In the early hours of 24 August 2019, Dave and Nicola Firmager were in a vet’s surgery attempting to save the life of a litter of pups. They had been born by caesarian section and weren’t breathing.
Dave said: “We were trying to give them CPR and I said to the vet, ‘I think we are wasting our time’. He replied ‘just keep going’, and sure enough, one by one the pups started to breathe. Without exagerration it was probably 20 minutes before they had all recovered and although it sounds like a bit of a cliche, I said to Nicola, ‘they’ve got to be a bit special after this’.
Whether or not, Romeo Magico goes on to land Saturday’s English Derby Final is almost secondary. More relevant, it perhaps explains the answer to a question Dave was asked following the semi finals, what matters most, breeding or training?
It is breeding, and will always be breeding as far as the Melton Mowbray businessman is concerned.
The Firmager breeding story goes back 36 years to a bitch called Light Heather, who Dave bought from Irish breeder Mary Barry in Youghal. Although Heather proved to be a moderate grader at Peterborough, she hadn’t been bought for racing, but for the breeding paddocks.
By Linda’s Champion, Heather was out of Lady Armada, who would also throw stud dogs Echo Spark and Citizen Supreme. Armada was a sister to Laurels winner Greenfield Fox and the pair were out of possibly the most important brood of her generation Skipping Chick.
Despite Heather’s limited racing ability, her bloodlines shone through and she produced a string of open race winners including Brave Soldier and Hollywood Star. From a later litter, Heather produced Cheerful Heart who was exported to American and threw several very fast dogs.
But the big breakthrough was in 2001 when Pat Dalton put an advert in the Racing Post for a bitch called Fast March. She would also prove moderate enough on the track, running graded at Peterborough, trained by Dilys Steels before breaking a hock. But once again, Dave had always been more interested in her breeding. She was a litter sister to the Harolds Cross 525 yard track record breaker Airport Express and from Dalton’s multi million dollar winning dam line that went from her dam March Queen to Gilded Mirror-Exception-Miss Hilary-Maythorn Pride.
Perhaps the only dam line with a claim to be superior to even Skipping Chick’s?
Just about every ‘Romeo’ boy or ‘Fabulous’ girl can be traced back to Fast March, though we are particularly interested in two of her litters – one by Droopys Maldini, and one by Spiral Nikita.
The best dog in the Droopys Maldini/Fast March litter was Romeo Maldini. He made a string of Cat One finals and finished second and third in Eclipse finals, third in a Prestige and a Gymcrack. His litter brother Romeo Turbo ran-up in a Grand Prix and finished third in a Gold Collar. A third brother Romeo Marco ran fifth in a Coventry Derby.
But it would be their litter sister Fabulous Azure who would take the line forward. She appears as Magico’s maternal great grand dam on the bottom line of his pedigree
Romeo Paddy, who finished behind Westmead Hawk in the 2005 Produce Stakes was the best of March’s Spiral Nikita litter. But it was two of his litter sisters who took the line forward, Fabulous Airport, but most notably Fabulous March who developed into an outstanding brood, better even than her own mother.
To Wheres Pedro, Fabulous March threw the 2011 Produce winner Romeo Metro. To Collision she produced 2009 Produce Stakes winner Romeo Expert (more about him below) and to Bombastic Shiraz she threw the brilliant Romeo Recruit. He won the 2012 Produce Stakes at Nottingham, was runner-up in the Swindon equivalent and won the Holmes Memorial.
Romeo Recruit went on to become a very decent sire with progeny including Tenpin, Ela Juliet and Antigua Romeo. He is also Romeo Magico’s maternal grandsire.
Of course, there were many other outstanding hounds produced including 2015 Produce Stakes winner Fabulous Airport (Head Bound-Fabulous Quest), the 2019 Produce Staks winner Romeo Rumble (Rumble Impact-Fabulous Pin) and literally dozens of other big race finalists.
Dave said: “Breeding brings its own heartaches, particularly when you have young pups getting ill, but I love the whole subject. Without being arrogant, I could pretty much afford to buy any racing dog I chose, but you have no real control when you breed them and I like that.
“I am fascinated by pedigrees and trying to find the best stud dog for my bitches. I used a lot of Australian sires (Collision, Collide, Wheres Pedro, Bombastic Shiraz) before most people in Britain were doing it. My logic was, the litter will cost the same to rear for an expensive sire as a cheap one. If I make my mind up on a particular dog, I will use him.
“I won’t just use the fashionable stud dog. But then I don’t need to, because I won’t be selling the pups.”
“I think a lot of my dogs might have been better than they appeared, because I never considered myself a great trainer.”
It isn’t the kind of admission that many trainers would want to make, but it is a typically candid remark from Firmager. He is even prepared to back-up his own put-down.
He said: “Business has had to come first. I run a business employeeing 300 people making 5,000 windows or doors every week. That has had to take priority. Getting good staff (for the kennels) has always been a problem. I’m not talking about not being able to look after the dogs properly, but real hands-on staff who know how to train the dogs.
“I have just never had the time or been hands-on enough. How can I be expected to leave work to go racing at three o’clock in the afternoon? I just can’t justify it.”
There have been successess of course. In addition to the numerous Cat One wins, Dave recalls a particularly good night at Wimbledon before it closed.
He said: “We had a 16-1, 11-2 and 4-1 winner. Someone said to me after the races, ‘I bet you wished you’d backed them!’. I showed him the betting slippings, doubles and trebles each way. It came to just short of £80K. Of course those days are gone. You can’t get a bet on anymore. That bet was with William Hill and if I go into the shop now, they will even phone through a £50 bet. I have a mate who isn’t that successful and he can occasionally get a bet on for me, but he is only a tenner or twenty quid punter, so it isn’t really worth bothering.
“I don’t bet much these days but I did have 33-1 each way on Magico ante post. Then after the first round, when he ran a great race to just get through in third, we were about to drive in the gate on the way home when a badger (Magico’s pet name) ran across in front of the car. So the next morning I went and had another few quid on, still at 33s. So no matter what happens, I will be in front.”
Going back to the comment about not being a great trainer, an obvoious question springs out: ‘which dog you bred would you have liked to have your time again with? (to perhaps give him a better chance?).
Dave said: “That would have to be Romeo Expert. He had so little done with him when he won the Produce Stakes, which he dominated and broke the track record. He was unraced going into it having done 28.62 at Hall Green in trials well short of fitness.
“I’d had quite a few dealings with Mick Buckley who I had bought some good greyhounds from and Pat was just starting out and had a buyer for the dog. I had no intention of selling Expert, I didn’t need the money. But Pat was persistent. He kept asking for a price for the dog. In the end I said, “£100,000″ and much to my surprise, he agreed to the price. The dog left me and numerous things went wrong. They changed his name to Troys Expert and I don’t think he won a race. But in my mind, he was an exceptional greyhound.”
There was little luck too with the kennel’s only female Produce Stakes winner Fabulous Expert (Head Bound-Fabulous Quest). The 2015 winner was one of the fastest produced at the kennel but never came into season.
The Firmagers bought 18 acres of adjacent farmland when they moved to Melton Mowbray and have had as many as six litters on the go. But there have also been ebbs and flows in their breeding.
Dave said: “After the early success when we moved in, I thought breeding was easy. But then I overbred at one stage. But then I had a major health scare which put a stop to everything. I realised that we couldn’t carry on and we began re-homing all the dogs, including the brood bitches.”
They included Fabulous Artist who joined Frank Wright to continue her racing career. She was no world beater but did have 28.43 winning form on the ‘old Towcester’ 480 course. But then fate took a hand.
Dave learned to manage his health issues and much to his surprise, when one of the last remaining bitches, Fabulous Pin came into season, it was Nicola Firmager’s idea to breed a litter. Dave jumped at the chance.
He said: “Then Frank Wright got in touch and asked if I would take the Summer Stayers Classic winner Buckos Lass for breeding. I thought about it and agreed, and just on the off-chance enquired if he still had Fabulous Artist. He said he did, and would be looking for a home for her. So I took her back.”
Move on now to 24 August 2019 and Romeo Dave and Fabulous Nicola were well and truly back in the game.
The litter of five included three Towcester graders plus Romeo Magico and litter sister Fabulous Azurra – who is quite possibly the fastest of all the Fabulous girls. She won the British Bred Derby at Sheffield in December but suffered a stress fracture of the hock after beating Thorn Falcon by three lengths in the opening round of the Blue Riband.
Dave said: “She has been off with that, which will hopefully not prove too serious, and then she came in season. So hopefully we will see her on the track again. Sadly, her dam Fabulous Artist had a heart attack and died in December 2019.”
Although he is a licensed breeder, Dave Firmager doesn’t sell pups and rarely sells racing dogs. He has close to 40 in training including around a dozen at Romford with David Mullins, others at Towcester with Lawrence Tuffin, plus open racers with Graham Holland and Patrick Janssens.
He said: “I had a dog in the sales with Nathan (GreyhoundTrader). He made a decent price at the Doncaster sales and I might well put a few more in. It is difficult to sell British bred pups. I don’t know why, most Irish dogs devalue very quickly once they arrive. Besides, there are lots of British bred competitions now. I have sponsored one myself on final night. I don’t like having dogs in races that I have sponsored but I get on very well with Liz (Mort – Greyhound Stud Book) and wanted to support her efforts. If I was to win it, I would just transfer the money into another event.”
To conclude – there has been much debate about Towcester’s suitability as a Derby venue. Dave has few doubts.
He said: “I should say straight away that Coventry will always be my favourite track. For its design and condition, it was the best track that I have raced on. But I like Towcester too. We’ve had too many Derbys dominated by front runners. I love it that the stronger dogs are having their chance. It is a tough 500 metres, tougher still by the time the dogs get to the pick-up. It’s closer to 700 metres. You are not going to win it with a souped up 525 dog. By the later stages, they were just fading. So whoever wins Saturday’s final will thoroughly deserve it.
“I think moaning about the track is typical of the mentality for so many people in this industry. They moan about the English Derby for £175,000 but can’t say enough about the Irish which is €125,000. There is just so much doom and gloom and negativity. I love RPGTV; I think it is great for the game. Sure, there will be arguments about different presenters but they provide a great service to greyhound racing. I do my best to avoid social media because I don’t want to get involved.”
And Saturday?
“I would love to win on Saturday but it wouldn’t be the end of the world if we didn’t. How could anyone deprive the Mickys Barrett people if they were to win it? It would be just the sort of positive publicity that the game needed.”
Romeo Magico gets a hug from breeder David and Nicola Firmager’s 8 year old granddaughter Faith (who named him “Badger” when he was a puppy) after his Derby Quarter Final win. Photo: © Steve Nash
