EPPALOCK trainer Anthony Crossland is excited about the chances of his stable star Rules Dont Apply in Saturday night's Breeders Crown Series final for three-year-old trotting colts and geldings.
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The Muscle Hill gelding returned from a two-month break between runs with an eye-catching second behind the Lisa Miles-trained Powderkeg in his heat at Maryborough early last week.
Crossland viewed the run as an excellent audition for the $80,000 Group 1 feature at Tabcorp Park Melton.
"I couldn't see why you wouldn't (go in with confidence)," he said.
"His heat run was good first-up - he needed the run, so he should be a bit better for the big one.
"We were very happy with his first-up run. We probably would have liked to have another trial under his belt, but it wasn't to be.
"With more big races to come it's hard to get too wound up."
The Breeders Crown will be the first step on the road to a hopeful big finish to the year for Crossland and his emerging star.
The rich Vicbred Super Series, to be held in December, with the finals to be contested at Melton on New Year's Eve, is naturally also a target.
"We've had time to plan for it all, but he's up against a great field - all the top ones are there," Crossland said.
"In a race like this, it's hard to pinpoint one or two dangers. They can all dance.
"There's five or six with probably not much between them.
Crossland's last Breeders Crown finalist was the gelding Dieu De Lamour, who finished third behind our Twentyten in the 2015 edition of the four-year-old championship for trotting entires and geldings.
The son of Love You finished eighth previous year's three-year-old final.
Rules Dont Apply certainly heads to Melton with plenty of form under his belt.
The gelding has had just five starts so far this year, all of them since early-August, for three wins, a second and a fourth.
His three wins came in succession at Ballarat (August 13), Maryborough (August 24) and Shepparton (September 50 before a short spell and a second in his Breeders Crown heat.
Crossland expects Rule Dont Apply to give a good account of himself on Saturday.
"Any big race would be great to win," he said.
"It's a Group 1 race, so you can never get cocky, you just have to get there on race night and hope it all goes well."
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