Josh opens the gate to new training house

By Jordan Gerrans

The Gatehouse surname is one of the most recognisable in the greyhound game in Australia and a new member of the family is forging his own path in the code.

Josh Gatehouse, the son of long-time greyhound administrator, owner and advocate Luke, has entered the training ranks in recent times after serving an apprenticeship under trainers Brett Hazelgrove and Ned Snow.

As Luke spent 18 years as CEO of the old Brisbane Greyhound Racing Club, Josh has been around the dogs from the earliest days of his life.

“Probably the first memory I have of my whole life is being out in the paddock with my Dad, out in the bush somewhere, with our first dog and Dad told me to start running,” Josh recalls.

“I started running away from this greyhound. I turned around to see him chasing after me, so that's the first fresh memory in my mind. 

“I think that was when I was about three years old. I spent my entire childhood around it. 

“There are some cracking photos of me out at Albion Park when I was four, out at Capalaba when I was five.

“Ever since then, I've basically spent my entire life around greyhounds.

“As soon as I was out of high school, out of uni basically, I started working there myself at the track like my Dad and got involved.”

Now 30 years of age, Gatehouse is ensuring dogs are no longer chasing him but instead running towards the winning post.

He had his first couple of starters as a trainer earlier this week as littermates Star Fernando and Winks Star headed to the Q Straight.

Star Fernando ran into second and will be hard to hold out when he returns to the track on Monday while Gatehouse believes Winks Star may need a little bit more time to mature.

The chasers are from a Tommy Shelby and My Movie Star mating.

Gatehouse was a part-owner in former race bitch My Movie Star, which sparked his interest in eventually going out and training on his own ticket.

My Movie Star was prepared by Hazelgrove and won on 14 occasions to go with 17 placings, but connections felt they never saw the best of her following a trip to Townsville in late 2021.

At that stage, Gatehouse had worked at the Albion Park track in a number of different roles but once he opted to breed with My Movie Star, he quickly realized that training may be his go.

“I was studying Biomedical Science at uni at the time and that was when the COVID pandemic hit,” Gatehouse recalls.

“So, universities basically shut down, but greyhounds stayed open. 

“So, I started handling My Movie Star, taking her into the track and she was quite a handy little bitch in the end. 

“It came to the point after that where it was either go back to university or breed out of her. I was just having way too much fun racing her.

“I decided to breed out of her and that's how I've ended up with the three pups I've got now.”

In the early days when Gatehouse started studying Biomedical science, he was dreaming of attending medical school later on.

Now training a team of dogs and working at the Snow kennel at Purga, it is fair to say there has been a serious change of pace in the greyhound enthusiast's life in recent years.

He spent a lengthy period of time working at the old Albion Park track in a number of roles such as starting races, being in the catching pen, being in the kennels and everything in between.

As veteran mentors Hazelgrove and Snow have prepared chasers to compete at the highest level, the rookie mentor is a sponge to information being handed to him.

“Brett taught me basically everything he knows about greyhound training,” Gatehouse said.

“He was the first one to get me really into it, other than obviously my Dad when I was really young. 

“And, then when I was looking to upgrade and start training my own dogs, I needed some kennel space.

“Brett put me in touch with Ned. Ned needed a bit of a hand and he had a few spare kennels.

“Brett passed over the reins to Ned to sort of continue my development.”

From the Tommy Shelby and My Movie Star litter, Hazelgrove prepared Go Wild Gypsy to a debut victory at Q Straight earlier this month.

While Gatehouse admits training his own team of dogs is a challenging exercise, he says he is loving every second of it.

“It's the hardest thing I've ever done, it's harder than university,” he said with a laugh.

“I'm living the dream out at Ned's at the moment; every single day I'm learning something new. 

“Every single day I'm working hard, it's keeping me busy and it's keeping me happy and fit.

“It's keeping me healthy, I can't get enough of it, really. 

“The old expression is, if you do something you love, you'll never work a day in your life.

“There's nothing I love doing more than training dogs and working dogs. I just like being around dogs, really.”

Josh’s father Luke has recently taken on a new role the Strategic Consultant to Greyhounds Tasmania.