Trots Centre: Fred gets new lease from Dam good trotters

Fred Spiteri has a new lease on life, with his stable full of talented young trotters, the latest of which debuts for her new trainer at Kilmore today.

Megeve will contest the Beraldo 3YO Trot for trainer-driver Spiteri, with The Best Madrik filly out of The Kahmotion the latest Yabby Dam Farms leasee to join the stable.

“I’ve got five of Anton (Golino’s) horses now, all on lease agreements,” Spiteri said. “All of Anton’s horses are very well bred and they are good people to deal with. I consider myself to be very lucky to have the opportunity to have such lovely horses.”

Megeve is the last of the five to debut, with the others including Normandy Belle, who won first-up for Spiteri in 1:57.8, and Hallaboutme, who he said “has plenty of ability” and “is not far off racing” again.

There’s also Electrojet, “who has won three races for us now”, and Champagne Charley, who is “hopefully the best of the lot”. Spiteri said the two-year-old was “fairly good” last night in running fourth in his Breeders Crown Silver Trot, only Champagne Charley’s second career start after being ninth in his Breeders Crown heat.

“He’s young and seems to be fairly strong,” he said. “Hopefully he can develop more speed and make a nice horse. I’ve got to try and give him an easier start and then maybe we will have a go at Vicbred.”

Spiteri said the connection to Yabby Dam Farms came via Glenn Backhouse, a former stable employee who is now part of the leasing group in Electrojet, Hallaboutme and Megeve.

The latter starts from gate seven tonight, having had four starts with Golino for one win and a third.

“She’s got a fair bit of ability,” Spiteri said. “Hopefully we can work a bit more closely with her and fix some of her problems keeping gait. She loses concentration and seems to baulk at a lot of things, every time a blade of grass moves she gets a bit of a fright.

“Hopefully she will do everything right for me. I’ve trialled her twice and she did put a break in once, but at Geelong she ran home the last half in 59.5 and went pretty good. You can’t ask for much more and I’m hoping she will be ready to run.”

In fact it was her trial at Tabcorp Park Melton on November 16 that caught the eye of Craig Rail for his Trial File column, which publishes Fridays at thetrots.com.au.

Rail credited the filly for “a big performance”, having lost 30 metres after breaking stride, chased up then launched an attack.

“She dashed clear coming out of the back straight but she started to tire when tackling the strong head wind in the final 100m,” Rail said. “She only just prevailed on the line but it was still a top effort.”

Spiteri will be hoping for similar effort tonight, minus the early error.

“I will have to play it a little carefully at the start because she can do the wrong thing,” he said. “I will balance her up and hopefully she will slot in. (Gate seven) is a tricky draw, but the race is fairly open, so she’s in with a chance.”

If all goes well he will consider a Vicbred Super Series campaign for Megeve, adding “she definitely has the ability to go in Vicbred, now it’s whether the manners are there”.

Megeve is one of two he will ferry to Kilmore today, with Majestical Belle to contest the O.K.R. 98.3FM Trot at 3.03pm.

“She goes all right. It is a fairly handy field, but she’s on the way up,” Spiteri said of the three-year-old, who he bought at sales and has won three and placed five times from 11 starts.

She will start from gate one and while he’ll leave the driving tactics to Mick Bellman, he said she “does show a fair bit of gait speed” and “they’d want to be at their best to beat her”.

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