Ladbrokes Goulburn Cup (G3)

Wow Primed For Back To Back Goulburn Cups

By Michael Cowley
Everyone wants one, but the pressure of training a superstar greyhound was seen through the relief on the face of Danielle Matic at Goulburn on Sunday.

Danielle trains one of the best dogs in the land, a dog who has a cult following with racing fans, and every time he steps out he attracts attention. On Sunday it was in the heats of the Goulburn Cup, his first run in almost two months after tearing a flexor tendon in his foot at Bulli in August.

Despite not pinging the lids, Wow soon mustered speed with his blistering acceleration and raced to the lead, and never looked threatened, winning his heat in 24.24s, just 0.8s outside the track record he set back in July.

“I’m really happy with that time,” Danielle said. “There was a bit of nerves before the race and I’m relived after that run.

“The injury has healed up well, but every time he goes around, there always is pressure with him because everyone loves him.”

Asked what it’s like to be the trainer of a dog like Wow, Danielle said: “It’s a bit scary having a dog like this, but he’s a beautiful dog and I wouldn’t swap him for anything.”

Joining Wow in the final was the JODIE Lord-trained Mr Ticket who was 4¼ lengths behind the flying Wow.

Danielle is hoping to not only win her local Cup, but join her mother Ruth as a Cup winner, Ruth having won the event in 2009 with Shamus O’Shaw, and again the following year with Joey Gez. 

Wow is also chasing back-to-back Goulburn Cups, having won the event last year when trained by Karina Britton. 


No trainer has ever won both the Goulburn Cup and the Fireball in the same year but Michelle and Mick Lill have that chance after More Sauce was brilliant in the Fireball heats and then Casual Glance led throughout to win his heat of the Cup.

“I can’t believe it, he’s made his 8th or 9th group final,” Michelle said of Casual Glance. “Sometimes he’s just impeccable out of the boxes and when he gets it right, he gets it right, and he’s hard to run down.

“It just didn’t work out for him in the Black Top final but that happens, and we just moved on to the next one.

“It will be a big day next week. The two brothers have been in a couple of group finals together, now they are in separate ones, we won’t have to fight over who has to handle each of them now.”

Casual Glance clocked 24.55s defeating Cumbria Dreaming by 3 lengths with the second dog also advancing to the final.


Local trainer Alex Anderson who has been in the sport for more than four decades, only has the one dog currently in work, and that dog Trouble At Mill, won his heat of the Cup and will be in the final next Sunday.

Trouble At Mill finished powerfully to score in 24.68s, having ¾ length to spare over runner-up and now fellow finalist Sonic Oak.

“It’s great to be in the final but I think Wow overshadows us a lot,” said Alex. 

He revealed that the dog had previously made a feature race final, the Nowra Puppy Classic, but injury forced him to be withdrawn for that event.


The final heat went to trainer Anthony Azzopardi who won the Cup in 2015 with Let It Develop, when Derry Express scored in the second fastest time of the day, 24.49s.

The dog was handled by Wagga trainer Ben Talbot who collected Azzopardi’s dogs from the NSW-Victoria border on Sunday morning, and was dropping them back on Sunday night.

Derry Express is owned locally by Andy and JODIE Lord and did all his early racing at Goulburn before heading to Victoria earlier this year, and must be given a real chance of causing an upset next Sunday.

“He went extremely well, and once he found the front, we knew he would be hard to run down,” Ben said.

“He is obviously well schooled here … they are top operators (the Lords) and he knows the track well.

“I think he can go a bit better next week, he’s a good handy dog so we’ll see how he goes.”

The Lords also qualified Ritza Donald for the final when he ran home for second behind Derry Express.