Photo: © Steve Nash

The Queen of Crayford is retiring. Long live the Queen!

As soon as Maireads Ivy missed the break in the Boxing Day Marathon I knew it was over. Not just the race but also her career. To be honest it had felt like that for a while and we all were adamant that we wanted her off, injury free and bound for the sofa.

Despite her race record of 30 wins and 15 seconds in 71 starts, contesting the Boxing Day Marathon 3 times and winning it twice, winning the Kent St Leger and being one of 2018’s top open racers she’ll always be remembered as the greyhound with the bent nose. Granted it was a nose with quite a following but bent it certainly was.

It’s the worst kept secret that mum literally paid peanuts for Maireads Ivy in 2016. She had retired Dynamic Jess (less of the dynamic mind) in 2015. Jess had been gifted to her by her late husband Ian Rice who being the SP returner and Life correspondent at Hove for centuries (as a kid that’s what it felt like to me) was (like the late Jimmy Jupp) a ‘Mr Hove’. I digress. Maireads Ivy was the 1st dog mum bought herself. Potential buyers loved her quirky face but were equally concerned that she might suffer from breathing difficulties due to the nose. Not to mention the fact her eyes were out on stalks. So mum bought her purely to have as a Hove grader and if she proved to be rubbish she already had a home to go to.

Funny how things turned out.

Derek (Knight) tried her over 695m and felt she needed further. Maireads Ivy was to go to Crayford. She was small. The track was tight. ‘It’ll suit her’ he said. She won her maiden 714m open and she kept winning at Crayford. So much for the Hove grader! Over night she became a marathon star quickly landing the 2016 Boxing Day crown. Mum always believed that as an owner she had to be there for her whenever she raced. It became fairly obvious that logistically that wasn’t always possible and so being Northampton based I got drafted in on a particularly cold night at Hall Green for the Prestige Marathon and the Voice of Maireads ivy was born. So loud was the voice that anyone in it’s immediate vacinity caught unaware was literally frozen for the entire race duration and some of those races were long old affairs.

Hall Green was one of a number of Sky appearances for Maireads Ivy. I miss the Sky coverage. Now it’s over I won’t miss treatment afforded to the sport by the current media rights set up. Maireads Ivy leaves behind a sport fundamentally changed by a media rights row that has cast a long shadow over 2018.

I became a co-owner in late 2017. Mum had a personal battle on her hands after being diagnosed with cancer and the Maireads Ivy ship needed to be steadied. Hope (we may as well call her by her pet name) had picked up an injury at Peterborough in the William Hill marathon there in August and was struggling to return from it. She did return and went on to capture the Kent St Leger and Boxing Day titles at Crayford. She was in a fine vein of form at the end of last year and despite mum’s ill health we were on high.

Maireads Ivy still has the fastest time over 750m at Romford for 2018 and that was during the first week of January! She did a 30 dead trial at Hove not long after the Mitch Millward final. ‘What sort of marathon bitch does that?’ muttered Derek. One who would always time her seasons to perfection and so for the second year she missed the Golden Jacket  (that one proved a bit elusive!) having been ill during the previous years competetion.

2018 has been a year of triumph and also frustration for Maireads Ivy. She struggled post season and she never really enjoyed running Hove either which didn’t help as she never took trials seriously. She was hit and miss at Romford where my voice bounced around its vast emptiness like a surreal echo chamber. There was always that default position  though and that was Crayford where the wins racked up (except when she really needed to win as in the Cesarewitch final where she picked up an untimely injury). She retires undefeated over 714m at Crayford since the semi final of the 2017 Kent St Leger.

However the real issue Maireads Ivy faced this year was the complete dearth of marathon races coupled with a drop in prize money. Opens would not fill. Sometimes she’d be the only entry …. not helped by the fact that she was Maireads Ivy which for some was understandably off putting. The prize money on offer (and can I stress it was never about the money) made it simply not viable to travel too far afield. I never got why a marathon runner recieved less than a sprinter. Hardly encourages the breeding of marathon dogs!
The loss of Sky didn’t help. They would have £500 marathons on offer which made travelling further afield a viable option. One cannot help but feel quantity is replacing quality. Personally I’m no fan of a sprint race over 2 bends which is won as soon as the lids ping but each to their own and I guess I’m biased anyway. I’m certainly no fan of a sprint race at 8 o’clock in the morning but again each to their own.

Time also runs out on itself. After seemingly spending the entire summer at Crayford during their summer festival the opens seemed to dry up. After a few Fridays shouting to myself at Romford I could see the end coming during the St Leger heats at Perry Barr in November. It was a grim experience and also a sad one. To see the heats of a once prestigious competition reduced to happening on a grey Sunday afternoon and for people not at the track struggling to find a bookmaker showing it reduced to watching it on a smart phone sharing a split screen with virtual horse racing (or some such) showed to me how far things had fallen. The smattering of punters at Perry Barr were outnumbered by trainers and kennel hands. This was the St Leger! Sadly it didn’t look like it. Maireads Ivy bombed. Understandable as she had not had a look around at all. Inside I was grateful that it was a one off trip. I can only hope things improve but the continued squeeze on funding implies that it might not.

After that rain sodden trip to Birmingham invariably it was back to Crayford. The TV Trophy offered a final chance of success but we all know fairytale endings are in short supply. I was proud to see her in the final but she suddenly lost that devastating early that she had rediscovered in the build up to the competetion. I suspect old niggles were resurfacing which brings us to the inevitable end. Not sure which dogs ever contested 3 consecutive Boxing Day Marathons. I’m sure it can’t be very many!

So that’s it. Maireads Ivy is coming home. I might save a few miles on the clock and race goers might save their hearing (I can recall once at Hove being so loud that I drowned out Pat Kelly’s commentary in the restaurant. I was standing outside. Sorry!). It’s been a complete blast and I’ve loved every minute of it.

I’ll say this here as well as many have asked. There will be no mini bent noses!

I would like to thank Crayford racing office for their help and support over the last 2 years. Yes. At times she felt like a Crayford dog when she wasn’t. Even the Sporting Life referred to her as a Crayford local. Also thanks to Hove racing office for squeezing in more trials before racing than I care to remember. I’m only sorry she didn’t win that 740m race this year! Can’t sign off without thanking Derek for his time, effort, patience and knowledge (as well as Maria, Brenda, Gus and Ellen for their help home and away. Every dog at Derek’s kennel is adored and so well looked after) and also the support given by the race goers (including the bloke at Crayford who only went when he saw Maireads Ivy on the card), the greyhound media and anyone else involved with the Maireads Ivy win machine.

Maireads Ivy has left the greyhound business.

Oh and mum has a clean bill of health too.

Matt Evans
Co-owner of Hope (the greyhound with the bent nose)