Divine Force ready for Royal Dad Trophy

DIVINE FORCE should use class to trample his five local-bred rivals in Sunday's Royal Dad Trophy at nine furlongs and 25 yards after his unfortunate loss to ATLANTIC CONVOY last Saturday.

ATLANTIC CONVOY's winning margin of a length and a quarter was exaggerated by Reyan Lewis having to ease DIVINE FORCE close home after similarly suffering in tight quarters a furlong and a quarter out near the patrol judge's rostrum when jockey Oshane Nugent went for his whip and closed the rail by angling inside.

Nugent did just about enough to avoid disqualification aboard ATLANTIC CONVOY, twice causing Lewis astride DIVINE FORCE to gather his mount in the stretch run of the six-furlong Ronron Trophy.

After shutting down DIVINE FORCE's early stretch bid, Nugent faced MILOS' challenge in mid-track. He resorted to left-hand whipping, seeing off the local-bred, before switching back to right hand, effectively drifting inwards again, just enough to thwart DIVINE FORCE's renewed but late rail bid.

Debuting at six furlongs last December, DIVINE FORCE was a length and a half second to grade-one campaigner FRED THE GREAT before getting off the mark at seven furlongs in late January.

Returning at five furlongs straight a little over two months later, DIVINE FORCE rushed past local-bred LORD BURKINGTON at five furlongs straight, winning in a decent 59.2, suggesting he was ready to climb the conditions ladder to the top ranks.

However, the Alternation-Dance America colt flopped at odds of 2-5 on his next outing, plodding in next-to-last in a five-horse field behind MAJOR DANGER, INSPIRED FORCE and PLATINUM FORCE.

It was hardly a surprise when DIVINE FORCE was scratched lame a month later, a lay-up which lasted five months until last Saturday when he ran a brave but incident-filled race against fellow American ATLANTIC CONVOY.

RHYTHM BUZZ and the filly ESSENTIAL QUALITY lead the local breds' charge. RHYTHM BUZZ hasn't raced in three months but appears happy at exercise, clocking 1:01.1 out the mile chute on Tuesday. Though he is a strong closer, RHYTHM BUZZ, a non-winner of three races, hasn't faced the quality opposition DIVINE FORCE has gone up against.

Having worked well, 1:07.0 for five and a half furlongs, DIVINE FORCE should prove too strong for RHHYTHM BUZZ after taking over from the filly ESSENTIAL QUALITY.