Trots Centre: Sofia and her gem Gus to build on "special bond"

Life, and the finish line, are coming at Sofia Arvidsson quickly of late with the recent trots convert dialing up the winners amid her first season in the sulky.

A stablehand with Matt Craven since September 2018, Arvidsson obtained her B grade driving license early in October 2019 and by the final day of that month had registered her first notch in the win column, when Itzamajor Surprise won at Geelong.

Plenty of water’s flowed under the bridge since and the Swedish-born reinswoman enters tonight’s meet at her home track of Terang with 84 starts and 12 wins to her credit and hopes of adding to that number with her two steers tonight.

“I’ve really enjoyed it,” Arvidsson told Trots Talk. “I never really had anything to do with harness racing before I came here, so I never really planned on driving, but I’m loving it.”

Thirty-four of her starts and five of her wins have come since the introduction of region-based racing on April 2, which she said had presented more opportunities.

“I’ve had a little bit of luck lately. I think the regional racing has been really good, especially for me, as I was getting a lot of drives – a lot of outside drives – that I wasn’t getting before, just because there was a lack of juniors.

"I feel like I have learned a lot in this time. Just given a few more drives and for different horses, not just our own, I feel like I have learned a lot.”

And the learning’s showing in her results, having placed in all of her last eight starts including winning two of her last three. Among those wins was a victory on trotter Gus An Maori at Stawell on June 10, a drive that has her leading the voting in the first awarding of the Catanach’s Jewellery Gem of the Week.

“He’s been my favourite horse since basically I arrived here,” Arviddson said of Gus An Maori. “I did a lot of work with him, just riding work at the start. Started driving him, we’ve come a very long way. We have a bit of a special bond the two of us.”

She will hope to build on that connection in The Weekly Advertiser Horsham Trotters Handicap, which streams on Trots Vision at 7.30pm tonight. Gus An Maori steps from outside the 10-metre line and Arviddson’s hopeful that will give the seven-year-old out of Sumthingaboutmaori ($461,499) the chance to find his feet and work into the race.

“There are some nice horses in it,” she said. “It’s always a bit tricky from the stands. It will definitely help him to be off 10 metres, he doesn’t like being off the front row. He likes to have something to chase. He gets a bit of a panic if he’s off the front there, he played up on me a couple of times.

“He’s been racing very well, I’m hoping if we can get away and get a good run he will be thereabouts.”

Her other commitment, also for the Craven stable, is Rock On Playboy in the last, the Terang Co-Op Rural Store Pace. While he’s drawn gate three, favourite Beautiful Woman is on his inside and looms large.

“He got a bit keen last time. He choked himself down, so that wasn’t ideal. He was pulling very hard his first run for us.

“We will just change a bit of gear. It’s very hard though, there are some nice horses in the race, one is drawn inside of us. It’s not going to be easy, I don’t think we will have a win (today), but hopefully he will run a good race.”

TALKING TROTS ON SENTRACK:

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