EDITORS CHAIR: INNOVATION 3

To continue with a selection of ideas that would enhance greyhound racing – but have so far not been devised by the Greyhound Board of Great Britain, I suggest the following.

3 Imagination in welfare

When it comes to welfare, the GBGB, like the BGRB before it, demonstrates a singular lack of imagination.

A cynic might suggest that in the case of the promoter dominated British Greyhound Racing Board, it was because it was paying lip-service to welfarists and politicians rather than a genuine commitment to welfare. Not entirely fair in my opinion.

BGRB’s greatest welfare achievement was dramatically improving racing surfaces – and anybody who cannot see the night/day difference in the last 30 years was clearly not around then.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds have been spent on equipment and training and there are now no excuses for bad surface. Many of the circuits have also benefitted from improved bend design, drainage and banking. Bad surfaces can no longer be considered the primary source of injuries.

This industry should be proud of what it has achieved on track surfaces and it is a shame that GBGB no long seem to consider it a priority -having recently dispensed with the services of its leading expert with no successor in place.

So now, when GBGB talk about ‘targeting welfare’, they apparently refer to either retired greyhounds or prize money.

Now I am not suggesting that either should be neglected, but there are limitations with both.

In the case of the RGT, it is our equivalent of the NHS. It is a bottomless pit that no-matter how well run – and it does achieve miracles –will always be short of cash.

There are various reasons for this but primarily they are asked to home too many greyhounds.

What if we could reduce the number of racing dogs by between 10-20 per cent? More races from fewer greyhounds.

Most people reading this article would have ideas on racing spans. Most of them will be wrong. At least if they think the same way as I used to.

It is all about the size of the racing circuit! Big tracks, more races.

Well sort of. In the last 30 years I have carried out umpteen studies on tracks and they have all been limited by time and resources. They would be more ‘indicative’ than ‘scientific’, so any conclusions must be taken in that context.

The most recent study considered the racing span of a set of runners, all since retired, at nine different tracks. Who came out on top? Hove (circ 455m) with an average of 96 races per runner. So far so good for the ‘big circuit’ argument.

Not far behind but on the same number of average races were greatly contrasting circuits Romford (350m) and Sheffield (434m) with 81 each. Higher than either was Peterborough (370m), with 83 average runs per dog.

At the lower end of the numbers scale, were tracks, who I do not intend to name here, averaging between 49-59 runs per dog. One is a BAGS track, the other isn’t.

So is there any discernible factor affecting the racing span of greyhounds?

My best guess might surprise you, and given the nature of the whole topic, but is also ‘general’ and unverifiable.

In my opinion, simply totalling the number of races is misleading. For example, at many BAGS tracks it is quite common for greyhounds to have anything between five and seven races in a month. That is virtually non-existent at the smaller tracks where there are many more hobby trainers.

Previous studies in the Star (newspaper) have demonstrated a connection between age and injury. A significant majority of racing careers end in injury, though very few are as a direct result of it. Typically, connections decide that given the advancing age of their runner, they won’t persevere with a long drawn out rehabilitation and re-grading exercise.

Quite often, the smaller owner trainer, with no cost or time pressure, will not even treat non-serious injuries. A sore shoulder or swollen tendon will simply be given two or three months to recover naturally.

Now none of this would matter if the small tracks simply operated for the fun of their owner trainers. But three of the nine venues mentioned in the study about might be described as ‘smaller BAGS tracks’ with a reliance on small-medium kennels to produce runners.

There also appears to be some evidence – as per a previous Star study – to suggest that experienced professional trainers, operating at large and small tracks, have a better record at successfully returning injured dogs to racing.

To sum up – age appears to be more of a determining factor than quantity of races. You can increase the number of races if you efficiently treat injuries during that timespan.

To reduce the RGT burden by 20%, each greyhound in training would need to extend its career by 15 races to an average of 80 races.

There is a further issue to consider. Between ‘injured’ and ‘sound’, there is middle ground.

We are talking ‘sore’. It was best described to me by vet Alessandro Piras ‘how you would feel on Monday if you washed your car on Sunday’. You are not quite injured, you just need a bit of specialist care. It is the realm of people like Ron Mills.

Greyhound phyios have been around as long as starting traps and while a few are little more than quacks, top physios are more valuable than vets. Trust me, when the likes of Charlie Lister or Linda Mullins would spend time and effort going to people like George Drake or Bradburn, their credibility spoke for itself.

Apart from Ron, the current crop of younger physios including Darrell Hopper, Marie Clark and Robert Meek whose jobs are as much about managing soreness as treating injuries.

Unfortunately, not all trainers are experienced enough to even know if there hounds need treatment – before something more serious develops. Secondly, there are not enough decent physios to go around.

The subject is quite close to home with my youngest daughter in the third year of a course in Animal Physio and Rehabilitation. Sadly, every person on the course is planning to work with horses, not dogs, even though the course qualifies for both.

If the betting industry is serious about wanting to improve welfare – seeing fewer five-runner finals and preventing promoters from using increased prize money grants as a subsidy, they could indicate a desire to see a rehabilitation program put in place, possibly overseen by someone like Ron Mills, as they hand over their overdue cheque for internet betting returns.

But there is a second strand to this, suggested by trainer Pat Rosney. The conversation developed following Central Park’s second failure to attract a trainer to run a stadium owned kennel.

Pat’s view – ‘I guarantee there are trainers with injured dogs taking up the places of potential racers. When I was at Monmore, I used to send my lame dogs to my brother Pete, as it freed up space. Every trainer had a contingency plan.’

It makes you think. If Roger Cearns was prepared to equip and subsidise a rehab kennel, with reduced kennel fees for dogs injured at his track, it would enable his trainers to keep their races strengths topped up, reduce the costs for owners of injured dogs and provide a venue for a budding physio to practise their trade.

No one has championed the case of physios more than champion trainer Mark Wallis.

You might want to bear that it mind on Wednesday when Domino Storm goes to traps for her 90^th race. In the same week, her kennelmate Billys Bullet will also retire after 73 races spread either side of a broken hock.

They will follow in the steps of Adageo Bob who bowed out on a high after 87 races and leave behind Ferryforth Fran (77), Evanta Fantasy (87), Swift Whirlwind (80), Calco Flyer (102). . .