For several weeks, Harry Findlay and I have been engaged in a bit of friendly speculation about the likelihood of Nottingham staging the 2020 Star Sports/ARC/LPS Derby.

I was calling big odds a week ago. But my bottle has gone a bit since, mainly due to the resurgence of horse racing on TV. ITV4 racing returns today, and of course Sunderland appeared this week on the SKY Racing Channel.

The bookies are desperate for live product. As we saw in the Gambling Commission report, they are looking to fill the void from the decline of the FOBT machines.

(They made £526m from horse racing in the year prior to November 2019 and £155m from dog racing. Interestingly, the dogs were 3% more profitable for every pound placed. Their best percentages were from football – a whopping 24%).

Meanwhile the TV companies are starting to get desperate for content following the suspension in recording of so many programmes.

So, it might suit joint sponsors ARC to have a Greyhound Derby to broadcast.

On the other hand – there are also factors against. For example, would ARC be just as happy to broadcast graded racing? I have zero interest in horseracing, but my understanding is that ARC’s speciality is ‘bread and butter’ product.

Secondly, how would a Derby go down with Nottingham’s Covid weary owners and trainers? With the graded strength desperate for races, would they fancy losing a string of meetings to open racers?

Of course Towcester only have one contracted meeting at present and could easily accommodate a Derby on other days.

In fact, if Covid restrictions continue, their facilities would even be able to cope with a socially distanced crowd, with lots of white chalk circles dotted around the place.

I spoke to promoter Kevin Boothby this week and he expects to have the Towcester TV studio operating within the next few weeks.

But the most interesting aspect of all is this:

There is a well considered plan, created among some of the leading owners and trainers, that if no one is prepared to sponsor the competition, and no media rights deal was available to finance it, many dozens would be prepared to pay entry fees and simply run for ‘the pot’.

But bookmakers would be barred from betting on it.

I bloody love that. Greyhound people showing they won’t be pushed around.

So Harry, will you lay me odds on a Derby taking place?

How did you get involved in greyhound racing?

4-6 say somebody took you along for the first time, someone who was either as a punter or an owner. I have met quite a few whose only contact was through a work’s Christmas party, or a similar social. In my experience, although these virgin racegoers invariably enjoyed the experience, they didn’t get the chance to learn more and didn’t return until the next party night.

But in at least one previous column I have suggested that the greyhound industry is missing out on a group of people who love greyhounds, but may never have seen a race.

I am talking about many of the people who give homes to ex-racers.

I recently wrote a piece on that excellent Facebook page Your Greyhound’s History in which I mentioned friends of the family who had adopted an ex-racer from Hove, and it was quite clear that they had a very distorted view of a greyhound’s daily routine.

My suggestion was that they watched Emily Wallis’ Many Faces video. Fortunately, GBGB have also started to produce some excellent educational videos.

But before going any further, I would like you to read the following. It came via an article that Kim Sanzone wrote on the YGH Facebook page. I think it is self explanatory:

Racing for a beginner

How is it that someone with absolutely no experience in greyhound racing, who’s not even attended a track, should end up passionately supporting the sport with his own greyhound?

It all started one evening in 1980 when I was 10. My mum and her partner went out for the evening and returned home with this greyhound. I don’t think I’d really noticed a greyhound before, but here he was. Joe entered our life, having retired that evening from his successful career as Daily’s First, racing at Slough and closing his racing career with a win in his last race.

We’d always had plenty of animals round the house; even at that time we were inundated with rabbits, gerbils, fish and cats, but Joe settled in and made his home. We retired three greyhounds in the end. Joe was followed by Frieda and Sparky, but unbeknownst to me this little seed was sewn.

Joe had bald knees and elbows and was relatively skittish. ‘Hard floors in those kennels’, ‘a racing life is tough’ were the stories, but my gosh were the zoomies fun. That sparkle of life that exploded at immense speed round the garden, through the house and even up and down the stairs. But I never went racing, I never experienced our local tracks, I never was part of the greyhound scene.

Fast forward many decades and I’m in the Dogs Trust kennels, looking for a dog to complement our ark of pets which, being so used to as a child I was happy to bring forward with my own family. Looking through the catalogue, I saw a sighthound face. A female lurcher who sparked interest, but alas on approaching her kennel she got up, we’d and walked off totally disinterested. But they had another lurcher, about 6 years old, black and from Ireland. We met and adopted Kaleb, the greyhound memories flooded back and the seed germinated.

I joined lurcher groups, then sighthound groups and then greyhound groups, to enjoy having my hound and to give him the best experiences possible. But there were still these questions that weren’t really answered in the past, what is it really like in a greyhound kennel and on a track? Why are there all these horrible stories and what is the truth?

I asked the questions, went straight to the heart of the matter but was very open that I was there with no preconception, to learn how it really was. Think I banged into a few brick walls, but I explained that I was there to understand and I made a few contacts that were very open in explanation. I became able to process fact from fiction and I went racing to experience the event.

I’m no gambling man, I went racing to see the thrill on the greyhounds faces. I went to experience the chase and I was not disappointed. 6 greyhounds started each race and 6 finished. I was at the track edge as the greyhounds walked out and back to the kennels, I could see the excitement and the satisfaction in these dogs. I became fiercely protective of greyhound racing in on-line debates, started joining discussions with owners and racing supporters and then began to think what would it be like to own a greyhound and how would that be possible?

Stuart Maplesden with new arrival ‘Mysty’

It’s all about the dogs, happy that welfare was paramount I started asking about shares in a dog in the Midlands, where I could easily get to the kennels. Nothing really worked, syndicates weren’t available or the kennels were just too far away for the Sunday walk. Through a friend in America, I started to learn a little about the Punk Rock dogs at Hove; a team that loved their dogs as much as I and who I could really talk to. The offer was posed to get involved and I initially turned it down as I didn’t think I could commit enough due to the distance, then there was a little turn in fate as my extended family moved to the south coast.

I asked the question, can I get involved? ‘I’m talking starting box to sofa, the full commitment’, said I. If this dog is going to run for me I am going to provide its welfare and its sofa on retirement. So it happened, our 18 month old brindle bitch came over from Ireland and Punk Rock Mystery was named.

Mysty is my confidence in the high standards of welfare in British greyhound racing today. Her career will start soon and I hope for a long one with minimal injuries, but I’m a realist and I have taken the commitment to give my hound the best life possible, in racing and in retirement. This is how someone with no experience, follows their passion and gets a racer.

Scott Boyden

 

Scott is unusual in that his first brush with greyhounds happened when he was a kid. But being the most visible ‘greyhound’ website, we are often tracked down by people with absolutely no knowledge of the game but want to find out more about their new pet. We get at least one or two enquiries every week.

Pic courtesy of Your Greyhound’s History

Earlier this week I received a letter from another lady. She had adopted one of Jim Daly senior’s ‘200 race’ veterans and was keen to find out more.

I forwarded her some links such as greyhounddata and the Racing Post’s Greyhoundbet site, where she was thrilled to discover that she might even see some old footage of ‘Toby’ when the meeting was covered by RPGTV.

She replied: “Thank you so very much for replying and pointing things out. It’s very interesting to us partly because we are proud of him but also because my aunt was the tote manager at Walthamstow for about 30 years and I have known some of the Chandler family for many years.”

One of the greatest things about the Facebook page is that it enables racing and retired owners to share their excitement and pride in their dogs.

Jim Parker recently found some old ‘Pieman’ trophies which he forwarded to the new owner who was thrilled to hear about their new pet’s achievements.

I don’t know how many times I have been asked to show a replay of my own couch potato winning an A3 at Towcester.

Some kennels are already on it. Stuart Maplesden was telling me that his website SLM Racing makes a particular effort to engage with owners of its ex-racers.

In my view, as an industry, we should be ensuring that every owner of an ex-racer has an opportunity to see either photographs or racing footage of their new pet.

Finally – this has been knocking around for a little while. But if you haven’t seen it before, it just might resonate