Scootin Around winning the first at Pinjarra on Monday. Photo Credit- Photography by Jodie Hallows
Bob Mellsop looks to have a couple of handy types in his stable currently, with a training double on Monday at Pinjarra.
With a dream book end result for the Mellsop Stable, it was trotter Scootin Around that kicked off the festivities when the dashing chestnut led all the way in the Allwood Stud Devoted To Breeding Excellence SS Trot (2116m), when the six-year-old lined up from barrier one from the front-line handicap to win comfortably for reinswoman Deni Roberts.
With Mellsop making mention that the gelding is as bombproof as a trotter can be, he isn’t without his quirks joking that you have to treat the horse ‘like he’s your girlfriend’ with Roberts having to use everything but the whip to keep the square gaiter on task.
“we bought him to do a job, and so far he’s doing it,
“We just thought he would be an ideal horse for Perth, he’s got gate speed and he’s good from stands,
“He’s a funny horse, he gets lonely out the front. Deni has got used to him now and she knows him, but if you skip away he waits, and you can’t hit him.”
Scootin Around will likely head to Gloucester Park on the 29th of September for the 3YO+ MS Trot over the 2130m trip.
“He’s probably going to be harder to beat at Gloucester Park than he is at Pinjarra because of the long straight,
“He’s a nice trotter.”
Mellsop will give Scootin Around a few more starts before sending him off for a short break before hoping to tackle the Trotters features coming up in the coming months.
The celebrations didn’t end there, with Mellsop having to wait until the end of the day to see Blaze On NZ make it two from two since making his way over from New Zealand.
Purchased recently, Mellsop is confident the three-year-old still has plenty of improvement, and although he’s not in a hurry to take on the best of the three-year-olds at this stage, he did make mention that Blaze On NZ could be one of the better horses he’s had.
“He’s just a lovely little horse,
“He just keeps improving, he surprised me actually, I gallop them a lot and the first hopple run I gave him I went wow and he just keeps getting better.
“As crazy as it sounds, with the way he went yesterday, he still got improvement in him, he touched his knees a bit yesterday, he was a bit keen first up and we changed his bit, and he was a lot more tractable yesterday.”
Driven by Deni Roberts, the pair were able to cross from barrier five, going on to win by 10.8m ahead of the race favourite Blameitonthenight NZ, in a winning mile rate of 1:57:8 over the 2185m trip.
Other news coming out of the stable is that consistent trotter Papa Razzi has now retired after having just 34 starts for 12 win and 10 placings for the stable.
Although confident the horse could have probably still been competitive, Mellsop confirmed he did the right thing by the horse, retiring him before injury struck. Papa Razzi is currently in training under saddle and will be looking for his new home and career in the near future.
The son of pacing stallion Follow The Stars was born in 2016 and won his first race a s a 2YO in a 2YO/3YO Juvenile SS Trot at Pinjarra, going on to win four races that season.
Ashleigh Paikos