By Isaac Murphy
No Easy Beat is living up to his name for trainer Rusty Dillon almost knocking off the Bundaberg track record at his first start before going seven tenths outside the Novice record at Albion Park last week clocking 29.81 for trainer Rusty Dillon.
Putting last week’s run into context, Silver Stunner won the Queensland Sprint Final in 30.08, .27 seconds slower than No Easy Beat, yet Dillon was not surprised with the performance.
“He’s always shown ability from break in and he carried that through to his first couple of starts at Bundaberg getting down around that track record,” he said.
“He’s taken a bit of time to get used to the track at Albion Park, he takes a few strides to get going before he opens up, but the red last week helped him out a lot.”
No Easy Beat will be back to contest a Fifth Grade this Thursday night and will have to overcome a sticky draw to beat the older dogs.
“He’s a lot sounder over the last three or four weeks, he’s had a few little issues bothering him, but his win last week will do his confidence the world of good being his first around Albion Park.”
“It’s pretty important to get a win there early on, because you don’t want to see their bravado dented too much and most of the big races are obviously held at headquarters, so he’ll be back this week for another run.”
“Drawing four isn’t ideal this week, but that’s something you can’t control, he’ll have to leave a little cleaner but if he can repeat anything like last week he’s a big show.”
Dillon formed a lifelong friendship with No Easy Beat’s owner Kevin Bryant after the pair shared great success with Big Easy Red a Nationals representative that was a prolific winner from the 520-710 metre range.
“No Easy Beat is out of a sister to Big Easy Red, both from Zambora Brockie who’s breed is travelling really well,” Dillon said.
“Big Easy was always lightly raced and we targeted the big races rather than putting him round for the sake of it and I’ll be following a similar path with this dog because we know he’s a real chance to win a big race one day.”
“He’s far from wound up yet, it’s quite scary what he might be able to accomplish in six to twelve months’ time, I see him in the same vein as Big Easy Red capable of winning over any distance.”
While Dillon is set on playing the long game with No Easy Beat, he does have some short-term goals he wants to tick off.
“I’m setting him for the Publican’s Cup which is coming up in a fortnight’s time at Albion Park, being a Fifth-Grade race it looks a nice place to get his first feature race under his belt,” Dillon said.
“He hasn’t seen Ipswich or Capalaba yet, so I’m planning to trial around there in the near future with an eye to races down the track.”
A lifelong dog man Dillon knows he’s been blessed with some good ones throughout his career and is looking forward to devoting more time to his passion as he looks to build on his kennel out of Caboolture.
“I’ve been lucky in my career I started off early days down in Melbourne and was given a couple of dogs as a young fella, which ended up winning a few races, when I moved to Queensland picked up a couple of handy ones that got me started and have kept on from there,” Dillson said.
“I’ve got an acre out the back of Caboolture now, I’m hoping to get a couple more dogs on top of the pups I have at home and really build the kennel up in the next month or two.”
“I’m still working so I’m not able to pour everything into the dogs, but my hours are fairly flexible and between myself and my partner Tracy we keep things ticking along.”
“I’ve been very careful with all his racing to date he’s a long way off full fitness, it’s quite scary if everything goes to plan just what he can do.”
“He’s not even two yet and the majority of dogs don’t do their best racing until they’re three, we’re looking forward to a really good ride with him.”
“With the same Dam line as Big Easy Red he could end up being a seven hundred metre dog, I’ve just got to make sure to do everything right by him and he’ll tell us what’s his best fit.”