Young driver lands impressive breakthrough win

Two years and one day since she first sat in a sulky behind a horse, Annalise Scott looked right at home recording her first harness racing driving winner at Cranbourne on Sunday (Aug 28).

Scott, who began stablehand duties with the Chris Svanosio stables at Romsey in 2020, was convinced a few months into her new job to try her hand at jogging a horse.

“Chris started letting me jog one after I’d been there a while, and that was almost exactly two years ago – then he offered me the chance to fastwork one behind him. I was pretty hooked from there,” she said.

Scott coolly turned in a copybook drive to steer Chief Runningcloud (Lawman) to a comfortable victory at Cranbourne.

After getting the square-gaiter safely away from the standing start, she settled him three back on the fence and emerged at the top of the straight to power home for success.

“People are always asking ‘When are you going to get a winner?’– so it was good to get that out of the way!” Scott laughed.

“Another one of the staff at the stables Ross Payne told me he got his first winner at start 13 and Chris got his at his 14^th drive so I was hoping I would be at 15 – but I did have to wait a little bit longer,” she said.

“I’d driven Chief Runningcloud a couple of starts back at Ballarat and he finished off pretty well.  But in the run at Cranbourne, I wasn’t sure if I was going to get there.  I knew I was travelling really well – it was just a case of when, and if, I’d get out.”

The win took Scott’s career record to a win and seven placings from her 19 starts.

Although she has no family background in harness racing, her mum Kaylene Jans is a familiar face at Central Victorian tracks as the GPS timing officer, distributing the saddlecloth number devices to each starter – meaning she was on-hand to witness Annalise’s success.

“Mum’s pretty relaxed about things but I think she was pretty pleased to be there to see it,” Annalise said.

“Mum and I were both interested in horses, and I did pony club when I was younger.  Then I started working at a dressage stable after I finished school.

“I wasn’t really enjoying it much, though, and I got to know some harness racing trainers through my other part time job at Kilmore, doing the horse gate and numbers room.

“When a job came up at Chris’s and I decided to give it a try – and it’s been great.  I get a lot of encouragement and there are plenty of people around who give you feedback and help you to get better.

“Ross and Chris have been great, and Anthony Crossland is also here a couple of times a week.  There are a lot of drivers willing to help younger people getting into the sport.”

And it was one of those mentors, fellow reinswoman Tayla French, who first encouraged Annalise to try race driving.

“She actually put the idea in my head to race drive – and I just thought: why not? I will give it a try!” Annalise said.

“I just want to keep going, hopefully getting more opportunities, a few more winners and to keep getting better. Tayla’s partner Alex (Ashwood) has put me on a few and I’m grateful that a few more trainers are starting to use me, which I appreciate.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink