OPEN MINDED

Open races are an integral part of racing.

As far as the tracks are concerned, they might be used:

– to provide variety among the graded events

– to attract racegoers keen to watch the elite performers

– to provide races for dogs who are proving too difficult to grade

– to generate extra passion and rewards for local owners and trainers

– to stage events over distances where local runners may be in short supply, eg marathons and hurdles

– to supplement a struggling graded strength

 

Last Monday, Nottingham advertised for eight opens and filled six. On Tuesday, Sheffield advertised open races for five different categories, presumably happy to duplicate for a full card, and filled just four, including one with an empty trap.

On Wednesday Harlow advertised for 12 and filled four, all maidens, with the standard distance winners slower than the best graded winner on the night. On Thursday, Newcastle staged their two Northern Puppy Derby semis, of which two thirds of the runners were locals.

Oxford delayed entry for their Friday opens by a day due to lack of entries. They eventually staged seven, including five empty traps, supported by four graded races. Romford staged 11 opens on their 14 race card, with five empty boxes.

Five tracks advertised for opens on Saturday. Filled: Crayford (11), Monmore (13), Perry Barr (8), Sheffield (4), Swindon (0). On Sunday, Central Park, Henlow, and Kinsley failed to fill any of their opens. Towcester did – though it has to be said, it was probably the poorest quality group of opens that the track has staged in many a month, or possibly ever.

 

There are a catalogue of reasons why open races fail to fill, most of which are beyond the control of the racing offices. Yet strangely, many seem to take it as a personal affront when the races are undersubscribed.

Perhaps the most obvious issue is the sheer proliferation of racing?!?

A smaller number of tracks are sharing the workload, compared to former years, and for kennels attempting to support five or six meetings ‘on the service’, there simply aren’t enough spare staff to have one absent for half a day ferrying a couple of dogs up and down motorways.

The scheduling of races also plays its part. Sunday night at Swindon might have been a late end to the week for kennelstaff, but getting to Blunsdon for kennelling by 9am on a Saturday morning is always going to be a challenge. The Thursday afternoon fixture is a little easier, but is heavily dominated by local runners. Self defeating, if the primary aim is to ease the graded burden, but at least they are trying. You cannot make outside runners enter.

Also, the fact that there are less tracks than a couple of decades ago, means that there are likely to be less options within reasonable striking range. You were more likely to fill your Henlow opens if Rye House and Peterborough were still open. More likely to fill your Swindon opens if Poole and Reading were still trading.

The reduction of the gap in prize money between graded and open racing must also play a part. There is little incentive to travel for minor opens. As one trainer put it this week, ‘Why would I want to make a 300 mile round trip for the same prize money that the bottom graders are making when they might only be travelling 20 miles?”

(I have heard a moan or two about ‘the amount of traffic on the roads these days’. But you’ll get little sympathy from the old school, who had to negotiate the North and South Circular roads before the M25 existed, or the A1, before the M1 was completed. And all with no satnav, mobile phone or aircom)

The ‘four day rule’ has hardly helped matters when it comes to fitting in a midweek open or two. Nor is there great incentive to put on a fabulous midweek open race card knowing that unless it is on RPGTV, most dog followers would have to be wrestled from their armchairs.

Interestingly though, Friday and Saturday nights have bounced back, both in attendances and quality or racing with Saturday returning to its slot as the prime night for open racing.

Last but not least, the sheer volume of more lucrative events! The cream is being diluted. (The 83 Cat 1/2 events staged in 2022 were won by just 65 dogs)

Minor opens used to be a necessity to persuade a racing manager that your hound is good enough to get into his prized competition. Now, with so many Cat 1s & 2s, trainers don’t expect calls saying their dogs didn’t make the cut. Instead, the’ll probably be told ‘we could do with another couple, if you can spare them.’

With Cat One events now being being staged as double-headers, and acceptance almost guaranteed, the proliferation of trialstakes has replaced trials as pre-competition preparation.

 

But is this struggle to fill minor open races simply a result of a greyhound shortage?

(After all, the quotient of opens v graded races is barely unaltered in recent years at around 1:12.)

That might seem the obvious conclusion to reach. . . . until you look at the figures.

This table is our attempt to put fact above opinion.

The figures are clearly open to interpretation, so here is mine.

First, a couple of points to consider. The blue line represents the number of greyhounds registered by GBGB within a year. The red line represents the number of races staged in that clear.

Clear there is a time lag. For example, many of the greyhounds who raced in 2022 would actually have been registered in the previous couple of years. It is the trend that is interesting.

Having borne all that in mind, it looked to me as though registrations were struggling to keep pace between races in 2013-2014. They recovered between 2015-2017 but by 2018 and the media rights war, they were again losing ground. The 2020 Covid lockdown saw racing temporarily cease, and when it resumed, the demand for races had dropped significantly.

(Hence the great runner shortage that so many of us predicted, was averted by Covid, of all things)

However, the record low number of registrations in 2022 must be of concern. As we are all aware, there is a delicate balance between dogs required and dogs available.

That 7% decline in registrations set against a 1% decline in races is surely unsustainable in the longer term?

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Greyhound Star’s longevity – it was around for a couple of years before Racing Post – means that we are often one of the remaining points of familiarity for people who have since left the sport. On that theme, we received the following last week:

“Don’t know if you remember me? – Tom Gates – I was a trainer from 1984 to 2003 at a few tracks. I well remember your reporting. How are you? I just searched about The Gold Collar and saw an article from the Greyhound Star in 2017 with “Quirky Gold Collar history “. I wondered if it was your article? Two more bits of interesting info about the Collar occurred to me and I wondered if they’d be any use if the article was updated?.”

That was a blast from the past for me, and I am sure many of you too. Tom was a well known and popular figure around the tracks, if memory serves me correctly, I seem to remember Tom starting out at Maidstone, but is probably best remembered from his time at Catford and Crayford. I replied and had this response from Tom.

“The only reason that I saw the article was because I was looking to see if there was any value in old trophies like the Gold Collar – mine has been collecting dust for 37 years !! Anyway it was an interesting article but two memories came to me. Rathkenny Lassie is mentioned coming fourth, three years on the trot. But my Homeside Knight came 1st , 2nd and 3rd in three consecutive years. The other strange thing was my Black Whirl was only a reserve in 1985 and was only called up about noon on the day of the 1st round – one to forget for the racing manager:”

Great memories, so where is Tom and does he retain an interest in the game?

He replied: “I’m still at the same property in Charing Kent but I’ve developed it and live in one of the barn conversions now. It’s 20 years since I packed the dogs in – lots of great memories but no regrets. My hobby (racing greyhounds) became an obsession but after 19 years I’d done most everything and I’d had enough! I take my hat off to current trainers in such a difficult game.” And – “Not really Floyd. I chat to anyone with an ex racer but in 20 years I’ve only been racing 3 times . I’m still good friends with some old owners such as Peter Abrey who owned Homeside Knight and the Airtech dogs.”

Tom concluded by saying that he had only just come across the website – we were still a newspaper when he hung up his leads, but he intends to keep reading.

Great to hear from you Tom!