The Frank Hurst-trained Good Odds Cobber will not only look to begin 2025 the way he started 2024, but also to create history in next Friday’s Group 2 Beast Unleashed Gosford Gold Cup Final.
The $40,000 to the winner event is the first NSW Group Final of 2025 and will be decided next Friday on January 3, and Good Odds Cobber will be out to achieve what many have unsuccessfully attempted to in the past ... win back-to-back Gosford Gold Cups.
Twelve months ago Good Odds Cobber claimed his first Group win at Gosford and would go on to have an impressive year, winning the Group 1 Dapto Megastar, the Group 3 New Sensation, finishing third in the Group 1 Brisbane Cup, and reaching the finals of the Ladbrokes Million Dollar Chase, the Group1 National Derby, the Group 2 Bulli Gold Cup, the Group 2 Black Top and the Group 1 Topgun in Melbourne.
In its 21-year history, the closest that a greyhound has come to defending its Gosford Cup title was in 2017 when after winning the 2016 Cup, Knight Sprite finished second to Barking Bad in the 2017 Cup Final.
Wow in 2022 and Cosmic Bonus in 2019 finished third in the final the year after winning the Cup.
Good Odds Cobber was expected to win his heat, but he had to wait for his moment to get underneath the leader Miss Zig Zag on the home turn and power away for the win in 29.34s.
Syd Swain’s Miss Zig Zag was a gallant second ¾ length away, and booked her spot in the final with Poco Rico a further ¾ length away in third.
In the opening heat it was the Jason Magri-trained Speedy Pie who secured the first berth into the Cup final with an impressive 29.29s performance.
Speedy Pie, the winner of 15 of her 29 starts, was able to avoid the congestion on the first turn and land on the back of tearaway leader Fusion Mint.
The pair created a big space back to their rivals and halfway down the back straight it was clear they would be the two advancing to the Cup Final from the heat, it was just a matter of which greyhound would get the win.
Swinging for home and Fusion Mint still had the lead but Magri’s bitch loomed alongside and raced away to win by a ½ length with Black Tsunami a further 10¼ lengths back in third.
Speedy Pie was having her first race start at Gosford in the heats having done all her previous racing at Wentworth Park, Richmond and Bulli, and she is expected to be even better for the outing.
Fusion Mint – trained in Orange by Wes McDonald – showed blistering box speed to lead clearly from box 8, was gallant in second and will now be chasing his second Cup success having own the Maitland Gold Cup at his previous start in early December.
While Magri’s chaser sat on the speed in heat one, in the second heat his runner made the pace with Chief Lightning carving across from box seven and clocking a slick 4.34s to the first mark.
While the odds-on favourite Gets Late Early was on his back, Chief Lightning showed no signs of wilting and was strong to the line winning in 29.12s, the fastest of the four heats.
Like his kennelmate it was Chief Lightning’s first look at Gosford in race conditions, and he’s another who will be looking to improve on that next week.
He will also be looking to go two better than his third behind Fusion Mint in the Maitland Gold Cup Final.
The win was his 14th from 25 starts and he is yet to miss a place in the other 11 starts.
While disappointing for her supporters, Gets Late Early has been a model of consistency and will contest yet another Group final next Friday.
In 2024 she has won an incredible 20 races and experienced an exceptional year which began in January when she won the Group 1 National Futurity at Wentworth Park. Since then she has been a finalist in the Nowra Puppy Classic Final, the Group 1 Dapto Megastar, the Group 2 Black Top, and before last night was a gallant second to Million Dollar Chase winner Blue Kermaro in last Saturday’s Group 1 Paul Wheeler.
And now she tackles the Beast Unleashed Gosford Gold Cup Final to open 2025.
There was a length between the winner and runner-up with a further 3½ lengths back to Make Them Cry in third.
In the final heat, Blue Goose Boy, a son of Beast Unleashed, and owned by Dawn Garrett who owned Beast Unleashed, caused a boilover with victory at $23.
Formerly trained in NSW by Daniel Gatt, Blue Goose Boy has been racing in Victoria for the past two months for trainer Graeme Jose but came to Gosford for the Cup and after stalking the leaders pounced on the home turn and raced away for a strong 4 length win in 29.36s.
Booking a finals’ berth was runner up Both Bowers Ace – a brother of Gets Late Early – just ahead of the fast-finishing Agent Aspen.
Each of the eight finalists will be looking to add their names to an impressive honour roll and join some elite sprinters including Awesome Project, Prince Diablo, Ritza Hattie, Cosmic Bonus, Wow, Zipping Kyrgios and of course the superstar whose name now adorns the event, Beast Unleashed who won the final in 2019.
Box Draw for the Final: 1 Good Odds Cobber 2 Miss Zig Zag 3 Chief Lightning 4 Fusion Mint 5 Blue Goose Boy 6 Speedy Pie 7 Both Bowers Ace 8 Gets Late Early. Reserves: 9 Make The Cry 10 Poco Rico.
