A greyhound shortage – but not as we know it

There is no greyhound shortage. At least not as we know it. Or at least not yet writes Floyd Amphlett.

According to the experienced GBGB registrar Dave Levy, the situation is considerably more complex than it first appears.

He said: “You look at places like Harlow and Wimbledon being short of runners, and even some of the BAGS tracks that are forced to rely on open races to fill their cards, there certainly appears to be a lack of greyhounds.

“But that isn’t reflected in the registration figures. Go back to 2006 and we were registering around 10,100 greyhounds per year. But for the last few years, it has been pretty solid at around 7,500.

“In fact, last year it was 7,300, and we are slightly above that, pro rata, for the first nine months of the year.”

Levy has a number of theories as to why things are tight.

He said: “It is possible that dogs are being retired earlier, though I haven’t seen any evidence from the welfare department to back that up.

“Secondly, we have see the opening of Towcester which has taken well over 200 dogs out of the pool which may be affecting tracks like Wimbledon and Harlow.

“There is also the issue of tracks racing only at the weekends now which means that naturally need more dogs. If they are racing Friday and Saturday, the dogs can only, in most cases, race once.

“So although Harlow had an extra meeting last night (Tuesday), it won’t really affect their Friday and Saturday cards because the dogs can run again.”

“At any one time there are probably 16,000-17,000 greyhounds in the system and that doesn’t appear to have changed.

“One noticeable difference is the percentage of Irish breds which was traditionally around the 73/74 per cent mark. This year, with the collapse of British breeding, it will be closer to 82/83 per cent.”

Interestingly, the number of trainers also appears to be holding steady.

Levy said: “It is notoriously difficult to tell since some trainers will get to the end of the year and will then relinquish their licences. In the last few Calendars though, the number of new trainers has been greater than the number giving up. What isn’t clear is whether the newer trainers are smaller kennels.”