Petroff primed for a Cracker of a drive

The first race was a different story as Metrofromelle sat in the one by one for much of the race before gunning down the Andy and Kate Gath trained hotpot Prized in the straight.

“Yeah, (I’m feeling) really confident at the minute, I’m going really good,” Petroff said.

The story is set to continue for Petroff as he takes the reins on the promising Just A Cracker for trainer Lance Justice in heat one of the Tabcorp Park Melton Emerging Stars Trotters Handicap.

The first race of the night might be for emerging squaregaiters, but between the 12 runners they are veterans of an enormous 747 starts with the ex-Kiwi trotter accounting for 83 of them.

His two runs in Australia make him fitting for a race like this, as he has emerged from a third in the John Slack Memorial Trot Cup at Ballarat where he broke in running but continued to make ground on a rain affected track and then followed that with a win at Tabcorp Park last week.

“He should be improved even further from his run and he’s in a winnable race again Friday night,” he said.

The 10-year-old Sundon gelding has been penalised for his consistent New Zealand record and impressive win last time out, being hit with a 20-metre handicap. The draw holds no fears for his driver though, with a good beginning a more critical factor.

“We’ll just take it as it comes, as long as he gets a clean getaway he can put himself into the race whenever he wants,” Petroff said.

The in-form reinsman will again team with Justice in The Enduro and his charge Our Malabar has been given the backmark to contend with after a strong third when sitting parked behind the eventual winner in the Italian Cup last time out.

“He’s off the 30-metre handicap and in a 2700-metre race he’s probably going as good as he can, with a bit of luck he won’t be too far away again,” Petroff said.

The handicap won’t be his only concern either with the horse that defeated him last time, Jaccka Clive, starting alongside him and Lets Slash An Burn 10 metres ahead of them.

Petroff will round out the night with two horses at opposite spectrums of their respective careers. Sonofpaco is just warming up as a three-year-old whereas Karlsruhe has done it all before as an experienced nine-year-old.

“When he (Sonofpaco) puts his best foot forward and wants to come and do it he can match it with the best of them and if he does that Friday night I don’t expect him to be too far away again,” he said.

Petroff hasn’t given up on Karlsruhe just yet because even though he is out of form, there is a definite class factor about him.

“He might be a bit past it now and the races he is in these days, the claimers, suggest he isn’t as good as he used to be but Geoff Martin wouldn’t be racing him just for the sake of it,” he said.