No interstate trip for Group One winner

AN INTERSTATE trip has been ruled out for high class pacer Colt Thirty One.

Although he entertained the idea of travelling south for the Victoria Cup with the son of Mach Three trainer Grant Dixon has elected to bypass the Grand Circuit event.

The Cup is scheduled to be conducted at Tabcorp Park Melton on October 10.

Colt Thirty One is no stranger to Group One success in Melton having captured the 2018 Victoria Derby.

“If I was able to come and go I would take him for the Victoria Cup, but with all the restrictions in place it makes it too hard,” Dixon said.

“We’ll have to give it a miss and just focus on local races as we work towards The Blacks Of Fake in December.”

Having his second run from a break, Colt Thirty One completed a narrow victory at Albion Park during the weekend.

Driven by Dixon, the stallion was settled at the tail of the field from his outside of the front row draw as Maywyns Best worked to the lead.

Angled three-wide along the back straight, Colt Thirty One sustained a strong sprint to score by a half-head from Ashley Locaz, which was gallant after racing in the ‘death seat’.

Maywyns Best battled on to be two-and-a-half metres away third.

Rating 1:51.2 over 1660 metres, Colt Thirty One stretched his record to 40 wins and 18 placings from 70 starts for earnings of $887,407.

“He did well to win first-up and put in another strong effort on the weekend,” Dixon said. “The short freshen-up did him good and he’s come back feeling terrific.

“He will go around again in two weeks then I may give him a week off before we press ahead for the Summer Carnival up here.”