Reigning GRNSW metropolitan trainers of the year, Andy and Jodie Lord, have setup a new satellite training regime they hope can propel them to greater heights in 2026.
The Million Dollar Chase winning couple, who head up the Clover Park Racing Group, doubled down on their breeding numbers in 2025.
And with blue bred pups continuing to be whelped at a rate of knots, Team Lord combined with Mark Duclos to engage several highly credentialled trainers around the country to race some of their best talent.
Duclos (left) alongside Paul Mills after Canya Smoke Them (owned by Duclos and trained by Lord) won the MDC Maiden in 2022
“The ‘Duke’ [Duclos] is the brains behind it all. He’s a gun when it comes to this stuff and he organises everything. Eventually we want to have up to 10 trainers around the country who can all work together and dogs can change hands easily to target races anywhere,” Andy added.
“This way we maintain ownership of the dog but we’re able to place them a bit better to win anywhere in Australia. We’re just spreading our wings a bit. We used to find ourselves in a position where we had to sell dogs or move them on because we didn’t have enough room in the race kennel.”
“We’ve had all the good bitches of the last few years start breeding at the same time. Shes A Pearl, Good Odds Emma, Coast Model, Bandit Jane…they’ve all had litters and we want to race them and hopefully their daughters can continue the breeding line as well.”
From left to right: Hayley, Jodie and Andy Lord with MDC winner She's A Pearl and her first litter of pups
An ominous warning for their competitors with names like Jason Thompson, Tony Brett, Jason Magri, Peter Jovanovic and Neil Staines either already engaged or soon to be handling the Lord’s latest progeny.
“I used to syndicate nearly every dog I bred but I wanted to get away from that and have a bit more control. I always found it very hard when we had a bunch of owners in each dog to make decisions about their future,” Andy said.
“I had a real good crack at syndication for 10 years and it was very successful…but times have changed. It makes a massive financial difference to us if we own more dogs and even though we will split the prizemoney with other trainers in this model, we will still have control of the dog’s future.”
“For example, it’s a long trip for our guys to get down to Melbourne so we sent Consigliere and Ayden’s Warrior to Jason [Thompson] and he’s been racing them down there.”
“Ayden’s Warrior might go to Tony [Brett] for the QLD Summer carnival and Consigliere will come back to us for the Derby heats.”
“We just sent Happy Bandit to Brett Hastie up in the Northern Rivers and we’re about to send him a few more that we think will be suited to tracks in that region.”
“And Neil Staines trained two maiden winners at Goulburn last week [Condo Bandit and Bandit Lynne] and they both ran slick times. ‘Stainesy’ is a bloke I’ve known for 30 years and he’s the sort of trainer we’re looking for.”
Lord not interesting in micro-managing his squad of established mentors either.
“Once I give someone the dog, I don’t want any part of the programming. It’s up to them to plan where they can win races and I trust that they can,” Andy said.
“We want someone who will look after the animal well, can keep them sound, but also keep them racing. I just can’t give a dog to someone I don’t know either, so they will go to people I’ve known for plenty of years and who I trust. It’s 18-months of hard work to get a dog ready for the track and when you’re handing those dogs out, you need to know they will be taken care of.”
The Lord’s alleviating their racing kennel squeeze but taking on more breeding and breaking in duties at their property after years of outsourcing some of these tasks.
“We’ve bred eight litters in the last few months, we bred over 100 dogs last year and we’ll do the same this year with any luck,” he said.
“Hayley (Lord’s daughter) stays at home and does a lot of the whelping now and the boys take to them to race. That leaves me to break them all in.”
Andy Lord after another win at Wentworth Park
A new wrinkle in Lord’s successful setup which will see every pup bred at Gunning stay on the property until around 18-months of age.
“I don’t know how much money I’ve lost sending dogs away to breakers…but this is the best thing I’ve ever done,” he admits.
“I just don’t think four weeks away at the breakers is enough time to get every dog right so I take a bit longer. Since I’ve been doing it myself, I’ve got a 100% record of getting them to chase and I haven’t had one dog fail to make it to the races.”
“I’ve got my own bullring and track so before they even get a look at Goulburn, they’re going up the straight in pairs or behind other dogs at our place and you can see the results as well. All these ‘Bandit’ pups are popping up and people are taking notice. They’re saying “where are all these dogs coming from?” and I’ve got news for them, there’s plenty more on the way.”
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