OLD GIT ALERT – if you don’t want to read the nostalgic ramblings of a decrepit old journo – move along, there is nothing to see here!

I conclude the final five observations from my 30 years at Greyhound Star. Normal service resumes next week.

TEN THINGS I HAVE LEARNED, OR HAD CONFIRMED, IN 30 YEARS AT THE STAR (6-10)

6) Greyhound Regulatory Board needs reform

The Greyhound Regulatory Board took over policing duties from the NGRC and while it is better than the antiquated predecessor, it still has a long way to go to be fit for purpose. Fundamentally, it should remember it exists to service the industry, not rule it. Namely:

  1. ) While rules must be obeyed, the GRB should not consistently make life more awkward for the industry participants. It should be seeking solutions and cutting red tape, not enforcing pointless sacrosanct regulation that is often no longer relevant.
  2. ) The basic judicial system is flawed with GBGB being both police and prosecution service. This creates a conflict in terms of potential manipulation of evidence.
  3. ) The balance of expertise between prosecution and defence will inherently deny natural justice. The prosecution is professional; the defence is usually amateur. Most often, just the poor bloody trainer. Funds should be made available to subsidise a professional defense advisor.
  4. ) The bias extends to there being no neutral ‘clerk of the court’ to determine inconsistencies. There have been instances of identical cases being heard on successive days with one leading to prosecution and another to acquittal with ‘no case to answer’
  5. ) We still have no penalties matrix enabling penalties to be set within guidelines – five years after being promised one
  6. ) There is virtually no hands-on knowledge of the current set of stipendiary stewards. The policy of employing ex-industry staff has been stealthily eased out.

On the plus side, the new Head of Regulation Mark Bird has made a good impression and seems to have a ‘can do’ approach. There are a lot of decent people at GBGB.

 

7) Take on the antis

Greyhound racing was changing before I joined the Star and has massively moved on since. Our greatest achievements have been in welfare.

I was a kennel lad in an era whereby a much higher percentage of greyhounds were put to sleep after they finished racing. It sounds cruel in hindsight but at the time the thinking was different. Not just in greyhound racing but among the general public. Who would have believed back then that animals would no longer appear in circuses, and dolphin parks also seem set for extinction.

Besides, the percentage of aggressive greyhounds was higher 40 years ago. There was always a concern about ex-racers around children and other pets. The arrival of the Australian and American bloodlines, and the decline of coursing or dual purpose lines, has changed temperaments significantly. There were fewer owner trainers who naturally absorb their ex-racers as family pets. Most dogs were trained in professional kennels and handed back to their owners – with whom they had very little bond – at the end of their careers.

There was also the concern about greyhounds ending up illegal hare coursing or being abused on the flapping tracks and abandoned. The thinking for many owners was ‘if I put him to sleep, I know he won’t suffer’.

The industry had a lot of reasons for maintaining a low profile. But so much has changed in the interim.

First and foremost we have a policy of tracking ex-racers into retirement. It may not be perfect, but there are good reasons for any short-comings. There has also been a night/day change of attitude in re-homing rather than putting to sleep (unless absolutely necessary) injured racers.

Yet our attitude to people who oppose our industry on the grounds of welfare remains the same. Our industry leaders operate a policy of ‘ignore them.’ No wonder some of the more sensible welfarists have lost their patience.

This passivity sickens me to my stomach. We can hold our heads up and robustly answer our critics.

I was interviewed on radio within the last month. All went well until the interviewer suggested ‘that there are some people who have issues with the welfare aspect of greyhound racing’, I told the live audience that those people tell lies and exaggerate. I talked briefly about the Animal Welfare Bill, the veterinary profession and re-homing.

I challenged the presenter to nominate someone on behalf of BBC Northampton to actually check out the evidence before they repeated it in ignorance.

They didn’t – but that isn’t the point. I would like to think that any neutral listening to the interview would at least say ‘that guy seems well informed and there are clearly two sides to this’

 

8) Trainers have power if they use it wisely

I have written a lot about the antics in the last four years of the Greyhound Trainers Association. I do not intend to regurgitate it all other than to say, the trainers are absolutely right to challenge the system – but their views on the nature of the industry and the methods to change it are simply badly wrong.

First and foremost, there are NO big conspiracies. The tracks do not conspire together against trainers. The promoters are in opposition with each over events, trainers and contracts. They have never got together with the aim of shafting owners and trainers. Most of the time, they couldn’t even agree if it is Monday.

Nor is there collusion between GBGB and the promoters. (And I have freely acknowledged the worst of it in BGRB days)

Firstly, every GBGB director, including the independents, would have to be party to the corruption. Why would they want to do that? Secondly, any dodgy promoter would be shopped by their own colleagues.

Sadly – these allegations have been used to stir up the masses into demonstrations and petitions. ‘You lot are all skint because of corruption’ (not because there is insufficient money and too many of you prepared to race for nothing!).

Which is the most likely to damage a trainer’s income? The promoter submitting a moody invoice for a tractor (out of the £100,000 annual budget to be shared by all the tracks), or the fellow trainer who poaches dogs or undercuts his kennel fees? Seriously!

After calling most of the people who run the industry corrupt, and being shown the door for it, the GTA then used threats of supporting the antis with an outrageous submission to EFRA and finally, made limp threats of strike action.

I have never met anybody who worked best with their arm up their back and if you are going to threaten aggro – you had better be able to make it stick.

If I was a trainer being well paid and treated honourably by a bookmaker owned track, with the livelihoods of my family and staff depending on me, would I strike? No! Especially since most of those telling me to strike would rip my arm off for my contract.

But there is another way. Assume that not everybody is either corrupt or your enemy. Don’t force them to join together against you. Engage.

Take you place at GBGB and fight your corner from the inside. Sell your claim to the independent directors. Give the bookmakers on the Fund the chance to hand over some of the cash – which they know they will be required to pay – to you and not the promoters. Finally – don’t hold your negotiations in the media – unless it becomes absolutely necessary. Compromise will always achieve more than intimidation.

 

9) I believe in this industry

Despite having witnessed virtual continued decline, I am totally convinced that greyhound racing has a big future.

It will be nothing like the past, I can’t imagine thousands attending race meetings, beyond the odd big events. I can’t anticipate new tracks being built in big cities.

But if you look at why greyhound racing has declined, the reasons are interesting. In the first instance, it was absolutely butchered by various Governments when it threatened to completely overshadow horse racing and challenge football.

Crippling taxes (unique to greyhound racing), restrictions and restraints decimated business opportunities and profits. In some cases 98% of profits were taken by Government. Most of the red tape, including restrictions on race days, totes and length of meetings, have gone.

Furthermore, a lot of tracks were profitable but simply wiped out by their land values. Most greyhound tracks were built on the edges of towns, but the urban sprawl swallowed them up. The value of eight acres of industrial, commercial or housing land was always going to be critical.

There were also social changes brought about by TV, drink-driving laws, betting shops, satellite TV, and most recently the internet. Greyhound racing is not the only activity that has suffered from two generations who have progressively preferred to stay at home midweek. Speedway has done even worse than us.

But the core product remains a winner. Ask anyone who has attended their first night at the dogs.

We have THE best betting product on the planet. It is easy and comparatively cheap to operate, simple to follow and thanks to technology, now easy to deliver. You don’t need to come racing, we will bring it to you.

There is work to do. We need to convince the betting industry, or even a section of it (the rest will follow), that we are more than just filler. We need to simplify form and make better use of TV and social media to promote what we do.

The era of integrated totes, combined with ever more sophisticated satellite technology will be a game changer for tracks who will no longer be at the mercy of the traditional betting industry.

Looks around, there are signs of it happening already!

 

10) I am on my own side

This is not a job to take if you want to be popular. Of course you can do it by sitting on the fence, not saying what you think, or by not challenging the status quo. But then why bother at all?

Likewise it would be easy to be on the side of the mob and join in the ranks of ‘all promoters are bastards’, ‘the whole game is corrupt’. The problem is, without sounding like Jiminy Cricket, I really don’t believe that stuff. My heart wouldn’t be in it.

There are decent people who do believe the corruption exists, and are still trying to prove it. To them I say ‘put up or shut up’. The truth will always out in the end. If you are right, I will commend you. But much of your evidence and many of your ‘witnesses’ leave something to be desired IMO.

To survive the flak of being prepared to publish and stand by your ideas and opinions, you have to have a strategy. Mine is simple. ‘I know I can’t please everybody, what would the people who I respect think of my stance?’ What would Nick Savva say? Or Harry Williams, or Len Ponder?  Just ignore the nutters.

I have learned to take nothing at face value or prejudge people before I have dealt with them. There have been lots of surprises. Good and bad.

I have been dragged in front of various industry leaders for writing the truth and have been frequently warned or threatened. Some of those threats have been carried out. There are so many stories that I simply cannot publish for legal reasons, though they have moulded my view of greyhound racing and the people in it.

However, being the 30 year editor of a newspaper/ website in a failing industry has taken its toll.

I remain in love with the sport – but given the annual struggle and ultimate failure to keep the newspaper in print, the lack of support for the website from GBGB, and around a quarter of the tracks, plus the damage to my personal life from working 70 hour weeks over most of those 30 years, would I do it all again?

No – probably not.