We have found ourselves at the centre of some controversy this week. We’ve been blamed, accused of lying, fraud and God knows what else, all over the fate of one of our ex-racers. Except it wasn’t him at all!
This is a picture of one of our ex-racers enjoying life in some luxury in the North of Scotland. Readers may remember Bruisers Bullet (pictured left – not sure on the identity of his lady friend) as one of the fastest dogs ever to grace Imperial Kennels. We have a couple of his first pups in the kennel. If they are even a patch on their dad, they would be a bit special. There are some straws available at Merefield Stud for anyone who is interested.
It was back in early 2018 that Robert Brinkley sent Brinkleys Blaze to us. Rob was having a terrible run and Blaze broke a stopper bone within a month of joining us. It certainly wasn’t a life threatening injury but his racing career with us was over before it started.
We sent him to be re-homed with the Hall Green Greyhound Trust branch. They were homing a lot of the Towcester dogs at the time and are a really well run branch. Although we also send dogs to a few other home finders including Kevin Stow and John Mullins, I would say that around 60% were rehomed through Hall Green.
Anyway, about a year ago somebody said that Blaze was being advertised at stud on the Greyhound-data website. I thought it must be a mistake but contacted Tracy at the branch and she confirmed that Blaze had been successfully re-homed by her and her staff.
Tracy is a great operator and as far as I was concerned, that was it. Somebody had made a mistake but it really wasn’t anything to do with us.
Then last week, it kicked off. CAGED ran a story about it on their website accusing me of sending Blaze to China. I contacted them and told them that they had made a mistake. They accused me of lying and told me to prove it. I have all my kennel records and the earmarks and microchip number of Blaze were nothing like the dog being advertised as Blaze.
Then I was accused on Greyhoundscene of earning £10K by switching the dogs and sending Blaze to China. It was very frustrating and quite upsetting. I spoke to GBGB and the dog whose earmark and microchip were being advertised on Greyhound-data was not registered with them. Sod’s law was that the whole thing blew up during coursing week and there was no one in the ICC offices in Clonmel to check the computer.
Eventually it transpired that the poor dog in China was a very moderate greyhound called Dees Big Fella. He had only raced a handful of times and hadn’t won.
To a certain extent, I don’t blame CAGED. I wouldn’t want to see any of my dogs go to China given their animal welfare record. I did have some people get in touch explaining why they had to check it out, and I take that on board. I don’t want to see greyhounds abused either. I was pretty pissed off with Greyhoundscene for the comments on there though.
Also, Greyhound-data got in touch bemoaning the fact that they were trying to set-up a new stud book and this was damaging their efforts. Quite frankly, I don’t give a damn. I wouldn’t want to support racing in China anyway. I just feel sorry for the poor bloody dog that got sent there.
On the racing side it has been a good week with three through to the Ladbrokes Golden Jacket Final including the likely favourite Antigua Fire.
My first thought about the final is – my God what a race.
There are four Category One winners in there and the biggest outsidee, Aayamza Express, was a very impressive and merited winner of the Champion Stakes.
I look at the race and genuinely can’t say how it will run. You could make a case of any of the inside four if they were to crack away. Each one is capable of leading up on the inside, and you wouldn’t want to guess which one will. Sheldan did a 23.15 sectional and is a serial Cat 1 finalist. Avastorm has broken 24.00 for 400 at Romford and led in the Leger final. Patrick’s bitch can lead or come from behind and you know she will be spot on in the final.
Yet if you were betting on who was likely to lead into the first bend, you would probably say Roxholme Poppy would be 4-5 favourite.
I reckon Antigua Fire is a fair price at 6-4. He is not adverse to nipping through a gap on the inside, but he started out as a middle-wide seed and now prefers to pass on the outside. If he was to follow Roxholme Poppy around the first two bends, he couldn’t afford to be more than two lengths adrift of her with a circuit to run, in my opinion. If Patrick’s bitch leads, you would need to be challenging her with a circuit to go or you would never get past her.
Our dogs are in great form. We won the first competition of the year at Romford, Antigua Romeo ran a cracker for third place at Hove on Saturday and we have three in the Jacket Final.
On a good day, we could get a 1-2-3. On a bad day, it would be fourth, fifth and sixth. I am just loving having an involvement.
