Greyhound Trust concerns
I have been a long term supporter of the Retired Greyhound Trust (recently re-branded as the Greyhound Trust), but I am writing to state my concern over recent social media and marketing material that has come from the Greyhound Trust.
On Saturday I received a letter asking for support for the Great Greyhound Build for the new homing centre. I totally support this new homing centre (even though a Midlands/Northern location may have been more cost effective) but the wording of the letter was disappointing. When the main homing charity for retired racing greyhounds is saying they have ‘led limited, and sometimes lonely lives’ and saying ‘what about the ones who were never truly loved’ then it is insulting to all the owners, trainers, kennel staff, racing staff and racegoers who love and care for racing and retired greyhounds, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and have supported and donated £1000s to the Greyhound Trust.
Worse than that, it is in danger of undoing all the good work that is coming from the GBGB with the positive moves of the Greyhound Commitment, the welfare ambassadors and the positive moves from the tracks that have or are implementing injury schemes.
I totally get that the Greyhound Trust want to raise money to support the build but please don’t alienate your strongest supporters who love the greyhounds, work tirelessly to look after them from pups to golden oldies. Please don’t use misinformation to guilt trip the uninformed into donating.
I ask that the Greyhound Trust re-consider their strategy and make sure that we all work together for the best interests of the fantastic professional athletes we know and love.
Alison Duce
Owner of Meenagh Scobbie (racing at Sheffield) and Charlie (Watch Charlie) and Strong Suit (Sidney) who are retired and ‘on the sofa’.
We invite the Greyhound Trust to respond to Alison’s letter or to other readers for their views – Ed
Syndication silence
Myself and five family/ friends have shares in the two tone syndicate which is run very well by Andy Black. We have decided to try and purchase our own dog to run at Romford. We duly contacted four of the attached trainers from the website and have been very surprised and disappointed to only receive one reply! Now I understand they are busy and time is precious but it would have been nice to at least have an acknowledgement of our email. With greyhound racing the way it is at the moment I would have thought trainers would be crying out for new owners but it doesn’t seem to be the case at Romford! We will be contacting the one trainer who has replied and see what we can do regards a dog. I just wonder how many others have contacted trainers like we did and got no response so just didn’t bother carrying on.
Best regards
Shane Chapman
I admit to being very surprised to receive this letter. Personally, I have found the Romford trainers among the most approachable group that we deal with. They will alway return a call etc. If any Romford handler wishes to respond, we will be pleased to publish their views – Ed
Rare praise
Just a note to say ‘great coverage of the Winter Derby’ (reviews).
Long live the Star. Thanks for your efforts.
Dennis, owner at Hove. (Still in shock).
Dennis Hogkins
Thanks Dennis – we are only a small news provider, but we do our best. On a similar note, we always try to cover major news stories, but when owners or trainers don’t respond to phone calls. . . . Ed
Disaster recovery
Disaster Recovery ( DR) is good working practise that any multi-million pound Business like Bookmaking Industry should undertake.
Why ? It should undertake to protect shareholder value and basic survival. When the Bookmakers offer a paltry 0.6% as payment for what it sees as fair, they should be reminded on the rare occasions like now when Equine Flu has stopped all Horse Racing , their Disaster recovery is Greyhound Racing .
This has Commercial value much higher than the current 0.6% . The sooner the GBGB realise this and react in an appropriate manner the better for all – There are plenty of yardstick measurements out there for what DR costs , it starts at about 2% and goes much higher as you get bigger . Food for thought ?
Graham Hillman
To be fair to the bookies – the 0.6%, while way too low, is only part of their investment in greyhound racing and is a fraction of their contribution paid via BAGS and SIS contracts. – Ed
