Regional bragging rights on the line in TAB Country Cup Final

Images courtesy: Louise Partland and Lee Pearce

By Jordan Gerrans

Premier North Queensland trainer Bradley Belford had little luck in the TAB Country Cup Final two years ago and is now optimistic the emerging Midnight Frankie can deliver his kennel an Albion Park victory on Thursday night.

Belford prepares a team of 25 dogs in Townsville at his Gumlow kennel.

The son of Zambora Brockie was successful in both of the Country Cup lead in races at the Townsville Showgrounds, winning by a length in a heat before stopping the clock at 29.06 seconds in the semi-final over 498 metres.

Belford travelled south to Brisbane for the Country Cup 24 months ago, with Rumble Master and Murphy Rumble from his kennel never really troubling winner Elegant Eleanor, who put almost eight lengths on the field.

He feels Midnight Frankie is much better placed to be a contender this time around.

“They both missed the kick a couple of years ago and Elegant Eleanor went on to win by a minute,” he recalls.

“Midnight Frankie is a young dog that is going good.

“If he can find the fence on Thursday night, he will be hard to beat.”

Belford, who has been around dogs his entire life, has trained multiple big North Queensland Cup race winners across his decades within the industry as well as winning city races in Brisbane earlier in his career.

A key race as part of The TAB Golden Greys Summer Carnival, the best dogs from across the Sunshine State’s regional tracks converge on Brisbane this week for the $15,700 Country Cup Final at Albion Park over 520 metres.

The 2022 Country Cup is open to all grades of dogs while greyhounds must be domiciled north of the Gympie area for a minimum of 76 days leading into the heats.

Central Queenslander Love You Peaches has the rest of the field worried as the Ken Boody-trained bitch has only run outside the money twice in her last 17 trips to the races.

Love You Peaches is nicely drawn in four for the Final and while Belford is confident about his dog, he admits the bitch from a Thirty Talks and New Abode litter will be hard to hold out.

“I am not drawn really good in five and I am not sure I can beat the Rocky dog, she is flying,” Belford said.

“She is going good and is bloody good early.

“She used to run off the track there but I think they have solved that drama with her.

“If she leads and finds the front and gets around the first corner on Thursday night, she will be hard to beat, but if I can get in behind her, I can run her down, but we will need to be close.”

In an interesting sub-plot to Thursday’s Country Cup Final, Belford and Boody each train a greyhound the other owns in their respective regional Queensland cities.

Earlier this year, Boody collected a career best seven victories at a Rockhampton meeting, including a clean sweep of the Country Cup Heats.

He will have two from his kennel in the Final – the speedy Love You Peaches and Zipping Gibson.

With bush bragging rights on the line for each area on Thursday,  Belford believes Townsville still has the strongest greyhound form outside of Brisbane in Queensland but concedes Rockhampton’s standard has improved in recent years.

The two-year-old dog, Midnight Frankie, will fly down with Belford on Wednesday evening.

Midnight Frankie had a short campaign in South East Queensland late last year, based at the Zammit kennel, where he had one start without much luck,

“He had three trials and I know he was going all right when he came home so I am not worried about handling the track anyway,” Belford said.

“In his one start down there at Albion Park, he got knocked down and did not beat one home.

“He came home and has gone good so we wanted to keep him here, better off being at home, and then go down for the race this week instead of coming down earlier.”