Nottingham tipster Mark Pierrepont was quite specific before the first round of the RPGTV National Sprint “Loggies Lito might be fastest dogs I have ever seen to the first bend at Nottingham and I think he will win the National Sprint”
In his tipping piece on Monday, Mark opposed the Simon Harms trained runner who duly romped up to take the £3,000 first prize.
The winning trainer said: “I was a bit surprised to see Mark oppose Lito be honest. I guess he was basing his view on that strange performance a couple of runs ago. I don’t think there is any doubt that Lito lost sight of the hare, though I am certainly not blaming the hare driving. He just didn’t come off the second bend like I would have expected and seemed to be momentarily unsighted.
“Having said that, I love the stuff that Mark does; all the information, and those sectionals that he produced are a real useful tool when you are assessing races.”
Harms admits that sprinters and stayers are a lot closer to his heart than middle distance runners. And with six wins from 10 outings to date, he couldn’t ask for any more from two bender Lito who is a ‘cousin’ of Sunday night’s Oaks winner Ballymac Trend (their dams Motor Abigail and Ballymac Galtee are litter sisters).
Simon said: “Lito is a typical sprinter; a bit hyper and doesn’t kennel well. While it might be true that sprinters don’t take a lot of training, in his case it is more mental than physical, trying to make sure that he uses all his energy in the race, not 18 hours earlier.”
Based just outside Southampton, it is now around seven years since Simon took out his training license. He has experimented, backtracked and is enjoying the most successful and enjoyable year to date.
He said: “Greyhounds are a great release for me. I own a multi million pound business trading in medical gasses and employing between 20-25 people. As you can imagine, Covid has been manic for us. I fit out operating theatres and special baby units. We had one spell at the outbreak of Covid where we turned over a million and a half pounds in seven weeks.
“I started out as an owner at Poole and when I kept moaning about how the dogs were running my wife suggested that I should do it myself. I started out at Towcester, first time around, and the excitement of walking into the place has never left me. We took on more dogs, and I built a kennel that would take 55 dogs.
“When Towcester stopped trading, I moved onto Hove and then Swindon, but it wasn’t for me. I had three staff but being at Hove with a bunch of graded dogs at 10am on a Tuesday morning just didn’t appeal. I am not knocking anybody else for doing it; this industry couldn’t survive without the betting shop meetings.
“I also fully understand that everyone isn’t in my position, but I am a ‘Saturday night’ man. I love open racing. We now have 12 dogs, of whom nine are open racers and three graders for Towcester. They are all my own dogs, or predominantly mine in partnerships with a couple of friends. I don’t want owners.
“At the moment there are too many dogs at Towcester so the racing office use my dogs when they need them. If other trainers need the races more than my dogs, it isn’t a problem. But my wife (Ester) loves taking the dogs there and enjoys all the banter with the staff and other trainers.”
Lito’s victory at Nottingham following Droopys Bird’s win in the Kent St.Leger means that Simon is hovering around a top 12 slot in the trainer championship.
He said: “To be in the top 20 after six or seven years as a trainer is great fun. I love being back at Towcester and I can’t work out why so many people keep having a go at the place. They are hoping to bring back Saturday night opens next year which would be so badly needed. With Hove having dropped their Thursday and Romford talking of only running opens every second Friday, we will need Towcester.
“They are trying so hard to make a difference there, but still the knockers keep having a dig. I haven’t got time for any of that. I do my own thing and keep my head down which is why I don’t normally agree to interviews.”
