Cumming has giant hopes for a straight result

By Pat McLeod

Current straight track specialist Jeff Cumming is hoping his kennel giant Go For Launch can make a positive impression on Sunday’s Anniversary Cup heats at Capalaba.

Cumming has been told by race officials that the Good Odds Harada and My Kinda Song chaser, who weighs in at 42kgs, is the biggest race dog in Queensland.

“Because of his size he can take a while to get going,” Cumming said.

“But, he goes well at Capalaba with his best there being 19.80 seconds. He is up against very good dogs on Sunday, so will need some luck to get through to the Final.

“I just can’t wait for the one-turn track to open at The Q because I think he would go quite well there.”

Cumming, who is based on 10 acres at Wolffdene, between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, has a runner in each of the two heats of the Anniversary Cup – Go For Launch (box eight) in the first heat and Hendrix Dutton (box one) in heat two.

“Both are handy dogs at Capalaba, but Hendrix Dutton is the same as Go For Launch, he will need luck,” Cumming said.

“Hendrix Dutton is beginning better at Capalaba and that is a real positive.

"His best there is 19.72 seconds, which is competitive, but there certainly are faster dogs in his race, such as Rio Will Rock (who recently set a new track record at Capalaba at 19.17 seconds).”

Hendrix Dutton has had just the seven starts at Capalaba for Cumming since he bought the dog from Northern NSW trainer Andrew Monaghan.

Cumming said he had been aware of the dog and that it had come ‘with some race issues’.

“I was pretty confident the drag lure at Capalaba could be the answer and that is how it has worked out so far,” he said.

Of his seven starts up the straight Hendrix Dutton has recorded four wins.

Go For Launch also has a tidy record of five wins and five placings from 16 starts, all at Capalaba.

In fact, Cumming says his six dogs in work at the moment all race at Capalaba.

“That is just the way it has turned out,” he says.

“It wasn’t planned. It just so happens that all the dogs are better suited there. No doubt that will change in the near future and I will be back at Ipswich and Albion Park.”

Cumming has been training for about 30 years and first picked up the collar and lead in Mount Isa.

“I had been to uni in Rockhampton and when I came back to Mount Isa I started in greyhounds,” he recalls.

“A family friend had come up for the Mount Isa Cup and had left a dog with us. I decided to give greyhound training a go and have been involved ever since.

“I moved to South East Queensland in the late 1990s and bought this property. It was part of land that had been resumed by the government to build the Wolffdene Dam. My property would have been under water.

“However, the dam didn’t go ahead and the land was auctioned.”

There is plenty of talent in Sunday’s two Anniversary Cup heats outside of record holder Rio Will Rock, including Casey Dargusch’s Victory Road, who has a 19.39 second run to his credit.

There will be plenty of interest in New South Wales visitor Bernardo Beast (trained by Darren Sultana), who returns to Capalaba after running third in a Cup heat at the track on September 29.

Since then, he has a seven-from-seven record at the Richmond straight track.