Dream run for Ararat owner-trainer

Ararat owner Donna Mckinnis and her husband-trainer Craig celebrated a victory at Ballarat last week when their four-year-old gelding Our Chance To Dream took out a restricted contest with driver Matt Craven in the sulky.

Our Chance To Dream was having his eighth start for the Mckinnis family after being purchased from NSW interests in September.

“Donna saw him advertised on a website, liked the look of the photos and she did the whole deal,” Craig said. “He’s no star but had been close up in every run for us since Donna got him. We’re having plenty of fun at the races and that’s what it’s all about.”

The pacer showed some ability for former trainer Michael Muscat, managing wins at Bankstown and Newcastle from 10 starts but sprinkled among the successes were plenty of mentions in the steward’s reports – ‘over raced’, ‘broke, stood down two trials’, ‘raced roughly’ and ‘warning issued’.

“I was a bit worried when we had a close look at his previous form but we changed a few things around when he arrived and he’s been pretty good since,” Craig said. “Hopefully he can win a couple more for us.”

Stawell success

A large syndicate of owners led by Stawell breeder Ken Salmon cheered home their smart filly Onthecrestofawave in the $7000 three-year-old pace at Ballarat on Friday night. The daughter of Modern Art USA and Salmon’s talented race-mare Our Surfer Girl was having her first outing for seven months and made it a perfect ‘three from three’ when she overhauled leader Ima Princess Gemma in the shadows of the post with driver Grant Campbell in the sulky and sporting the Kerryn Manning stable silks.

The victory was consolation for the owners who recently lost Our Surfer Girl’s month-old colt foal by Artspeak USA, which had to be put down after a freakish paddock accident.

No doubt Othecrestofawave looks set for a very bright future and the runner-up Imprincessgemma was far from disgraced after burning out of the gate to claim the lead at the start.

High roller

Horsham owner Shannon Hoffmann and trainer Brad Hunt tasted success at Terang on Sunday night when their handy four-year-old mare High Rolling saluted in a $7000 C0 final.

High Rolling ran through the 1680-metre sprint in even halves of 58.6 seconds and held a clear margin of 1.2 metres as she crossed the line in 1:57.0 to post her sixth win from just 10 starts. It’s Hot To Trot at: Mt Gambier (N) on Friday; Ararat (N) on December 27th; St. Arnaud (D) December 31; and Terang (N) on January 2.