The Greyhound Board of Great Britain has opened the door for a representative of an approved trainers organisation to represent the profession as an alternative to the Greyhound Trainers Association (GTA).

At their AGM yesterday, the GBGB’s board of directors passed three changes to their Articles of Association.

The first, allows a board position for the representative of ‘a recognised group of trainers’.

The second allows the board to accept a nominee to represent greyhound owners, as an eventual successor to the current representative.

The third change allows provision for the organisation to appoint to co-opt a person of “outstanding ability or merit” to the board of directors.

The main talking point is the side-lining of the GTA following the request for dialogue by a group of 20 trainers last week.

Following the expulsion from the GBGB board of chairman Ricky Holloway, the GTA had attempted to secure a place for his deputy Linda Jones.

That move was rejected by GBGB chairman Tom Kelly who criticised Mrs Jones’ “failure to distance herself from the scandalous and disgraceful defamation of the GBGB and its directors by the GTA”

Kelly added that the move by the 20 trainers was “extremely well received” and signalled that he intended to hold meetings with representatives of the new group.

The decision to open up the owners’ seat to a new organisation will come as a surprise, though Kelly was keen to emphasise that there are no plans to replace John Haynes.

For his part, Haynes has privately stated that he would be prepared to retire as soon as he felt that the practitioner’s seats on the board were being adequately served.

As with the trainer’s role, the future owner’s director would need to represent an organisation of approved legitimacy by the board.

Among the first to react to the news was Martin White, founder of defunct owners and trainers association GOBATA, and a big critic of the direction taken by the GTA.

White said: “This is great news for the industry; a huge step forward, at last. This is a concrete opportunity to acknowledge the problems of professional greyhound trainers. There should be ring-fenced budgets put in place for trainers, just as there is with welfare.

“I am also delighted to hear that provision has been made to get other outside experts on board, people with expertise in promotion, marketing and new technologies.

“I believe there are great revenue streams still to be tapped by the greyhound industry and the board have now given themselves the chance to find and appoint them.”

White will be part of a four man delegation, acting on behalf of ‘the 20’ due to meet Tom Kelly in early June.

He will be joined by former GTA chairman John Coleman, Romford handler Jim Reynolds and North East breeder and trainer, Harry Williams.