Richard Rees
“You idle little bastard. If you can’t be bothered you will never make anything of yourself in life.”
Richard Rees can have a little chuckle when remembering the ‘life advice’ offered by his granddad, Phil.
Richard said: “I would have been about 14 and every weekend or school holiday, my grandad would say, ‘I could do with a hand in the kennel for an hour’. An hour would become a morning and a morning would become a day. Every time.
“I’d had enough of it and one day told him that I wanted to spend the next day with my mates. He wasn’t impressed.”
Long before Richard Rees was born in 1966, the family name was already adorning every roll of honour worth inscribing.
Granddad Phil was already rated as one of the leading trainers in the country.
Originally based in Epsom, he took over Paddy Keane’s Reigate range in 1960, a kennel to which the family would return to many years later, but in 1961, Phil was on the move to Clapton to join a team that included John Bassett, Jimmy Jowett, Paddy Keane, Adam Jackson, Paddy McEvoy and Stan Gudgin.
Richard said: “I remember my dad telling me about the first race at Clapton that had an English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh Derby winner in it.”
Phil appointed a young Londoner as his head lad, John Haynes, and the kennel soon had a record on par with the best at the track.
None represented the kennel better than Cranog Bet. By the time she retired, Bet had won 39 if her 61 UK races including two English Oaks Finals, plus a Guinness 600 for owner/breeder Leslie McNair. Her win prize money came to almost £8,000 – equivalent today of roughly £199K.
The kennel came close to winning the Derby with Oregon Prince, who finished runner-up before landing the Welsh Derby and Select Stakes. There was a Gold Collar for Long Story.
In 1965 Phil began a long family association with Wimbledon but the big competition wins kept coming alongside the graders.
Shady Parachute landed the 1968 Oaks and also reached two English Derby finals, one as a 4-6 favourite, where she was joined by kennelmate, Witches Smoke. They won the Essex Vase twice in four year, the Regency and dozens of events no longer in the calendar with the net result that Phil was voted Champion Trainer in 1968 and 1969.
But nothing would surpass 1976 when Phil finally achieved his dream by landing the English Derby with Mutts Silver. The fawn also landed the Silver Salver, the Cambridgeshire, the Select Stakes and Dundalk International. He was runner-up in the Gold Collar and Scurry and duly elected the 1976 Greyhound of the Year.
1976 Mutts Silver – with Philip Rees (left) and Phil Rees (5th left)
The winner of the Scurry was kennelmate Xmas Holiday, who was also bred by the family at Reigate. ‘Pudding’ also landed the Laurels, Sporting Life Juvenile and the Essex Vase as well as contesting the Derby final won by his kennelmate. A third Trainer of the Year title was in the bag.
‘Old Phil’ retired in December 1977 with ‘Young Philip’ his natural heir.
Phil stayed involved with the dogs and became head lad to Eric Pateman when he joined Wimbledon in 1980.
Phil Rees, a true training legend, died in 1986.
In terms of temperament, Philip Rees was nothing like his father.
‘Old Phil’ was gregarious and Richard recalls how his grandfather would love to spend an hour in the bar talking dogs to owners after a meeting.
Philip was friendly but more reserved and would rather head home and get the dogs fed and on their beds.
But all those years of experience as his dad’s headman hadn’t been wasted.
Philip’s first major win was the 1979 Oaks with Sunny Interval. There were three Essex Vases, four Springboks, a Grand National, a Scurry, a Sussex Cup, a Puppy Derby and so many more though the highlight was the victory of Pagan Swallow, a previous runner-up in the 660m Spring Cup, in the 1985 Greyhound Derby.
Philip struggled in his latter years with ill health leaving Richard to take over the licence and Wimbledon contract in 2008. Philip sadly died two years later.
Philip Rees (centre) joins the victory lap after Pagan Swallow’s 1995 Derby win
Being Richard Rees must be a bit like being Romeo Beckham, and if Bobby Charlton was your grandad. (A messy analogy but hopefully you get the point)
Like his dad, Richard has known virtually nothing but greyhounds since he can ever remember.
He said: “I was paddocking dogs when I was just a very young kid. I remember being in the back of the van when we took Xmas Holiday for schooling to Vernon Ford’s. (He would have been seven).
Big footprint to follow as a trainer and there was almost a glorious debut when in his first year, and with sights firmly set on the family’s fifth Oaks, Richard steered Ravello Drive through to the 2008 final. . . .where she was beaten a neck by Kim Billingham’s 10-1 shot Meenala Amy.
(And there’s a whole different football analogy there for anyone who remembers Kim’s fabulous dad and WBA centre back, Peter!)
It was two years later when Richard picked up his first Cat One as 25-1 shot Victoria Falls took the 2011 Grand National. (Which was one missing from granddad’s CV)
In 2022 there was a Monmore Winter Derby for Burnchurch Mick and a Brighton Belle for Whats Up Eva.
But 2023 has been the kennel’s best year to date.
In January, Cochise landed the 708m Cesarewitch (it was actually 719m) before going on to finish third in the English Derby Final. In April, Drive On Lad won the Maiden Derby at Towcester. Kilara Ivy beat brother Quarteira in the Sussex Sprint, and then on Sunday, Churchfield Syd impressively landed the £20,000 PGR Kent Derby.
Richard Rees (aged seven) with mum Eileen, sister Debbie and granddad Phil.
Churchfield Syd’s victory was interesting because in many way it summed up so much about his trainer.
Firstly, it was a great feat of rehab with the dog coming back to his best after what had appeared to be a career ending injury when he pulled up when well clear in the semi finals of the Ladbrokes Puppy Derby in March.
Richard said: “It was a monkey muscle and it was a bad one. Strangely enough, those can almost be a relief because you aren’t try to manage a slight pull. It needed complete rest and that is what he got. One of the things I learned very early on is you have to be patient. Syd didn’t need as long off as we gave him, but there was nothing else important to go for, so we gave him the extra time.”
Which leads to another Rees philosophy. . .
“You can only do that with good owners. We are so lucky to have some great owners, who don’t try to tell me my job. We’ve had bad ones, and they have been told to take their dogs away. Let them give someone else the grief because you won’t normally change them. Occasionally they have asked to come back, and if they do, they understand how we operate.
“The other thing is, you are only as good as the dogs that they bring you. Good trainers are good trainers, but without the best dogs, you are wasting your time.
“Sometimes an owner will say, ‘go and get me a good dog’ and you do your best to find one. Just recently, after seeing a bit of success and we’ve seen a couple join forces to get a slightly better dog than they might otherwise have been able to afford.
“Once we know we have an owner willing to buy a good class dog, you go to someone who you trust. I have a lot of respect for the Irish agent Wayne Murphy who recommended Churchfield Syd. I remember asking him to find me a dog previously and we had a choice from a bunch of promising young dogs. We ended up with Hilight Arkle (RU Kent Derby) and every single dog on the list went on to be good.”
All of which gives you some indication to the temperament of the third generation Rees trainer. If Phil was gregarious and Philip was quite private, Richard would most easily be described as ‘laid back’. But when you’ve seen it all before. . .
He is still searching for his first Oaks winner, and disappointed that Whats Up Eva and Starshinestunner missed out in last weekend’s Oaks final, he acknowledges “a worthy winner”.
At this stage, there is no mention of the ‘D’ word for the Steve/Bill Evans/Darrell Bear owned Churchfield Syd. At this stage . . . plans only stretch as far forward as the Monmore Winter Derby.
While certain characters might struggle to recover from having a 7-4 beaten Derby favourite, particularly if chasing family tradition, Richard is entirely philosophical. In fact, he can find a positive in the defeat of Southwood Jet in the 2020 decider.
He said: “Until then, (son) Charlie had shown virtually no interest in racing. He was on the youth books at Crystal Palace and everything was about football. Jet really sparked up his enthusiasm and I was a bit sceptical if I’m honest. I told his mum that I wasn’t convinced he knew how to hold a broom.
“But suddenly, because of Jet, he was into it and now he loves the dogs in a big way, which is nice to see.
“I do find it all a bit strange to be honest. I remember the great days and get quite fed up at what it has become. But Charlie hasn’t experienced those times and loves the game anyway. It used to happen a bit in the latter stages at Wimbledon which became very depressing. Then someone new to the game would say, ‘isnt’ this great?'”
For those of who were fortunate enough to have met Charlie’s great grandfather, there is something of that enthusiasm that seems to have permeated through the generations and certainly embraces every part of it.
Philip said: “I think Charlie is a mixture of the generations really, but when I see him on RPGTV, it is something I could imagine that my granddad would have loved doing.”
But if you really want to understand what it is like to be a Rees, allow us to share this little snippet at Richard’s expense. It comes from the sport’s best selling newspaper of the 1960s, The Greyhound Express. You know you are greyhound royalty when . . . .
August 1966: “Around 80 guests turned out for the christening of Richard Philip Rees, grandson of Wimbledon trainer Phil, at St.Lukes Church, Reigate. Wee Richard, the spitting image of his father Philip, was as good as gold”.”
Richard Rees leads the Oaks finalists parade with Starshinestunner Photo: © Steve Nash
Richard and Jackie Rees with son Charlie and their Ladbrokes Winter Derby winner Burnchurch Mick Photo: © Steve Nash
