EDITORS CHAIR: THE LIFESPAN OF A SPORT

“Greyhound racing will probably be around in 10 years. 20? I’m not so sure.”

The words of a racecourse promoter this week. I would be interested to take a straw poll on how many greyhound supporters would say ‘I’d settle for ten.’

There are many reasons to believe that greyhound racing has a limited lifespan. Here are some of the main contenders:

1) Welfare

I put this first not because I see it as the main issue, but simply to get it out of the way.

I don’t expect the welfare issue to lessen, it is more likely to broaden. Even within the last week, we have seen horse racing being outed with adverts on London buses over the use of whips. But where does it stop? Gymkhana, sheep dog trials, sled dogs, agility trials? (Those bastards making dogs run and jump over hurdles just for their own amusement!)

Greyhound racing in Britain deserves to be on trial due to decades of looking the other way and failing in its responsibilities. But as it has responded and continues to respond. Over time, the ultra nutters and cash opportunists will be exposed to the wider public, and Government, for an overdue examination of their exaggeration, hype and bare-faced lies.

If we continue on the path we are taking, the antis are an irritation, not a danger in my opinion.

 

2) Loss of tracks

We are set to lose many more greyhound tracks, probably within the next two years. This is inevitable for a variety of reasons, and most of them don’t involve blame.

Sure, GRA lied in the 1960s when they said they would sell every second track and invest in facilities in the others. They actually sold every one, including themselves, to Wembley plc which was later bought by Galliard Homes.

But would huge investment in infrastructure really have made such a difference?

I think of it in terms of looking forward to the opening of the new grandstand at Romford. I am convinced that it will be absolutely buzzing every Friday and Saturday night, hopefully with somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 TOWIE lookalikes. (Gulp!)

But what about Tuesday nights? There aren’t any. In fact there aren’t any midweek meetings staged anywhere, except for those being sold into betting shops. Five tracks don’t even race on Saturday night.

Another example. Towcester was an amazing venue with great facilities, plenty of parking and top class racing. But midweek? No bugger there!

And don’t kid yourself that owners always turn out. Half the time they would rather watch their dog on TV.

 

The nature of this industry has changed many times, from crowds of 20,000 at Wembley on a Monday and 30,000 at White City on a Tuesday, through to emptying betting shops and dog racing on your phone.

The reality is, the betting industry funds greyhound racing and it doesn’t need more than a dozen tracks to meet its current and future commitments which rely on internet connections not clicking turnstiles.

You might not like it . . . . but it is what it is.

And who moans most about tracks closing with a blame list headed by GRA, the promoters in general, the betting industry, the GBGB, and whoever else they can think of?

Mr Cheapskate Bastard of Essex as he sits in his MFI imitation leather recliner, pulls the ring on a can of Asda lager and demands that he should be allowed to watch the English Derby for free on RPGTV.

 

So which will be the last dozen(ish) tracks standing?

In my view, there isn’t a simple answer. But if I was asked to pick a likely tricast, it would include Nottingham, Yarmouth and Henlow.

The formula behind the decision isn’t quite up there with unraveling the double helix, but is based on location (land values), management (not ready to retire/cash-out) and the option (see 3) to build or expand kennel complexes on-site or nearby.

 

3) Loss of owners/trainers

The loss of greyhound owners was inevitable as more and more meetings were transferred to the daytime schedule.

But greyhound owners have always had to face a grim reality; their only use to the industry was to help finance it.

When racing started back in 1926, GRA owned, and latterly bred, all their own dogs. They owned the stadiums, and kennel complexes, employed the kennel staff and even funded the early NGRC.

Eventually they sussed that they could save money by having owners pay for the privilege, with an additional benefit that attracting high society’s movers and players brought respectability to a sport previously lacking class and credibility.

Put simply – if modern promoters could afford to pay every graded winner £1,000 and every also-ran £200, there would be NO greyhound owners.

The loss of trainers is most directly a result the loss of stadiums. How many greyhound trainers would you find west of line between North Wales and Dorset? If ‘your track’ was Reading, would you really want to drive to Swindon three times a week?

Fortunately, trainers have a long shelf-life and tracks are still heavily reliant on kennel staff who began their careers wearing tie-dye T-shirts.

As for the future? Crowdless soulless BAGS and SIS fixtures might be a financial lifeline for the industry but they do nothing to attract the next generation of owners and trainers.

 

4) A lack of finance

Funnily enough, I would say this is the least important aspect. Sure, the industry has been dramatically underfunded for decades.

It is also true that the additional money flowing into the industry due to the media rights issue (it has flowed a lot more on one side than the other), has certainly helped.

But the guys now getting a decent screw out of Henlow or Doncaster, weren’t in it for money to begin with. Thankfully they can now afford the little luxuries in life, like food and clothes, but money was never their motivation.

Not convinced over the secondary relevance of money? Look at open racing, or lack of. Ten years ago most open races paid £150 to winners and £20 for others and were well supported. Now £250 is quite common with £50 for also-rans (£300 at Central Park!!).

Yet at some tracks, as many as 80% of their open race entries are their own graded dogs. Look at the big competitions with good prize money throughout, but still don’t attract full entries.

Despite all the shouting, prize money is not a primary motivation.

(It was interesting to see last Sunday’s Henlow card, full of local open race winners – Savana Dare, Busters Bullet, Stringer Bell, You Little Jimbo etc – contesting five A1s, two S1s and a D1.)

This isn’t Field of Dreams. You can pay it, but they won’t necessarily come.

 

5) A lack of dogs

For me, this is equally as big an issue as a shortage of trainers. As Henlow have shown, build a kennel, supply it with dogs, and you can always find a greyhound enthusiast to train them.

But what happens when you run out of dogs?

We are already seeing the slowest and least enthusiastic hounds ever to draw an Irish breath being shipped over to the UK’s dog hungry tracks.

But Irish greyhound racing is in serious decline. Even before last week’s announcement of the impending closure of Lifford and Longford, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that several others will go when the IGB funded independent report into the viability of each track is finally published.

In a few weeks there will be 16 tracks on the island of Ireland including two in the North, though both Drumbo and Derry are almost ‘club tracks’, run with enthusiasm and passion, but no state funding.

(You could reasonably argue that Lifford and Longford have only survived for as long as they have due to the support and sportsmanship of the Duffy family and Howard Wallis respectively.)

Drumbo, has only recently re-opened, races one night per week. In the first fortnight of August, Derry staged seven races.

So that means 14 tracks, including the independently owned venues, under the auspices of the Irish Greyhound Board for a population of around 4.8 million souls. (Compared to 21 tracks in the UK for a population of 60 million).

But all of the previous planning came before the recent RTE expose. Make no mistake, it has hit the Irish industry in a big way with significant loss of sponsorship and cancellations of bookings.

The current IGB Board have done their best. Their current chairman, Cork solicitor Frank Nyhan, comes highly recommended from people whose judgement I would trust implicitly. But taking over the role, he must have felt like a new headmaster arriving at a failed school. And yes, that is what you think it is, smeared on the walls by RTE. And, unfortunately, it is sticking.

Britain relies on Ireland for 90% of its greyhounds . Litters are already down by around a third in the last decade. Those figures could soon go into freefall.

 

Conclusion

It is inevitable that greyhound racing will continue to shrink.  The bigger issue is that I don’t see it being a slow reduction. This could happen very quickly.

Reductions in breeding which will only accelerate as Irish enthusiasts walk away. Britain could take up more of the breeding slack, but most breeders started out as owners and trainers . . . . .

Meanwhile racing strengths are already stretched to breaking point. Although doomed, Wimbledon closed early due to a lack of trainers/greyhounds. Mildenhall could barely manage a meeting a week, so was of no interest to SIS.

Meanwhile a number of trainers are known to be running contracts and are considering switching tracks. In some cases, the loss of their dogs could result in that particular track being unable to fulfill its betting shop contracts. The loss of one fixture of their two or three would prove terminal for most.

And if Towcester were to re-open, something would hit the fan pretty damn quick.

You might get ten years – if you are one of the lucky ones!

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My thanks to Gordon Bissett for giving me the heads-up on this exhibition by artist Katharine Le Hardy depicting the demolition of Wimledon Stadium. The subject matter will cause mixed emotions, though I don’t think anyone can argue that she really captured the essence of the place

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Look out for an interesting radio programme on Sunday at 3pm on Riverside Radio.com. The British Greyhound Racing Special is hosted by Iain Wilson and features interviews with GBGB’s Mark Bird and Paul Illingworth, promoter Rachel Corden, Annalise Thompson, Star Sport’s Lofty and Derby sponsor and owner Richard Evans.

It promises – for a change – to be a good productive piece on the greyhound industry. It will also be available on SoundCloud and Mixcloud, so anyone can listen to it at a later date

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I leave you with the following – hopefully it plays okay on your phone/laptop/tablet. It is certainly well worth a watch. Just click on the photo.