We all remember ‘The Simpsons’ loveable greyhound pal Santa’s Little Helper, well, the 2024 Ladbrokes Million Chase series just gained a greyhound cult hero of its own.
Duffman, named after the fictional Duff beer mascot in the popular sitcom, and trained by talented Queenslander Jedda Cutlack, winning his way through to the semi-finals of the LMDC after claiming the Grafton Regional final on Sunday night.
The win handing Cutlack another crack at the richest race series in the world.
“I qualified Showdown and Shaye for the semi-finals [in 2022] but had no luck. Ironically, they were both extremely similarly bred to Duffman,” Cutlack said on Monday morning.
“Duffman has a very good record as a race dog but he’s only won once at Albion Park so I was wondering if I should be targeting this race with a dog who has struggles to win in the city.”
“But he loves Ipswich and I think it’s a similar style of track to Wenty Park…and I love travelling with dogs, I was hoping he’d get through so I can do the road trip. I’m really looking forward to coming down.”
The son of Sh Avatar x She’s Some Gal jumped pretty well at Grafton from the suitable Box 2 draw, parking on the rail behind the early pace set by the CHRIS Field-prepared Movie Girl.
Once they turned for home, the leader rolled off the fence and opened a saloon passage for Duffman who surged through to pinch the race right on the pole.
The final margin 0.13 lengths to Movie Girl, whose sister Masani Girl was two lengths back in third.
All three greyhounds qualifying for the October 12 semi-finals where Duffman is sure to be a popular betting proposition for the punters.
“I’ve got to give credit to the boys that part own him for the name. One of them suggested Duffman and we thought that’s a fantastic name if we can get it,” Cutlack added.
“The boys found some Duffman T-shirts and wore them at Ipswich when he made the Vince Curry final so I think if we made the MDC final, we’d have to find some costumes for them instead.”
“I own most of him but a couple of boys I went to school with wanted to get involved. They had a bunch of $5 punter mates and when I told them I was buying this pup, I told them they could have as much or as little as they wanted and they bought into their first dog.”
The 29-year-old hopeful her charge continues to improve with another trip away on the cards.
Duffman (2) has won more than $170,000 from 29 starts and won the Vince Curry Memorial in February
“The more places we seem to go with him, the better he seems to go. He’s a very curious animal and he likes to know what’s going on, but he handled the trip to Townsville well and did alright, he raced well at Grafton too so hopefully we can snag a few more races,” Cutlack said.
“He’ll come down and have a look at Wenty this week hopefully. We’ve got a small handful to come down for the Masters Meteor so we might bring them all down for a run. I just hope he gets an inside box, I think if he’s drawn wide he’ll struggle to get across them because he’s not faultless early.”
“He wants the fence and he doesn’t like being held out so we’ll see. There’s some phenomenal dogs that have got through but you need to be in it to win it…we’d be happy to make the final.”
On Friday night, Follow The Band took out the WaggaWagga regional final for the powerful Victorian kennel of Rebecca and Daniel Gibbons.
The 16-time winner beat home Cartwright Queen and Total Faith to gain a ticket to semi-final night on October 12, handing the Gibbons’ another shot at the LMDC.
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