It is my stated aim to keep the Star website operating during the Coronavirus era. To do so, I will attempt to provide any news that develops along with features and anything else that develops.
However given the scale of the project (and lack of news), I will be attempting to fill some gaps with features from our archives. We already have a significant section of the site devoted to ‘Remember When’ which concentrates on historic news stories. In addition though, we have many features that are not particularly time related.
Here is an example of a feature published in 2001 about the great trainer Lesley Reynolds. As someone who firmly believes that – no matter how training might have changed, trainers with Reynolds’ knowledge and skill would still be at the top of their profession – I hope you still find this relevant, or at least interesting. – Ed
What Would Leslie Have Done Today?
Much changes in 50 years – or 53 to be exact – but what of greyhound training.
Leslie Reynolds was undoubtedly one of the greatest trainers of all time.
From a coursing family he won five English Derbies, three Laurels, three Legers, a Scurry Gold Cup and dozens of big stakes.
He was a Waterloo Cup slipper He also set a young Linda Mullins on the path to training greatness.
Back in 1948, food rationing was still a problem, and transporting dogs could also prove an ordeal.
But training? Here is a brief insight into the daily routine of one of the greats.
Was it really so different being a great trainer back then?
Here are his thoughts of the time
At 7am all my dogs are let out in the paddocks, to give them a chance to relieve themselves. Whilst they are out, the kennels are cleaned and the straw on the beds shaken up and fresh sawdust put on the floors, and the morning meal is prepared.
At 9am all this is finished and the dogs are given their breakfast, which consists of about half a bowl of dry bread, which has been previously soaked with boiling soup.
Of course in normal times, mile would be used in place of soup.
They are then left in the kennels for an hour, to give them a chance to digest their breakfast before starting their strenuous training exercised, which begins with a two to three-mile brisk walk on the road.
The kennelmen should walk fast enough to keep the dogs at a steady trot. After the walk they are given two hand gallops up a 250-yard turf gallop.
Work
They are then taken back to the kennels for massage, which I will enlarge upon later.
This takes up the rest of the morning. In the afternoon, the dogs that need a lot of work are taken for another two miles walk and the rest are allowed to play about the paddock under supervision.
At 4pm they have their main meal of the day which is a bowl of bread, soaked in meat and vegetable soup and about 1lb of minced raw meat mixed with it (the amount of course, varies with the individual need of each dog).
That completes the day’s work except in hot weather, when the dogs are let out into the paddocks once again in the cool of the evening.
The above general routine applies really to graded dogs, that are run more or less every Saturday.
The middle day strenuous exercises are cut out on a Sunday and Monday, to give the dogs that run on Saturday, a chance to freshen up.
So far as getting a champion ready for a race, the preparation starts a month beforehand, in the case of a dog that has been out of training for a week or two.
A dog that comes in completely unfit needs sometimes eight weeks preparation.
The former is given two weeks road work before galloping is included.
Then after the third week, he is given a trial on whatever track the race he is given a trial on whatever track the race he is being prepared for is being run and again the fourth week.
One cannot get a dog to the peak of fitness by home exercises alone, however judiciously carried out.
Also I am a believer in giving a trial even when in the pink of condition, whenever he is due to run on a fresh track even if he has raced there earlier in the season.
The dog usually finds about .30 seconds after a trial on a strange track.
The reason for this is because, unfortunately, hares and traps are not standardized.
There are inside and outside hares. Some hares start in front of the traps and some from behind.
Some are silent, like the trackless type, and some noisy.
At some tracks a bell is rung just before the traps go up, at others the dog has to judge the break himself; so that is why I advise at least one trial.
Then of course, one has to study the individual requirements of the particular dog being prepared.
Some have to have a lot of work and are given four or five miles a day on the road and galloped in the afternoon as well as the morning; while others are only galloped twice during the week with about a mile walk a day to conserve their energy, and are only allowed in the paddock for the last two days to keep them fresh.
In the case of my present champion, Tonycus, he thrives on work, and as he is mad-keen, especially when he is in the starting trap, I given him a gallop of about 200 yards before he is kennelled for the race, to steady him down.
Before starting the above training, I give the dog a dose of castor oil of 2 1/2 tablespoonfuls, with a little buckthorn, so having a clean inside to start off with.
I give half that dose a week before the first heats. In the summer half a teaspoonful of Epsom-salt in the breakfast feed is a good thing. I give it on Mondays.
Massage
Massage plays a big part in the preparation.
I think at least twenty minutes should be spent on each dog every day.
First the dog is given a good hard brush over to take off loose hair and deep-seated dirt, such as is gathered when road work and galloping are done in wet weather.
Then hand rubbed; starting at the nose and face, then to the neck, down the shoulders and forelegs, up the chest and ribs to the flank, along the top of the back, down the hind quarters and second thighs, finishing off with the tail.
In the picture it will be noticed, the man grooming has the dog held against his right leg, so that he can put full weight into his massage without pushing the dog all over the place.
He has finished the forepart and is now concentrating on the side of the dog.
He is using the flesh gloves and going through the same procedure as with the hand massage.
When all this is done, the dog is rubbed over with a clean dry towel.
Teeth should be cleaned every day, and ears cleaned and toenails scrubbed with warm water and soap, as grit and dirt, which gets forced up under the quicks when galloping or racing, will soon cause soreness or even festering.
In grooming, the brushing of the inside of the legs is as essential as the outside.
When doing the fore legs, the dog’s hind quarters are held between the kennelman’s legs and the opposite leg to the one being groomed is held up to make the dog stand still on the other leg.
The dog is held against the kennelman’s leg and lightly underneath.
In my opinion, ten dogs per man is quick sufficient and even then he should be an experienced man.
I put a new inexperienced man with an old hand for about a month, before he is given six dogs himself to care for.
It is also my opinion that a dog should not be put into hard training until he is eighteen months old, although the NGRC Rules allow a dog to start racing at the age of fifteen months.
Too early training and continued racing will finish a dog off at the end of his second year, instead of him reaching his peak as a three-year-old, unless he is given a month or two’s rest after every three months’ racing until he is two years old. Afterwards a good dog should be given three months rest every year.
Feeding
As regards diet, I have already stated the main ingredients of the meals, but in these days when milk and eggs and sheep’s head (for the soup) etc., are missing, I think that certain vitamins should be given daily in tablet form, which are quite easily obtainable.
Vitamin B1 I think is most essential. All cooked foods are deficient in this nerve and brain nourishment.
Deficiency of this vitamin impairs the appetite and digestion, bringing about a loss of weight, vigour and sometimes constipation.
Vitamin C is best given to the dog in the form of raw cabbage, which I myself put through a mincer.
In very hot weather, dogs like to lie on the kennel floor for coolness and as most kennels have concrete floors, muscular rheumatism is the result.
Paddocks
When possible it is well to put in a movable wooden floor, or failing that, a good thick layer of sawdust and put as little straw as possible on the beds. If a dog does get rheumatism, an aspirin twice a day and a good massage with either Beltona or Curacho, will have him right again in a day or two.
Some dogs have difficulty in relieving themselves of their urine in the morning.
In cases of this sort, I always make a point of letting them in the paddocks the last thing at night.
I do not consider it advisable to worm a dog when he is in training, but if it is done, it should be at least three weeks before he runs in a race, as it takes quite ten days to recover from it.
A Gent From A Different Era
LINDA Mullins remembers Leslie Reynolds as “a very decent man, a real gentleman.”
Linda and her sister Jean knew the Wembley trainer prior to her working for him.
She recalls: “ We knew him from the coursing fields and I stayed in touch throughout his life. In fact I last spoke to Leslie three days before he died.
“Leslie was a real showman, he was always immaculate and would always wear collar and tie to work.
“He was a stickler for time and routine. He reckoned greyhounds thrive on it and the whole kennel was run to the clock.
“He knew all the dogs in the kennel and they all knew him.
“At feeding times he always fed the dogs himself, mixed the feed, and measured it out.”
So what are the differences between being a champion trainer in 2000 and one in 1948?
Mrs Mullins says: “The racing for a start. When you were only racing twice a week, eighth races you had so much more time to work with the dogs.
“The dogs themselves were also different. They were all from coursing stock in those days, and often bad coursing stock.
“They were altogether much more vicious, many more killers than you get nowadays. Our dogs today are so much more placid.
“But a lot of the original remedies are better than what you get today. I often still use the old remedies because in some cases they are still the best.”
“I remember they had an ointment which we only knew as ‘the pink ointment.’
“I never did find out what it was but if you had a dog with bad quicks you would apply that and they’d be cured the next day.
“Worming tablets were another good remedy. When the dogs were wormed you shifted the lot and could see everything had gone.
“Looking back so many more of the trainers in those days were real dog men who had been brought up in it all their lives.
“Leslie was one of them, but also a very person too.”
