While many industry critics argue that a ‘previous career’ is a handicap when it comes to re-homing greyhounds, Rab McNair sees it as an asset.
Like every other breeder, the KSS Kennel have pups that don’t make it as racers and like every racing kennel, their runners will eventually have to be retired through age or injury.
So how do they deal with it?
Through a number of varied and imaginative methods.
1) Given KSS’s success, many of their ex-racers are snapped up for their breeding potential at the end of their careers.
Most end up in the UK or Ireland with the likes of King Elvis, King Sheeran, Fromposttopillar and Eden The Kid standing at stud in Ireland. Warzone Tom is with Ron Gray in the North East.
There is a constant demand for KSS brood bitches, most of which are rejected (see below).
However, like several other high profile breeders and trainers, they have been caught out by subsequent events.
Last year, they were subject to vitriolic abuse on social media after their former kennel star Havana Class, exported for a stud career in Ireland, ended up in China.
He joined a lengthy list of ex-European racers, and an even longer list of Aussie hounds, who have been bought and sold on for massive sums by middlemen who are not subject to European or Australian racing authority control.
We might only be dealing with single digit numbers in a year, but short of a Government export ban, it seems an impossible situation to eradicate.
Stormzy is prepared to share
2) In a recent Breeding Ground column, we produced an article with evidence to suggest that the number of pups who ‘don’t make it’ is massively smaller than is suggested by the ‘anti racing’ welfarists. https://greyhoundstar.co.uk/breeding-ground-…-of-january-2022/
We calculated that in relation to all the British bred greyhounds born in a year, it would average out to around 146 pups in total.
In our study, we also traced the ‘missing’ greyhounds who were registered after whelping, but were never registered as racers.
On of the ‘McNair missing’ list was King Stormzy, from the King Turbo/Queen Charlotte litter.
Stormzy didn’t fancy the racing game much.
He was taken on by Ray Harrison and his wife from Redhill in Surrey.
Rab said: “They absolutely love him to bits and send us regular photos of him. He was bought to be a companion for a 14 year old Staffy and is absolutely spoiled rotten.
“Unfortunately, the Staffy has since died and Ray has been onto me asking for another greyhound. But we don’t have any. I already have a waiting list of people wanting dogs when they finish.”
King Stormzy has seemingly overcome the embarrassment of not joining the family business.
3) Most of the pups produced by KSS do reach the track, but understandably, they won’t all be top class.
Rab said: “We sell them on cheap while they are still young enough to have good careers. You wrote last week about the Hiya Butt/Queen Anna litter.
“Several of them were minor open class. King Marvin, who won the £1,000 final was sold for £800. We sold several of the litter to Joanne Atkins for £500 each and they are still winning.
“It was a similar thing with Robert Short. I sold him Queen Pink and King Ezra for a couple of grand for the pair. Then I let him have King Justin and Havana Allago.
“And I don’t want them being too old so that they can’t have some fun with them. I see that Ezra and Justin both won opens at Nottingham on Friday.
“They are worth more than we sell them for. They will have cost a lot more to rear, school and register. But you want these dogs to have good lives and go to people who will care about them at the end of their careers. We won’t just sell to anyone.”
Some of the hounds are top class, other have valuable breeding potential, but profit is never the driving force.
Take Stormzy’s mum, Queen Charlotte. Although Stormzy was an ‘independent thinker’, most of the litter made it and included the Category One winner, Queen Dusty.
Charlotte, by champion sire Droopys Scolari out of Oaks winner Shaws Dilemma was a proven valuable brood.
Rab said: “We gave her to Mary who used to work in the Wimbledon Kennels. She had had King Phil off us many years ago and he died at 14.
“Charlotte has a brilliant life with Mary living in the Outer Hebrides. Just getting her there was a job in itself. She is loving life and her best mate in the world is Bruisers Bullet.”
Perhaps the nicest example is former open racer Queen Gaga whose brief career was ended in an open race at Romford.
Rab said: “I love this one. We were approached by Stan, a local guy from Ashford who had just retired and was really struggling to adapt. He didn’t go anywhere or do anything.
“I said, ‘I have just the lady you need’, and it has been remarkable. From the moment Gaga came into his life, they have been inseparable. Stan was out walking her every day and she never left his side.
“It really turned his life around. He bought a camper van and they now go camping and fishing together. He said to me, ‘she has saved me Rab’.
“Lib and I were at Tescos a few weeks ago and a car pulled up next to us. A guy leaned out and said, ‘are you the guy who gave Stan that greyhound? She has turned his life around. It’s amazing’”
Queen Charlotte and Bruisers Bullet in the Outer Hebrides
4) Last but not least, are those that the McNairs hold onto themselves.
Last year we reported the death, aged 14, of Skate On who had spent her latter years on a sofa in the McNair’s home and is buried in the ‘family plot’ in the orchard.
Well time is running out for her great companion, the 13 year old former sprint champion and mum of King Turbo, Wee Tiger Tots.
Rab said: “We would bring her into the house but she prefers to be out in the kennel with the brood bitches and old ‘uns.
“She is now completely blind. If you put a board in front of her, she would probably walk into it. But she knows her way around the kennel no bother.
“We kennel her with Queen Anna and as long as she can feel Anna at her side she is quite content. We take them out to the paddock together and she sniffs around and enjoys the sunshine.
“We know that she hasn’t got long but she is still enjoying life.”
Two old girls taking in the autumn sunshine. 13 year old Wee Tiger Tots (left) and 9 year old Queen Anna.
So if Rab could offer one piece of advice on anyone tackling the re-homing issue what would it be?
He said: “Let the potential new owner know how lucky they are. Every greyhound that goes into a retirement kennel should have a presentation jacket and a photo and maybe a rosette or two. It doesn’t matter if they are just graders. It doesn’t matter if you have to buy a presentation jacket.
“When the families are going around the re-homing kennels, there are all sort of breeds of different types, but that dog was ‘a champion’. He has a trophy and a jacket.
“Every dog that leaves here goes with at least one trophy, a jacket and a story. The new owners love to be told all about their dog. What it won, where it raced, the lot.
“These dogs aren’t like any other breed and we should make more of that. Every young lad should have a presentation photo of his champion on his bedroom wall.”
