Kav And Louis Ready To Rumble In Lismore Cup Final

Steve Kavanagh will forever be remembered in the greyhound racing industry as the man who put the collar on the legendary Brother Fox, and while he may never get one nearly as good, he does have a smart dog in Louis Rumble who dazzled in Tuesday’s heats of the Lismore Workers Cup.

Louis Rumble - a grandson of Kavanagh’s 2010 Golden Easter Egg winner Cosmic Rumble - notched his 19th win at start 36 (with another 10 placings) when he speared to the lead and gave his rivals no chance of running him down.

Having his first start at Lismore, Kavanagh was “hoping” Louis Rumble would be able to break the 30s mark … he clocked a blistering 29.59s, after clocking a flying 4.27s first section, clearly the fastest of the four heats.

“Yeah, it was pleasing. He went terrific,” a subdued but delighted Kavanagh said. 

With dogs the calibre of Brother Fox and Cosmic Rumble, there are very few races Kavanagh has not won, but the Lismore Cup at one of his local tracks, is one of them.

“I’ve never won a Lismore Cup so we’ll keep out fingers crossed.” 

Asked what box he would prefer, and Kavanagh as always was the realist: “If he doesn’t begin, it doesn’t matter what box.”

Queenslander Sleuth was well supported to upset Louis Rumble and ran home strongly but could only get within 6½ lengths of the winner.

While Louis Rumble may have been the fastest, the most impressive win was that of Cash View.

Cash View jumped slowly from box 2 and was stuck in some traffic heading to the first turn but found himself in fifth heading out of the straight.

He then switched to the outside, gathered in runner after runner, and set his sights on the leader Burnt Ends - a noted strong dog - who had opened up a big lead of around 8 lengths.

But if you were on the leader you were sweating heading out of the back straight as Cash View rolled alongside then raced away for a 1½ length win, the pair 7 lengths in front of third placegetter Memphis Keeping, the winner clocking a personal best time of 29.73s.

Cash View has now raced five times over the 520m at Lismore for three wins and two seconds.

“I was really happy with that. He had to work for that, but he’s got something special this dog,” said trainer Robert Cooke.

“I think that (run) was as good as when he ran the record at Grafton. I thought that was enormous coming out last and then running the record.”

Mark Moroney’s Fire Legend will have the opportunity to defend his Lismore Cup title after he won through to the final.

The 2020 winner was slow to move from box one but pushed up to be trailing the leader Ritza William heading into the back.

Frank Hancock’s Pike began to gather the pair in, but swinging for home Ritza William left the fence giving the run to Fire Legend and at the same time slowing the momentum of Pike.

Fire Legend railed through and took the run and was able to stave off Pike to win in 29.88s, a length in advance of Pike. 

“This has been our aim since last year,” Moroney said of the Cup title defence. 

“It was one of his best (wins) tonight. He had to work very hard tonight pushing under the dogs in front of him. It was very good, a well-deserved win.

“He’s a brilliant railer when he draws inside, he’ll scrape the paint. It was a really tough effort, a good chasing effort tonight.”

Had the Lismore Cup heats been over 521m instead of 520m then Mercy Dash may not have won the opening heat of the event.

The Neville Creighton-trained dog led from the first turn and was able to narrowly stave off Peltzer, winning in 29.79s. Another stride and he would have been the runner-up.

“He’s been a good dog all along and we’re thrilled to be in a race like this,” said part-owner Luke Mason after the win of Mercy Dash.