Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Leading reinsman Shannon Suvaljko has relinquished the task of driving in five of the eight events at Gloucester Park on Friday night, preferring to travel south to drive Bet On The River in the $14,697 Busselton Cup over 2680m.
Bet On The River is one of Serpentine trainer Matt Scott’s four runners in the standing-start Cup, and he gives the lightly-raced five-year-old an excellent winning chance.
“Bet On The River has won at two of his three starts at Busselton this summer, and hopefully he can lead all the way,” said Scott, who also will be represented with fellow-frontmarker Sonic Seelster (Joey Suvaljko), Mydadtheterror, who start off the 10m mark and will be driven by Corey Peterson, and Rising Spirit, to be driven by Cody Wallrodt off 20m.
“Bet On The River won on debut for Ross Olivieri as a two-year-old in January 2022 when he sprinted the final 400m in 27.2sec. before he broke down shortly afterwards,” said Scott. “Last year his owners John Ellis and Don McLean took him over and worked him up, and now I’ve been training him for the past month.”
Scott is looking to win the Busselton Cup for the third time, following the wins of Awaitinginstructions in 2023 and Mikipelo last year. Both pacers are owned by Tim Blee, who races Mydadtheterror, a first-up Busselton winner in December before he bungled the start and finished fourth in a race when he was the $1.04 favourite.
“We have changed a bit of gear on him, and he should go pretty good,” said Scott.
Scott also holds a strong hand in the $35,000 Northam Cup, a stand over 2560m at Burwood Park on Saturday night in which he has three runners — frontmarkers Feeling Aces (Shannon Suvaljko), Mikipelo (Kyle Harper) and Gee Smith (Trent Wheeler). Scott has won the Northam Cup with Son Of A Tiger five years ago.
Greatgreat Boulder, trained by Greg and Skye Bond and to be driven by Deni Roberts, will start from barrier two on the front line and should take a power of beating, while trainer Michael Young’s My Ultimate Chevron (Gary Hall Jnr) will start off the 20m mark and is capable of a bold showing.