Warning for punters: Tassie mare ready to step up

An eye-catching finale suggests Tasmanian raider Blame It On Me is well and truly up to competing with some of the best harness racing mares on the mainland, and her trainer Doug Nettlefold is warning punters not to discount her chances of a blowout victory this Saturday night in Geelong.

The four-year-old settled at the rear of the field in last weekend’s Make Mine Cullen at Ballarat, but ripped home with the second fastest final 400m of the race to finish fifth behind winner Spellbound.

The performance, in a slippery mile rate of 1:52.8 over the 1710m trip, earned Blame It On Me a point from the opening leg of the Elizabeth Clarke Mares Triple Crown, with the series to continue in the Angelique Club Pace this Saturday night.

“It’s hard to judge where you sit over here (Tasmania) in our small little fishbowl so to speak,” Nettlefold told Trots Talk.

“A lot of people I talk to thought that we could probably measure up – as we did – so it was interesting to see how things panned out.”

Blame It On Me has won 12 of 23 career starts, but her racing days could have been over as a three-year-old when an accident left the bay filly with a broken pastern bone. Major surgery and more than six months of rest and recovery later, she returned to the races with a streak of wins, including success in a $50,000 event in November last year.

“Tim, the bloke that did the operation, said it’s hit and miss whether you get her back to the races and what you end up with, so it’s been a mighty effort of the horse,” Nettlefold said.

Blame It On Me won the $50,000 Granny Smith Final at Devonport on September 26 before making the trip to Victoria, where she has been looked after by Jess Tubbs and Greg Sugars in Myrniong.

“We’ve got a small place here, a bit under 50 acres, that we just breed our own horses and break them in and race them,” Nettlefold, who works a full-time job at Tasmania’s Cadbury factory, said.

“To end up with a horse like her as a family has been a big thrill.”

The daughter of Big Jim has drawn barrier nine for the Angelique Club Pace (2100m) and after being driven by Kerryn Manning in Ballarat, will this time be partnered by Lisa Miles.

She’ll go around as one of the outsiders in the Group 3 contest, which includes last-start winner Spellbound (Nathan Purdon) and the next three mares that finished behind her at Ballarat  – The Pantheist, Enchanted Stride (both David Miles) and Maajida (Emma Stewart).

“If everything goes our way, she’s not without a chance,” Nettlefold, from Bagdad near Hobart, said.

“Last week, to me she didn’t look happy and Kerryn (Manning) was telling Greg (Sugars) afterwards there was a couple of little issues with her.

“We’ve made a couple of small changes which might make her a little bit more comfortable and happy, but I wouldn’t dismiss her.”

To view the fields for Geelong on Saturday click here.

LISTEN TO DOUG NETTLEFOLD ON TROTS TALK BELOW: