Nobody is coming – it’s down to you.
As a self professed saddo, I enjoy listening to a small handful or insightful motivational speakers. Mel Robbins is one of my favourites and she is responsible for that particular mindset.
It’s pretty self explanatory. ‘If you are not prepared to help yourself, don’t expect others to save you’.
I think we can all accept that greyhound racing has been in decline since before most of us were born. Take any parameter: dogs, owners, trainers, stadiums, betting and they are all down.
Having seen better times, it is probably human nature to see HMS Dogracing as a sinking ship.
But are things that bad? Really? Or has moaning become the default?
Greyhound racing is rammed with people with a ‘glass half empty that someone has just pissed in’ mentality.
Some of the worst offenders are friends of mine.
But just for once, let’s have some ‘glass half full’ positivity.
Politics: GBGB is far from perfect, but there has never been a worthy governing body. The days of an anti-trainer NGRC in a constant power struggle with a BGRB which abused BGRF funding, was definitely worse than what we have now.
The recent appointment of three new highly capable independent directors to the Board has been another leap forward.
The election of Ian Foster as owners rep is another huge plus. While respecting the talent that has occupied the seat previously, Ian’s skillset is best suited to the role, in my view.
But more could be done.
Following the resignation of Ian Smyth, GBGB must now bypass the RCPA and take the opportunity to invite Kevin Boothby to the Board.
It is an absolute no-brainer and would bring balance and fairness to promoter representation.
The best ever governing body is within touching distance.
Welfare: The recent debate in Parliament shows that greyhound racing is in no immediate danger of a ban, but there remain major challenges ahead.
In my view there is still considerable scope for welfare improvement, some of which I have already identified. Here are another couple of thoughts.
1) We cannot justify ex-racers being PTS on the grounds of ‘unsuitable for homing’. In my view, the industry should accept responsibility for the miniscule handful of real rogues (see below). They should be thoroughly vetted and if necessary, kept for the rest of their lives in the kind of environment where they are content and not a danger to each other or household pets.
2) GBGB should fund at least two national rehab kennels. Many careers are lost because kennels do not have the resources, expertise, or time, to rehabilitate injured dogs. Trainers should be able to release injured dogs for free treatment/rehab. They would also act as teaching centres for kennel staff.
Of course all of this has to be paid for.
But here’s an interesting thing. A couple of weeks ago I met some very senior figures in the betting industry, and their attitude and knowledge of the issues astounded me. They were hugely proactive on improving welfare.
Instead of whining about cost, they were talking of raising the bar so high that nobody would even question it.
As for thoughts of the cost – their thinking was clear – welfare was an operating cost that had to be paid to keep greyhound racing operating.
The next step is already in hand – GBGB formulating the necessary plans and costings required.
In short though – the welfare situation has never been stronger and the future looks bright.
Tracks: The number of licensed tracks has more than halved in my time at the Star though those numbers were never sustainable.
In the last decade or so, the number has hovered around the 20 mark. Many of the closed tracks were feeling their age, a story echoed in football at Highbury, White Hart Lane and the Boleyn Ground to name but three.
The last of the sites with significant property development values, mainly ex-GRA tracks, went the way they were always going to go.
But then Kevin Boothby breathed life back into Towcester and Mildenhall, and the return of Oxford is a fabulous story. There remains a question mark over Henlow, though the closer it gets to 2024, the more likely it is to survive.
The closure of Poole and Peterborough was particularly hard to take. Both were, in their way, victims of the media rights situation.
The fact that Entain are currently spending significantly on several of their stadiums suggests that they have long term futures.
We’ve often argued that the betting industry only requires around ten tracks to operate a full service. We have TWO services and that isn’t about to change.
Prize money: I covered this subject recently and while it remains inadequate, it has accelerated way beyond inflation in the last couple of years.
I have no doubts that it will continue to increase at similar levels. Why? Because prize money is – and has always been – a business issue. With no sign of the media rights skirmish being settled, greyhounds and trainers will be at a premium.
As GRA discovered 90 years ago, paying more prize money will always be more cost effective than breeding and owning them yourself. (And retirement was barely an issue in those days.)
Prize money can only increase
Future: The appointment of Racing & Sports PTY to handle the industry data is hugely significant in my view.
Along with other feedback that I am getting, I believe the betting industry is planning to give greyhound racing a significant overhaul and needs to upgrade on its data, in much the way that Australian racing has done.
(Did you realise that greyhound racing is proving considerably more popular than horse racing on the self serve betting shop terminals?)
The betting industry might be facing huge challenges with the migration of customers to digital from retail.
But greyhound racing produces excellent percentage returns and looks set to remain integral to UK gambling, and beyond, for the foreseeable future.
So – to return to the thoughts of Mel Robbins – we can either pick holes and focus on what is wrong with greyhound racing – or we can look to the positives and attempt to determine our own future.
Because nobody is coming.
Former much traveled RM Simon Harris was recently in touch regarding the disqualification of Narcos Tata in the semi finals of the ARC Northern Flat at Newcastle. Here she ran from trap four.
Simon then highlighted Narcos Tata’s previous race at Monmore. She was again in the black jacket.
Now this is not a discussion about whether or not Narcos Tata should have been disqualified at Newcastle. Nor are we suggesting that Trubbys Jacq (T2) should have been referred to the stewards at Monmore. The fact is, her racing comment was “QAw,Rls-Mid,Ld-CrdRnIn”
Simon makes the point about consistency because some of us can’t see any major difference between the two. Yet when Peter Harnden approached GBGB about the issue three years ago, there was bugger all done about it.
Are racing managers all singing from the same page? Can you imagine football refereeing where each official is left to decide for himself what constitutes a foul or an off-side?
Get it sorted FFS!
PS: I have been planning to run this story for more than a month. In fact, Trubbys Jacq was disqualified at Crayford a fortnight ago.
This website means different things to different people and for many old dog men, it is a treasured link to the past.
About a month ago, I took a call from 88 year old Stan Wright with some additional information regarding a story in that week’s Remember When column.
Fans of the feature may recall reading the 1957 story of Cautious Customer. The Celtic Park track record breaker was killed in a kennel fight before he ever raced in England and his owner was paid out an insurance claim equivalent to £26K.
Well Stan was head man to Clapton trainer Jimmy Jowett and was in the kennel on the day of the incident.
He said: “I was feeding and Cautious Customer’s kennel had been left open when a dog called Case Imperial attacked him and went for his throat. It was horrendous.
“Case Imperial was a horrible vicious dog and we had warned Jimmy to get rid of him, but as was often the case, Jimmy thought he knew best. The dog was also owned by the biggest owner in the kennel which might have had something to do with it.
“It was such a shame, Cautious Customer was a lovely dog and I was due to take him to White City for his first trial the next day.
“Anyway a little while later Jimmy was walking Case Imperial when the dog turned on him and savaged him. Jimmy was rushed to intensive care and was given the last rites. In total he was in hospital for 11 months.
“Case Imperial was destroyed and that was the start of the rule when dogs had be box muzzled when they were taken walking.”
