be hopeful his youngster can achieve similar or greater success.
The colts and geldings race is 9.05pm with the fillies event to follow at 9.35pm.