Trainer hopes for the ‘right’ stuff

By Paul Pickering
FOUR decades after he fell in love with greyhound racing, Keysborough’s Geoff Mitchell has finally found the ‘the right dog’.
The 54-year-old trainer and boarding kennel owner will prepare his first Group One finalist for tonight’s Melbourne Cup – to be run just a short walk away at Sandown Park.
He reckons his star sprinter Remo Rubik can win and says “you’ll hear me screaming” if it does.
“He’s the dog I’ve been looking for for years,” Mitchell said after Remo Rubik’s blistering heat win last week. It’s my passion to win a Group One race. That’s the dream, that one day you might get there if you have the right dog. I’ve got the right dog and we’re there.”
Remo Rubik has won two country cups this year at Wangaratta and Traralgon, but will have to do it the hard way if he’s to score the country’s most coveted crown tonight (26 November).
He has drawn the awkward box four and may have to rely on his trademark mid-race speed to overcome the likes of interstate raider Take The Kitty, which snared the prized inside box at Saturday night’s draw.
Other leading contenders include Maffra-trained Mr Moorooduc – which ran the second fastest Melbourne Cup heat of all time (29.57 seconds) last Thursday night – and Geelong-based duo Dyna Lachlan and Turanza Bale. The latter is prepared by master mentor Graeme Bate, who is vying for a record fourth Melbourne Cup win, so Mitchell will have to beat the best if he’s going to claim the ultimate prize.
Mitchell moved to Keysborough seven years ago to establish the Mitchell Lodge Boarding Kennel. San Remo resident Allan Brown, who owns Remo Rubik with some family and friends, has been Mitchell’s biggest supporter.
Greyhounds are more a hobby than a business for Mitchell, so it’s the trophy rather than the $250,000 Cup purse that drives him.
“That’s why you get up at six in the morning to work your dogs,” he said.
“You put 110 per cent in and see what you can get out of them, so it’d mean everything if we could get up and win this race.”
Remo Rubik was rated a $7 chance in the indicative market released on Saturday night, making him the equal-fifth fancy alongside Robert Britton’s Prankster.
Meanwhile, Devon Meadows trainer Jon Roberts will be looking to follow the lead of his neighbour, Darren McDonald, who has won the last two Melbourne Cups.
Roberts’ hope, Lord Ducal, is the great-great-great-great-nephew of his last Cup starter, Plugger, which finished fourth back in 1988.
Jamie Ennis’ Octare is the only bitch in tonight’s field and will also be the rank outsider, despite upsetting red-hot Pearcedale dog Cindeen Shelby in her heat.
Later that night, fellow Pearcedale product Drill Em’ – trained by David Knocker – ended Amity Bale’s nine-race winning streak to take out the $36,000 Group Two Bold Trease Carnival Cup.
The gates will open at 6pm tonight, with the first race to be run at 7.05pm.
Among the punters will be Melbourne Victory striker Archie Thompson and Melbourne Phoenix goalkeeper Bianca Chatfield, both Greyhound Victoria ambassadors.