“I’m too old to train now. But if I was fifty years younger, it still wouldn’t appeal to me.”
It it 71 years ago that Nick Savva was first introduced to greyhound racing on his arrival in Britain from Cyprus. Since then, he has become one of the greatest trainers and breeders the sport has ever seen.
He has long since handed over the kennels to Andy Ioannou and has no active involvement in the running of it. He never goes racing and only occasionally watches a race on TV.
So how does he view greyhound racing now?
Nick said: “Some of these kennels are racing seven days a week. Sometimes they might be traveling with just one runner. How can that be enjoyable? How can they make it pay? How can you train dogs in those circumstances? It isn’t training, it is dog minding.
“It isn’t just the amount of racing, what possible enjoyment can there be when there are no crowds to enjoy it? I used to love sharing the big race wins with the crowd. They were an important part of the whole atmosphere.
“If greyhound racing was like this when I first started out, I would never have got involved.”
Interestingly – Nick draws a very clear line between ‘greyhounds’ and ‘greyhound racing’. He has two retired broods as house pets and might still be tempted to rear a couple of pups.
He said: “We’ll see. I certainly wouldn’t rear a litter, but I might buy a couple of pups just to watch them grow up. Just being around them makes me happy. Make no mistake, these animals are addictive.”
Humble in the presence of greatness – pic taken earlier today.
