When Laughil Jess crossed the winning line to land the Ladbrokes Gold Collar, she finally achieved the richly deserved the success that was so long overdue. . . . .for her trainer.
Because as magnificent as this lion hearted white and black has been, she is really a reflection of the expertise and preparation of Dave Lee. The veteran handler is a shining example of the greyhound folk that this website was created to serve. A dog man’s, dog man.
Dave can’t remember what year he started in greyhounds. . .
He said: “It would have been 1960 or ’61. I would have been 14 or 15 and I worked for a private trainer Des Dare who had a kennel at a pub in Archway.”
Dare eventually got a job training at Leicester and Coventry where a young Bob Rowe and his father Johnny were the respective racing managers.
But there was a fall-out with the management (Dare was known to be a man of strong opinions), and Dave found himself heading back to London.
He said: “I had a decision to make, whether to go to Northaw or to Hackney. At the time, the feeling was that you wouldn’t even get a head lad’s job at Northaw until you were about 27, so I went to Hackney.”
Dave worked for various trainers – before landing a head man’s job for Jimmy Arnett. But he was growing more and more disillusioned.
Brent Walker took over Hackney and Dave could see no future.
He said: “By that stage, trainers were buying their way into Hackney. I didn’t have a pot to piss in, and none of my family had any money to set me up in a kennel.
“Then I found out that Tommy Foster, who was younger than me, had got a trainer’s job at White City. Nothing against Tommy, but I was gutted about the decision I’d made.”
So Dave made one of the biggest decisions of his life. He decided to walk away from greyhound racing and get a ‘proper job’.
He said: “I heard that there was a Government scheme to train people on the dole for a trade. I went along to sign up but they told me I couldn’t because I was in work. I put my notice in and went back and got put on a course to be a plasterer.”
Dave was “about 31” and although he had no enthusiasm for the new job, he found he was good at it, and more important . . . .
He said: “I had a young family and the money was like nothing I had ever seen working in kennels. Some of the blokes were only interested in booze and smoking dope, others just didn’t want to be on the dole. But I really grafted and it went really well.”
Dave is an incredibly shy and modest guy, but “by doing a few other bits and pieces”, he built himself a successful business as a builder employing a small team of men.
He retained his interest in the dogs and he was back on the slippery slope when he found out that Maggie Lucas, who he had known from Hackney days, had joined Romford and was short of staff.
He said: “I only went along to help her out voluntarily, she couldn’t have afforded to pay me what I was getting in the building job, but I enjoyed it.”
Dave decided to breed a litter of pups, and rented a kennel from Lol Reid at the Romford kennels at Ockendon. Then he rented a second kennel and took out a licence at the sport’s real grass roots tracks: Rye House, Henlow and Harlow. He even had a spell at Oxford before Galliard Homes closed it.
Dave said: “By then, I was neglecting the building business. Some of the blokes were doing private jobs on the side and it eventually fizzled out.
“But I wasn’t bothered. I had only ever wanted to be a greyhound trainer.”
Dave’s enthusiasm for greyhound racing gradually led to a whole family involvement.
Dave’s wife Dawn is Laughil Jess’s joint owner. Son Sean and daughter Kelly work in the kennels while another daughter, Gemma, does the bookwork.
They operate from Graham Sharp’s old range of ‘Peaceful Kennels’ at Epping where there is room for over 100 hounds, though Dave is content with around 45, mainly Crayford graders with a sprinkling of open racers.
But after more than 60 years of racing, and thousands of obscure winners, it was a little bitch with a relatively modest 28.74 on her card at Shelbourne Park who finally gave the former kennelboy the chance to show his ability with a ‘good un’.
Dave said: “Jess came recommended by David Murray and I originally thought we had paid a bit too much for her. Well I say ‘I’, it was actually the wife’s money. She had said she wouldn’t buy another dog; the most expensive one she ever bought, Ballymac Walski broke a leg without ever winning a race.
“Not that Jess looks expensive anymore.
“She is just so tenacious; a born racer. Once she came away like that in the final I didn’t expect her to be beaten. But my favourite race was in the semi final. She was up against a really strong finisher, and she doesn’t really see out the 540 metres, but she wasn’t going to give in. I love that.
“Looking back, I regret taking her for the Oaks. She built up a great winning sequence and Sean and I would look every week to see if she and Bluejig Baron had got the Performance of the Week, but Perry Barr wasn’t really her track.
“Had I have thought that she could win the Gold Collar, I wouldn’t have taken her away from Crayford and kept the sequence going.”
Dave is keeping his plans for Laughil Jess firmly under wraps for the new few weeks.
He said:” I only really took her to Perry Barr because nobody wants to run at her at Crayford. If I say when I plan to run her again, she just might scare them off again.”
Wouldn’t she just!
The Gold Collar winner with her proud owners – Dawn and Dave
