Publicans Cup runners have box eight love-hate relationship

By Pat McLeod

Trainers Dennis Barnes (Whiskey Mcgraw) and Ben McCarthy (Fast Eddie) are both glaring at the box eight draw for Thursday night’s Publicans Cup showdown and shaking their heads.

Barnes has it and doesn’t want it. 

McCarthy would dearly love it.

“Whiskey McGraw needs the fence, so ‘no’ the eight was not what we wanted,” Barnes said. 

Whiskey Mcgraw is winless from his two starts out of ‘the pink’.

“He will be running for luck from there," Barnes said.

Meanwhile, McCarthy has ‘pink envy’.

“Eddie does really like certain boxes, especially the eight,” McCarthy said when explaining why his five box was ‘not ideal'.

“He has had seven starts from the eight for six wins, so that sort of explains it.”

Both trainers agree a preferred box draw would have given them a vital edge against what is a crack field for the popular annual feature, the Publicans Cup Final over 520 metres on the Q2 Parklands track.

Barnes knows just that, from his dog’s second placing in the heats stage to Grafton’s Apache Tiger (trained by Michael Landrigan), who staked a very swift 29.39 second run.

“Apache Tiger is the biggest danger without doubt,” Barnes said.

“He is a very fast dog. That box for us is disappointing, but that is how it goes.

“If my dog can somehow get a forward position early, then we are right in the race because he can find the line. But, there is no doubt, he will need luck.”

The luck summation is similar for Fast Eddie.

“Eddie just needs a bit of space and can get that from the eight,” says McCarthy.

“He doesn’t ping, but when he comes out of the boxes he does muster really well and will be up there near the best of them. 

"So, if he is unimpeded, when he hits his second sectional, that is when he really puts a good time on the board.

“He is not the sort of dog that will be rattling home. He needs to get his work done early, through those first and second sections. If he can get that right, that is when he runs his best races and his best times.”

After 45 starts for 15 wins and 12 placings for $97,025 in prizemoney, Fast Eddie is no rookie.

However, McCarthy believes there is still some untapped potential in the Aston Rupee and Pearl Za Diamond chaser.

“He has always been a consistent dog and in his past few starts he has been finishing off well but hasn't been putting the times on the board that I still believe he can,” McCarthy said. 

McCarthy is based at Vernor, in the Somerset region, west of Brisbane.

“He is racing well, but I'm not sure why he isn't getting the times that I believe he can," McCarthy said. 

“I certainly don't believe he is past it. He is still very competitive and I believe is capable of bettering the times that he has run at The Q.

“I believe we haven't seen the best of him and there is still improvement there.”

Meanwhile, a win for Barnes would be a nice send-off with his expected return ‘home’ to the Western NSW hamlet of Cudal over the next couple of weeks.

The veteran trainer treks the nine hours from Cudal to his ‘second home’ at the Grafton greyhound track several times a year.

“Grafton is great. We are right on the track here and not far from the Casino track,” he says.

“Then it is a good run up to The Q. Back at home, the closest track is an hour and 40 minutes away at Dubbo.

“We are really well set up here at the Grafton track with our kennels, air-conditioning – everything you want.

“We don’t just bring race dogs up, but young dogs as well because I can educate them really well taking them around to the different tracks.”