Agius to honour late father in Group 1 debut

By Jordan Gerrans

When greyhound conditioner Gerard Agius heads to the races on Thursday evening to start his maiden runner in a Group 1 event, he will have the wise words of his late father Andrew in the back of his mind.

Hailing from Mackay in Central Queensland, Agius has shifted south in recent months to train his team of chasers out of Lockyer Waters so he could race consistently at The Q.

On Thursday of last week, he qualified his first-ever dog into a Group 1 race when Canya Nuclear snuck into the Golden Sands Final after finishing second in his heat to Autumn Storm from the powerful Tom Tzouvelis kennel. 

Just days after one of the greatest moments in his short greyhound training tenure, Gerard's father Andrew tragically passed away back home in Mackay on Sunday.

He had been ill for some time.

Andrew had a strong team of chasers through the 1970s and 80s as well as claiming the feature Townsville Cup back in 1983 when the event was run over 643 metres with a chaser named Tat Legend.

Agius grew up around his father’s kennel as a youngster and after a lengthy stint away from the sport, he has reignited the family's association in greyhound racing.

“He always gave me advice,” Agius said.

“My father was a very big believer in that if you work your dogs hard - they will perform. He always told me that I wasn’t working them hard enough. We used to do it pretty successfully in the old days.

“I've taken that advice here to my new kennel. My Dad was good, he was real good, he knew dogs.

"He could look at a dog and he could read a dog.

“He gave us good advice. We thought he was going to have a couple of weeks, so I was hopeful he could watch the dog in the big Final. I just hope my father's riding him home on Thursday night.”

Andrew prepared Mandarana Flyer who greyhound historian Paul Dolan once described as one of the best dogs that raced in Mackay in the city’s first few years of racing.

Mandarana Flyer won 13 consecutive races at the Mackay track and the son of Temlee won 28 races all up and was unplaced only four times in his career of 56 starts.

Andrew sadly passed away just a week after his 92^nd birthday.

The Agius family association in the sport started way back in 1976 when Andrew got his first dog while his son was just 10 years of age.

“There was an ad in the paper because a bloke down the road wanted to train some greyhounds,” Agius recalls.

“Mackay had just started up in 1976 and Dad got a couple of greyhounds because he had greyhounds as a kid.

“He used to get greyhounds for farm dogs from out of New South Wales and they used to be just farm dogs.

“Dad eventually got his own licence and he was a very good trainer in his day. He won the Townsville Cup and he came down here racing at the Gabba.

“He had some very good dogs in his day and it just stayed with me. I just always thought about it and we have just continued on from there.

“He had a lot of good dogs in the day and he was leading trainer there for quite a lot of years.”

After many decades away from the sport while running a cane farm in CQ, Agius took out his own licence to train himself in late October of 2024 and is thrilled with the results he has produced so far.

He initially trained in Mackay, travelling to Rockhampton and Townsville to race his dogs, before shifting to Lockyer Waters during the back end of 2025.

The move has delivered the keen dog man a maiden appearance at the highest level of the sport.

In just his first look at a 600 metre race, Canya Nuclear went within a couple of lengths of Autumn Storm, which was good enough to book a spot in the $150,000 decider. 

“I just take it week-by-week, I don't go looking too far ahead because I'm sort of just new to the sport,” he said.

“I'm just taking small steps. I was riding Canya Nuclear home last Thursday night.

“Tom Tzouvelis was beside me and he was the first to welcome me into the Group 1 club, it was pretty special.”

Canya Nuclear has drawn the eight alley for Thursday’s rich 600 metre event.  

It is a starting position the blue and white dog is yet to score from in three attempts. 

Canya Nuclear will likely start as an outsider in the market on Thursday evening.

Agius enjoyed success in the north through 2024 and 2025 before making the move to race closer to The Q.

He was guided by long-time industry figures Kevin Ellis and Tony Apap towards setting up his own racing kennel at Lockyer Waters.

“We flew down and we had a bit of a look around, within three weeks we purchased this place here,” he said.

“This is a really nice place to live actually; we've got 10 acres here.

“We set it up properly. I've got eight dogs in work and my partner's got three. It's pretty good. It's beautiful, beautiful views, lots of flatland.

“I just always had the love of greyhounds and I wanted to get into it one day. I thought well, this is the place to be.

“We've held our own, we get a few winners here and there. We're going pretty good, I think.”

The time was right for Agius to chase his passion for the greyhounds.

“I've worked hard all my life, I've been successful in my business and I had the opportunity to come here. I'm 60 years old this year, if I don't do it now, I'll never do it," he said. 

“I’ll give myself five to 10 years in this industry, we'll give it a good shot to do it and see how we go.”

Agius will also have kennelmates Canya Shotfire and Mondo Cortez race on Thursday night at Q2 Parklands.