Paul White sends out his first 15 runners at Monmore on Monday and fulfills a long held dream that is rooted in a chance meeting with Arthur Walters, dad of trainer Jenny, more than 20 years ago.
Paul said: “I ran a scrap metal and haulage business and had a couple of lurchers. One day when I was collecting from Arthur he said, ‘have you ever thought about a greyhound?’. I hadn’t but he gave me an old bitch and it all started from there. We were racing at Chesterton and she was hopeless, but one day we finally got a win out of her and I was hooked.”
The interest grew over the years and Paul moved into the NGRC ranks before finally giving up the scrap business around five years ago. Based on a 25 acre site at Werrington near Stoke, the kennel currently feed around 115 mouths each day including pups.
Paul said: “We have room for 90 racing dogs plus the pups and make full use of the whole site with plenty of paddocks and fields for galloping. We had over 40 graded at Nottingham and have 25 already graded in at Monmore with more qualifying all the time. Eventually I would expect to have around 50-60 racing there.
“The move to Monmore has been a dream of mine for a long time. It is a great circuit and a really well run stadium. We will benefit from a 40 minute journey instead of an hour and a quarter but financially the benefits are huge. Our monthly income will increase by at least 35-40%. We have only lost a couple of dogs by leaving Nottingham but we have gained several from Nottingham owners who didn’t have dogs with us before.”
Good galloping facilities
The White runners have really taken to Monmore and Paul expects to have dogs in all grades with a slight leaning towards the upper end.
He said: “For some unknown reason a lot of the dogs have really taken off since coming to Monmore. It might be the slightly noisier hare in some cases, but in others it is because they aren’t running so wide.”
A number of the White runners will already be familiar to the locals, none more so than Sallows Ford who has won three recent opens at his adopted home and has 28.19 over the standard.
Paul said: “He is fast dog who finds that little bit extra when he has to. Monadreen Prince has taken well to the track and won an open last week and Paddythechampion ran a cracking race to win the 684 on the same night. Look out too for a young pup called Burgess Mack who won an open on debut. We have three litters of pups ready to start schooling. I couldn’t be more excited.”
SALLOWS FORD ran for Nottingham in the 2015 Bags SIS Track Championship. Photo: Steve Nash
