The recently elected GBGB practitioner director Paul Carpenter – gives his initial thoughts in the first week after his appointment:

 

Paul Carpenter

I looked at myself in the mirror this morning and thought ‘what on earth have you let yourself in for?’

In my first six days as the owners’ rep on the Board, I must have dealt with a dozen different issues, most of which shouldn’t be within my remit.

I’ve had owners moaning about dogs being outgraded or drawn in the wrong traps. What was I prepared to do about it?

The answer is . . . . nothing!

Those are issues that need to be sorted between an owner, a trainer and a racing manager. Don’t ask me to intervene.

There were, and are, concerns over track maintenance that are definitely something that I have opinions on, and will deal with over time. Plus volume of racing, which is something I will cover in greater detail below.

But I am not setting myself up as anybody’s unpaid agony aunt or mouthpiece. If you have a specific issue with a track, speak to them yourself.

Perhaps the one issue that irritated me above all others came from an owner who has a whole pile of dogs with a trainer on a ‘prize money only’ basis.

Basically, the owner doesn’t get any kennel bills and the trainer keeps all the run and prize money. That is one thing that I have always been against!

It is the worst of all scenarios. When the dog isn’t running, the trainer has to pay all the bills.

It also undermines the trainers who are working hard to provide a decent service for their owners. No wonder it is the source of so many welfare issues.

Peter (Harnden – trainers rep) and I are in 100 per cent agreement on it.

What happened in this case was that the owner decided he wanted to transfer his dogs to another trainer at the same track. The original trainer then issued a £2K kennel bill and refused to release the dogs. The owner didn’t want the dogs to continue to race, which meant the trainer wasn’t getting any income.

Bottom line – you shouldn’t have got involved in this sort of mess – sort it out yourselves!

 

I’m delighted to see that Bresbet have been announced as the sponsors of the East Anglian Derby at Yarmouth.

CLONDOTY ALEX – East Anglian Derby presentation by bookmaker Geoff Miller to Paul Carpenter and Kevin Dear. Photo: Steve Nash

I absolutely love the place and it was one of the highlights of my time in greyhounds when Clondoty Alex won the 2016 Derby for myself, Kevin Dear and Nick Cheeseman.

The prize money is brilliant too with £15K to the winner and £1,000 to the other finalists.

In my view, we are now at the stage when Category One events should be worth a minimum of £15,000 to the winner. I believe they have been £5,000 since they dispensed with the classic races in 1992.

A re-think is long overdue.

I also have a theory that awarding Category One status for events should be more than just about the prize money.

I think they should only be awarded to the tracks with the best injury statistics. Those in the bottom third shouldn’t be allowed them.

But I am under no illusions about the size of the task of making that happen. I understand from Peter Harnden that the injury stats belong to the track promoters and he has never even seen them.

Oh well – something to strive for!

 

My immediate task is asking the Board to consider introducing a rule to stop over-racing.

I recently noticed one dog who had raced seven times in 18 days. Another, at a different track, has had four qualifying trials in nine days. That is just wrong in my view, whether the dogs are professionally or owner trained.

Now I have been in greyhounds long enough to know that the resilience of greyhounds varies considerably, particularly if they are racing over a distance short of their optimum, and/or they aren’t chasing with 100 per cent intent.

But let’s never forget that we aren’t just dealing with the race distance itself. On most tracks, the pick-up is half a circuit away from the winning line.

I was chatting to Ernie (Gaskin) about it and he was saying that even the fittest dog needs a couple of days to recover from a race, just from tiredness.

I also understand that there is some science to show that the body tissue needs a period of time to rebuild. I may ask the Board vet about that.

We have all had dogs who have raced three times in 10 days and often the best run was the third. But that can’t be maintained over a long period of time.

I’ve heard some trainers are taking in dogs just to maintain quotas simply for run money. Long term this will prove disastrous! What happens when the dog is off the card in season or lame or better still having a rest!

No money coming in so where does the money come from to look after the dog’s welfare? Could we suggest 5 dog races?

I personally feel welfare must remain a focal point as public perception of the sport is vital for its future. Hence over running dogs is wrong and sends a conflicting message with regards to welfare being at the heart of the sport.