GREYHOUND AMBASSADOR BLOG: MARK WALLIS

The overall impact on our industry was, thankfully, minor compared to say the airline and tourism industries to name but a few and we faced just a 10 week lay off from the racing schedule, no greyhounds suffered and the support given by the GBGB and promoters to trainers meant we could just about cope with the lockdown.

Trainers hopefully made use of local & national grants available and we were always kept well informed of what was happening in these unprecedented times.

Yes – many trainers, who are mostly self employed, have still taken a financial hit but I’ve not heard of any kennel that has had a major welfare issue because of the pandemic.

Though I personally was a bit disappointed that the open class greyhounds could have maybe been catered for a little bit earlier than they have, overall, Mark Bird & the GBGB can hold their heads up high on how they handled the whole situation

Most of those who work in the industry have shown a united front. If ever we get some air time from our government this should be truly noted, we deserve to be better thought of when it comes to negotiating a statuary levy that is so badly needed.

How the GBGB found some funding for the help they gave trainers must have been a real worry for them when overall the sport receives very little compared to our equine friends. One wonders what would have happened had we been in lockdown for double the time that we had.

This brings me back to my opening paragraph, how do industries like ours survive financially when a disaster like this strikes?

Of course, having plenty of reserves in place would help. But as we struggle to survive on what we are currently given from bookmakers, that seems highly unlikely – unless we were to have a mini boom like we did 15 odd years ago.

Then the £14 million in the pot was squandered as promoters eyes lit up and grants were lavishly dished out wily nilly without a remit to pay it back!

There’s absolutely no doubt those extra funds should have been used to try and bring in mass ownership which would have far better benefited the whole sport rather than just promoters

Of course, past mistakes are not the present GBGB’s fault and we have to applaud the current regime for its huge improvement on important issues like welfare standards. I could write 10 pages on what our sport used to be like compared to now but concentrating on going forward I’ve recently muted ideas like a National Greyhound Club with a lottery style draw each week.

This could be funded by people who join the club buying a £2 ticket each week with 50% going to a decent weekly first prize and the other 50% going into sponsoring graded races/competitions.

That reminds me that fund money used to be put aside for regular Owners Bonus Series events, Easter & Christmas Bonus races and a Supertrack event. They have all now seemingly fallen by the wayside. So any new idea of getting revenue back into prize money would surely be most welcomed.

Talking about some positives in the sport, a new appointment by the GBGB for a commercial director is a must if we are to try and seek new revenue streams and hopefully the re opening of Towcester Racecourse under Kevin Boothby has to be a massive plus.

If he can secure a media deal to get more meetings than just a Sunday one we might yet have our ‘Ascot’ of greyhound racing back. Kevin Boothby is passionate about bringing top class racing to his venture but the drawback at the moment is being behind closed doors. Once crowds are allowed back he can utilise the fantastic facilities available at Towcester racecourse and it can go from strength to strength.

Recently there has been a new promoters group set up by Central Park’s Roger Cearns (FIRP) who can clearly see there is an unbalanced power structure in certain aspects of the GBGB, for the good of the sport this needs addressing if we are ever to be able to move forward properly and I’ve called recently for a seminar between all the key industry stakeholders when we are over this pandemic, it can be kept sensible with just a handful of trainers, owners, breeders, promoters, racing managers, bookmaker representatives, SIS & Arc & RPGTV members, the GBGB board and BGRF as well as a small selection of the press.  No need to discuss welfare in this forum, this would be purely to see how we can promote the sport better and an honest discussion on what actually comes into the sport financially and how we can maximise any future funding that benefits everyone.

Although I struggle to put more time into an ambassador role I’ve always tried my best, as a multiple champion trainer, to promote the sport through blogs, websites and interviews etc and now both our children Daniel & Emily are heavily involved in our kennels.

I would like to think they have a future in the sport but unless it starts to fight back from the negativity of track closures and being chronically underfunded, I will be saying to Emily, especially, go and find a career elsewhere. Talking of Emily, and I’ve said it a few times, what about having half a dozen Young Ambassadors, under 21 who can be in a separate group, they would bring ideas to the main group and most likely give us that key social media presence that is massively important these days!