Trots Centre: Ros hops off to track as trots return to Echuca

Trainer Ros Rolfe can’t wait to free-leg it back to Echuca tonight for racing’s return to the border-town, which hosts its first meeting since March 3.

In the night’s opening race the Echuca Harness Racing Club committee member will debut three-year-old Our Art Work, the first horse owned by her entire family, and then in the second will race two-year-old Sargeant Major, a pacer who will race free-legged for the first time.

“It’s fantastic to have the trots back at Echuca,” Rolfe said. “Hopefully it helps to keep chins up and just to see the lights back on will make people happy that things are happening again.”

Things will certainly be happening for the Rolfe family, with tonight’s debutant not only co-owned by Ros and her husband Michael, but for the first time by their three sons Francis 23, Henry 22 and Lewis 15.

“We bought the horse and the kids were all at home again,” Ros said. “They were supposed to be at uni, so we thought it’d give them a bit an interest because they can’t do much else at present.”

Our Art Work was bred locally by Sue Wegmann and Ros said he was “a beautiful looking horse, which is always a start with me, and I thought he had a lot of room for improvement”.

“He was qualified, so a lot of the work was done, and I drove him at trials and he paced well.”

He impressed when second in a nine-horse trial at Shepparton on Thursday, prompting some confidence ahead of his debut in the Ausure Insurance 3YO Pace, which streams on Trots Vision at 5.04pm.

“He went surprisingly well,” Rolfe said. “He is not the greatest gaited horse, but he manages to scramble around the corners and is keen. He has been going around our track at home beautifully, which is pretty much the same size as the Echuca race track.”

He starts from gate nine tonight, three off the fence, with Rolfe confident if she can find “a handy spot in the running line he will put in a good finish”.

“I was surprised by how well he started in his trial, so he should stay with them early and be thereabouts,” she said. “It will just depend on when I have to pull him out, but being a short race I’m going to have too. I’d be thrilled if puts in a solid performance.”

The camp’s second runner will also carry plenty of interest with Sargeant Major, who hasn’t raced since being sixth on debut at Echuca on March 3, undergoing a significant gear change.

“He will race without hopples,” Rolfe said. “I feel like he’s such a beautiful pacer and seems to like it better without them.”

Rolfe said that discovery was made during a failed attempt to gallop the Art Major gelding.

“I took him out one day and thought I’d give him a good gallop and he just refused to gallop. I then did fast work with the other horses without hopples on him and he seemed keener and as smooth as when he has them on,” she said.

“Maybe they annoy him, so I thought I’d go without and see what happens. He is such a beautiful pacer, hopefully he doesn’t make an idiot out of me (tonight), but I don’t think he will.”

Sargeant Major also trialed at Shepparton on Thursday, when “he was beaten by a fair bit, but they were handy horses”, and will start from gate seven in tonight’s Caledonian Hotel 2YO Maiden Pace.

“I am happy with the draw. If he can lob one or two back on the running rail I’ll be very happy.”

Rolfe’s other commitment for the night comes in race seven – the A & R Water Solutions Trotters Handicap – when she will steer Star Gazing for trainer Peter Lindberg.

“Last time I drove him out of a stand we got away pretty well and led,” she said. “If he lobs towards the front he will take some running down.”

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