It is 13 months since John Simpson was given the chance to switch from Wimbledon to Romford, and it has been a life changing experience.
The last major departure from Plough Lane, excluding the disgraced Chris Mosdall, Simpson doubts he would still be involved in the industry had Romford not come calling.
He said: “I was subsidising the kennel and I said to the missus, ‘we’ll give it until the end of the year and then make a decision’. Fortunately, I had some building work which had kept the thing afloat, or I had been long gone. I would have been devastated to go after 30 years in the game, but I couldn’t see a way to go forward.”
John took on 50 runners and staff from Alison Ingram and has never looked back.
He said: “That was a great start, due to Alison. At Wimbledon I have 40 on the strength but might only get 20 runners on at any weekend. I now have 120 dogs including 86 on the strength and I had 21 runners at one meeting recently. The whole thing has kicked on. I spent roughly £50,000 on the kennels which are now immaculate, and have between 30 and 40 paddocks. We have seven full time staff and six or seven part-timers but I can afford to do it because by income has increased five-fold since I came to Romford.
“It is very full-on, but I am loving dog racing again because we can do everything properly. I even had to extend the house because we have at least 40 owners here on a Sunday and I couldn’t get them all in. People talk about a shortage of owners; I have a waiting list of people wanting to put dogs with me but I just don’t have the space. And I can’t praise the Romford management enough; they are total professionals.”
Despite his personal change of fortunes, John still feels for old friends at Wimbledon.
He said: “Wimbledon will always have a special place in my heart. The staff were always great, even though the racing office always seemed to have one arm tied behind their backs. The track staff too were brilliant; I seldom an injury at Wimbledon. But the ones I feel the most sorry for are the old ‘pros’ like Bernie Doyle and Richard Rees. Good hard working people who dedicate themselves to this game and deserve better reward.”
