Double delight for Ararat’s Bellman

Ararat horseman Michael Bellman notched up a training driving double on a mammoth afternoon of harness racing at Maryborough on Wednesday last week.

The talented, but sometimes wayward, mare Majestic Pride gave her supporters some anxious moments before the start when reluctant to circle.

But Bellman cajoled her to score up with the field and from that point, the punter’s elect was always the one to beat.

Bellman landed his charge in the one-out, one-back spot early, but when the tempo slackened, made a move and took Majestic Pride to the lead with a lap-and-a-half to go.

The combination never missed a beat and ran their rivals ragged over the final stages, crossing the line 21 metres clear of the pack in a rate of 2.03.4 for the 2190-metre journey.

Majestic Pride has the handy record of six wins and seven minors from 46 outings despite having taken virtually no part in the contest on nearly 20 occasions.

There’s no doubt she has the ability to salute at harness headquarters if Bellman can get her penny to permanently drop.

Majestic Pride was bred and is raced by Ararat’s Gary and Tracey Hull from their Sundon NZ mare Fleetwood Blue, winner of five races with 12 minors from 34 starts. At stud she has also produced Mizurri, five wins, and Jazspur, four wins, and a weanling colt by What The Hill, CA.

The second leg of Bellman’s double delight came up with four-yearold mare Sweetsazzymylazzy, which broke through for her maiden success at start number eight.

From gate five, Bellman eased back early in the 1650-metre sprint trip to settle in the one-out, three-back position.

He secured a three-wide trail for the mare from the 500m mark and despite pacing very roughly, ‘Sweets’ quickly made ground way out wide and ran them down to score by three metres.

Sweetsazzmylazzy is raced by oncourse photographers, brother and sister Claire Weston and Ian Woolridge, and was bred by on-course vet Greg Hargreaves.

Dangerous

Up-and-coming Charlton reinsman Ryan Sanderson combined with his father, trainer Shane to salute with the promising colt Dangerous in an $8000 two-year-old Pace at Melton on Wednesday last week.

The youngster backed up from his impressive win on debut at Hamilton three weeks earlier and out-toughed the opposition to score by 3.2 metres in a rate of 1.55.7 for the 1720m dash.

Dangerous is raced by the Birchip Crew – the Lowry, Dillon, Wilson, Hogan and Hodge families – and looks capable of being a force in the richer juvenile contests later in the season.

Ryan continued his good run later in the week at Mildura where he landed a treble to make it 71 wins and 127 minors for the season.