Scott reigning supreme in King Coal Cup

Owner Tim Blee is making a habit of adding Country Cups to his mantel piece, and Sunday was no exception, with his horse Follow The Music (Follow The Stars)  taking out the Spry’s Meat Market King Coal Cup (2670m) at Collies opening meeting.

Driven by Shannon Suvaljko in the feature, there was a great crowd on course for Collie’s first of four meetings this season, and there was plenty to enjoy throughout the day, especially for Manjimup based Tim Blee who travels around the countryside to cheer on his horses.

“I love coming here,

“This was planned months ago, that we would come here (For the King Coal Cup.)

The son of Follow The Stars has had a recent change of training regime, with Blee confident that the four-year-old is now on the right track.

“When we first got him, we worked him hard and stuff and he was going ok, but Matthew decided to back right off and he doesn’t go to the track, and when he does, he just does pacework and runs home in 28, and have a look at him, he looks fantastic,

“Full credit to Matthew.” Blee said.

Suited to the standing starts, Follow The Music will head back to Collie next Sunday, October where he is likely to start in the John Martin Memorial standing start event over the 2670m distance off the 10m handicap.

“We love Collie, it suits a lot of our slow horses that can stand.”

Blee has plenty of fond memories from the Collie track, with wins over the years with Riri Rihanna, Miss taken, Glens Of Tekoa just to name a few, as well as Awaitinginstructions finishing in second place in the 2022 Collie Cup.

Winning the Collie Cup back in 2019 with Cut Above (also trained by Matt Scott), Blee is an avid supporter of regional harness racing, with his pint-sized star in Awaitinginstructions providing plenty of thrills for his connections, including taking out the 2022 Busselton Cup, followed by the 2022 Williams Cup at his next appearance 6 weeks later.

Unfortunately, injury has struck, and Awaitinginstructions is now in the paddock for rehabilitation for a suspensory injury. The six-year-old will have six months off and Blee and Scott will reassess then.

Matt Scott has had plenty of success at Collie over the years, but especially in the King Coal Cup, taking out the feature seven times now, with Scott making mention he goes where they can earn.

“Any win is good, it’s a lot of work, with the cost of paying a mortgage to keep the property going.”

Below is a list of past King Coal Cup victories for trainer Matt Scott.

2014 – Turbo Gold

2015 – Zamaye

2016 – Telham Lane

2017 – Telham Lane

2018 – Lisdelight NZ

2020 – I Am Immortal

2022 – Follow The Music

For complete race entries, click here.

by Ashleigh Paikos, for RWWA