Feltus lands a hard earned treble
The Adelaide to Mount Gambier trip to race your dogs can be quite a long and gruelling drive at times but for local trainer Scott Feltus, it proved an enjoyable one last Thursday. Scott doesn’t train a large team of dogs, but on Thursday he was able to snag three winners and a second from the eight dogs that he took. The winners included Land of Promise who won in a sharp 23.09, Lita Warrior and Bumrah. The ‘3fa’ was Scott’s second of the year, as he gets ever so close to his first ‘4fa’.
“It was alright! I’ve had a few three’s over the years but never four. We had the little bitch (Jorja Can Burn) lose by under a length in one of the races as well.” - Scott Feltus
“Most of the dogs raced Tuesday up the straight and normally I would never run them within two days, but I consider a run up the straight no different to me running them in my paddock. I did have it in the back of my mind that they might have been a bit flat as it’s a long drive and they raced two days before, so I wasn’t really sure if they would go well. As it turned out some of them went good, Lita Warrior went 23.50 and I thought their is no way she would ever run that.
Getting to and from Mount Gambier requires a bit of hard work and a willingness to lose some sleep, with Scott having to wake up at 3am to make the trip down.
“I will start loading my dogs in the trailer about 4am but before that I need to feed them and empty them, so I’m normally up at the kennels by 3am. I don’t get home until about 10:30pm at night and then need to clean up and put the dogs away and do all of that.”
“Usually I go by myself and from my house it’s a 6 hour trip there and 6 hours back which includes time to stop and let the dogs out. The last couple of months I’ve been driving to Tim Richard’s house at Meningie and I hook on my trailer and we drive up from Meningie to Mount Gambier together, it’s a good trip! Tim used to be my footy coach years ago before we started training dogs.”
Mount Gambier has been a population racing destination for a few committed locals, with the Trengove’s, Tim Richards, Tony Hinchrinson and Yyvonne King (just to name a few) making the frequent journey down there. Scott says their is a few reasons that attract him down to race at Mount Gambier.
“The prize money structure and the easier racing is why we go. I know all my dogs will get a start there as well, every man and his dog is trying to race on the time graded meetings here (Angle Park/Gawler).”
It’s a team effort for Scott Feltus with his children Lily (11yo) and Max (8yo) also assisting in the training operation.
May the good run for Scotty and the team continue!
Photo: Scott with his three champions, Land of Promise, Lita Warrior and Bumrah.