Who is Dave T Branch ? After a number of Dave’s video’s have exploded in popularity recently online with many of them going viral amongst the mainstream media this is a question many people have asked. The simple truth of the matter is Dave is just one of us. One of the vocal minority in the sport who wish to make it better for all. What does Dave get out of promoting the sport in the way he does ? He doesn’t get paid , it’s simply done for the love and the will to see the sport moving forwards into the modern era. In a world where some people wouldn’t give you the time of day unless there was a few sheckles in it for them Dave T Branch breaks the mould. An owner , an anthusiast and a man wanting to drag the sport forward into the social media age. Often imitated never bettered. This is the story of Dave T Branch.
Up In Arms winning the Hull Stadium Stayers Open Race over 655m in 2001 for his dads syndicate AB Racing
Born in the South Yorkshire Town of Doncaster Dave Branch otherwise known as Davey B to his Twitter followers was introduced to greyhound racing by his Dad Tony Branch when he was 8 years old.
A new track called Meadow Court Stadium in Stainforth had recently been built which happened to be in the village where Dave & his parents lived opened its doors to the public for the first time & his parents decided to take him for a night at the dogs. After a few more visits to the track his dad decided to buy 2 greyhounds Global Warrior (Sandy) & Fair Foul (Honey) & this is where Dave’s love for the sport began being able to visit the track to see his dogs run/win or a trip to the kennels to take them for a walk.
A few years later an opportunity came for his dad to rent some kennels just outside of Scunthorpe which he did and he became a greyhound trainer in his own right. Although Dave wasn’t old enough at this stage to be a kennel hand he was as a family member still heavily involved in the day to day care/training of the greyhounds. As soon as Dave was old enough to become a licensed kennel hand he did so in order that he could help out his dad at the track.
From left to right – Dave Branch, Trainer Graham Conway, Tony Branch, Kinsley Guy
Dave soon became popular with other trainers and paraded for various trainers such as Johnny Seagrave, Eddie Scanlon, Thomas White & Derrick Johnson earning anything between £2 & £20 a race.
Sadly in 2000 Dave’s mum Celia was diagnosed with bowel cancer which forced his dad to give up training at Stainforth in order to focus on Celia’s recovery though Tony kept a few greyhounds for Dave to take to local independent track Highgate on a Sunday night to keep him busy whilst mum was recovering after successful surgery. David was given a bitch that wasn’t up to a trainers expectations to race at Highgate which he trained to win 3 on the bounce with. Once Celia had fully recovered Dave once again became a kennel hand for his Dad Tony at Stainforth and the bitch that was winning at Highgate started winning at Stainforth. The previous trainer then asked for her back. They thought after all this time he was joking but he was actually being serious so to stop any fall out Dave’s dad gave the bitch back to the previous trainer.
After a couple more years training and a few open race wins at various tracks Dave’s dad Tony retired from training and the family moved to Hull with greyhounds they had left moving to Trevor Robson who raced at The Boulevard in Hull. Once Hull closed Dave and his dad regularly went back to watch greyhound racing at Stainforth. Unfortunately after a battle with cancer in 2013 Dave’s dad Tony sadly passed away at the age of 75 and Dave pretty much stopped going racing as the man who introduced him to our great sport sadly wasn’t able to go with him anymore. He still followed the sport but not in the way he previously did.
A few years later Dave rediscovered his love for the sport via Twitter. After running his work social accounts Davey B (@DaveATBranch) created his own Twitter account and started following various people in the sport of greyhound racing. After seeing other Twitter users tweeting greyhound content Dave saw a opportunity where he could promote the sport. Using his iPhone 6 Dave started recording open races from the sports television station and showcasing them to a wider public. Unfortunately after a complaint from the owner of the TV station Dave was requested to stop doing this which was a real shame as the sport was being promoted to a much bigger audience online than at any stage previously. It really was a backward move but it did at least force the station themselves to start tweeting out videos soon later.
Dave then set up DB Racing after Nic Jeal kindly gave him Antigua Coral. She’s now #RetiredNotRescued on Dave’s sofa after getting disqualified at Nottingham for deliberate interference. Dave’s DB Racing currently has Rushmoor Rusty and Unique Sirius in training at Nottingham with trainer Colin Wilton and his family.
Dave & Antigua Coral
Dave has recently had success on Twitter sharing various content of races where the greyhound that’s last out the back of TV has come from last to first to win. In September he had 2.2 million impressions and 105k profile visits on his twitter account which are figures that some paid industry specialists could only dream of and Dave is doing all of this for free and in his spare time.
