It was going to take something special to entice Rocky Crisafi out of retirement and it came along in the shape of Group 2 Warragul Toyota Cup finalist Jebrynah.

Veteran Pakenham trainer Crisafi’s decision to put exploring Australia on hold wasn’t too popular with his wife but his judgement has been vindicated with Jebrynah, a $9 chance in TAB’s Warragul Cup market, winning seven of his first 10 starts.

“I’d stopped training for a while and we’d been travelling all over Australia but then Bryan Sykes (owner/breeder) told me he had a dog that had broken in pretty good,” Crisafi said.

“I’d trained a couple of fair dogs for Bryan previously and he asked me if I wanted to have a go with this one.

“We were tossing it up because my wife wanted to keep travelling and you can’t go away at all when you have dogs. But our grandkids love the dogs too; the whole family gets involved, so we took Jebrynah on and here we are.

“We’ve also got his sister, Jebrynah Helios, which is going good too.”

A February ’17 son of Cosmic Rumble and Jebrynah Glory, Jebrynah opened his career in auspicious fashion, winning six of his first seven, including three victories at Warragul.

He then contested the Group 1 Silver Chief series at The Meadows, running third to eventual winner Barooga Brett in his heat and then fourth in a semi-final, before improving his unbeaten record at Warragul to four from four in last Friday’s Cup heats.

Jebrynah led all-the-way in 25.61sec, the third fastest qualifying time, defeating Warrnambool and Healesville Cup placegetter Zoom Out.

[youtube youtubeurl=”ujYnEgO6Yn0″ ][/youtube]
WATCH: Jebrynah win his heat of the Warragul Cup from box seven last Friday night. 

Jebrynah will face his biggest test to date when he exits box five in the Cup Final and there’s no shortage of class and speed drawn outside the ‘baby’ of the field, with fastest qualifier Elevated (box 7) and Dyna Hunter (box 8) the joint $3.30 TAB favourites, ahead of Orson Allen (box 6) at $3.70.

At just 23 months of age he’ll be conceding plenty of age and experience to his Warragul Cup rivals; however Crisafi subscribes to the theory that if you’re good enough, you’re old enough.

“The other dogs are more experienced and seasoned but Jebrynah doesn’t know that,” Crisafi laughed.

“He was educated at Warragul as a pup so he knows his way around there. He’s also got the early speed, so he has a couple of things in his favour.

“I thought he could win his heat but he would’ve been a better chance in the final if he’d drawn box one, two or three. He likes the inside but every final I’m in I seem to keep drawing box five, so we’ll see what happens.”

On Wednesday night at Cranbourne, Jebrynah Helios, Jebrynah’s litter sister, improved her impressive record to nine wins from 17 starts with a 311m free-for-all success, her sixth win from her last seven starts.