I am delighted to welcome a new columnist to the website, Emily Wallis.
The daughter of multi champion trainer Mark, is an excellent writer and her column will concentrate on the lives and interests of the industry’s kennel staff. Plans are in place to develop the column over the coming months to include profiles, news stories and snippets. I may advise and suggest, but this is firmly Emily’s project and I am looking forward to seeing her ideas and input.
Details on how to contact her and increase the profile of this dedicated and irreplaceable workforce will be rolled out in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, this is her first contribution, a profile on the bubbly Hannah Fenwick, daughter of Jimmy and Mel. – Ed
GETTING TO KNOW HANNAH FENWICK – by Emily Wallis
Over the years, trainer Jimmy Fenwick has sent out many winners and handled some top class dogs. What some people may be unaware of is how family run the kennels really are.
With the majority of tracks being hundreds of miles away, open racing often means most from the kennels have to hold the fort at home whilst Jimmy and wife Melanie travel with the dogs. A face not seen all too often but certainly a staple part of sending winners out is daughter, Hannah Fenwick.
Hannah has always been involved in the care of the greyhounds but has been working at the kennels full time since leaving school in 2017. As many in the industry will agree, it is a lifestyle rather than a job and growing up in a busy racing kennel you must “dedicate your life to the greyhounds.” She describes that there is highs and lows of being in the industry but being brought up around the breed she considers herself “incredibly lucky.”
A major high for Hannah was having multiple category one winner Ice On Fire. She describes him as, without question, the best dog she has ever seen race, her favourite performance of his winning the 2019 All England Cup final.
She said “I cannot describe in words how I felt that night. I often still watch the video and it takes my breath away, he was a dog of a lifetime.”
However, the most memorable moment she has experienced in racing was when a bitch called Do The Dab, who was gifted to her for Christmas by her father, won a minor open race at Newcastle. Hannah has now bred two litters out of her herself, the first litter sired by kennel star Ice On Fire – all of which have won races with the best making A2 grade.
The kennel are flying with their current stars having already won two category ones this year, the most recent being Brookside Richie winning the Northern Flat at Newcastle.
He had been working well at home and was foot perfect in the heat and semi finals, Hannah had admitted to feeling nervous when she saw the potentially tricky draw in trap five for the final, although when she saw him trap it was “28 seconds of elation.” The other category one win for the kennel this year was Bellmore Sally winning her second consecutive Golden Jacket.
Sally is reported as being a bitch that does everything right in the kennels but having the biggest heart when racing and it is confirmed that, all being well, she will be kept in training for next year’s Golden Jacket.
When talking about her future within the sport, Hannah says she would love to follow in her parent’s footsteps and take over the license.
“I love the sport and I cannot imagine myself doing anything else, but at the same time it has to be financially rewarding.”
Like anyone, she sees that it is becoming increasingly difficult to get her age group involved in working with greyhounds, often due to opportunities of other, higher paid jobs
She said: “As greyhound racing stands at the moment, it needs significant funding for the next generation of greyhound trainers. There are so many aspects of the industry that we have improved in recent times but we need a greyhound levy to be set up to truly secure the long-term future of the sport.”
Hannah also sees another way of attracting a younger generation into the sport. She has always wished that Newcastle Greyhounds would take ideas from Newcastle Racecourse.
She says: “Every year I go to the Ladies Day, you dress up and it’s always a great day and extremely busy. If the greyhounds could do something like this where you can get dressed up and a prize was rewarded to the best dressed it would attract more people.”
Social media is key and if events like this were promoted in this way, it would attract a younger generation.
There are ways that Hannah can see the sport being improved and attracting more people her age to keep it going, however her future is securely set on carrying on training greyhounds.
Her favourite thing about the job is looking after the dogs daily.
She said: “Feeding them well, exercising them and, most of all, giving them the love and extra attention to see them perform to the best of their ability on the track makes it all worthwhile.”
On Saturday morning, the kennel will send out the short favourite of the TV Trophy final in Bellmore Sally, hoping to make an already successful year even better.
