Austin has two Christmas wishes

By Glenn Davis

Barcaldine trainer Todd Austin has two wishes he hopes to fulfil before the year is out.

The first is to win the Country Cups Challenge Final with Eschiele at Doomben on Saturday, and the second is to see Christmas.

Austin has fought off many challenges in his life, including a brain tumour five years ago and a bout of meningitis which saw him hospitalised for 10 days last December.

“I missed Christmas last year when I was taken to hospital on December 23 with meningitis,” Austin said.

“I spent 10 days in bed after I wouldn’t wake up.

“The doctors ended up pumping all sorts of antibiotics into me to beat off an infection.

“I’ve got two little boys - Tommy and Toby - who now get very nervous whenever I go to sleep as they worry I won’t wake up.”

The meningitis battle followed a similar fight against a brain tumour five years ago which turned Austin's world upside down.

“I had suffered bad headaches for a long time back then but my wife Toni wasn’t happy when they were treating me for depression and kept insisting to the doctors it was more serious,” he said.

“Eventually they found a brain tumour which was life threatening.”

At the peak of his training career, Austin had 42 horses in work and won multiple Queensland country trainers’ premierships.

He now has around 25 in work, including eight-year-old Eschiele who is coming off a last start second to the Matt Kropp-trained Scrabble in the Roma Cup (1640m).

“I ran third in last year’s Country Cups Challenge with French Hussler and I’m hoping Eschiele can win it this year,” Austin said.

Eschiele will be ridden by champion Queensland country jockey Dan Ballard, who will make the long trip to Brisbane from his hometown in Mt Isa in the State’s far north-west.

“Dan knows the horse well but he had to sweat to ride her at 62kgs in the Roma Cup and he’s got to get down to 60kgs this time,” Austin said.

“He’d be better off being a second rower for the Brisbane Broncos but in my book he’s a metropolitan class jockey.”

Ballard would love nothing better than to win the Country Cups Challenge for Austin.

“I’d be blessed if Eschiele could win for Toddy,” Ballard said.

“He’s been through some tough times and many lows in the last few years and hopefully this could be a high.”