GEORGE CURTIS: CHAPTER 2 (3/3)

Curtis has always seen his staff as an essential part of his success. “They are the ones you should look after,” he said. “Without them, you are totally lost. And if you are talking about trying to keep the game straight, they are the last people you should short-change. If someone is short of money, they are obviously going to be that much more vulnerable to any wrong-doing.”

As a former kennel lad who worked his way up through the ranks, it saddens Curtis that there is no real future open to kennel staff today. “When I was young I could set my sights on becoming a trainer,” he said. “But now track kennels have more or less died out, this is no longer a possibility for most youngsters. At Brighton we are hanging on by the skin of our teeth. We are the last place where the stadium runs the kennels. Now trainers must have their own set-up, and you’re talking about £200,000 for a decent place. It is the people who have money behind them who don’t need to make the game pay that are our trainers of the future. There is no opening for a kennel lad living on basic wages who is trying to better himself.

“I always say to my staff: ‘Come and work here and enjoy yourself. The moment you’re not having fun, leave and find something else. There’s no point in hanging on, hoping things will improve.’ ”

In the past, some kennel staff have become trainers. Doreen Walsh was Curtis’s head girl for eight years before getting her own kennel at Brighton. But now it is Curtis’s owners who are making the move to become trainers. Bob Young, Peter Carpenter, John Copplestone, George Ripley, and Bill Tozer all used to have dogs with him.

“I have always given them all the advice I could when they were starting out,” said Curtis. “I wish them all the luck. But it saddens me that the old days of track trainers with big kennels have gone.”

In fact it was Portsmouth trainer Bill Tozer who gave Curtis his second classic winner, in his days as an owner. “Bill brought Wired To Moon over from Ireland and he looked useful going round Brighton,” he said.

The black dog by Monalee Champion out of April Atomic specialised over four bends and this gave Curtis a shot at the big money competitions.

The 1977 Scurry Gold Cup at Slough was the first major target and in one of the best competitions for many years, the October 1974 whelp showed he was more than equal to the task. Carhumore Speech proved to be his main rival and there was little to choose between the two as the classic progressed.

Wired To Moon beat him by 27/4 lengths in the first round, recording 26.93 for the old 434m trip. But in the second round Carhumore Speech got his revenge with a 3/4 length win against him, clocking 26.70.

The two were separated in the semi-finals. Wired To Moon produced his best time of the competition with a 26.47 win but Carhumore Speech showed he was in blistering form when he also took his semifinal in a new track record of 26.37. This run was enough to make him favourite for the decider and Wired To Moon started at a generous 4-1.

Xmas Holiday, winner of the classic the previous year, missed his break and White City runner Fiano briefly took up the lead. But by the second bend Wired To Moon took command and he was well in front going up the back straight. He won in 26.63 beating Carhumore Speech by 11/4 lengths.

Xmas Holiday was in third place half a length adrift. Fiano finished last and sadly the Adam Jackson trained dog was killed in a road accident on his way back to the Northaw kennels that night.

Wired To Moon took over where Glin Bridge had left off for Curtis and in the next 12 months he was contesting all the major competitions. He missed out in the 1977 William Hill Lead at Hackney by just neck when Gaily Noble got the verdict, but a month later he made up for it by winning the William Hill Sixer final clocking 29.51 for Hackney’s 484m. He looked all set for victory in the 1978 Pall Mall after running unbeaten to the final. He started as evens favourite but he was so badly baulked at the first bend, he lost the race and trailed home by 17 lengths.

“He was done so badly at the first bend that he went lame,” said Curtis. “It was disappointing, but we had our share of wins from him. He was a useful dog and soon afterwards he retired to stud.”

 

It was at the end of the Glin Bridge/Wired To Moon era that racing manager Jim Layton arrived at Brighton. This was the start of a useful working relationship, based on mutual respect.

“Jim Layton is the man to go to if you want to know anything about breeding,” said Curtis. “He has really promoted that side of the sport in the South of England and as a result we have a lot of good puppies coming through at Brighton.”

Layton has always looked on Curtis as a true ambassador for the sport and has particularly admired the way he gets on with his owners. “I have never known him to say a bad word about anyone,” said Layton. “He treats everyone with the same cheerfulness and honesty. He is not afraid to tell owners the truth about their dogs — and that is a vital ingredient for success. When it comes to the dogs his care is unstinting. He would sooner go without himself than see his dogs go short.”

Life at the kennels had never been busier, but Curtis was struggling to keep pace as he was suffering increasingly from arthritis in his hip. “It got so bad I was like a cripple,” he said. “I couldn’t get in and out of my car, let alone exercise greyhounds.” He was sent to hospital and given an artificial hip in an operation that transformed his life. “I was a couple of weeks in hospital and I was meant to take it easy for a month,” said Curtis.

“But I couldn’t wait to get back to the kennels. We had a rotating washing line in the garden and I used to walk round and round hanging on to it, trying to get myself fit.” In a couple of weeks, he was back at the kennels, although it took some time before he could walk easily. “If I hadn’t had the operation I would missed out on the next nine years which were the best of my career. I’m so grateful to the surgeon, if it hadn’t been for him I would never have trained the likes of Yankee Express and Ballyregan Bob.”

Maplehurst Star (Tullig Rambler-Sparks Star), who went on to sire Curtis’s great staying bitch Sandy Lane, proved a useful addition to the strength when he joined Curtis in 1979. He is, in fact, litter brother to hurdler Ballymena Moon, who Curtis now keeps at home as a pet. In a track career which lasted little over 12 months Maplehurst Star won the Take Your Place Tyrean Trophy at Brighton, the Inaugual final at Wembley and after finishing runner-up in the Sussex Cup at Brighton in 1979 he went on to win the competition the following year.

Curtis was well represented in the stayers’ events in 1981 with Corboy Champion by Itsachampion out of Corboy Honey — the same bitch that whelped Langford Dacoit. The September 1978 whelp won the Mecca Bookmakers Stayers Stakes over 740m at Hackney, reached the final of the BBC TV Trophy and won the Cesarewitch Consolation at Belle Vue.

 

But it was when Upland Tiger arrived at the Brighton kennels that Curtis felt he had at last got his hands on a classic four-bend greyhound.

The January 1979 whelp by Free Speech out of Bresheen was bought by John Houlihan and arrived from Ireland with a few races on his card including a 30.60 win at Tralee. He soon proved that he was an exceptional dog going straight into Brighton’s Al grade.

On his racing debut he clocked a lightning 29.09 for the 500m winning easily by three and a half lengths.

The track record at that time was only 10 spots faster. He was immediately promoted to the open race circuit and Wimbledon soon became his favourite track.

He took part in the 47th International and put in a brilliant run to go from sixth position at the first bend to win by three-quarters of a length from Lancia Q, breaking the 460m track record.

A week later he again set a new time for the course when he beat Knockeen Warrior in 27.48 in the Sporting Life Juvenile Championship.

“He was the greatest puppy I have ever trained,” said Curtis. “He was such a strong runner he would knock dogs out of the way. He would literally go through them as if they weren’t there. His only trouble was that he was so excitable. He would run his race before he ever got on the track.” After a winter’s rest Upland Tiger came back in great style winning the Pedigree Petfoods Championship at White City and devastating a top-class field at Wimbledon when he won the Harris Carpet Stakes by 83/4 lengths from Corrakelly Air leaving future stud dogs Dans Arrow and Loch Lomond for dead.

The 1981 Laurels seemed tailor-made for Upland Tiger for there was no dog in the country that ran the Plough Lane track better. He had an easy passage to the final, winning his first round heat and his semi. When he was drawn in trap one inside five wide runners for the decider, the race seemed a foregone conclusion. But Upland Tiger missed his break and despite a brave effort he finished a short head behind Echo Spark. Curtis remembers this race as the biggest disappointment of his career and to this day he blames himself for letting down owner John Houlihan.

John Houlihan remembers the night well. “I was standing next to George when we were waiting fo the result of the photo-finish,” he said. “When he realised we were beaten, he just froze. To be honest, my disappointment disappeared when I saw how upset he was. I thought it was just the luck of the game and I had forgotten it by the time I got home. But George was upset about it for weeks.”

The Derby at White City gave Curtis a chance to make amends and Upland Tiger started as the 12-1 ante-post favourite for England’s premier classic. “I have reached the Derby final three times with Hard Held, Sirius and later The Jolly Norman,” said Curtis.

“But I always thought Upland Tiger was my best chance of winning. He got through to the quarter-finals but he was badly baulked at the third bend and split his web. You have to accept these set-backs in greyhound racing, but it was a blow. Upland Tiger was undoubtedly one of the fastest dogs of the year.” Tiger went on to add the Flying Four at Crayford to his tally of open race successes, but Curtis felt he never really trained on.

“He was a brilliant puppy and was very unlucky that he did not win a major competition,” he said. “He was never the same dog in his third year and I think that was because he took so much out of himself. He got so excited before a race and then he would thunder through the field. I think that is what finished him in the end.”

Upland Tiger is now looked after by John Houlihan and is a much loved family pet. Tiger was the first dog he had with Curtis but he has gone on to own a number of graders as well as open racer Cashen Son.

He finds it hard to highlight a particular quality he admires in Curtis as a trainer.

“I admire them all. I think he is quite brilliant,” he said. “I have never met anyone who has such an instinctive knowledge of dogs. He can tell almost at a glance how good a greyhound is going to be. Yet he treats all his greyhounds the same from the bottom grader to the top open race star in the kennel.”

Curtis was now universally respected as a thoroughly professional trainer of graders and open racers. He had his share of success but the big time still eluded him. The breakthrough was linked to two crucial factors — the arrival of Bill Masters and breeder Jane Hicks sending her first runners to the Curtis kennel.