Tim O'Connor
He’s already among Victoria’s most popular pacers, and Juanita Breen is hoping one of the TAB Eureka slot holders is also a fan of her speedy four-year-old Roarforroscoe.
The son of Betterthancheddar claimed a tough death seat victory in the 1200m Download The TAB App Today Pace at Melton on Saturday night, his first start since running second to superstar rival Catch A Wave in a Vicbred Super Series final on New Year’s Eve.
Breen said it was somewhat of a dream to be invited to race in the inaugural $2.1million TAB Eureka, which will be held at Menangle on September 2.
“We had hopes that we might be a sneaky chance of a Eureka invite, but I think he’s come back racing probably a little bit later than he should have,” the Avenel trainer-driver told TrotsVision.com.au.
“We had a couple of little problems on the way through.
“Ultimately that would be the dream, but that’s probably a little bit pie in the sky. His immediate aims will be the sires (Vicbred Super Series) and the Breeders Crown.”
The Roarforroscoe story is a special one that has been told many times before and has certainly added to his widespread popularity.
Breen and Aaron Brown, who bred and owns a share in the horse, auctioned 10 per cent of him as part of the popular Harness Charity Challenge, which was snapped up by event organiser Stephen Salter and friends Martin Waples, Andrew Price and Andrew Harrison.
The successful $2000 bid was donated to rarecancers.org.au in honour of Salter’s late friend and cousin Ross Patrick, who lost his battle with cancer in 2020.
The bay gelding was subsequently named Roarforroscoe in honour of Patrick and has now won seven of 19 career starts for prizemoney earnings of more than $75,000.
The TAB Eureka is open to three and four-year-old Australian-bred pacers, with Captain Ravishing (Team Zav), Catch A Wave (Cordina), Leap To Fame (Ken and Kay Seymour) and My Ultimate Ronnie (Soho Standardbreds) the confirmed runners so far.
Later on Saturday night’s Melton card, Serg Blanco joined the list of Italian Cup winners with a narrow, long-odds success in the time-honoured feature.
Ryan Duffy produced an exceptional drive to get the horse home, sliding away from a spot three back the pegs in the early stages of the race to find one-one cover behind odds-on favourite and last year’s winner Like A Wildfire. Serg Blanco then peeled off his back in the straight and wore him down to win by a neck on the line.
“We’ve always had a really high opinion of him,” Duffy said.
“Last week he was probably a victim of circumstances the way the race was run and I think he got home in 25.7, so we weren’t disappointed in him.
“Tonight he obviously got the beautiful trip and he probably deserved to win from where he was.”
Serg Blanco is a former New Zealand-based pacer who had his first start for Steve Duffy’s stable in July of last year.
He has now won 11 of 44 career starts, with six of those victories coming in Australia.
His success on Saturday night as a $23 fixed odds chance helped deliver a huge $74,629.70 Quaddie, with Cobber ($6.50), Final Collect ($81) and Lettuce Trot ($26) others to win through the four legs.
Wonder mare Queen Elida continued on her winning ways at Melton with an easy victory in the Woodlands Stud Carlotta’s Pride Trotters Free For All, while young reinsman Lochie Cook landed the only double on the card with Jilliby Nitro and Yankee Gold.
