Litter brothers aim for Capalaba Trophy

By Jordan Gerrans

A promising trio of litter brothers with fly the flag for the Evelyn Harris kennel in the Final of the annual Jeffery Jones Celebration of Life Trophy on the grass at Capalaba this Sunday.

The influence of the respected former trainer and racing administrator – Jones – is honoured every year at Capalaba with the running of the prestigious event.

The race was first installed into the Queensland racing calendar in 2019 following Jones’ passing.

Jones’ legacy in racing can still be felt to this day with his daughter Selena Zammit a leading trainer in the state.

The Northern NSW-based Harris will be well-represented come Sunday’s decider after qualifying three chasers through the heats.

All three are from the same Orson Allen and Fran's Bonus litter which Harris bred and whelped.

Before becoming a brood bitch, Fran's Bonus was prepared by Harris and competed in a number of Group-level events, as well as racing at Capalaba.

Harris prepares her team out of Whiteman Creek and thought from their earliest days that Darby Display, Lenny Large and Rhythm And Blues would appreciate the Capalaba surface.

“We break them in at home on the straight and then we took them to Grafton originally,” Harris said.

“A lot of the dogs are not handling Grafton real good as it’s such a big wide track. That is why we changed them over to the straight at Capalaba. We like racing at Capalaba, it is a good atmosphere at the track and they are good people.”

Darby Display – a heat winner from last Sunday – has performed the best of the trio in the northern trips to Queensland as he has not finished outside of the money in four attempts.

From the six alley, Darby Display started as the red-hot favourite in the last of the three heats on Sunday and scored in 20.02 seconds.

The veteran trainer was of course pleased to see Darby Display qualify for the Final but she was specifically taken by the performance of his litter brother Lenny Large.

Lenny Large was only beaten by a length in an earlier heat in his first race day appearance since the middle of December.

“Darby Display was a really good run but Lenny Large to run second, that was a really good run,” Harris said.

“That was Lenny Large’s first run back since doing a pin muscle and we were really happy with his run. Rhythm And Blues ran well, as well.”

The Tom Tzouvelis kennel will take a strong hand into the Final after winning the first two heats on Sunday with I'm Old School and Fancy Gift.

I'm Old School was the quickest heat qualifier in 19.81 seconds.

It was a red-letter day for Tzouvelis on Sunday as he prepared five winners.

Harris understands her young litter brothers will face a serious task to topple the Tzouvelis runners in the decider.

“We are up against some good dogs in the Final,” the Northern NSW-based trainer said.

“Our dogs will be competitive.”

The heats of the Jeffery Jones Celebration of Life Trophy were run using preferential box draw conditions.

Harris praised the introduction of the preferential box draw system for races in Queensland.

The Capalaba club are proud to honour Jones’ life every year.

Following his death, Jones was described as intelligent, caring, generous, knowledgeable, wise, and a pillar of the greyhound racing industry in Queensland for more than a few decades.

He was a founding member of the Queensland Greyhound Breeders Owners and Trainers Association and a former president of the organisation.