Yesterday, Entain presented all their trainers with a briefing document, The Inside Track. It includes a review of major developments within the company’s four stadia over the last year and also announcement of future plans, some of which are imminent. Others take the form of policy statements and ambitions.
I don’t intend to repeat the content of the entire contents in this column but I have had the chance to study the detail and ask questions of its author, Leo Walker. I also had the opportunity to digest and reflect on the overall substance of the document.
While each of the initiatives has merit in its own right, what I personally found particularly interesting was its apparent ‘direction of travel’. Unless I am mistaken, I detect a significant shift in the relationship between Entain and its trainers.
(Let us be clear on this – this document is directed at the trainers, not the owners. That in itself will create some angst on social media, but it should not detract from what is going on here. Walker has indicated that there will be future initiatives for owners.)
The starting point is the author, Leo Walker. When Entain’s former Director of Stadia Ian Smyth left the company, his role was split in two, between Dan Shepherd, running the commercial side of the business and Paul Illingworth who took responsibility for racing.
Leo Walker became their boss following a compamy restructuring, which in itself should be good news for the industry, because he is the most senior holder of that position to acutally understand dog racing.
Leo first went to Monmore when he was four, his father Chris was the odds returner at the track for many years. Leo certainly knows his way around the industry and has experience as an owner.
Not that the new boss would need expert insight to spot that greyhound racing has a runner shortage. There are a proliferation of empty traps across the industry. All four Entain tracks are among those advertising for new trainers.
The simple solution has traditionally been – to throw £££££ at it.
The Entain contracts are among the most lucrative in the industry. Nick a few trainers from less well paying neighbours. Job done.
But it isn’t that simple is it?
Leo took a long hard look at the situation and realised that the problem isn’t a shortage of trainers or even greyhounds.
The problem actually is the re-homing logjam.
Nationally some kennels have up to 50% of their kennel spaces taken by retired dogs who cannot be re-homed due to lack of space at re-homing kennels.
Entain haven’t revealed their ‘waiting to be rehomed’ figures but across the four tracks it is likely to be in the low hundreds. It is arguably the biggest crisis currently facing the industry and beyond. The national media continues to produce stories of animal shelters in crisis due to a surplus of post pandemic abandoned pets.
So, one of Leo’s first initiatives is to boost the homing bond by £200 to £600 for Entain greyhounds being placed in affiliated rehoming kennels. A huge incentive to prioritise ex-racers.
Now there will be some owners and trainers at non-Entain tracks who will resent what Entain are doing. They will probably find it even harder to place dogs.
(Expect some whining on social media)
But quite frankly, that isn’t Leo Walker’s issue.
His priority is his own trainers.
Why undermine them, and their financial stability, by bringing in more trainers?
Freeing up kennel spaces is a priority to enable the stadium trainers to earn a decent living with ‘paying’ dogs and the appointment of a new post of homing coordinator should take some of the administration burden off of the handlers.
It doesn’t mean that the Entain tracks are ‘closed shops’. They will continue to advertise to replace trainers deciding to move on, cut down or retire. The objective though is to stop simply adding to trainers numbers.
But it isn’t a ‘free shot’. Even to enter the scheme, every dog submitted by every Entain trainer will have to comply with a full veterinary checklist to include neutering, clean teeth, nails etc.
A great plan, but only half the issue.
If there were less injuries, there would be a need for less dogs and less re-homing headaches.
The new boss has been going through injury data with a fine tooth comb. We are not just talking numbers of injuries, but also types of injury.
Hence, when a confidential study revealed a significant number of lower limb injuries at Monmore, Walker checked into greater depth and identified issues relating to sand contamination from speedway shale. There were also problems associated with the compacting of the greyhound track where speedway machinary passed over it.
He made the decision to dispense with the speedway operation and has faced a torrent of abuse in the local media. Indeed, the injury study that had been passed onto an unnamed local politician somehow found its way into the Express & Star newspaper.
But Monmore wasn’t the only track with unacceptable injury rate!
Having gone through the data provided by Dr Christian Spring, the STRI expert who has been studying greyhound surfaces back to BGRB days, Leo was shocked to learn that much of his advice had been consistently ignored.
Sure, the company had spent fortunes of new racing circuits, but had often, literally gone off track when it came to the surfaces themselves.
(Not a mistake that Sheffield made. They stuck robustly to the advice given by Dr Spring and GBGB’s Track Liaison Mark Peacock and Owlerton has probably never raced as consistently well in its history).
Another initiative – going forward – it will be a responsibility of a designated Entain employee to continuously and meticulously monitor injury data at all tracks in an attempt to identify hot spots and act instantly as situations develop.
More money has been, and is being, ploughed into upgrading veterinary facilities at the four Entain tracks. We will report on those details as these develop.
Perhaps the biggest change though, isn’t in the treatment of the dogs, but the trainers themselves.
Entain is a massive employer which has always offered significant additional benefits to its employees.
Although the trainers and their kennelstaff are not ’employees’ per se, Leo Walker has introduced some of the company benefits to the trainers. One of the first is an annual review of trainer retainers.
There will also be an employee assistance program. This will give trainers and their staff an opportunity to speak to someone should they experience major difficulties in their private lives. These may be as diverse as issues as personal or financial issues and include mental health care.
Allied to this, there is a code of conduct to which all trainers and stadium staff must comply, along with a ‘whistleblowing’ and escalation route should any staff feel they have not been treated fairly or within their legal rights.
Now that is long overdue in this industry, and sets a standard for others to follow.
