Robbie Rotten wins Warragul Cup
Pearcedale prodigy Kayla Cottrell, 19, pulled off another training triumph when NSW import Robbie Rotten won tonight’s Group 2 SEN Track Warragul Cup final (460m).
A giveaway greyhound, Robbie Rotten – once a “problem child” – showed his rivals a clean pair of paws to land a $47,000 first prize.
Owned by Deon Hanson, Robbie Rotten ($7.20) exploded from the ‘yellow’ trap (Box 5) and led from go to whoa in defeating G1 Melbourne Cup third placegetter Kinson Bale ($9.60) by 3.34 lengths with rising star Hamillson ($6.60) a further 0.15 lengths away third in a slick 25.55sec.
It was his 14th win from 29 starts, including four wins in a row and eight of his past 10, and his stakes catapulted to $85,240.
“He might be the next big thing,” said RSN’s race caller Kyle Galley as Robbie Rotten crossed the line.
And Corey Smith, who co-hosted the Cup presentation on GRV’s Watchdog website, said: “If you were buying shares in a greyhound trainer, Kayla Cottrell would be one of them.”
“He (Robbie Rotten) is an older dog – he’s over three – but as a pup he wouldn’t go at all and his owner Deon (Hanson) got him as a ‘giveaway’,” Cottrell said.
“He’s from a very good litter, which also includes More Sauce (runner-up G2 Black Top and G2 Maitland Cup), but he was the problem child. Not anymore!”
Cottrell didn’t know Hanson at all. But one night she got a message on Facebook, saying he’d been following her career so far and thought ‘Robbie’ might benefit from a change of scenery and that he’d love to have a dog racing in Victoria.
“He’s a grouse kennel dog, we didn’t rush him, just let him settle him and gave him a look around the tracks and he’s going super,” Cottrell added.
Cottrell, who will turn 20 in April, became Victoria’s youngest ever G1winning trainer when Fernando Cazz won the G1 Rookie Rebel last February.
In another highlight, Brother Bearing took out the $10,000 winnertake-all Cup Night Match Race (460m).
Leading all the way, Brother Bearing ($1.10F) accounted for Xavien Bale ($3.70) by 2.9 lengths in 25.70sec.
It was his 11th win from 21 starts, including six of his past seven. He’s now three from four over Warragul’s sprint trip and has won $38,865.
Trained at Devon Meadows by Garry Selkrig, Brother Bearing finished third (beaten 0.73 lengths) to Robbie Rotten (25.59sec) in a Cup heat last week.
Ironically, the longest-priced Warragul Cup winner in the past decade is the Selkrig-trained Stagger ($11.40) in 2012. And the race record (25.34sec) belongs to To The Galo’s, also trained by Selkrig, in 2016. It was also a new track record at the time.
Selkrig also finished third with Peter Galo (47 wins from 82 starts) in the 2020 Warragul Cup.