“A trainer is only as good as his dogs. And the dogs are only as good as the owners who are prepared to buy them.”
Anybody who knows Derek Knight would be unsurprised to hear his views – and there would be few people in the industry better qualified to make them.
HOLLOW MAN wins the PGR Champion Stakes Final Photo: © Steve Nash
Hollow Man’s victory in Friday night’s PGR Champion Stakes Final can be added to a CV earned over a lifetime in greyhound racing.
Derek recalls: “I used to go racing with the old man at Walthamstow and Harringay and loved it. It was made pretty clear that I’d better get myself a job or clear off, so I left home and went to work at Northaw. It was 1966 and I was 15”
For the unfamiliar with the venue, the official title of Hook Kennels was the GRA owned 150 acre country estate in the village of Northaw, just outside Potters Barr in Hertfordshire.
The site had a dozen and a half kennels, gallops, a veterinary hospital, and staff accommodation.
It was the original base for the White City, Harringay and Stamford Bridge runners. Though as Stamford Bridge closed, there were Clapton, West Ham and latterly, Watford runners based there.
After serving eight years as a kennel lad for Gordon Hodson, and then head lad for Frank Melville, Derek was offered his first training job at Shawfield, before applying for a position at Brighton (before it became ‘Hove’ as demanded by the betting industry).
Derek arrived at Hove in January 1977 and has consistently sent out major race winners.
In more recent years though, the big wins have dried up, not just for Derek, but Hove trainers in general.
Although Seamus Cahill has attempted to buck the trend, he would be the first to say how much tougher it has become to attract the right owners to buy high class dogs.
Certainly Seamus’ kennel strength over the last five years, doesn’t begin to match the quality of a decade ago, or particularly 2010 when he was champion trainer.
The reasons are spelled out in the first paragraph.
Thankfully, Entain identified the problem two or three years ago and have attempted to enhance the ownership experience with the creation of an owners bar and additional benefits.
Is it coincidence that after a comparatively barren few years, Hove trainers have once again come to the fore.
Not just Derek and Seamus, but the efforts of Richard Rees and Belinda Green in particular have seen Hove trainers have their best year since the days when Derek, George Curtis and Gunner Smith were in their pomp.
The ex-Northaw kennel lad (right) with Hay Maker Mack – the only hound ever to break 29.00 for the White City 500 metres.
Derek is happy to acknowledge that compared to trainers at many other tracks, Hove are fortunate, but unearthing a Category One winner is very much a battle against the odds.
Hollow Man was bought by Mick McCory after his inseparable partner Debbie Williams lost a long battle with cancer in December last year.
Mick wanted to buy a dog to keep his memories of going racing with Debbie fresh in his mind and Hollow Man has exceeded all expectations.
Derek said: “Mick wanted ‘a decent’ dog and he did cost a few bob. But not the sort of money that is being asked for the top dogs these days, the £30-£40 grand dogs. We simply don’t have the owners to buy them.
“Francis Murray junior suggested Holloway Man. We checked the videos and decided to go for him and he has been a cracking little dog.
“But you can’t expect to consistently win big races with dogs of that (mid range) money. You look at the Irish trainers bringing dogs over, the £30-£40K dogs. They win the big prizes and people say, ‘isnt it great to see them over here?’
“No not really!
“They are picking up these top young pups from the schooling tracks before we ever get a chance to buy them. We just can’t compete which is a disincentive for owners.”
Winning owner Victor Chandler (yes THAT Victor Chandler!) receives the Golden Jacket trophy from Labour leader Neil Kinnock and wife Glenys following Amazing Man’s win in 1984.
Of all the changes to racing during Derek’s time in the greyhound industry, Derek feels that the disappearance of owners has been one of the most damaging.
He said: “We have lost the social side of the sport. It is just about racing and betting, whatever the bookmakers want.
“I used to love Sundays and the social side of things but there are so few of them now. We are luckier than most. Some trainers own virtually all their dogs which is a recipe for trouble. But why would anyone want to become an owner?
“You are asking people to buy a dog that they may seldom get to see because he is running at a BAGS meeting when they are at work.
“I have a couple of owners in the kennel who have been with me for 30 years, but they only really keep going out of loyalty to me.
“There were some great owners when I worked at Northaw. If someone like Andy Thompson, who owned Commutering and some of the top dogs at Harringay and White City, was to win a £100 race on a Saturday, he might give the kennel staff a fiver the next day.
“Back then, it was the equivalent of a week’s wages.”
“Another reason that owners have dropped away is because they can’t have a decent bet. They can’t get on and the way the prices are manipulated is an absolute joke.
“There was a time when the stewards wanted to know betting patterns when they were trying to decide whether someone had pulled a stroke. I’ve had dogs go from 6-4 to 1-2f and I haven’t got the faintest idea why.”
Vinnie Jones celebrates Stewards Cup victory by Smoking Baby – Walthamstow 7.4.01 pic Steve Nash
There were 57 NGRC tracks when Derek Knight led his first hand of six greyhounds around the Northaw estate. There are now 21 and the industry has changed beyond recognition.
Derek said: “We can barely train greyhounds these days, apart from the open racers. It is just backwards and forwards to the track.
“There is no structure or training. When I started, you did a few years as a kennel lad to learn how to train. If you worked hard, after a few years you became a head lad. If you were very lucky, you got to become a trainer after eight or ten years.
“Now, apply for a trainer’s licence and you will automatically be given one with absolutely zero experience.
“I really don’t see a future for the industry and it is the kennel staff that I feel most sorry for. Where is the future for them?”
As for the trainer himself, he has no immediate plans to retire, “I never looked after my money” see says with typical candour, but then concedes, “I would probably be bored stiff after a couple of days anyway”.
So Derek will carry on, getting every ounce of talent out of every dog in his charge.
But he has a treasure trove of memories that include a quote from his long time former colleague and friend, George Curtis.
“As George used to say, ‘We’ve seen the best days of this sport, boy.’”
Champion Stakes winner Hollow Man with Maria Ansbro looking on Photo: © Steve Nash
