I admit to feeling a smorgasbord of emotions when seeing footage of PETA’s paramilitary style disruption of Crufts on Sunday.
In general, the self styled animal freedom fighters invoke nothing but resentment and disgust, though on this – and only this – subject, I do have the teeniest slither of sympathy.
Purely personal opinion – ‘animal eugenics’ but a discussion for another day.
Whatever sympathy I felt was soon overtaken by a revulsion at the self righteous arrogance of this of the know-best-care-themosters. It was followed by an enormous sense of realisation and elation.
Now the great British public can see the sort of lies and self-serving exhibitionism that the greyhound industry has to put up with.
You have just put animal rights activism back several years!
(There have been a couple of amusing incidents emerge from recent activities among the antis. The first was when a couple of rabid vegans discovered that the protest organiser was parading around with two dogs on leather leads. It kicked off big style! The second was the choice of snack sent out by Henlow promoter Kevin Boothby to the pro-racers defending their sport. Bacons rolls anyone?)
PETA are regulars among the ‘anti racing’ protestors and like CAGED will tell any lie to justify their position and raise money.
Don’t kid yourself, there is big money is animal protests.
It seems CAGED might be a bit twitchy about how much they spend on self publicity (more fund raising) instead of welfare – as this Facebook message shows.They accuse Newcastle dogs of deceit by claiming to own ‘their dogs’ and of double standards for diverting welfare money to counteract CAGED’s smear campaign. WRONG on both counts! As the stadium explained, they don’t own their staff, but they would still call them ‘their staff’. As for the ‘We Love Our Dogs’, GM Ian Walton said: “It has nothing to do with a welfare campaign. We are running a marketing campaign with a series of adverts with the Chronicle Newspaper and Capital Radio.“We are advertising the party packages, the restaurant, and a reminder to people who haven’t been racing in a while that we are still here as a great night out.”
It is my understanding that after CAGED ran their disgraceful billboard campaign recently, GBGB enquired into the cost of running a ‘pro racing’ campaign using exactly the same slots and timescale.
They were quoted £250,000 – ‘though we could do a deal for £125,000’.
Even if GBGB had that money to spare – can you imagine the outrage if it had been spent on swelling the profits of an advertising agency rather than on homing dogs?
But the antis can afford a jolly to China “to track down those missing 20 (expensive) Irish greyhounds” sold to Chinese multimillionaires for breeding purposes.
Not that they are likely to find them. Unlike Britain, they don’t have a register of kennels – and by the way – the country is 40 times bigger than Britain. And if they do – then what?
(For the record, eating dog meat is very rare in China, certainly among the wealthier more educated Chinese and there is a big campaign to see it banned. Most dogs that end up in the meat market are pets stolen from local villages. The thieves frequently bait poisoned meat leading to the dogs being poisoned – you can guess the rest).
Still – have a nice holiday . . . . try not to step over any of the 15,000 dogs being sold for the Yulin Dog Meat Festival. A 32 kilo greyhound would set you back around £40.
At the current exchange rate, how many billboard adverts does that work out at?
| 2017 | 2018 | |
| Mitch Millward Marathon | * | Staged |
| Coronation Cup | Staged | Staged |
| Prestige | Staged | – |
| Henlow Maiden Derby | – | Staged |
| Henlow Blue Ribband | – | New event |
| Silver Salver | Staged | Scheduled |
| Cearns Memorial | Staged | Scheduled |
| Bussey Memorial | Staged | Staged |
| Golden Jacket | Staged | Staged |
| Maiden Gold Cup | Staged | Staged |
| Henlow Gold Cup | Staged | Staged |
| Springbok | Staged | Staged |
| Racing Post Juvenile | Staged | Staged |
| Lad. Puppy Derby | Staged | Scheduled |
| Golden Sprint | Staged | Scheduled |
| Essex Vase | ** | Scheduled |
| Astute Gold Cup | – | Scheduled |
| Arc | Staged | Date change |
| Wimbledon closure (3 races) | Staged | – |
| Scarborough Memorial | – | New event |
| Queen Mother Cup | Staged | Staged |
| Three Steps | Staged | Date change |
| BGBF Puppy | Staged | Scheduled |
| BGBF Sprint | Staged | Scheduled |
| BGBF Scurry | – | New event |
| Harlow Gold Cup | Staged | Scheduled*** |
| Golden Crest | Staged | Scheduled |
| Bresmed North.Sprint | Staged | Scheduled |
| Grand National | **** | Scheduled |
| BGBF Puppy Oaks | Staged | Scheduled |
| Coral Regency | Staged | Scheduled |
| Scottish Derby | Staged | Scheduled |
| RPGTV Puppy | Staged | Scheduled |
| RPGTV 500 | Staged | Scheduled |
| Gymcrack | Staged | Scheduled |
| BGBF Leger | Staged | Scheduled |
| Yorkshire Oaks | Staged | Scheduled |
| Star Sports Derby semis | Staged | Scheduled |
| * Previous race Dec ‘16 | ||
| ** 2017 Essex Vase cancelled | ||
| *** Win prize to £3,000 from £8,000 | ||
| **** Staged October 2017 |
The failure – so far – of an agreement to book a SKY slot has been met by abject depression in certain parts of the industry. But look beyond the hand-wringing and doom mongering, how big an impact has the impasse actually had?
Here is a table showing all open races worth more than £2,000 to the winner staged between January and June 2017
Take out the loss of Hall Green for the Prestige and Wimbledon’s closing meeting and I do not see open race carnage.
Yes, the Harlow Gold Cup will have reduced prize money, a fate that may, or may not, also affect the Gymcrack, but hardly industry meltdown.
In fact, there are a string of new events that weren’t in last year’s Calendar, starting with the Astute Electronics Gold Cup with more SIS backed British Bred events lined up for later in the year.
As was pointed out by one cynical hack recently, ‘would there be less fuss if the SKY coverage didn’t affect journalists?’
As someone never invited aboard the SKY gravy-boat, I couldn’t possibly comment.
But am I the only one whose stomach is turned by the whole business? A multi billion pound global broadcaster wants greyhound racing to give it free product that it can then charge for both with monthly subscriptions and advertising.
The betting industry – which will be by far the biggest beneficiaries – are refusing to pay. They accept that the SKY betting is profitable – but they are arguing like a bunch of kids over who should pay what.
As I have stated previously, personally, I don’t think the SKY coverage is ‘all that’, and while the slightly higher profile for the sport is welcome, it doesn’t compare to the grass roots benefits that many smaller trainers are enjoying due to the ongoing media battle.
I find myself watching BT Sport as much as SKY these days and as a GM said to me recently: “Now they have split up the different channels, how many horse racing, cricket, or Grand Prix enthusiasts are likely to see dog racing anyway?”
However – people far cleverer than yours truly (admittedly not such a stretch), are predicting the general decline of digital TV in the next three to five years.
The thought process goes that improvements in the internet and broadband will mean that in future, your TV and internet coverage will be virtually indistinguishable.
You will be watching live sport on your smart TV with an internet connection and not even give it a second thought. It is already happening with movies.
That will be night-and-day game changer because it will be one more way for tracks to protect their product because internet access can be encrypted.
If you tie encrypted internet coverage with tote betting, you have a massive handle on controlling your own product.
No need for SKY, BT Sport or anyone else – and of course, no need for the betting industry.
Bear that in mind the next time someone tells you that the game’s finished.
Very disappointed that Towcester have adopted the GRA view that once disqualified dogs should not be allowed in the Derby – particularly given their bent-over-backwards leniency to one Irish runner last year.
Sorry guys – love your work – but reckon you have bottled it.
The old GRA mentality was nothing to applaud. They had a million different rules in an era when they could get away with it.
Liz McNair’s King Turbo has a major chance in the Gold Cup Final and would automatically make the top six of the Derby betting if he were to win it.
Now I can understand that if Towcester let King Turbo contest the Derby and he lets himself down, they will be criticised. By banning him there is no risk.
But Turbo was a pup when he was red-carded in the Produce Stakes. Had he been slower, and made his debut in graded company, the racing manager would almost certainly have had a quiet word with the trainer and the dog would have gone back for more schooling.
An Irish pup practically has to disembowel half the field to have its card held!
If Rab McNair had one doubt in the world, Turbo wouldn’t be entered.
Come on guys – a cracking young British bred dog – there is still time for a re-think.
