Crack colt Restrepo will carry the local hopes in next week's Alabar Victoria Derby Final after being the fastest winner of the three heats run at Melton's Tabcorp Park on Friday night. The Emma Stewart-trained talent franked his status as the host state's best hope in Australia's oldest harness racing pacing Classic with a gusty win in the second of the night's three qualifiers.

The son of Art Major did it at both ends to score a 1:56.7 win, which was half a second faster than Ideal Scott’s comfortable win in the opening heat and almost two seconds quicker than Major Post’s win in the final qualifier.

Stewart’s partner and assistant trainer Clayton Tonkin said it was an outstanding performance from Restrepo, who was driven to victory by champion reinsman Gavin Lang.

“We’ve got a really high opinion of him, so he only delivered on what we thought he’d do,” Smythes Creek-based Tonkin said of Restrepo, who has tasted defeat just once in eight starts.

“There were that many moves made and there was that much speed, with everyone attacking you’d swear it was the final. But he wasn’t really pushed out at the end, so I’m really confident with him (going into next week).”

Restrepo led comfortably from barrier one, but had to work hard midrace to keep out the challengers in a blistering 28.3-second second quarter, which followed a 29.1 secs opening split.

The $1.40 favourite got a slight breather in a 30.5 secs third split, which afforded him the chance to reel off a 27.5 secs final section to power home by more than five metres from Scandalman ($11) with Uncle Lile ($30) almost four metres back in third.

As impressive as Restrepo was working hard, Ideal Scott was equally emphatic in his unextended win.

The Kiwi raider also led unchallenged and while he didn’t have to do the mid race work that Restrepo did, the Brian Hughes-trained gelding flexed his muscles with a 55.4 secs last 800m, which included a 26.5 secs final split.

That carried the $1.30 hot pot, who was driven by Todd MacFarlane, to a 6.3-metre win over Emperor Montana ($45) with Royal Witness ($28), who travelled on the leader’s back, more than four metres away third.

As predictable as the first two heats were, the final qualifier threw a curveball into proceedings with under-rated Queenslander, Major Post, making the most of a gun draw to score an upset win.

After travelling on the back of $1.70 favourite Waldenburg, the Chris Robertson-trained-and-driven Art Major gelding, who started at $14, sprinted too fast at the end of a 27.5 secs final quarter to get home by a neck. Night Affair ($24) was more than nine metres away third.

That final split followed a 28.4secs third quarter, and a 61.6 secs first half of the last mile for a 1:58.4 mile rate.

Progressing to next week’s final along with the first three from each heat are the three heat fourth placegetters – Mr Nickel, Charlie Machsheen and Philadelphia Man – which sets up an enthralling $200,000 decider.