Divine Mr Tycoon gets the chance to bank some significant prize money at just his second start in the VOBIS Gold Rush at Bendigo on a day when his elder half-brother will be out to reignite his career after throat surgery.
Trainer Brendan McCarthy is set to saddle up two-year-old Divine Mr Tycoon in Saturday’s $250,000 VOBIS Gold Rush (1000m), 35 minutes before five-year-old Divine Mr Artie makes his return in the Avenue Press Handicap (1100m).
Divine Mr Tycoon was narrowly beaten on debut at Moonee Valley last month over 1000m and McCarthy believes the colt can make his presence felt at Bendigo.
“I was expecting him to be really competitive on debut,” McCarthy said.
“He’s shown signs that he is a good horse and I think there’s a lot better to come from him.
“I expect a nice run. He’s learned a bit since that run at Moonee Valley so he’ll be that much better off for the experience and he’s done really well.”
McCarthy has Saturday’s race and the $300,000 VOBIS 2YO Sires (1200m) at Caulfield two weeks later in mind for Divine Mr Tycoon.
Divine Mr Artie has four wins and 11 placings from 25 starts and has not raced since early August last year when second over 1400m at Flemington.
McCarthy said the gelding had been making a bit of a noise leading up to his past couple of races and it got to the stage he underwent tie-forward surgery to his larynx.
He said for a little while after he was a bit dubious about the results but the gelding had come good and continued to improve building up to Saturday’s return.
“He’s had three jump-outs and the third one I was really happy with, while the other two were only easy trials,” McCarthy said.
“He’s just got better and better as he’s gone along and the closer to the race he’s got, the better he has got.
“He’s run enormous races fresh so I expect a big run from him.”
