On the eve of the 2025 Ladbrokes Kempsey Cup final, Mick Landrigan seems like he’s living his best life.

The Northern Rivers-based mentor will rug up Apache Tiger and Heroic Federer in Wednesday night’s $10,000 decider at Taree.

The 69-year-old adamant training greyhounds beats the hell out of his old day job.

“I used to be a butcher but I retired when I bought a greyhound place a few years ago. I don’t miss it at all…in fact, I’m at the pub right now, what other job lets you do that,” Landrigan laughed as he took my phone call at 1pm on Monday.

“My place is just out of Grafton at Waterview Heights. Kenny Staines, who is the brother of Neil Staines, wanted to get out of the sport so I took it on and have never looked back.”

Landrigan steadily increasing his training operation over the last few years after more than a decade racing around the country scene.

“I used to only race giveaway dogs so I’d head to Kempsey and Wauchope a lot back in the day because that was their level,” Landrigan added.

“I remember winning a Wauchope Cup with a dog called Lucky Fina a while back…don’t ask me exactly when though as I don’t even remember how old I am, let alone when that race was.”

And that laidback approach seems to be working wonders with his current crop of chasers.

Apache Tiger - fresh off an appearance in the recent Grafton Cup final - stopped the clock in a BON time of 30.09 in last week's Kempsey Cup heats.

The son of Wow x Sweet Fire hailing from the same litter as Mark Moroney’s impressive staying prospects, Firethorn and Goldmine Fire.

“Mark is actually my nephew, so he sold me Apache Tiger. Some other fellas I know bought a pup off Mark and wanted me to train it, so I thought “if I’m going to be travelling around anyway, I might as well buy one for myself” and it turned out to be Apache Tiger,” Landrigan said.

“He’s a pretty smart dog. He wants to crash to the fence every time but as long as he begins well, he usually goes alright. He’s got Box 3 in the Kempsey Cup final and if he can lead, he’ll take a bit of running down.”

His kennelmate, Heroic Federer, may be the baby of the final field (he only turned two earlier this month) but he enters the biggest race of his career off the back of a super heat win (30.22) seven days ago.

The son of Golden Easter Egg finalist, Fire On Ice, drawn to lead the race from Box 1.

“He ran the fastest first and second section in the heats but he had the slowest run home time,” Landrigan offered.

“He’s still a fifth grader and not as experienced as the rest of the field but if he leads, anything can happen. I won the Jack Sommerville Cup earlier this month with his sister McKeon so the litter can certainly run, but I think Apache Tiger is the better hope.”

Coincidentally, Moroney will rug up Elizabeth Fire, who is a half-sister to Heroic Federer, in the final as well.

The $10,000 Ladbrokes Kempsey Cup will be run in Race 7 at the Mid North Coast Greyhound Racing Club on Wednesday night.