It’s déjà vu for Craig Chappelow this week as he prepares kennel stars Embrace and I’m Loving It for their second country cup final in less than a month.
On May 20, the Oakdale-based trainer picked up a third-place finish with I’m Loving It in the Group 3 Brother Fox decider behind She’s A Pearl and Wyndra All Class, while Embrace trailed the field into the catching pen in eighth.
This Sunday though, Chappelow will be hoping to claim the quinella in the listed Ladbrokes Chief Havoc Cup finale at Gunnedah - the race worth $40,000-to-the-winner.
Embrace, the 2022 Peter Mosman Opal winner, is well placed in Box 7 while I’m Loving It will have to rewrite history and be the first greyhound to win the event from Box 6.
Craig Chappelow and Embrace after winning the 2022 Peter Mosman Opal
“We always blame the computer for the box draws but even the banjo got them in 6 and 7 this week,” Chappelow said in jest.
“But it could actually give Embrace one of the runs of the race. I’m Loving It is a good beginner, but he’ll want to head across. Street Of Dreams is in Box 8 and isn’t brilliant early so she [Embrace] should get a could cart into it and Gunnedah has big, long straights and nice cambered turns which should suit her” he said.
“And poor old I’m Loving It. When I rang his owner, he said “oh, not again”. He had the 6 at Dubbo and that dented his chances, he still did well to run third though. A couple of the smarter ones in this final are drawn inside and even though I think he’s capable, he really wants the rail,” he said.
Chappelow still adamant Embrace is his kennel’s number one seed despite the rise of I’m Loving It over the past six months.
“Embrace has achieved a lot since winning the Peter Mosman Opal. She took out a heat of the Golden Easter Egg, made the Paws Of Thunder final and the Brother Fox final. She’s probably still got the wood on him, but his win record is actually better than hers,” Chappelow said.
The duos records adding further fuel to the debate, with Embrace securing eight wins from 51 starts with a 14% win rate, while I’m Loving It has 12 victories from 29 attempts at 41%.
“She’s been in some harder races but we’ve always had a bit of an opinion of him. He was racing over 300 and 400m a lot early on and doing quite well and every time we’ve asked him to step up, he’s run good times,” Chappelow said.
“We’ve always had plans to get into the better races eventually and now it’s starting to work out. He made the Ultra Sense final and was unlucky to draw out wide, he ran well in the Brother Fox Series and now he’s in this Cup race.”
“We sot of started taking him along to races because we had Embrace going too but he was our better chance in the heats on Sunday. He’s probably just a bit below Group 1 standard but we’ll be aiming him at these Cup races for a while and hopefully he’ll pick one off at some stage,” he said.
The Chief Havoc Cup looming as his next big opportunity, with a place on the honour board alongside the likes of Devil Dodger (2022), Lucky Lance (2021) and Knight Sprite (2017) awaiting the winner.
A $40,000 cheque will also make its way home with the 2023 champion, but it's the minor money and country racing in general that Chappelow wants more focus on.
“The prize money just has to be worth your while to travel your dogs. Trainers want to chase the prestige of winning these great country races but it’s a juggling act,” Chappelow said.
I think we should aim for a better spread of prize money across the board because at the moment there’s no real advantage for running second or third in a country feature compared to winning a grade race on a Saturday in town.”
I reckon NSW can promote the country cups even more and build the prizemoney at places like Dubbo, Gunnedah and Maitland. It’s a good opportunity to get to these country tracks and it gives you a big appreciation of the distance country trainers travel to race regularly in Sydney as well."
Victoria has a bonus for winning so many country cups, maybe we could follow suit. The Horsham Cup, the Shepparton Cup, the Warnambool Cup, they are all seen as really prestigious races by a lot of trainers down in Victoria. We’ve got some great country cups up here so why not make a real circuit of it as well?”
Jack Smith’s smart youngster Red Hot Frankie will likely start a warm favourite for the race from Box 2 after producing the fastest heat run.
