Colin Mello put down a marker during the opening round of the Best-of-Three Series at the Bermuda Equestrian Centre at the weekend.

The experienced driver chalked up victories with Pocket de Gold and IC’s Shakedown to get his Best-of-Three Series campaign off to a strong start.

Mello guided Full Throttle Racing’s Pocket de Gold to a win in the four-year-old division and then returned to the winner’s circle a second time with IC’s Shakedown, owned by the same stable, who he guided to victory in the Aged division.

Andy Stoneham won the remaining race in the four-year-old division with stallion Custard the Dragon, while Philip Correia and Charles Whited Jr won the two three-year-old races with Simsfield Hardtimes and IC’s Overextended.

Mello was one of four different winners in the Aged Division as Andrea Westerfield (GV Crystal Ball), Christian Roque (Casmir Camotion) and Lucas Bridges (Brona’s Mike) also earned victories.

The Best-of-Three Series includes six heats with the top four horses in the Three and Four-Year-Old and Aged Divisions in the points standings advancing to a seventh and eighth championship race. Only the top four horses in each heat are awarded points.

Meanwhile, posting the night’s fastest times were Tyler Lopes and Bridges who achieved the feat with geldings.

Lopes ran a 1:05 flat with Arnold Manders’s gelding Cherokee’s Ironman which was equalled by Bridges and Inwood Stable’s gelding Brona’s Mike in the last Best-of-Three series race of the night.

Lopes was among a handful of drivers managing multiple heat victories earlier in the night’s regular season programme, sweeping both heats in the 1:05 — 1:06 division. Dylan DeSilva, Courtney Davis, Christian Truran and Mello were the remaining multiple heat winners across a range of time bars.