Firethorn and Goldmine Fire are so well boxed in Thursday night's NSW National Distance Championship that their trainer Mark Moroney admits he could well have performed the draw himself.
Firethorn has drawn box one and Goldmine Fire box eight in the 720m Wentworth Park distance final, and Moroney said: "Firethorn is ideally suited from the inside, and as Goldmine Fire tends to be a bit of a wide runner, he is well positioned too."
"Goldmine Fire will just go down the outside of the field in the run to the first bend and Firethorn will hug the fence.
"Since Firethorn beat Goldmine Fire at their first Wentworth Park start on July 26, she has gone to Brisbane's Q1 Lakeside track and broken the 642m record.
"Goldmine Fire has had two races since his Wenty run, finishing second over 550m at Q1 Lakeside and then winning in near record time over 642m there."
"Obviously, a lot on Thursday night will hinge on where the dogs are early, but I have been studying the first splits of this field and Firethorn's 16.01 looks to be the fastest.
"And Goldmine Fire's 16.15 is equal second quickest.''
Meanwhile, in Thursday night's NSW National Sprint Championship final, Prelude winner Sooty Keeping and Taormina, who has won seven of her past eight Wentworth Park 520m outings, are the big guns.
But the Minnie Finn-trained Both Bowers Ace looms as a major threat after drawing box one.
"He is going great at the moment, his past few runs have been really good,'' Finn said.
"Box one puts Both Bowers Ace into this race with a strong chance, and don't worry, this dog is capable of winning anything if he puts his head down.''
Both Bowers Ace (red)
Both Bowers Ace has had five wins and seven placings in 14 appearances wearing the red rug, and Finn said: "One of his only two unplaced runs from box one was when he finished fourth to Blue Kermaro in the Million Dollar Chase final last October.''
Sooty Keeping, who led throughout from box five to win last Saturday's Sprint Championship Prelude, is nicely positioned in box three.
She has won 13 of her 16 races from boxes one, two, and three, but Shayne Stiff, whose partner Charmaine Roberts trains Sooty Keeping, declared: "Both Bowers Ace holds the key to this race.
"We are more frightened of him than we are of Taormina because Sooty Keeping needs to clear Both Bowers Ace quickly.
"She probably has to be two or three lengths ahead of him on the back straight if she is going to win.''
Taormina is not badly placed in box seven as she has won two of her three outings wearing the black rug.
Early in her career, she was even considered better positioned out wide, but because of her brilliant speed from the boxes, all draws have come alike to the Jodie Lord-trained bitch over the past four months.
No Bail Jester chased home Taormina when fourth at his first Wentworth Park appearance in February and looks a good value bet in Thursday's Ladbrokes Odds Surge 1-2 Wins 520m fifth grade.
Trained by Mark Bell at Tuncurry, No Bail Jester had no luck when a fast-finishing second to Heidi Keeping at his second Wentworth Park appearance last Saturday.
He stumbled at box rise and came from sixth at the first turn to be beaten a half head.
