They say that ‘once racing gets in your blood, you never lose it’.

Though there can’t be many greyhound owners who can claim to have ridden a Royal Ascot winner for the Queen. David Harrison can!  The former jockey had been involved in multiple different roles in horse racing, though it was a conversation with a neighbour in Spain that saw him venture in greyhound ownership. 

David is a self confessed animal lover but surprisingly, didn’t become involved in horseracing until he was 16.

He said “I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I left school. I always loved sports and was small so my careers teacher gave me a leaflet for the British Racing School being a horse racing fan himself and I said – ‘well I’ve never ridden a horse before but…okay‘!”

It’s safe to say David was thrown in the deep end on his first time riding.

He said: “A girl in my class said she had horses so it was arranged one morning that I would go on a ride out with her. But on the way back we were riding on the grass verge next to the dual-carriage way so had to canter as the horses could get spooked if you go too slow.

“However, my horse started getting quicker and quicker and the next minute I was in a flat out gallop. Thank god the horse pulled himself up at the end of the path just before a big roundabout. I just remember the speed of going that fast on an animal, it was a real buzz.”

David decided to apply to the British Racing School and was accepted.

But it was recommended that he should join a racing yard first to gain experience. So it was arranged with trainer William Hastings-Bass, a member of the House of Lords and former trainer to Queen Elizabeth II, that he would gain three months experience there before heading back to the BRS. After completing his course, he returned to William Hastings-Bass as an apprentice jockey. 

In 1990, William Hastings-Bass became the Queen’s main trainer, which entailed him moving stables from Newmarket to Berkshire. David was happy to move though and soon made a name for himself riding his first winner for the Queen in 1991.

Overall, David rode 27 winners for the Queen in his career and met her multiple times in the winners enclosure and at the stables too where she turned up in her wellies!

David said “I’d say 1992 was my breakthrough year as I became Champion Apprentice Jockey and also rode the Queen’s first Royal Ascot winner for 25 years”

This was in the Royal Hunt Cup with the horse Colour Sergeant pulling off somewhat of a surprise at 20/1. David described putting on the royal silks “a real buzz” and on his Royal Ascot winner “it was a bit of a blur on the day, they called a photo but I knew I had won. The Queen was just delighted.”

On his career after that, David said “In 1997 my trainer said that he was relinquishing his licence and I had become gripped by the racing in Hong Kong after passing through on the way to Australia. There were 30,000-40,000 people at every meeting and the racing is so competitive so I applied for a position as a club jockey and got accepted. I ended up riding there for 3 years on and off.”

“In 2001 I was in Japan but got a call from Hong Kong saying they were short of jockeys. So I went back, but two months later I had a bad accident resulting in a spinal injury.

“I was hospitalised and operated on over there but then got flown back to Stoke Mandeville’s spinal unit where I stayed for nine months doing my rehabilitation and learning how to get through life with a spinal injury.”

Since having to retire from being a jockey, David has stayed in the horse racing industry but in other roles. For nine years he was a jockey’s agent looking after some of the top jockeys trying to get them rides on the best horses which he enjoyed. Now though he makes his living punting on the horses and is in the process of creating his own tipping website, yet to be named but is in the works. 

After having to retire from being a jockey, due to his spinal injury, David couldn’t regulate his body temperature very well and the cold weather in the winter became a struggle fuelling his decision to buy a house in Spain where he could escape the cold in winter. He did this in 2003.

When moving onto greyhound racing, David, being from North Wales, had visited both Oxford and Swindon for nights out in the past and has always kept an eye on the Derby. A certain ‘Ballyregan Bob’ was mentioned by David when speaking about any past memories he had from it.

But, for the most part, his involvement has only come about recently. 

This came about when meeting someone he knows in Spain put David in contact with Kevin Perisi who offered him a share in a new pup Coolavanny Olly. David soon accepted.

He said “I thought ‘why not?’ Anything to get my excitement up and adrenaline going.”

In fact, Coolavanny Olly has his own special story.

The owners of the Katie O’Flaherty trained February 22 pup are the the ‘Best Wishes Jimmy Syndicate’, named after Jimmy Wright following his MND diagnosis.

I’m sure no one in the sport would begrudge Olly turning out a decent dog. Unfortunately, he couldn’t qualify from his Puppy Cup heat last Friday but there is potential there with his age and inexperience. 

David has had shares in racehorses the last 5 years but said “It’s very expensive and in Britain the prize money can be pretty pathetic for this day and age and especially compared to other countries like Hong Kong.”

He said “I love any kind of racing” another reason for getting involved with the dogs and “if I’m over in the UK a bit more and get the chance to go to the tracks and watch them run, I’d definitely be interested in buying a few more shares in dogs.”

When comparing the two sports, David thinks that greyhound racing could do more to make the owners experience more special. He said “all the racetracks are pretty good, Chester especially, they give the owner of every horse free entry to the track and the restaurant. All the tracks though do look after the owners and provide great hospitality. The winning connections always get taken into a room for a couple of glasses of champagne.”

“Greyhound racing can definitely improve on owners hospitality, they probably couldn’t give every owner a complimentary table in the restaurant with the amount of dogs that race as it would take up the majority of the restaurants but as an owner you should have at least 25% discount for two people. I think the tracks could definitely invite winning owners to the bar for a glass of champagne if they want it, it wouldn’t cost a lot but just adds to the experience.”