Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Cranbourne trainer Scott Ewen is a sanguine character who is refusing to become downcast after his remarkable 11-year-old pacer Bulletproof Boy drew out wide at barrier No. 8 on the front line in the $1,250,000 TABtouch Nullarbor slot race at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
On the contrary, the 57-year-old Ewen is looking forward to the big race with considerable confidence.
And his confidence is not ill-founded because Bulletproof Boy is a proven giant killer who has defeated Leap To Fame, Australasia’s best pacer and arguably the best in the world, and has lowered the colours of star performers Petracca and Kingman in winning the Bendigo Cup in January and has scored an outstanding victory at a 1.50.5 rate over 1609m in the Newcastle Mile four starts ago.
Bulletproof Boy will be driven by champion Victorian reinsman James Herbertson, who landed a treble at Melton on Wednesday night with Kennys Son, Isolation and Dusty Philtra to take his tally of winners this season to 101.
“He is a brilliant high speed horse,” said Ewen. “He showed that last October when he raced three back on the pegs and flew home to snatch a half-head win over Leap To Fame (rating 1.51.1 over 1720m at Melton).”
Four starts ago, Bulletproof Boy began from the outside barrier (No. 8) when he was restrained to last and was seventh with 300m to travel before switching five wide on the home turn and winning by a half-length from the odds-on favourite Rakero Rocket in the Newcastle Mile.
At his next appearance, in the Miracle Mile at Menangle on March 14 Bulletproof Boy was badly checked at the start and galloped back to a distant last before making up several lengths to finish seventh, four lengths behind the winner, Leap To Fame.
His two subsequent starts were at Melton when he led and finished second to Fighter Command before he began from barrier three and set a slow pace before winning by a neck from Fighter Command, rating a slow 1.59 over 2240m after final 400m sections of 28.6sec. and 26.7sec.
“He is just a speed horse, but he will probably go back at the start on Friday night and hope that another horse will cart him into the race,” said Ewen. “He can sprint 600m and always has. He won’t disappoint; he never has.”
Ewen was pleased when he drove Bulletproof Boy in a workout on the Bond stable’s track on Tuesday morning. “He worked with one of the stable’s mares and was in the breeze over the final 500m and ran the 2400m in 2min. 58sec. with final quarters of 28sec. and 26.7sec.,” said Ewen.
“James (Herbertson) is such a good driver that he needs no instructions.”
Bulletproof Boy has proved to be an iron horse, having raced 230 times for 53 wins (22 in South Australia, 30 in Victoria and one in New South Wales) and earning $973,266.
He has enjoyed a remarkable career after being a difficult pacer to handle in his early days in Adelaide.
“As a young horse he was terrible,” said Ewen. “He was highly strung and we had a lot of trouble keeping him straight in the bike. But he still won races in Adelaide and was the Two-Year-Old of the Year and the Three-Year-Old of the Year there.
“He used to run sideways and could still beat them, so I knew he was going to go a long way but never dreamed he would be running in grand circuit races.”