Local hero ready to chase $75,000 Cup

He may have got the visitor’s draw – again! – but Scott Ewen and Bulletproof Boy will carry local hopes this Saturday night, being the first Cranbourne training centre hopeful to try and crack the pacing cup.

Having shifted from South Australia to the racing complex in 2019, Ewen will be out for a slice of history at 9.17pm when his stable star chases glory in the star-studded $75,000 Decron Cranbourne Pacing Cup.

“It’d be great, especially because it’s home turf now,” Ewen told SEN Track’s Trots Life. “It’d be great to win it, it would have been great to get a good draw and I think he would have been a good chance.”

The sit-sprinter’s chances certainly weren’t helped by drawing outside the back row, which all but ensures settling at the back of the field and hoping a war of attrition up front enables him to work into the race late.

It’s a disadvantage he could have done without when considering the quality of the field, which includes New Zealand Trotting Cup winner Copy That, Grand Circuit winning mare Amazing Dream and Geelong Cup winner General Dodge.

However, it’s not an unusual spot for Bulletproof Boy and Ewen, who’s been luckless since his gate one draw in October that helped him capture a Group 2.

“My horse has been plagued with bad draws all his life, he’s won 29 races and done a super job, but he’s never been a great barrier drawer,” Ewen said. “The last time he drew a good draw was Smoken Up Sprint and he won. It’s one of those things. We are just going to see how we go.

“We have just got to hope we get a few up front that might have a bit of a crack and keep a bit of pace on.  You never know, big dollars, I’m hoping there might be some head rushes, that people get a bit eager and we can be there for the taking.

“If he’s within cooeee of them and three or four lengths up the straight and they’ve gone pretty solid, he’ll be able to run over the top of them.”

Ewen will also have Trouble Giero step out in the Hygain Bruce Skeggs Memorial Cranbourne Trotters Cup, a significant step up in class.

“He’s a funny horse,” Ewen said. “He won’t disgrace himself, he likes the speed on a bit. (At Stawell) he was well underdone, so he will be better for the run, and they still broke the track record and he had to give them 20 metres.

“He can just pop in behind the one (Cuchulainn), be three or four back the fence and he’ll collect money.”

To view the fields for Cranbourne on Saturday click here.

CLICK: LISTEN TO SCOTT EWEN ON SEN TRACK’S TROTS LIFE