I trust you had an excellent festive break and holiday away. I just wanted to follow-up on the article “Bruising Assessment of Ownership” in support of much of the sentiment starkly conveyed by Billy Boyle.

You may remember recently that I contacted you regarding transparency around grading decisions – and I think much of Mr Boyle’s interview is linked to this weird obfuscation about the entry point and relationship to the sport for owners. “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants” (Louis Brandeis) and while I am not alleging there is anything toxic or caustic about the current approach, it would surely be better if owners could see how the machinery works, even if our informing of its design and implementation remains limited. I should say on the grading point Peter Miller has offered to meet with me to discuss the issue and I hope to take him up on the offer in January.

In recent years the only time I have received direct correspondence from the GBGB was (ironically) for Paul Carpenter seeking the Board nomination. (I enjoyed Paul’s recent open letter too). We’re not asking for Tolstoy-Arsenev on scented paper, but the odd email or push article via the GBGB owner portal wouldn’t hurt. And that’s after we’ve taken ownership of a dog, entered into an agreement with a trainer etc. – there is little to nothing about how a prospective owner might get into the sport on the GBGB website, which seems stunningly counterintuitive. I’ve been incredibly fortunate, having landed with Bob and Maureen Pattinson via Brian at Retired Greyhounds Canterbury. No one in that chain could ever been accused of a lack of communication or enthusiasm for the sport.

Mr Boyle references Weatherbys and the BHA. Why doesn’t the GBGB arrange a Memorandum of Understanding with the BHA as obvious bedfellows? I would have thought that a GDPR-compliant shared database of customers would be in the interest of both organisations as it seeks to drive back customer engagement post-Pandemic. (And while they are there, the GBGB should see if the BHA could add an industry strand to its Development Programme).

It would appear that a lot of the conversation is around an immediate and total fix for this broken Owner-Board relationship. Perhaps we are indeed already at messy divorce, but let’s try a bit of phased counselling first. A monthly owner-centric webinar run by the GBGB – perhaps with Mark Bird at the helm – would be a fine first step. How many people are aware of the “Out Of The Traps” podcast series on Spotify? It seems to have fallen into hiatus, which is a shame, but then again it was barely promoted. Why not alert owners to each episode via their online GBGB accounts? Or even just something really simple like an email that says “Your dog(s)’ Year in Numbers”. An interactive calendar of Category One events and how to watch them. Nothing that Mr Boyle has outlined is unachievable, unrealistic nor unfair. In many ways, it is simply the absolute basics. Race replays via WhatsApp cannot surely create a major rights issue.

And finally, this is not an insistence that the GBGB sort it all out while we wait. They need only ask and I’m sure many owners would muck in – all we would ask for is reciprocation.

Kind Regards 

Alun Williams