Alston coursing to Capalaba Cup glory

By Jordan Gerrans

A champion on the coursing circuit in Victoria and South Australia, Alston will be aiming to claim a new kind of silverware at Capalaba on Sunday afternoon.

Prepared by Brian Fothergill at Marionvale in country Victoria, Alston was one of the more intriguing runners in last week’s heats of the rich Capalaba Cup series.

In just his seventh career start in a race, Alston did enough to qualify for the Group 2 decider this week by finishing second to the quality Serial Sticker in his heat.

He will now take on a glut of high-level Capalaba chasers in Sunday’s Final.

For the son of Shima Shine, racing in feature events is most certainly nothing new as he has claimed the coveted Waterloo Cup, among other notable races, in the coursing world.

But, to do it in a race against a field of experienced grass track chasers – Alston will need to be at his absolute best to continue his brilliance in feature events.

Brian’s daughter Jess, who is also a part-owner in the greyhound, is looking after Alston in the Sunshine State for his northern campaign.

“He is fit as a fiddle, he can run all day,” Jess said.

“He is a tenacious chaser on that drag lure.”

Jess has prepared her own kennel in recent years, as well.

The sport of coursing consists of greyhounds competing one-on-one in match races up a straight behind a drag lure.

In some of the coursing series’, greyhounds need to win six courses in two consecutive days to lift the prize.

Brian Fothergill had won almost every major event on the coursing circuit except the coveted Waterloo Cup up until late August of this year.

Alston changed that when he claimed victory in the prestigious event.

“This race is the holy grail of coursing events and I still can’t believe we won it,” Brian Fothergill said.

“The turn of foot he showed was unbelievable."

After winning the pinnacle event of the coursing world, the Fothergill family were searching for their next assignment for Alston.

The Capalaba Cup was suggested to them and they immediately put plans in place to head north.

Brian drove their black dog from Victoria to Jess’ place in Wagga Wagga and she completed the remainder of the trip alongside her young son Benny.

They have set up shop at Brian and Peter Young’s kennel at Prenzlau and it has all run smoothly since. 

“It is great, I have a kennel for him and the exercise yards out the back there,” Jess said of the Youngs' property.

“They have a swimming pool that I have used to swim him a bit.

“They have fitted me in great with their routine and I wouldn’t be able to do this journey without them.

“The dog travelled up a treat really.”

Alston started his career in Tasmania racing around the circle but ran into a few problems, so he was eventually sold to the Fothergill team.

Jess believes competing in coursing events has switched the dog on mentally and given him a ton of confidence to return to proper racing.

Alston posted a 19.54 second performance in Sunday’s heat, which was his first look at the boutique Brisbane facility under race conditions.

He has drawn the five alley for Sunday’s $75,000 showcase event.

“I was rapt with his run on Sunday in the heat, he jumped good,” Jess said.

“Serial Sticker is a class dog, he just ran well in the Healesville Cup.

“Alston and Serial Sticker had a good little tussle in the race and Alston only got beaten by a head.

“The time was good.

“Looking ahead to this week, I wanted to be drawn where the lure is and he has been given the five, so I am rapt with that and could not have been more impressed.

“He has well and truly won back what we paid for him and now he is in this big race – we have had some fun along the way.”

Brian has been around the industry for decades, but Sunday’s race is his maiden Group-level runner.

The veteran trainer is set to fly north to be at Capalaba for the occasion alongside his daughter and other family members.