Passionate Richmond fan Marlene Schmidt refers to her Meadows specialist Javi as ‘Dusty’ after superstar Dustin Martin and she’s hoping he can deliver a trademark don’t argue to his rivals when he returns to his favourite circuit on Saturday afternoon.
Javi – kennel name Dusty – has an obvious love affair with The Meadows, with five of his six career victories coming at the track, and he’s TAB’s $3.60 favourite to boost that record in his heat of the Nestor/Schofield Memorial (race 3 at 4.10pm).
“He grows a leg at The Meadows,” said owner/trainer Marlene Schmidt, who trains a small team of six at Devon Meadows.
“He loves it there but he doesn’t like it at Sandown.
“Just driving into Sandown you can tell he doesn’t want to be there but he’s a totally different dog at The Meadows. It’s weird!
“He likes the two-turn tracks as well – he doesn’t go as well on the horseshoe tracks – so it’s basically The Meadows or nothing,” she added with a laugh.
Heats of the Nestor/Schofield Memorial are being held at both The Meadows and Sandown and fortuitously for Schmidt and Javi the $12,000 to-the-winner final is being held at The Meadows.
Javi has box four to contend with but Schmidt only has to look back to his most recent win at The Meadows, on July 22, when he also wore the blue vest and was an upset $34 all-the-way winner, clocking a personal best 30.02s for his pet 525m distance.