Bellman has 2000 wins in sight

Ararat Harness Racing Club is hoping for a fairytale result with one of their favorite sons Michael Bellman landing his 2000th career driving win at their Cup meeting on Friday week (Feb 28).

“It would be a nice I suppose – but I’ve only got six wins to go to reach the milestone, and I’m hoping I can get there before that,” Bellman said.

“I’ve a great book of drives coming up at Ballarat, Geelong, Melton and Cranbourne in the next few days, so we’ll see what happens.

“I drove my 1000th winner at my home track (Ararat) so it just may be meant to be that’s where I get my 2000th.”

Bellman, 44, is a familiar face at most Victorian racetracks.

“I’ll virtually go anywhere to get a drive. I always remember some advice one of the greats Daryl Douglas gave me one day: ‘What you lose on the slide…you’ll pick up on the merry go round!’” Bellman laughed.

“Probably my favorite Victorian tracks are Maryborough, Ballarat and Charlton because I reckon those three are the fairest tracks – I know my own always go well when I race there,” he said.

“I’d have no idea how many miles I’ve clocked up over the years, but I do know that I’ve worn out six cars in that time.

“Back in the day I use to have two other drivers who would grab a lift with me but these days Dad comes as my passenger when he can, but the majority I do on my own.

“I listen to Paul Campbell’s interviews or anything else related to the sport. Otherwise it’s just music.”

“Warragul meetings would probably be the furthest and that’s four hours over and back. Swan Hill, Cranbourne and Mt Gambier are big trips, too.

“I used to do Mildura for a bit, but the last time I did that I fell asleep in the car when I got home. I was a bit hazy about the drive back and couldn’t remember going through some of the towns, so I decided not to go up there again. It’s a four hour trip, then depending on how many race engagements you get it could be another few hours, then you have the return drive.”

The popular reinsman was born into the sport, his dad Neville a former trainer and driver and his mum D’Arne a trailblazer for women in the sport.

“Dad was a race driver and probably had around 500 winners as a trainer, but when mum really took to it, he worked a job and concentrated on training. Mum was the first woman to pay a dividend on the TAB,” Bellman said.

“She was pretty competitive and drove about 750 winners and trained about 300. She won the Pearl Kelly award (for female participants) and the driver’s room at Ararat is named after her.

“Early on when I started driving I remember she squeezed me up getting towards the line in a race at Maryborough – and I yelled out ‘Mum, mum’.  She was still laughing when she pulled up and told Ian McCallum that she’d been called a lot of things on the race track ‘but never Mum’!”

Bellman began his own driving career at age 16.

“I’ll never forget my first win that’s for sure. It was my fourth race drive, and it was in my pop’s memorial race at Terang. And the horse I won on was Little Partner – trained by my mum!”

“It was pretty early in my career when I got the Australian Young Drivers Championship at the old Harold Park track in Sydney in 2002,” he said.

“We got the most torrential rain that I can remember. It was absolutely pelting down and there was a bit of conflict because we later found out that the stewards weren’t happy the final race of the championship went ahead.

“It was a tight finish and I needed to get a top three spot with my nearest rival needing to run 4th. I ended up third and the other driver just missed out with a fifth. That win definitely helped to kickstart my career.”

Another memorable moment, and undoubtedly one close to his heart, was a win in the 2011 Ararat Pacing Cup with his star pacer Mister Rhys.

“I’d leased the horse off a great friend Hughie Smythe who was living up in the Sunraysia region,” Bellman said.

“Mister Rhys was an outstanding racehorse and finished up winning 30 races.”

Bellman, who is just 16 wins away from another milestone of 200 training winners, is currently training a team of 13, including “a few babies”, as well as some pretraining for Gary Hull and Bec Morrissey.

While he’s enjoyed years of success on the track, the one thing missing is a Group One victory.

“I’ve finished second on two occasions—beaten less than a nose.”

For the record, he’s won five Group Twos and eight Group Threes along with six Listed races.

He’s also driven more than 100 winners nine times in the past 13 seasons—his best being 140 in 2015/16.

Bellman’s dedication to the hard miles in search of wins was again at the forefront last Friday (Feb 14).

He scored in the opening race at Maryborough with the Kari Males-trained Paris Kay (Sebastian K) at 2.03pm – and four and a half hours later at 6.33pm he steered She Will Wantano (Roll With Joe) to win the first race at Ararat for Bec East.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink