I think it’s superb of Robert Brinkley to sponsor the Future Champion Unraced Trophy at Hove and I full intend to support it.
We have three young dogs lined up for the event: Blissful Scolari, Newinn Act, and Vatican Venice. So far they have only trialled over two bends but if all goes as well as I hope when they trial at Belle Vue next week, they are all heading to Hove.
Hove is a very long way for us to travel but I absolutely love the place, everything about it. I have had a couple of people say to me ‘isn’t 515 a bit tough for pups’ but I don’t see it that way. Sure they are judged over that trip but it is a short run to the pick-up. If you compare that to say Belle Vue or Wimbledon, you are taking a lot less out of the dogs.
We have plenty of pups in the kennel and are also finalising our runners for the puppy event at Shawfield and the Betfair Gymcrack at Kinsley. We have already trialled Newinn Blitz there and he seemed to run the place. Besides, the owners love going there even more than the dogs.
Live everyone I am interested to see who gets the Derby next year. If it was my choice, I would be hoping for either Hove, or Newcastle in the North or Nottingham in the Midlands. I was very disappointed to hear that GRA have ruled out running the event at Perry Barr.
In terms of racing circuits, I cannot fault it, and going along Clive Feltham’s line that you only need to accommodate around 3,000 people, they easily do that at the speedway. The facilities are spotless and the track always perfect.
There are other factrs that I would hope would be considered too. For example, what about the race distance? On one side I feel sympathy for breeders who have bred for 480 metres, but is this the time to go back to 500 metres, like Ireland (503m/550yds) or even 515m? Just think how dogs have changed with the introduction of Australian and American breeding.
The other consideration I would like given is to track kennels. Although they are all inspected, some are a lot better than others and some are very average indeed with tiny little mats for the dogs, often soaking wet. In my experience, the tracks they should all try to emulate are Nottingham, Hove and Towcester. I hadn’t been there until recently but I particularly like the way the races are split up into their own stables which means you don’t have activity taking place all over the paddock and disturbing the other dogs.
On the subject of race sponsorship, I took it on myself to contact John Turner to ask if he would consider transferring the sponsorship of the Puppy Derby from Wimbledon to Perry Barr. I was thrilled when he said that he would.
Obviously nothing is signed and sealed just yet, but everyone seems keen, including Perry Barr themselves, and I think it would be a great place to run it.
John said I was the first person to approach him about the idea and I wasn’t surprised. I think greyhound tracks are generally absolutely rubbish about bringing in sponsorships. We have several owners in the kennel with good businesses but not has ever been asked to sponsor. It seems the tracks are waiting to be asked rather than being proactive.
In a game that is so badly underfunded – its just not good enough.
