SAND FOUNDATIONS

I start with an aside.

Over the weekend I was sent a link to some historical greyhound photos on the Getty photo archive. There were some incredible atmospheric pix contributed by old racegoer Chris Morphet.

Chris was a primarily a film and documentary maker but also took still photos. He was around in the early days and took many photos of The Who, who were a Shephards Bush based band.

Chris toured with them and recalls discussing White City dogs with Pete Townsend. The Who early photos where of great interest to Getty but Chris also threw in hundreds of other photos including a few dozen pix of trainers and stadiums. Absolute gold dust, check them out.

 

Anyway – in recent weeks I had been due to give my old friend John Haynes a call. John had been admitted to hospital for a major cancer op on April 1 and quite frankly, I was a bit cautious about finding out how things had gone. But this seemed opportune; nothing would have lifted his spirits quicker than some memories of the London tracks in the 1960s and 1970s.

The following section is a short biography of John Haynes. It may be of limited interest to some (so swerve the blue print) but is written primarily to demonstrate Haynes’ extended career in the industry and why his opinion and knowledge might be more valid than some of the overnight industry experts whose parents probably weren’t born when John became champion trainer.

John Haynes was born into a virtually destitute London family – his dad was a problem gambler – in 1941. John set out as a kennel lad at Wembley in the mid 1950s, and worked for Jim Syder, when the kennel star was the great Pigalle Wonder.

Also working at Wembley was a young Linda Chapelle and John claims to have made the introduction to a young Irish guy who was working in London and training a few dogs, Pat Mullins. (Yes, ‘that Pat and Linda Mullins’).

After leaving Wembley, John went to work as head lad for one of the leading (and canniest) private trainers in the industry, (Richard’s grandfather) Phil Rees. They enjoyed huge success with Rees going into print to credit Haynes with steering Oregon Prince through to the 1961 Derby Final. Eventually Phil joined Clapton and John took out a trainer’s licence in his own right and was an immediate success being voted Trainer of the Year in 1962.

In 1971 John gave up his licence to become racing manager at Cambridge, but he eventually headed off to train in Ireland. He bought and sold dogs and had some success too as a trainer. In 1980 he landed the Irish Leger and Cesarewitch with Rahan Ship. He also handled Munster Puppy Cup winner Ron Hardy.

John returned to England and eventually ended up at Hackney before returning once more to Wembley, this time as a trainer, in 1994.

By the late 1990s John was getting involved in industry politics, which started with issues about the Wembley track preparation. His particular passion was racing surfaces and when he found he was being ignored, John set up the Professional Greyhound Trainers Union. Black-balled by the British Greyhound Racing Board he ultimately forced an election of the Greyhound Trainers Association (GTA) where he unseated chairman Paddy Milligan who he viewed as being too compliant with the establishment. He was then duly elected as a BGRB director.

As I have stated on many occasions, I believe that John in his role as trainers rep, working alongside Stuart Locke-Hart (owners) and Bob Gilling (breeders) was able to achieve more for the ‘grass roots’- than anyone since. Much of which was due to a regular alliance with promoters John Curran and Billy King. (Between them, they largely dismantled the pillaging of the BGRF by the six bookmaker owned tracks/GRA/Walthamstow).

John remained vociferous about the importance of track preparation and was eventually given a ‘put up or shut up’ offer by BGRB chairman Lord Lipsey. John duly became a full time track preparation specialist.

 

It was a new role that he fully embraced, and over a period of time John’s aggressive campaigning helped secure hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of equipment for all the tracks. Tractors, crumblers, tynes, harrows, and God knows what else. He was instrumental, backed by Curran, in securing funding for boreholes for track watering.

Many more thousands were spent on research with the Sports Turf Research Institute. Yet more thousands were wasted on experimenting with artificial surfaces (Haynes had been skeptical throughout though he saw through the trials as demanded by the Board).

Important point here – Any suggestion from owners and trainers that the industry didn’t spend big attempting to sort out track surfaces is just plain wrong.

Now it is also worth pointing out that John Haynes is a Marmite character. He can be outspoken, passionate and vociferous. The is not a man to label an item as ‘a garden implement’. ‘It’s a fucking spade!’

Maybe it was that attitude that earned him many critics. There was a campaign on the fledgling forums to suggest he took bribes. From that day to this, he has asked for a single shred of evidence from the anonymous cowards. None was ever forthcoming.

The BGRB became GBGB and John eventually switched to being the owners rep but kept his track maintenance role. There was even (more than allegedly) a campaign by some of his Board colleagues to find evidence against him of wrongdoing. None was forthcoming.

When all else failed, GBGB simply ended his contract and didn’t replace him.

Just take that in for one second. BGRB/early GBGB had spent well into seven figures on track preparation equipment, training and research, but the GBGB board, headed by Tom Kelly, and his sidekick Barry Faulkner, suddenly deemed it was no longer a priority to develop that experience or censure promoters if race surfaces weren’t being correctly maintained.

Funny that!

Sod track preparation!

I remember reporting on a fortnight’s carnage at Poole where a huge numbers of dogs inexplicably broke hocks. Haynes sorted it within a few days. Or a similar position at Walthamstow, which had allowed its first bend to develop a ‘bowl’ effect leading to a catalogue of serious injuries and an SOS call after a horrendous trial session to Haynes from racing manager Chris Page.

Or a string of other near disasters, where trainers simply withdrew all their runners from meetings. Haynes, often assisted by Mick Large, stepped in to rectify the issue and put minds at ease. Even Ladbrokes’ high respected self taught track expert Gordon Bissett called on Haynes when there was an injury spike at Crayford. The problem was rectified virtually overnight.

Of course, only 5% of the issues would ever have been reported. No track was willing to talk about broken hocks and greyhounds being euthanased.

 

It was only midway through a conversation with John Haynes that it occurred to me that, so long after his retirement from the industry, his former role was being advertised for the first time.

John wasn’t aware. Apart from following the Star’s Remember When pages, he no longer has an active interest in the sport.

I couldn’t resist the chance. What had he learned from those thousands of hours of track preparation and trouble shooting?

He said: “It really is very simple. You need to be able to dig your fingers into the surface for five to six inches. When tracks haven’t been deep harrowed, you could only go three inches. You would need a knife to cut through the rest.”

The science behind the need for deep harrowing was first explained by the STRI. Basically, sand is made of various materials including grains of different sizes. When they are first harrowed, the different sized grains are spread around. But watering and packing sees the smaller ones gradually migrate to the bottom.

Once they reach an impregnable layer, they stop and gradually harden to form a substance similar to clinker in a fire. When the dog’s feet press against the clinker plate, it can slide and that is what leads to the vast majority of injuries: mainly hocks, muscles and wrists, principally chipped or broken pisiforms. (A tiny bone at the back of the wrist, but when even slightly damaged almost inevitably means retirement).

Deep harrowing can bring its own problems. A deep harrowed track is vulnerable to the weather if it isn’t packed before it is watered.

Basically, if it rains, it becomes quicksand and can run at least a couple of seconds slow for the standard distance. If it is packed and then watered, the water runs across, rather than into it, and the pliant surface more closely resembles the waveline at the beach.

The key – as Gordon Bisset remarked recently is the ‘footprint’. A correctly prepared track should produce perfect footprints.

Haynes said: “Lots of people get confused when they see the surface. The plating at the end is just cosmetic. It is the three inches below the surface that you have to get right. To do that, you have to pack it correctly.”

So how often should a track be deep harrowed?

Haynes said: “It is impossible to say without checking. If you prepared a track and left it for six months, it would be virtually ready to race on.

“It is the watering and particularly the bowser that cause the compaction. Given how often some of the tracks race these days, I would think between two and four times a week, particularly in the summer. But it would always vary depending on the weather”

It has always remained a mystery as to why John Haynes was suddenly laid off and not replaced by the Board. He cannot comment, due to a confidentiality agreement that he signed when he left.

But here is a story that may – or may not – have occurred, shortly before John’s departure was announced.

The story goes that John approached a particular promoter who is no longer on the Board with the following statement.

“You should have that track plated at least once a week. But you are probably losing two or three dogs a week because you are too fucking tight to pay the groundsman the £80 it would cost you.”

It was always going to end in tears. Get well soon John.