The Greyhound Trainers Association (GTA) has been wound up.
Committee member Keith Allsop said: “It was inevitable once the GBGB took away our annual grant of £5,000. It was costing £1,500 in insurances just to keep going.
“GBGB have got what they want. They came up with an alternative to sit on the board in Peter Harnden, not that I have any personal problem with Peter. But I think it is a huge pity that they have managed to divide trainers and take away their voice.
“I really do fear for this industry unless more notice is taken of trainers. At one stage I had 26 dogs, all open racers, but I don’t own one any more. All the enjoyment has gone from the game. I could afford it, but others can’t. You look what is happening to open racing, with very few one-off races. Not being able to get trials. It will kill the game off.”
The GTA was created by an amalgamation of a private trainers organisation with contract trainers in 1965. It was led for many years by John Coleman and later John Haynes.
The last chairman of the organisation, Ricky Holloway, swept to power with a 181-61 majority over John Simpson in 2012. However following an outburst on RPGTV, and the threat of legal action from four GBGB directors, Holloway was forced into a climb down. Within days, it was announced that he would no longer take the place of the ‘practitioner director’ on the Board. There have been no GTA elections since that date.
The trainers representative on the Board, Peter Harnden said today: “I won’t be commenting on anything to do with the GTA, other than to say that I will continue to represent all greyhound trainers, whether they are former GTA members or not. This is a very difficult time for the industry and trainers voices must be heard.”
The GTA have traditionally staged the Annual Trainers Meeting early in the new year for the top six most successful handlers. In recent years it has been staged at Sheffield and sponsored by the stadium and feed manufacturers GAIN Nutrition.
Their spokesman Sean Traynor said: “As far as I am concerned, we would continue to sponsor the event, along with Sheffield, next year. However, in my opinion, it would be unfair to ask Sheffield to commit to that at this stage, until at least they could be sure of crowds being allowed back into the stadium.”
