Scott has his speeding bullet on target!

Victorian horseman Scott Ewen has every reason to be “over the moon” as he maps out the coming race program for his outstanding eight-year-old harness racing warrior Bulletproof Boy (Art Official).

“I honestly believe that at the moment the horse is going the best he ever has—he never use to be so strong so we’re pretty excited,” the Cranbourne-based Ewen said.

“He’s so young at heart so there’s still a couple of seasons left in him.”

Bulletproof Boy was impressive in winning the $25,000 Mimosa Homes Minuteman Free For All at TABcorp Park Melton on Saturday night (Sept 2).

Ewen zipped across from barrier five to lead and drove a perfect race, ramping things up over the last half with splits of 27.9 and 27.7 to hold off Max Delight and Sahara Tiger.

“Three starts ago he went down by a whisker to Miracle Mile winner Catch A Wave in a similar race and we were rapt. We led and got beaten by a neck after a very quick 27.2 first quarter,” Ewen said.

Bulletproof Boy has now taken his career record to 35 wins and 48 placings for earnings of over $438,000. Ten of those victories have been at Melton.

The pacer, nicknamed ‘Bullet’, was bred by Charles Okmasich, and is owned by Ewen along with eight others.

“Some live in Sydney, a couple in Queensland and the others are from Adelaide. They try and get here to watch him when we compete in feature races,” Ewen said.

The next of those is in the $75,000 VHRC Caduceus Classic G2 at Melton next Friday night (Sept 8) – an event he finished third in last season.

“I’d love to see any feature races over $50,000 have a random barrier draw. In the class that we are in (NR 90 to 120), all the horses are on par, and you can’t beat them from the back row,” he said.

Ewen and his fiancée Kylie are working a team of 10 horses at the Cranbourne Harness Racing Training Centre. They share a barn with former Kiwi couple Kyle Marshall and his partner Sophie Jefferies, who have enjoyed success since re-locating a few months ago.

“Kylie is the backbone of our stable. She does all the hard yards, including grooming and stuff like that. We do have our differences, but that helps you look at things from another direction!” Ewen said.

“Our team is firing at the moment and Kyle has been helping me with the fastwork since he’s been here. He’s a great lad and we bounce off each other.”

The Ewen family shifted from South Australia about four years ago.

“I’ve been in horses nearly all my life. I worked for dad (Barry) for ages and then ended up stable foreman for Lance Justice for five years before he shifted to Victoria. I then sort of kept soldiering on and, like many, had a job here and there,” he said.

Scott and Kylie will be hoping for plenty of winners in the next four or five months as never far from their mind is a 15-day ocean cruise in March.

“Our daughter Courtney works on the Princess Cruises. She’s 23 and is very good at dancing, something she’s done all her life, and landed a dream job doing that, along with some singing,” Scott said.

“She went to the US for five months to train and got offered the job. She just loves it so we’re very much looking forward to catching up with her on a cruise.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink