I am delighted that Paul Ephremsen will be the owners representative on GBGB, and not just because he is one of my best friends. I think he is exactly what this industry needs.

Paul’s great strength is his knowledge of marketing. He is exceptionally good at what he does. He has a great understanding of modern advertising and marketing techniques, which is an area in which this industry has been so sadly lacking for so many years. Yet at the same time, he understands how this industry works as an owner. In the last year he has enjoyed the success of Calco Flyer, and the downside of the unfortunate California. In the past, he has run a kennel and really understands what greyhound racing is about. That expertise and knowledge is a very rare combination.

Knowing Paul as I do, I think he will take a bit of time to assess the situation before he makes any decisions. He has his first board meeting shortly, and I would expect him to do more listening than speaking. But he won’t be shy about getting his point over at the right time.

One of the things that Paul and I have talked about over a long period of time is the finances of training. We all know that the tracks have to be profitable to pay prize money and that the GBGB contribution is very small, around a fiver a runner. The greyhound industry as a whole needs to make more money for everyone’s sake.

From a trainer’s perspective, we would love to be able to increase our kennel bills. Greyhound trainers don’t expect to get rich, but if we were able to charge £10 per day per dog it would enable us to improve the kennels and pay the staff a living wage. We currently charge £8 per day, and others charge a lot less. It is still considerably cheaper than a boarding kennel despite all the extra work of keeping a greyhound in training.

If we could establish £10-a-day as a figure, we could then tie it in with inflation and move on. But given current prize money levels, that simply wouldn’t be possible. Owners would simply drop out of the game, or take their dogs to trainers who charge less, including those at the lower end of the market who would be prepared to cut corners.

Even £10 per day is not excessive. Back in 1975, White City were charging £7 per week. Allowing for inflation, that would be £68 per week now.

We are still ahead on our ‘open winner per day’ schedule but there are very few competitions on while the Derby is ongoing. I don’t know who we will enter yet but obviously Bruisers Bullet would have to be our leading contender after beating Clares Rocket last week.  Bullet picked up a small tear in his TFL muscle but it was precautionary to withdraw him and he is due to trial back next week.

I am hoping for quite a decent turnout on Derby final night with Calco Flyer and Clondoty Alex in the veterans and Aayamza Breeze is a staying race. She is fine after being knocked over at Hove. We will play it by ear with the others with dogs like Roswell Romanov being entered in the Derby itself. He doesn’t really have the early pace of a Derby dog but there are few other options around at this time of the year.

I was able to contribute to the Derby discussions at Towcester and was keen that they stage several eight-runner opens on final night, including the Dorando Marathon which could be a great spectacle.

I was originally a bit cautious about eight-dog fields and they aren’t for all tracks, particularly the small ones. But I am a convert, really for two reasons. Firstly, I think the industry needs to supply what the customer wants and if the customer is abroad and demands eight runners, we need to be versatile. Secondly, eight-runner fields open new opportunities in terms of place betting.

Could I imagine eight-runner Derby heats? Why not? When you want Australian or American racing, you soon get used to it. If they are well graded, there is no issue whatsoever. As for open racing, the only proviso I would have is that you would want enough entries to be able to put a clean race together. If you only had eight dogs entered and they well all railers, I wouldn’t like it. But if you had a dozen including wides and middles, why not!