Basil's Bomb-proof boy readies for rare Cup tilt at Stawell

Allendale trainer Basil Dooley knows each time he sends Stawell Cup hopeful Bettor Be The Bomb to the races the seven-year-old is going to give 110 per cent.

“He’s got white line fever,” Dooley said. “He loves racing – everything about it. The float trip away.”

And it is this desire to compete by the veteran of 18 wins from 112 starts that gives Dooley a spring in his step every time he takes Bettor Be The Bomb on the road.

It does not matter who he is lining up against, having taken on the best. No challenge is too big.

He ran in this year’s Del-Re National A. G. Hunter Cup and Dooley already has his sights set on next year’s Inter Dominion in Victoria.

While he’ll be an eight-year-old then, Dooley said the son of Bettors Delight was a seasoned campaigner in a young body.

So it comes as no surprise that Dooley is feeling good about the chances of Bettor Be The Bomb in the Group 3 $45,000 Renown Silverware Stawell Pacing Cup over 2600m on Sunday.

“I’m really pleased with him,” he said.

Bettor Be The Bomb has been racing as well as ever, rating 1:55 in winning at Melton two starts ago. He had the better of Torrid Saint on that occasion and either side of that performance he has finished second to the same horse. Those runs come after a fourth to General Dodge in the Geelong Pacing Cup.

Dooley said he set his sights on the Stawell Pacing Cup several weeks ago.

“I mentioned it to Kerryn (Manning) and she agreed it would be a nice race for him.”

No one knows more about what it takes to win the Group 3 feature than the Great Western-based Manning.

She has won what it is basically her hometown cup four times – The Good Guy (2004), Henchman (2006), Narra Operative (2015) and Ideal Success (2016).

Manning has quickly developed a strong rapport with Bettor Be The Bomb, with a win and two seconds in four drives on him.

With Bettor Be The Bomb having his last start on November 27, Dooley said he had primed him up with a trial at Maryborough on Sunday.

He said with two weeks between runs and stepping up to 2600m it had been important to keep him in race condition.

For all the open class racing Bettor Be The Bomb has contested, this will be a rare country cup start. Dooley said there was no particular reason for this, it was just the way his racing program had fallen.

He finished third in a lightly assessed Traralgon Pacing Cup, when trained by Dooley’s partner Paula Martin, who owns Bettor Be The Bomb. He has since run in the Bendigo (twice), Ballarat and Geelong Cups.

There will certainly be more to come though, with Dooley considering going to Cranbourne Pacing Cup on Saturday, December 18, if Bettor Be The Bomb runs a big race at Stawell, as well as Bendigo and Ballarat early in the new year.

As the highest rated starter on Sunday, Bettor Be The Bomb will line up on the outside of the front row in the seven-strong field at Stawell.

Last-start Gunbower Pacing Cup winner and the winner of his past three, the Julie Douglas-trained Rick Reilly, has drawn the pole.

Last-start St Arnaud Cup winner Our Millionaire is the early favourite for trainer Emma Stewart.

Stawell Harness Racing Club will host nine races, with the first at 12.24pm.