The suspension of Richard Whelan decimated Hall Green’s Friday card a fortnight ago, and led to the cancellation of last week’s equivalent fixture leaving racing manager Rob Coulthard in frustration mode.
The track were first alerted to the trainer’s suspension in the early afternoon of Friday March 24 following a positive test on Bangersands Spud for the tranquilizers Azaperone and Azaperol. It resulted in that evening’s card being cut to shreds including three and four runner races. Whelan has 24 dogs on the strength and Coulthard opted to cancel the following fixture.
He said: “Firstly, I should say that I am not prejudging this, but one dog has tested positive, for admittedly, what appears quite a ‘bad positive’. But we don’t know the circumstances as to how and why, and won’t until the inquiry. As far as we know, the other 23 are clean. Is it possible that 23 greyhounds are sitting on their beds for no good reason? If not, then we need to look at it again, but I think we have a right to be kept in the loop.”
The racing strength was partially rallied to around 260 following Whelan’s suspension, though the Ormskirk handler had a disproportionate number of wide seeds on the card.
The Wednesday opens have been under-subscribed with next week’s cancelled, though there are plans to stage supporting opens for the cancelled finals on Bank Holiday Monday.
In the meantime, the track has embraced its first owner trainer runners.
Coulthard said: “Francis O’Hare has already had his first runners and his first winner. I have know him for years and he was out of the game following a tragedy where his runners died after eating contaminated meat. I am delighted to see him training again. We also have Tom Holley and Gary Vincent with runners and another three owners still trialling their runners, Kevin Knight, John Hurst and Tony Steele. So it is going in the right direction.
(Anyone interested in taking out an owner trainer licence can contact the Hall Green racing office on 0870 8407371)
Hall Green are taking bookings for the annual awards night which will take place on April 30. Tickets @ £25 can be obtained from Simon Gray, via the Racing Office.
If they were to judge the 2017 Greyhound of the Year award based on the first three months, it would go to Sylvias Chloe (Magic Sprite-Sylviasmamasiad, Jul 15). The Richard Baker trained runner rattled off a 4,020-1 five timer, picking off A7, A5, A4, A2 and A1. She was beaten in the heats of a maiden event and then won the £350 final.
