Everyone loves a second chance and Mick Lalicz took full advantage of his on Wednesday night as Journey Beyond claimed the Group 3 Ladbrokes Grafton Cup.
The victory coming less than a month after fellow kennel star Dino Way was cruelly run off the track in the final of The Ladbrokes Thunderbolt as he was making a charge towards victory.
“I was rapt with the win, especially after what happened in the Thunderbolt. I’m just stoked because we’ve been in a few of these lately and they’re hard to win, it doesn’t matter how good your dog is, I’m just elated to be honest,” Lalicz said on Thursday morning.
“When he [Journey Beyond] drew Box 8, I thought he’d be hard to beat and as soon as he got into third or fourth, I just had a feeling he’d run over the top of them. But I didn’t want to get ahead of myself as I’ve been in that position recently before.”
Lalicz referring to the $75,000 Thunderbolt decider back on June 22 where he admits he thought Dino Way “was unbeatable at one stage”.
“I’ve moved on now but I’ll admit I was hollow for a few days. I didn’t know how to react because I just felt we were about to win it. It was almost like it was meant to be and then all of sudden, he was driven to a standstill,” Lalicz said.
“It was six trips up and down the highway to Grafton, trialling and racing and trialling and racing, and then it just evaporated. But you’ve got to keep yourself on an even keel and our luck this time was someone else’s bad luck I guess.”
The Dungay-based mentor winning for the first time with Journey Beyond since he transferred to his kennel from Victoria in April.
“He puts himself into a lot of races. I haven’t had him long enough to know how well he handles the two-turn track yet but he did find the front and lead Good Odds Cobber in a Brisbane Cup a few weeks ago and he arrived with in good order,” Lalicz added.
A happy Mick Lalicz celebrates with the crowd. He won the Grafton Sprinters Cup in 2023 with Dino Way.
“He’s a a litter brother to Seaton Key who I have had some success with and he trials well enough to race over 500. He’s run 25.1 at Grafton in his second start as well and Reggie Gardoll reckons Albert’s Memory (who ran second in the Grafton Cup final) ran the best race of his life.”
“We might look at a race like the Black Top at The Gardens for him but he’ll 100% be going to the Maitland Cup if all is well. He’s got a lot of experience on one turn tracks so that might setup perfectly for him.”
The 53-year-old also lauding the efforts of wife Trish and the Grafton committee after winning his second feature race at the track in two years.
“I’ll let Trish spend the money because she does a lot of work at home and none of it would be possible without her,” Lalicz said.
“And to John, Brennan and the team at Grafton, they are the heart and soul of country greyhound racing in NSW. They’re always thinking outside the box and trying to improve the game and they produce the best track I’ve ever been to, week in and week out, it’s always on the money whether it’s a maiden or a big race.”
Earlier in the night, Barefoot Zulu made his mark once again with another dominant performance for Stephen Keep in the Maiden Classic decider.
The prodigiously talented youngster was forced to work hard in the opening exchanges of the final, before finding clear air and exploding home for a comfortable 3.75 length victory in 25.13.
“We’re very happy…he did a lot of tough things last night, he really had to tough it out and he showed a bit of courage which is a real positive,” Keep said.
“He came across them last night and tried to get to the fence, usually he goes straight so he got himself a bit tangled up and had to work himself around dogs which was good. The owners are over the moon and so am I.”
The son of Sennachie x Kooringa Maizie silencing some doubters on his way to claiming the $20,000 prize, with Keep already pondering his next move.
“He had every chance last night to do something wrong but he knuckled down and he beat some handy dogs and top trainers. There were no slugs in that field so it was a good win,” Keep added.
“As for what’s next? It’s not about chasing big money just yet, it’s about getting his confidence up. We’ve got to keep him in his grades for as long as possible as there’s no point chasing big money races when he’s had two starts.”
“We’ll get him used to some different tracks and he needs to get onto the two turners so I might look at giving him a run at The Gardens. A race like the Million Dollar Chase in a few months is certainly in the back of our mind but I don’t want to bust him because the best dogs in Australia will be going around in that.”
Barefoot Zulu went within a length of the 450m track record in the heats and produced a similar effort in the final for connections.
Grafton Greyhound Racing Club President, John Corrigan, echoing the spruik on Barefoot Zulu as he digested another successful WINTER carnival.
“Barefoot Zulu didn’t get it all his own way down the back in the final but they just don’t run the times he does when he gets going. No dogs come home quicker from the first mark to the winning post than when he won the maiden heat, so he could be anything,” Corrigan said.
“It’s a great result for ‘Keepy’. A lot of people send their dogs to him and his partner Shannon to be broken in and they look after their dogs and I think the dogs appreciate it.”
“The carnival itself was very good. We had a good crowd, not quite as big as The Thunderbolt but we were helped by the early start. The last race at the horses was at 4:30pm and our first race was 5:10pm so we got a good overflow of people.”
“Mick Lalicz won the big one again after taking out the Sprinters Cup last year with Dino Way. Journey Beyond is a good Chaser and Mick does a lot of trialling here, he’s virtually a local so it’s good that he could win the race. The winner ran 25.11 so it was a hell of a performance.”
She Is Fire also claimed the Stayers Cup in another strong feature race performance.
The Mark Moroney-trained stayer overcoming a ding dong battle with Icy Eyes to hit the line strongly and claim her 18th career victory.
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