There is a story that Patrick Janssens tells at his own expense that gives an insight into his view of greyhound racing, and life in general.
As a ten year old in Ravels in Belgium, Patrick got to know a local man who had two Afghan Hounds and a greyhound.
His dad raced pigeons but Patrick was particularly smitten with the greyhound and was fascinated to learn that all the dogs raced.
He persuaded the neighbour to let him come and see the dogs run and spent every weekend visiting either Beringen or the Geldrop or Amsterdam tracks just over the border in Holland.
One day it was decided that Fury the greyhound would sire his first litter of pups. Patrick was desperate for a dog and was told that he could have one, provided his exam results were good enough.
No greater incentive would be needed and Patrick shone in his exams and duly claimed his prize.
He schooled and trained the pup and finished second in the Belgian Championships. At aged roughly 14 he approached his mother to inform her, “I am sorry, we will have to sell him on; he isn’t good enough!”
Patrick bursts into laughter when recalling the tale and his mother going “absolutely mad” at his damning assessment of the family pet.
It isn’t that Patrick isn’t compassionate to animals, the dog’s intended new owner would have to be thoroughly vetted, the big Belgian just has very clear objectives and uncluttered thinking.
His greyhound education continued with his first visit to the English Derby at Wimbledon, which would have been in 1985.
He says: “It was at Wimbledon, a track I would grow to love, particularly before they swapped the sides. I remember going to look at the dogs in the paddock through the glass window in bar area downstairs. I particularly remember Daleys Gold.”
He returned to Belgium and after serving his year of national service, was employed at a railway station.
Once again, his drive ‘not to settle’ for second best forced him into the next chapter.
He said: “I worked with people whose sole ambitions in life were their next holidays and retiring at 55. As far as I was concerned, they were just passing time and waiting to die.”
It was while he was making his mind up what to do next that he saw an advert in the Irish Greyhound Weekly newspaper for a kennelhand.
He said: “I wasn’t sure how to apply. I knew virtually no English. My mother language is Dutch, and my second language is French. But I muddled through and was offered the job, which was with Matt O’Donnell.
“At that stage, it was possible to take a year out of your job on the railways, at partial wages, which I applied to do. It meant I had something to fall back on.
“They told me that they were short staffed and it wasn’t an option. So I applied to take a year out without any wages. They said ‘you can’t do that either’.
“I told my boss, ‘I will do what I want with my life’ and so I left. Two days into the new job I thought, ‘what the f*** have I done?’
“It was such hard work, but that wasn’t the thing that bothered me. I soon realised what job I was there for. So after three months I said to Matt, ‘I am happy to clean up shit from the paddocks and change beds, but you aren’t teaching me anything. I could clean up shit back in Belgium’.
“So, I decided to leave, though it was on good terms with Matt and Frances. At that stage Pat Dalton needed holiday cover for three months and I worked for him at Clonoulty.
“Myself and Joe Power would look after the dogs and take them up to Pat’s schooling track at Golden. Pat ran the whole thing like his American kennels and it was very interesting.
“Unfortunately, the holiday cover job came to an end. I only had one real issue with Ireland and that was the lack of variety in racing. The Derby and Leger distances are the same, and the same handful of dogs dominate the open race scene.
“I decided to apply for a job in England and contacted Charlie Lister, Peter Rich and Ray Peacock but didn’t get anywhere. Then I saw an advert from Linda Jones.
“I flew over to Stansted, took the train into London and met her at Walthamstow. I was offered the job and headed back to Lakenheath when I got lodging in a bed and breakfast, and then started work.”
That was back in 2001 and Patrick’s life changed forever. At that stage he was working alongside Linda’s head lad Mark Wallis, and the pair formed a friendship that remains solid to this day.
In 2005, during the Racing Post Festival, he met future wife Cheryl who was working for Spencer Mavrias. Cheryl eventually moved up to Suffolk to join the Lakenheath team.
It was the same year that Linda retired and Mark took over the license. Patrick still remembers the buzz in the kennel.
He said: “Mark had been running the kennel but wasn’t known as the trainer, and we had something to prove. Originally it was Mark, myself, Sid (Huett) and of course Pete (Vernon), and then Cheryl joined.”
And the kennel’s first big winner was a dog with whom Patrick would have a particularly strong bond, Fear No One.
Patrick said: “I had seen the dog on the schooling track and knew he was faster that Droopys Kewell. I phoned Simon Wooder and said ‘you have to buy this dog, and you have to back him for the Monmore Puppy Derby, which he did with £1,000 at 100-1.
“How was I to know that he would be the only son of Toms The Best who couldn’t stay 480 metres?”
It was still a shrewd purchase and thrust Mark Wallis into the limelight by landing the 2005 Peterborough Puppy Derby, followed by the all-aged Peterborough and East Anglian Derbys.
On retirement Fear No One spent the rest of his days living with Patrick and Cheryl.
The following year saw many more memorable nights for the kennel. Patrick particularly remembers the 2006 Trainers Championship meeting at Wimbledon where the kennel were rated 10-1 no-hopers.
Patrick said: “Mark and I were talking about it and reckoned we had a string of good Wimbledon specialists and backed the kennel accordingly. We had Roswell Spaceman, January Tiger, Star Of Dromin, and Blackmagic Guy all win and couldn’t be caught well before the last heat.
“Or to see Kinda Ready, who I had taken for schooling at Coventry, win the last Wimbledon Derby from ‘the old side’.
“Or the Trainers Championship meeting at Doncaster when Eyeonthestorm had to win the last race. Pete Vernon was so nervous but he had a special bond with the dog and he didn’t let us down.”
Although they were never a gambling kennel, punting opportunities sometimes presented themselves. Patrick remembers one in particular.
He said: “We had a Knockeevan Star dog in the kennel who was running graded at Walthamstow. I said to Mark that I thought the dog had got a bit jaded and would need a change of track.
“At that time Harlow were still operating the Bramich hare and the dog was entered in a Monkey competition. After he was entered, Chris Page graded him for a BAGS race at Walthamstow, between the Harlow heats and final. Chris insisted that Mark had a contract at Walthamstow and wasn’t prepared to withdraw the dog.
“I think Mark was a bit nervous about running him three times in a week, but I knew the dog from my time at Pat Dalton’s. All of Pat’s greyhounds were prepared the American way and would trial three times a week. I knew it wouldn’t bother him.
“Sure enough he won the heat at Harlow, and then won the Walthamstow graded race by 10 lengths before winning the final at Harlow.”
Patrick recalls his relationship with Mark as: “I never felt as though I was working for Mark, it felt like I was working with him. He left me to my own devices because he trusted me.
“Mark and I share two things in common. We are both passionate about what we do and we are both ultra competitive.
“Winning is everything. I have no ambitions to take dogs to tracks to pick up appearance money. I would rather stay at home.”
One lesson that Patrick learned the hard way, was never to have a bet with his guvnor.
He said: “I don’t think I’ve ever met a luckier bloke. I remember we had a match bet on two runners in a veterans race at Walthamstow, mine was well clear going into the third bend and went lame. All he could say was ‘I told you so’
“The football bets were worse. I backed AC Milan in the Champions League Final, saw them go three up before half time and then be turned over by Liverpool. I backed Portugal at 10-1 to win the European Championship and then be turned over by Greece in the final.
“It is a good thing he never buys a lottery ticket because the rest of us would never have a chance.”
In 2014, Patrick and Cheryl decided to make their own way as trainers and leave Imperial Kennels.
Patrick said: “Mark understood that I wanted to have a go on my own.”
(And once Patrick has made up his mind . . . .)
“I would certainly never have left to join another kennel.”
He took over the Premarket kennel accessory supply business from Charles Fanous and set off in a very small way as a trainer.
He said: “I started out at Mildenhall with a litter I bred out of Mountjoy Pearl which Chris Page offered me the chance to run at Towcester which was just opening.
“I was also offered a young dog called See No Gamble, who had never won a race at Mildenhall, and who we did very well with. Then we moved into our new kennel, which I got with the help of Les Anderson.”
Pretty soon the phone started ringing.
Patrick said: “One of the first was Evan Herbert, who I had known since I was working for Mark. So Mark was the first person I phoned as a courtesy..
“Then Chris Allsop sent me Slick Strauss and Slick Sebastian. Andy Pelley was another one of Mark’s old owners who had dropped out of the game, but saw me on a night out at Romford and said he was keen to get involved again.
“There is an interesting story to how Andy came to get the three ‘Goldies’ brothers Hoddle, Klinsmann and Ginola. I had brought them from the breeder in Ireland and reared them myself.
“I had them in the paddock and Andy asked to see them. But I warned him that if he wanted to buy one, he would have to take all three.
“I wasn’t prepared for him to get the good one and me resent it, or him get the slow one in the litter and I would feel guilty. So that’s what he did.
“On another occasion I was looking to buy a decent dog in Ireland. I spotted one at Tralee that had been beaten, but showed lots of pace. When I checked out the owner, it turned out to be Graham (Box). I thought, ‘well he won’t sell a good dog’.
“The following morning I got a phone call from Graham saying, ‘I have just bought a new dog from Tralee. Will you train him for me?’ It turned out to be Bockos Doomie.”
The Janssens kennel has room for 25 greyhounds, and despite a waiting list, Patrick has no plans to add to it, beyond future litters for Goldies Hotspur and Affleck Lady.
He is adequately assisted by Cheryl, Rhia and Luke Staunton, who had been working for Phil Simmonds.
He says simply: “I don’t want any more racing dogs. I don’t need to take them. I wouldn’t be able to cope. I couldn’t find races for them. And I wouldn’t enjoy it.”
Some might find Patrick’s manner to be brusque, but he makes no apologies for it and he picks his owners as carefully as he picks his dogs.
He said: “What is the point in lying to an owner and telling him something that he wants to hear? It does nobody any good in the long term. I don’t want that type of owner in my kennel and I don’t have any.
“Nor do I want an owner who tries to cut corners when it comes to re-homing their dogs. If you are not prepared to pay a sensible amount, don’t own greyhounds in the first place.
“As for the Coronavirus outbreak, I have no sympathy for anyone moaning about the tracks closing. This is life and death. Treat it seriously.”
