By Peter Quilty
Pearcedale prodigy Kayla Cottrell pulled off another training triumph when NSW import Robbie Rotten won Friday night’s Group 2 SEN Track Warragul Cup final (460m).
Cottrell, who will turn 20 in April, became Victoria’s youngest ever G1-winning trainer when Fernando Cazz won the G1 Rookie Rebel last February.
Corey Smith, who co-hosted the Cup presentation on GRV’s Watchdog website, was full of praise for the young trainer.
“If you were buying shares in a greyhound trainer, Kayla Cottrell would be one of them.”
A giveaway greyhound, Robbie Rotten – once a “problem child” – showed his rivals a clean pair of paws to land a $47,000 first prize.
Cottrell was delighted with the performance of her dog…a former rogue now turned angel!
“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!”
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 three lengths with rising star Hamillson ($6.60) a further head away third in a slick 25.55sec.
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 in and gave him a look around the tracks and he’s going super,” Cottrell added.
It was Robbie Rotten’s 14th win from 29 starts, including four wins in a row and eight of his past 10, and his stakes catapulted to $85,240.
RSN race caller Kyle Galley said Robbie Rotten is one to watch going forward.
“He might be the next big thing.”
In another highlight at Warragul on Friday night, Brother Bearing took out the $10,000 winner-take-all Cup Night Match Race (460m).
Leading all the way, Brother Bearing ($1.10F) accounted for Xavien Bale ($3.70) by three 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.
