It took popular racing identity Mitch Beer about two minutes to change his social media profile bio to “Bulli Cup Winning Owner” after Nangar Larry claimed the Ladbrokes Cyril Rowe Bulli Gold Cup final in thrilling fashion on Friday evening.
The jovial horse trainer, who has stables in Albury and 20 minutes south of Bulli at Kembla Grange, overjoyed with the biggest race success of his burgeoning ownership journey.
“I’m still pumped. I watched it with some mates and it was bloody terrific. ‘Larry’ is like Winx to me, I think he’s the greatest greyhound going around,” an excited Beer said on Saturday morning.
“I have two rescue dogs that my life has revolved around for a while now, but that situation has never really been a threat until ‘Larry’ came along. They’ve gone down a peg after last night.”
Mitch Beer cheekily whipped up this meme for social media after Nangar Larry's victory at Bulli
“My only regret is I had to come down to Albury for the weekend and couldn’t watch him live. Bulli is just an Uber away from my place up there in Wollongong and the South Coast of NSW is a greyhound paradise so it would have been great to be on track.”
The Andy Lord-trained chaser mowing down long time leader Nangar Jim in the final 50m of the contest to claim his maiden Group race victory by half a length in 26.35. Victorian visitor Swindled ran third.
Beer glowing in his praise for the Lord kennel and the racing syndicate - that includes Melbourne Storm star Ryan Papenhuyzen - who got him involved.
“Andy [Lord] and his team have done a phenomenal job. They were so confident when they got the dog that he’d run in some good races, they had a plan and I’m just thankful to be part of it,” Beer added.
“Kudos to TYSON [Panagiotou] and his crew that run the syndicate as well. They make a massive effort to keep you involved and they’ve taught me a lot about the sport. It’s not just money going out of my account for a dog, they’ve helped me understand form and tracks and times and I absolutely love the industry now.”
“You could take ‘Larry’s success out of the equation and I'd still say the overall experience has been terrific. And you know the greatest part, no jockeys...the dogs just try their best and if you don’t win, you take them home and find another race in a week.”
The win takes Nangar Larry’s career record to 35: 17-2-8 and more than $130,000 in career earnings.
With the Lord’s daughter, Hayley Moffitt, leading ‘Larry’ into the winners circle as her return to the training ranks continues to gather momentum.
“It definitely means something special for the whole lot of us because it’s definitely a family thing now. It’s me, mum, dad and my brother-in-law. Its seven days a week and we pulled it off,” Moffitt said post-race.
“I think it’s [training greyhounds] just a bad bug. It’s something that I’m really, really good it and something that my family is obviously really, really good at so here we are.”
Hayley Moffitt punches the air with delight
The win capping a memorable week for the progeny of the great Shima Shine, with Nangar Larry’s victory coming six days after staying star, Valpolicella, claimed his second Group 1 win in the Zoom Top at The Meadows.
‘Larry’ now firmly in the frame as the best sprinter in NSW, with his Bulli triumph coming a month after he ran third in the Group 1 Ladbrokes Paws Of Thunder final.
The ownership group, naturally, setting their sights on bigger and bolder targets already.
“It was good to see some plans being thrown out last night for his future which is what the horse racing industry does after a good win too,” Beer laughed.
“The Golden Easter Egg was tossed up but I’m sure Andy and the team will work that all out. In the meantime, I just can’t speak highly enough of the sport. Greyhound ownership is fast paced and once your dog gets up and racing, they go around almost every week and it’s action packed.”
“The prizemoney is unreal too and even though I only own a little bit of ‘Larry’ in a syndicate, I’m hooked. This style of ownership is way more appealing to a younger demographic because there aren’t a lot of ongoing costs. That’s a big win for the younger generation compared to the gallops.”
“At the end of the day, the racing game can be really hard, no matter the code. But once you get involved in our industries, once you take the time to scratch the surface and work out what actually goes on, it’s really something to be proud of and it’s just great fun.”
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