It’s a five hour drive home to Churchable from Grafton for Queensland trainer Steven Scott, but after his littermates, Mottza and Coopes took out two of the three heats of the GRSNW + Ladbrokes Million Dollar Chase, getting home at 4am won’t seem quite as bad.
Scott’s lightly raced pair were the stars of the Grafton heats, both going straight to the front and leading their rivals a merry dance, Mottza clocking 27.35s, the fastest of the three heats.
“They both go well. They are both fast animals,” said Scott, who explained he has only had the pair for a short time.
“Carolyn (Knox the owner of both dogs) rang me up and said that they probably couldn’t get the 500m down there in Victoria, and because I had trained a couple of other dogs for her in the past, she asked if I was interested in them. I jumped at the opportunity.”
Scott said the Million Dollar Chase heats were not readily on the agenda, but after Mottza won in fast time over the 407m last week and when Coopes missed out on getting a run in the Casino Cup, he decided to nominate both dogs for the series.
Mottza, who beat DIRECT Terror by six lengths with Tralee Jaz third a further two and three quarter lengths away, has now won four of his eight starts and been second on three other occasions.
Coopes, like Mottza, showed the place to be was out in front. He jumped fast from the seven, and while the other jostled back in the field, Coopes was off and gone, and able to hold off Bokarm DEAN and Kiarni Mask in 27.57s.
Like his brother, Coopes has an impressive record in his brief career, and has now won four of just seven career starts.
Local dog Ogodei Star (pictured) was the only one to stave off the visitors, winning the opening heat of the night, clocking 27.49s. The win was his sixth from his past nine starts.
Queenslanders Fabrique and Pantera Negra filled the placings and both snatched a place in next Monday’s Regional Final.
Trained at Pillar Valley just outside Grafton by Reg Gardoll, Ogodei Star improved his overall record to nine wins from 27 starts.
Gardoll is celebrating his 50th year in the sport. He has had plenty of success in that time, and trained some handy dogs including Secret Secret who won a Wentworth Park Chairman's Cup, Pretty Hilo, who won 28 races and reached two finals at Wentworth Park, and Iluka Lilly, the winner of 25 races.
But his best was Watch The Web, who won the 2005 Group 1 Vic Peters Classic, and was placed in a Brisbane Cup and a National Derby.
Grafton will host the Regional Final next Monday night.
The box draw for the final is:
2-Coopes
3-Fabrique
4-Bokarm DEAN
6-Mottza
7-DIRECT Terror
9-Kiarni Mask
10-Sonic Thunder
