Truck driving hobby trainer Craig Cousins sets sights on Sydney first

Queensland hobby trainer Craig Cousins has never set foot on a Sydney racetrack but that will change in the spring as he targets a $1.5m race with cult horse The Inflictor.

Hobby trainer Craig Cousins will set The Inflictor for the $1.5m Alan Brown Stakes in the spring. Picture: Lachie Millard

For truck driving hobby trainer Craig Cousins, a trip to the interstate races means heading 13km south of the Queensland border to Murwillumbah.

All that is about to change.

Cousins, whose fairytale horse The Inflictor raced in the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap and won a stakes race a fortnight later, has set his sights on the big time of racing in Sydney.

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Cousins has never set foot on a Sydney racetrack but that will change when he heads south with The Inflictor who he will deploy in the $1.5m Alan Brown Stakes (1400m) at Rosehill in October.

There is even an outside chance he could race in the $2m Five Diamonds if he impresses in Sydney.

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“As far as going interstate with racing, Murwillumbah is as far as I’ve been,” Cousins said.

“I’ve never even set foot on Rosehill or any of the Sydney tracks.

“I’ve driven past them, but never been at them.

“At this stage, the Alan Brown would be his only run in Sydney.

“But if he happened to win by six lengths or something, I guess we would think about the Five Diamonds.”

THE INFLICTOR!

The Stradbroke fairytale galloper holds on for a gritty win under @RachelK11 in the Tattersall’s Mile! 🏆

What a win for Craig Cousins & connections 👏

pic.twitter.com/glNh7PFND5

— RaceQ (@RaceQLD) June 28, 2025

The Inflictor is one of the feel-good stories of racing in 2025, given Cousins has a full-time job as a truck driver and only three horses which he stables out the back of his parents’ house in Brisbane.

The Inflictor raced without luck in the Stradbroke, finishing 11th, before rebounding to score the Listed Tatt’s Mile a fortnight later.

He was last seen finishing a brave third in the Glasshouse Handicap after not being given much peace up front.

The Inflictor winning the Listed Tatt’s Mile last month. Picture: Trackside Photography

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Currently having a short spell, Cousins will bring The Inflictor back for the spring and he will also contest the Weetwood Handicap in Toowoomba.

“He will be first-up in a race at Doomben over 1110m on September 13 and then he will race up in Toowoomba in the Weetwood before going to Sydney,” Cousins said.

“Cejay Graham will have the ride on him for the Queensland races.

“At this stage, he will have three runs in his next campaign.

“The idea of that is to then give him a small break and set him for a good race over the Queensland summer carnival.”

Originally published as Truck driving hobby trainer Craig Cousins sets sights on Sydney first