Along with the Bathurst Gold Cup, the Brother Fox (formerly known as the Dubbo Gold Cup) is one of the premier events in the NSW Central West, and much sought after by the regions' leading trainers.

Back in 2016, less than a month after finishing second to Moreira in the Group 1 Golden Easter Egg final, Jack Smith's Brad Hill Billy broke the track record at Dubbo in the Cup heats. A week later as odds-on favourite he was beaten into third place behind Pam Braddon's All A Blaze.

Pam's husband Paul won the Cup the following year with the brilliant Falcon's Fury, before Smith got his Cup the year after with Little Digger.

In 2019, Braddon would finish second with Double Up Dee and Smith third with Irinka Lizzy, but the victory went to local trainer Charmaine Roberts with Caitlyn Keeping.

In 2021 The Dubbo Cup was renamed, The Ladbrokes Brother Fox, with $40,000 on offer for the winner.

As expected the event attracted some very smart sprinters, and Bob Payne winner Zipping Kyrgios was the fastest heat winner and strongly favoured in the final.

But Forbes trainer Jack Smith became the inaugural Brother Fox winner when his brilliant young dog Jungle Deuce jumped better than expected, chased down kennelmate Irinka Riley, and scored a dominant win in 29.45s

The 2022 Ladbrokes Brother Fox again attracted a strong field with Million Dollar Chase finalist Good Odds Cash the favourite.

And she looked like she would add another feature to her resume when she loomed alongside the leader Fantastic Raven out of the back.

But the pair seemed to come together at that point, and the Jason Mackay-trained Zipping Maserati swooped, going on to win in 29.45s.

The win for local owners/breeders the Hallinans, added to their success at the same track just two months earlier when Zipping Kyrgios won the Country Classic final.

In 2023, She's A Pearl added another line to her incredible resume with a tenacious ¾ length victory in 29.39s over a gallant Wyndra All Class, with roughie I’m Loving It a further four lengths away in third. 

Trainer Andy Lord explaining post-race why winning a country race like the Ladbrokes Brother Fox was so important.

“I am delighted because I don’t think Dubbo is her place,” he said. “Dubbo and Goulburn - those older tacks that have few bends in them - you can’t show your speed but she’s just a true champion.

“No matter what we do with her, she always comes up trumps. She just knows how to win, she’s competitive. She goes into all these big races and wins them, it’s not easy to do.

“To me the Golden Easter Egg is the most important race we have, but races like the Brother Fox, they are so important to win. When you’ve got a good bitch like her it’s good to go back to the country where you started and let everyone have a look at her.

“They are all good people in the country and like I said, I started there. Not word of a lie, they used to have broodbitch races at Young and I won a stack of them, and you’d get a big ribbon and I was that excited. I set my broodbitches for them.

“All those races. I have chased the country carnivals all my life. I’ve been lucky enough over the years to choose what path I wanted to go on, but I wouldn’t swap the country for anything. If they had all those carnivals again, I would be the first one back," Lord said.

In 2024, Overflow Beau jumped straight to the front and fended off a field full of quality to claim a thoroughly deserved feature win for Craig Chappelow.

“I normally don’t cheer too much during the race, but as soon as he jumped, I started cheering,” Chappelow admitted.

“I knew he was going to be able to get across which is all we hoped for all week and once he led I got a bit confident.”

And the confidence was justified. Overflow Beau helped end a run of near misses in Country Cups for his trainer who would celebrate not only a win, but the quinella with kennel favourite and Group 1 Peter Mosman Opal winner Embrace running a great race to finish second.

“I’m just so proud of both of them,” Chappelow said. “Embrace and Beau came close to each other but they behaved themselves to get the quinella.

“Embrace, she’s a been a favourite in the kennel the last couple of years and it would have been lovely for her to get the win but she’s done us proud. A one-two (finish) is a dream come true.”

Chappelow had Overflow Beau finish second to Nangar Jim in the Temora Cup, while Embrace has finished third to Ritza Debra in Muswellbrook Cup, third to Street of Dreams in Gunnedah’s Chief Havoc Cup, while I’m Lovin’ It was third to She’s A Pearl in last year’s Brother Fox.

“I haven’t had a lot of success but I’ve always made finals but I had a good feeling about tonight,” Chappelow said. 

“We just needed luck early which we got and he made his own luck after that.”