"Cash" on the mind of trainer Chris Brydon ahead of Capalaba Finals

By Jordan Gerrans

Trainer Chris Brydon has got the “Cash” in recent days and he is eager for it continue on Sunday afternoon in the Finals of the Capalaba Derby and Futurity.

The Churchable-based trainer and wife Natasha have just welcomed their second child into the world – a baby boy named Cash Brydon.

With runners in both of the feature races down the grass straight on Sunday afternoon, the former NSW-based hobby trainer is hopeful the positive vibes can keep rolling and his kennel can get the “Cash” again. 

“Hopefully, that is the plan,” Brydon said with a laugh.

“Everything is going well at the moment with the new baby and the family.

“It is nice to be in some of the feature races.”

The Brydon kennel and family are relative newcomers to the Sunshine State greyhound ranks, moving up in the back end of last year.

They moved north of the border with aims of establishing themselves as professional greyhound trainers after only preparing a team as a hobby in NSW.

The Brydons got themselves going by establishing a rearing and education facility in Churchable for other people's greyhounds.

When they first moved up in late December of last year, the kennel did not have any race dogs in work, but had recently purchased a handful of pups that they were going to work towards eventually racing.

They boast five large rearing paddocks at their property and advertised their services, which led to more race dogs coming into their kennel.

The 36-year-old Chris set his new-look contingent of dogs the lofty goal of preparing 20 winners for the 2022 campaign in their first year in Queensland.

As of Thursday afternoon, they have collected 38 winners with plenty of opportunities come before the calendar ticks over to 2023.

“And, we did not have a starter for the first couple of months of us living here,” Chris said.

“To double our what we thought was a reasonable goal is a really good first 12 months for us.

“It has been really good.

“We have got some good owners and people that I had never met before I moved to Queensland.

“Just with the pre-training and education stuff for people, we built relationships and trust from owners and got dogs to train.

“They gave me a shot with some dogs and we expanded the team quicker than I imagined.”

The soon to be built Greater Brisbane Greyhound Centre and increased prize money levels pushed the Brydons to look further north.

“The prize money is great in Queensland and we were only hobby trainers in NSW before moving up,” he said.

“We had a look around and found this property for sale, which was already set up as a greyhound training facility.

“The promise of the new track in Queensland as well as the prize money, we were really keen to get up here.”

The Futurity and Derby Finals are worth $9,800 - with $6,370 going the way of the winners - on Sunday at Capalaba.

The Brydon kennel has Queen Missile in the Futurity decider – after running second in her heat last week – while Coonamble Kid looks towards the Derby Final.

Queen Missile will wear the white rug on Sunday and the up-and-coming trainer describes the draw as “perfect”.

“She went super in the heat on Sunday, running a personal best time of 19.97 seconds, as that was the first time she has broken 20 seconds,” Brydon said.

“I was stoked with the run.

“Obviously there is a few in the Final that can go a bit faster than her but we have drawn really well in box three.

“She wants the inside so it is great where she has drawn.

“She is coming along well, she improves with every run she has had as when she first started out, she did not look like she was going to be able to win a race.”

Coonamble Kid has only finished outside of the money twice in his last seven race starts, which has included four victories, two coming at Capalaba and two at Ipswich.

“He has been a bit of a surprise that dog,” Brydon said.

“We purchased him as a pup for us to race and he is a fast dog.

“He has drawn perfectly and likes being out wide there.

“He just keeps bringing his times down at Capalaba almost every week.

“There is a few dogs in this Final that can go faster than him but we have drawn perfectly.”