Very sad fact the St Leger prize money is down to such a small amount. I note John Mullins’ ‘get on with it’ attitude but for a class event 24 dogs really does not give out the right signals to any trainer the game is on the brink of going down to a level no one would have dreamed about not to many years back. Mark Wallis is right, the wrong message for such a classic. A lot better to make a stand and say ‘no’. – Keith Smith
Just wanted to say about two items re-Oxford for the sake of the staff that worked hard there because the article does not do them justice.
“Oxford, might have stayed open for a while longer, but became unprofitable after losing its BAGS contract. Ironically, that venue is not about to be flattened any time soon”
From the financial figures that I saw, which covered all income and expenditure for the stadium it never returned a single month’s loss, despite the claims by Galliard Homes in their housing presentation proposals or any other person with ulterior motives. In addition other things such as Speedway could have brought in extra revenue but the offers from promoters were rejected for several years.
Also Oxford did not lose their BAGS contract, only one of the two BAGS meetings was taken away because of uncertainty over the tracks future. The Sunday BAGS continued until the end and personally I think the closure was an attempt to force the councils hand. – Gary Baiden
Droopys Trapeze is now standing at stud along side Leamaneigh Turbo at West Farm kennels, enquiries welcome via email or telephone – Ron Grey
Retired racer make great PAT dogs: pets as therapy. One is mystic, who raced as Crashing Home. The other, Minnie, raced as Kenz Frisky Lady. When retired, they make wonderful pets and I use my two to visit care homes and nurseries. They are great with poor souls who have Alzheimer’s. I am so proud of them- John Hodgeson
It’s the 90th anniversary of the Scurry Cup next Saturday 15th September 2018. Great to see this old competition first run in 1928 at Clapton still running.
I was just looking through my old greyhound racecards and found the complete set of Clapton 1928 Scurry Cup Heats, Semi-Finals and Final.
Heat winner in 1928 got £15 which equates to £600 in today’s money.
The winners purse would also be around £6K in today’s, thus a real term reduction of almost 2/3rds against the £2,500 Belle Vue’s current winners purse.
When you compare the heat winners in 1928 were getting £15 and 90 years later Shawfield are only paying £26 to handicap racing winners, this tell you everything we need to know about the sad state of greyhound racing. – Lee Calcutt
I thought that your readers may have an interest in the work to relay the greyhound track at Swaffham; and I have attached a couple of photos, taken this week, showing work in progress. The topsoil has now been laid and seeded. I anticipate that we shall be ready to start schooling trials, late Spring 2019 – Eddie Lesley
