Dish Liquor primed to keep Cup at home

By Josh Spasaro

Taking it easy was just the tonic for Dish Liquor to produce an excellent heat win going into the Rockhampton Cup Final on Wednesday night.

The talented two-year-old bitch crossed the line in 29.56 seconds for Central Queensland trainer Darren Taylor, saluting by two-and-a-quarter lengths.

It was her best performance and first victory since prevailing in the Country Cup Final at Q2 Parklands on February 5.

Taylor is based at Bouldercombe, which is just outside of Rockhampton. He is also the greyhound club’s president.

He said the key to her finding form going into Cup night was not putting too much pressure on his brindle chaser.

That included in the days following a sixth placing in her Rockhampton Wildcard heat on April 1.

“She’s starting to build again. I probably went into the Wildcard a little bit underdone,” Taylor said.

“She only had the one 500 metre run prior to the Wildcard and two 400 metre races in between since the Country Cup.

“I took it a bit easy on her and she’s not the best worker in the world. She’s quite lazy. But, I’m really happy with her.

“Even leading up to the heats, we got the one box and I knew where she had to be. She was almost there.

“I’ve been really happy with her this week. She worked good on Sunday, so I can’t ask for anything more than a bit of luck.”

Taylor admitted Dish Liquor would find the going tough from box seven in the Group 2 feature to be run over 510 metres.

“She’s there. She’s going to find it a bit hard on the other side of the track compared to the inside,” he said.

“But, she deserves a spot there. She’s run time to get there. It all just depends on where she ends up in the run to the corner, I think.”

Taylor is an experienced, highly-accomplished conditioner, but admits he had his doubts on whether his Country Cup champion would qualify for Wednesday night’s race worth $112,525.

It is a terrific field including last year’s Brisbane Young Guns champion Star Turn for Jeff Crawford and Drink Tins for Chris Brydon, who produced a flying best heat time of 29.31 seconds.

Both are coming up to Rockhampton as in-form runners from South East Queensland.

However, Taylor took plenty of encouragement from the way Dish Liquor led at the first turn and went on to widen her lead on the home straight in her heat victory.

“I was sitting on the fence with what I was going to do with her,” Taylor said.

“After the Wildcard, there was talk of who was coming up and you start second-guessing yourself.

“We’ve pulled the right string and she came up with a marvel (box one) in the heat. She used that to her advantage. That’s the first time she’s ever led there.

“I’ve always said she could run 29.40 or 29.50 seconds if she could get on the bunny and she ran 29.56 seconds.”

Taylor has welcomed the southern Queensland presence in this year’s Rockhampton Cup Final.

That presence will also include consistent chasers Canya Dynamite for Gerard Agius, Cody’s Star for Travis Elson and Strut for Crawford.

He added it could only push the Central Queensland conditioners to be even better in what is an already competitive racing region.

“Good luck to everybody in it. I’ve spoken to all the trainers and I get along with all the trainers and everyone from Brisbane,” Taylor said.

“They’ve put in the hard yards like everyone else. At the end of the day, they deserve it. As long as the eight dogs get around safe and there are no problems, I’m happy as Larry.

“You can see the racing up here has got stronger and stronger. Probably 50 to 60 of our dogs could go to Brisbane, be competitive and win down there.

“Gone are the days of people just turning up and thinking ‘I’m going to win’. It just doesn’t work that way anymore.

“You turn up, have a go and see how you go. I know there were only five heats, but there was a lot of depth in those heats.

“And, it’s showed because it’s a good field. Whoever wins it deserves to win it.”

Taylor said winning the Rockhampton Cup on Wednesday night would rank as one of his top training achievements.

“This is the only feature I haven’t won in 'Rocky'. I’ve had a lot of goes at it, but I just haven’t got there,” he said.

“I had Are Jay Lochie run third for me one year (2019) and some other nice little dogs in it like Barcia Bullet and Off Break.

“They were a little bit unlucky, but I just can’t draw a box. We’ll get there one day.”

Meanwhile, Taylor said trackside interest in Rockhampton Cup night was high.

“We’ve got a new company we’ve been working with who do our sit-down meals and burgers,” he said.

“They can cater for up to 600 people at a time. It’s a nice big trailer. We’ll have a few giveaways there.

“We’ve got a sweep for $5 a ticket on the night, which will be similar to a Melbourne Cup sweep. If we sell $3,000 worth of tickets, you could win $1800. I think we’re up to 140 tickets – it’s only $5 a ticket. 

"We’ve got 14 tables of 10 booked already. It’s going to be a good night.”