Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Greenbushes trainer Ray Jones went to the 2020 APG Perth yearling sale with his heart set on buying Lot 455, a colt by Alta Christiano.
But he didn’t make a bid because the bidding was too fast and furious until the youngster was sold to Kevin Jeavons for $70,000.
“I didn’t get a chance to bid for him,” said Jones. “He was the one I wanted to buy, but his price went up so quickly and went out of my range.”
The next lot (No. 456) was a Betterthancheddar colt, and Jones, disconsolate, discomposed, disconcerted and totally discombobulated, made a snap decision to purchase him, without studying his breeding or inspecting him.
“He looked like a really nice big colt, and I was able to buy him for $24,000, which I thought was a cheap option,” said Jones, who was somewhat dismayed when he took the colt home to discover that he had bowed front legs.
“A horse is supposed to have straight front legs, but he was bow legged, and I was told he would never race.”
Jones named the youngster Been Scootin and got him ready to race last year as a two-year-old. But Been Scootin failed to flatter and was unplaced at his six starts as a two-year-old.
“He then went sore in one of his fetlocks,” said Jones. “I turned him out and he didn’t race for 13 months.” He reappeared and won first-up in a modest maiden field at Bunbury late in June this year, and he has shown steady improvement since, with his impressive all-the-way victory in the $20,250 Happy Fourth Birthday Noah George Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night taking his record to 20 starts for six wins, five placings and stakes of $49,303.
Jones is now looking forward to Been Scootin getting a start in the $200,000 WA Derby next Friday night. “He is getting better and better all the time,” said Jones, who was disappointed when the gelding was balloted from the Sires and Western Gateway Classic.
This resulted in Been Scootin’s four appearances before Friday night’s race being on country tracks, for a sixth and a third at Bunbury, a second at Collie and a last-start win in the Great Southern Derby at Narrogin.
On Friday night Been Scootin was the $3.70 third favourite from barrier No. 1 when he gave a splendid frontrunning display to score an easy victory over the fast-finishing $126 outsider Ardens Horizon and $17 chance Soho Dow Jones, who fought on determinedly after working hard in the breeze.
Lot 455 at the 2020 sale was named Swingband, who went into Friday night’s event as the $3.40 second fancy with a record of 20 starts for eleven wins, four placings and earnings of $193,637. Swingband was going forward, three wide in fifth position when he broke into a gallop 300m after the start. He was retired from the event and the stewards stood him down for 13 days until the completion of two satisfactory trials.
Kyle Harper, who has driven Been Scootin seven times for two wins, three seconds and two thirds, said: “He did it effortlessly tonight. I bowled along because I thought that if he wants to get a start in the Derby, he needs to show it.
“He is a horse who hasn’t quite learnt how to race. He is doing what he is without knowing he’s doing it, and that’s the impressive part. He has a ton of ability, but he is immature, mentally. He’s on the bit, off the bit. He has some very high speed, but sometimes it’s hard to find the gear stick.
“Sometimes he sprints, but it’s too late; sometimes it is a bit too early. For a horse who was beaten at Collie (when second to Fleur Du Marquis two starts ago) and then come here at Gloucester Park and run away (from the opposition) was quite remarkable.”
Been Scootin is the fifth foal out of the unraced Parsons Den mare Bootscootngirl, who produced Lot Twenty One (141 starts for ten wins, 35 placings and $108,304) and Americanbootscoota (184 starts for 36 wins, 42 placings and $327,351). Americanbootscoota won 15 races in Western Australia before winning another 21 times in America.