He has won countless features and cups around the State, and with her, he and wife JODIE have won the Golden Easter Egg and Million Dollar Chase, but for Andy Lord, winning a race like the Ladbrokes Brother Fox in Dubbo on Saturday night was something very special.
The $50,000 feature event adds another line to the resume of champion bitch She’s A Pearl, with her tenacious ¾ length victory in 29.39s over a gallant Wyndra All Class with roughie I’m Loving It a further four lengths away in third.
But as Andy explained, winning it there, in the country, is what racing is all about.
“I am delighted because I don’t think Dubbo is her place,” he said. “Dubbo and Goulburn - those older tacks that have few bends in them - you can’t show your speed but she’s just a true champion.
“No matter what we do with her, she always comes up trumps. She just knows how to win, she’s competitive. She goes into all these big races and wins them, it’s not easy to do.
“To me the Golden Easter Egg is the most important race we have, but races like the Brother Fox, they are so important to win.
“When you’ve got a good bitch like her it’s good to go back to the country where you started and let everyone have a look at her.
“They are all good people in the country and like I said I started there. Not word of a lie, they used to have broodbitch races at Young, and I won a stack of them, and you’d get a big ribbon and I was that excited. I set my broodbitches for them.
“All those races. I have Chased the country carnivals all my life. I’ve been lucky enough over the years to choose what path I wanted to go on, but I wouldn’t swap the country for anything. If they had all those carnivals again, I would be the first one back.
“So now, it’s always good to go back when they have a big race on if you’ve got a good dog. You want to go back to the country and show the people, and I am so pleased she was able to show the people in Dubbo what she can do.”
The victory improved her amazing record to 57 starts for 36 wins and 10 placings, and $1.75 million in prizemoney.
But now just five months shy of her fourth birthday, Andy knows the clock is ticking.
“She’s not getting any Younger, she is getting on a bit, and all we have done is pick our races with her,” he said. “We are thinking about the (upcoming) Brisbane Carnival (featuring the $1 million Brisbane Cup in July). We might take her up and give her a trial up there. I think Albion Park will suit her.
“But, if she comes on season and we were in the final of the Brisbane Cup, I would scratch her and get her in pup.”
While Andy was at home in Gunning, his daughter Hayley took She’s A Pearl to a chilly Dubbo and enjoyed the victory.
“Once she got to the front it was going to be hard to run her down, but it was a great run by Gatty’s (Daniel Gatt, Wyndra All Class’s trainer) dog,” Hayley said.
“She means the world to us. You’re not going to come across a Pearl every day. She means the world to dad, she means the world to all of us.
“It means a lot winning this race. Brother Fox was a freak, it’s good to have Pearl win that race.”
Brother Fox was superstar of the sport, trained by Steve Kavanagh who reached out to Andy soon after the race.
“Steve Kavanagh only just sent me a congratulations message,” Andy explained. “It said: “I’d like to have a pup out of her by Brother Fox”. I wrote back telling him that he wouldn’t believe it, two days ago I said imagine if we had a straw to Brother Fox for her.”
The night’s other feature was an emotional affair with Dennis and Ann Barnes completing the trifecta in the Bill & Peg Miller Final with Nangar Nellie defeating Nangar Lucy and Nangar Larry.
The race is named in honour of Ann’s parents, and a race she had been desperate to win.
“That race would have meant so much to them, Ann’s mum and dad’s race and she has been trying to win it forever,” Andy said. “It was so great to see that. It’s these people that make greyhound racing what it is.”
