SAVVA – CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SIX – 2000+

 

In 30 years of virtually unbroken success, Nick had never had major disciplinary issues with the NGRC.

That was all to change in the unfortunately named ‘noughtie’ decade with unusual and far reaching consequences.

Background. The NGRC rules have never stipulated what a trainer can or cannot give a greyhound. There is no list of banned substances.

The relevant rule reminds trainers that they cannot give any substance not attributable to ‘normal’ feeding.

While the restriction on performance affecting substances, or drugs designed to mask injury, is only common sense, it has always been unclear as to whether a vitamin supplement, iron tonic or herb might be considered ‘normal’.

In September 2000, Nick found himself in front of the stewards following the detection of the drug Heptaminol in five of his runners.

Nick says: “I had started using Caninsulin, which contains Heptaminol, a few months earlier. It came from Australia and was promoted as helping fatigued muscles.

“I had a couple of dogs who were prone to cramp and I thought it might help. It was a welfare thing rather than seeking to gain an advantage.

“Of the five dogs, only one of them actually won, and he just looked a ‘good thing’ on previous form.

“I was aware that in Australia, Caninsulin was allowed by some state control boards but not others. It was basically a vitamin and mineral supplement but one version of it contained a substance that could imitate caffeine. Unfortunately, that was the one I used.”

The NGRC stewards formed the view that Caninsulin ‘was not attributable to normal feeding’.

Nick said: “I don’t suppose I was really surprised but admitted what I had done straight away and agreed to take whatever punishment was inflicted on me. Before the hearing though, I was tipped off by someone in the NGRC that the stewards intended to make an example of me and they fined me £2,000.

“What really annoyed me was that I had been deliberately targeted. My five positives came from dogs running at four different tracks. Yet I knew that there were other dogs tested at the same meetings which were definitely on Caninsulin – it came from the same source as mine. So why were they not given inquiries?

“When the stewards asked me during the enquiry whether anyone else was using Caninsulin, I replied ‘many trainers’.

 

But worse – very much worse – was to follow. The story of the Derby winner who never was, really begins in September 2002.

Westmead based Cill Dubh Turbo was randomly drugs sampled in the semi finals of the Gold Collar.

Several weeks later, it was revealed that the dog had tested positive for the drug Felbenac. Nick was on holiday in Cyprus when the stewards enquiry was due to take place in December. He was convinced that an error had been made.

He said: “I discovered that it was Felbenac was some form of pain killer but since I had never had it in the kennel it had to be either a mix-up over the samples, an accidental contamination or someone had deliberately tampered with the sample.

“In a letter to the stewards I explained that I could not explain its presence and asked if they would test other dogs in the kennel or even take samples to help me discover what had gone wrong. They refused.

“I was fined £1,000 and was so outraged that I decided not to renew my training licence and to let Andrew take over.

“But at the back of my mind, I was troubled. If we couldn’t explain how Cill Dubh Turbo had tested positive, how could we be sure that it wouldn’t happen again.”

(Ironically, Turbo kept his prize money for finishing runner-up in the Gold Collar. The rule change that forfeited prize money following a positive test came into effect the following month)

 

Andy Ioannou had been Nick’s head lad for seven years when his professional trainer’s licence became live in February 2003. With mixed feelings, Nick soon found himself licensed again.

He said: “Without my knowledge, Bob (Morton) paid the fine and just before the Derby got underway, I decided, for Andrew’s sake, to take out a kennel hand’s licence.

“I had no doubt that the NGRC would continue to target the kennel hoping to find me handling the dogs and Andrew would have been in trouble.”

Ioannou did not inherit the kennel at its strongest period. The star was the previous year’s Midland Puppy Derby winner Droopys Hewitt.

Hewitt, who also ran third in the Laurels, was not among the leading fancies for the 2003 William Hill Derby.

He was a decent open class dog whose greatest asset was his early pace and consistency.

The fifth fastest heat winner in the first round, he had beaten Top Savings in the quarter finals in 28.80, and then scraped into the final with a short head to spare over over Droopys Corleone in the semis.

When they went to traps for the final, the white jacketed ‘Hughie’ was rated a 16-1 chance.

Had Betfair been operation at the time, Hewitt’s odds would have fallen dramatically “in running”.

He burst clear of the traps and was clear at the first bend as the inside two collided and favourite Top Savings failed to secure a run.

By the second bend, it was all over, and the steady and consistent Hewitt crossed the line with nearly three lengths to spare over Farloe Verdict in 28.82.

 

On Tuesday July 8, three weeks after the final, Andy received a phone call from Wimbledon racing manager Simon Harris to say that Hewitt had tested positive following a test received after the Derby quarter final.

The following day, the headline ‘Dope Sensation’ appeared as a banner headline on the front page of the greyhound section of the Racing Post.

The national press also had a fantastic opportunity to accuse greyhound racing of what the public always ‘knew it to be’ – crooked.

For the jealous and twisted within the industry who had resented the kennel’s record over many years, it was the only obvious answer to their success.

Within a couple of days, Nick received a newspaper photo clipping of himself onto which devil’s horns had been added and the words ‘they’ve caught you at last.”

Later the same week, connections of one of the other finalists shouted obscenities at Andy Ionnou as he paraded dogs at Nottingham.

But among the more rational thinkers, doubts were being expressed about the whole business.

The fact that Droopys Hewitt had provided a provided a positive test after winning a Derby heat was not in doubt. The fact that he cleanly passed a similar test in winning the final was also not in dispute.

But why would such an experienced kennel give anything to a dog in a Derby quarter final knowing full well that he would be tested?

Nick summed it up with the words – “we would have to be either stupid or incompetent, or both.”

Nick set about learning all about Felbinac and he enlisted the help of leading greyhound vets.

He said: “I discovered that it was a drug, used as an gel, for the relief in the symptoms of arthritis in humans.

“Some people decided that I might have accidentally contaminated the dog by using it myself for my back condition. But I had never even heard of the stuff before, and it would have been no use to me whatsoever.

“My back condition was so chronic that pain killers didn’t work; the only way that I was able to relieve the pain was by having the surgeon kill off the sciatic nerve. Felbinac was so mild that it had to be applied four times a day for relief – not cure. What use would it have been to me?”

The stewards enquiry followed and the stewards duly took away the Derby title and handed it to runner-up Farloe Verdict.

Nick recalls: “I couldn’t attend the enquiry and I tried to keep Andrew in a positive frame of mind. The rule that allowed the stewards to take away a victory was still new and was still to be tested. Had anybody thought what would happen with accidental contamination?

“One of the racing managers even suggested that we claim that the contamination must have occurred in the racing kennels with dirty bedding. It might have been, we simply didn’t know.”

So how did Droopys Hewitt come to fail the test?

Nick said: “As you can imagine, the whole episode gave me sleepless nights and a huge amount of worry.

“But because of the timing, I was able to piece together the only plausible solution to what had happened.

“Hewitt had been tested in the earlier rounds and had been clear. He was also tested in the final and was clear.

“Logically, he had to have come in contact with the drug after the heats but before the quarter final. We also knew that the amount must have been quite small so as not to have still been present in the final.

“I checked through all our records and two days before Cill Dubh Turbo had run at Catford he had been to see vet Des Fegan because I wanted him checked for a possible thyroid problem.

“Two days before Hewitt ran, he also went to Fegan. He had picked up a slight graze on a toe. It was really minor, but if you are in the Derby quarter finals, you don’t want to leave anything to chance. In every other way he was 100 per cent perfect.

“We know that Felbenac can be passed by touch, Des Fegan told me that himself. He also said that he didn’t use Felbenac and so it couldn’t have happened in his surgery.

“But I am 100 per cent convinced, totally certain with no doubt whatsoever that the Felbinac inadvertently, passed on by someone who took dogs to Fegan, but was probably for their own use. It was too much of a coincidence to be anything else.

“I asked my own doctor whether it was possible. He doubted it because he didn’t think that the ointment would transfer through a dog’s coat.

“I didn’t accept that view because what the doctor didn’t understand was that greyhounds do not have thick coats all over. Under their back legs, on their bellies, or even in their ears you would be in contact with virtually bare skin.

“But what really convinced me was when I was finally able to get some information out of the NGRC.

“Although he didn’t volunteer any information at the time, chief executive Frank Melville eventually admitted that there had been two other positives for Felbenac.

“In both cases the trainers claimed that they were users of the ointment and that there must have been contamination.

“In one case, they didn’t accept the trainers’ view and fined him £750. In the other case, they did, and let him off with a warning. I assume they must have taken a view on the levels of drug found.”

So how much was found in Droopys Hewitt?

Nick replied: “I don’t know, they refused to tell us.”

 

To this day, Nick remains bitter over the whole incident even though he doesn’t blame the stewards for disqualifying Hewitt.

He said: “Hewitt tested positive during the Derby and they probably had no option – they had to take it away from him. Those are the rules.

“It was a disproportionate penalty based on an accidental contamination. But this sport must be clean and it must be seen to be clean – though I do have doubts as to whether they had even considered the possibility of accidental contamination.

“However, what was totally and utterly unforgivable, was that the stewards were not vaguely interested in finding out what happened.

“They might not have liked me, but they had a responsibility to the industry to explain what happened.

“We were dealing with the Greyhound Derby and national headlines. They should have been charged with their own rule of bringing the sport into disrepute.

“Had they taken the time and effort to investigate and look at the evidence, including the levels of drugs found, they would have concluded that nobody was trying to cheat. But they had no appeals procedure. Thank God they were disbanded!

“It is interesting that years later, when the GBGB stewards found drugs in a dog, that they believed had been in him before he came into a trainer’s care, they issued a statement accordingly.

“The other group I cannot forgive are the Racing Post for portraying the kennel as ‘dopers’. I asked various journalists who was responsible for the headline and they all denied knowledge of it.

“Yet a few months later when the St Leger winner tested positive for a more serious drug, the headline simply said ‘Not Again.’

“I love this industry and would never want to harm it. The implication that we had ‘doped’ a dog was unforgivable.

 

Despite his own experiences, Nick is utterly convinced that greyhound racing is as clean as it could possibly be.

In 40 years of training, he only recalls one incident when he believes a dog of his was ‘got at’.

It was during the running of the 1986 St Leger. He had ante post favourite Westmead Move.

He said: “He said: “She ran terrible, the worst race of her career by far, and was very distressed after the race. When I got her home she started to pass blood.

“I had the vet out to her. I already had my own suspicions about that had happened. The vet could find no other cause. I always wished that I had had her tested. Having said that, if she’d have tested positive, the NGRC would probably have probably accused me.

“There will always be the odd bad apple, but everything I have learned suggests that drugs use is minimal.

“First, look at how many positives are detected. They use probably the most highly respected testing facility in the world. HFL, who carried out Hewitt’s test handle sampling from horse racing all over the world.

“Yet despite the thousands of samples that are taken from greyhound racing every year, a tiny fraction of one per cent come out as positive.

“If you look at what those positives are for, the type of drugs used, very few are for people trying to cheat. Most are down to carelessness or for things like season suppressants.

“I think there did used to be more skulduggery in the game. Many trainers caught out when they first switched their testing from Glasgow University to Newmarket, but not any more.

“Besides, I don’t think that in general, drugs are particularly effective. I have been in paddocks over the years when I have suspected someone give a dog something, without knowing exactly what it was. But I was never beaten by one of them.

“I have never felt threatened by anything anyone might give. I always expected to win because of how I prepared my dogs.

“If you look around the game, you see that some of the straightest people have been the most successful. Can you honestly imagine George Curtis doping a dog?”

 

Not only does Nick not dope dogs, he doesn’t ‘stop’ them either – barring the failed amateur attempt with Pincano.

Nick said: “I honestly cannot recall ever stopping a dog. We have had some gambles due to circumstances falling into place. For example there was the occasion that we fancied Olivers Wish because we knew he would run well on slow going or Flashy Sir because we suspected he would run well after a few days break.

“There were also the young dogs who we expected to find time as they became fitter and more experienced, but they were never deliberately slowed down in trials or races.

“Overall, I’m not very successful at gambling. I think every time that Larkhill Jo and Toms The Best ran against each other, I backed the wrong one.

“I had a thousand pounds on Chick when Merlin beat her in the Dundalk International. I didn’t back Hawk in either Derby and only had a hundred pounds each way on Lord when he won it.

“My biggest ever gamble was on Larkhill Joe at various prices throughout the Irish Derby. I only kept backing him because I thought he was value.

“I must have had £4,000 on him at various stages and would have probably collected between £70-£80,000 if he had won the final.”

While none of the above can be proved, brother Theo provides an interesting perspective on Nick’s integrity.

Theo said: “Nick has cost me a lot of money over the years by refusing to take the edge off dogs.

“I remember a trialstake for the Guys And Dolls at Harringay. We both had a runner in the race and they were the best two dogs in it.

“Nick had the favourite Westmead Lacos who was even money. I had the second favourite who was 5-1.

“There wasn’t much between them but I thought if Nick would take a couple of lengths off his dog, mine would be a certainty. He refused. I backed my dog and he beat me by a short head.

“On another occasion at Cambridge I had set up a dog for a gamble in an open race. I had been preparing the dog for three months. When the trap draw was made, Nick had one of his top dogs in the race.

“I pleaded with him to stop his dog but he wouldn’t. I backed my dog anyway and Nick beat me. The bookies had a great time taking the piss out of me afterwards.”

 

The events in the first two or three years of the new millennium left Nick totally disenchanted with the greyhound industry – though never his greyhounds.

In addition to handing in his licence, Nick bred only seven litters in the five years between and including 2000 and 2004 – in the previous five he had bred 16.

The name Savva which had appeared on the open race winners table continuously since 1969 was missing from December 2002 until February 2005 (see chapter 7).

Ironically, the decade had started off well with victory in the Trainers Championship meeting.

Nick (or Natalie) has never finished champion trainer, which is based on points scored over an entire year, but the kennel invariably qualify for the one-off championship meeting for which the top six trainers on the table are invited.

Nick says: “We never chased the trainers title. We are only a small kennel and it would be impossible to compete over the whole year.

“We have regularly finished high enough to qualify for the championship meeting, but we have withdrawn from it more times than we have competed.

“I can’t justify running a dog for my sake if I think he can win a competition for the owner. Sometimes though, you might have a few young dogs who it suits, in which case we will enter.”

The kennel’s third success came at Sittingbourne in March 2000. Although there were only 20 dogs in the racing kennel, including pups, Nick fielded a strong team.

He was quoted in the press as having had £200 on himself at 9-4 to win the competition outright and £20 on his first runner of the afternoon. That turned out to be Larkhill Bobby who duly won at 14-1.

Littermates Sonic Flight and Early Flight also made their way to the winners podium; Tessas Dilemma and Westmead Woofa finished second to complete a successful afternoon.

 

Greyhounds aren’t the only animals to have made Westmead their home. There have been a succession of family pets, most notably a goat called Betsy and an African grey parrot called ‘Westy’

Natalie recalls: “The goat had been owned by an old man and she couldn’t stand women. She used to terrorise me and would sometimes chase me around the garden.

“One day she escaped into the village and we received a phone call from the police. Betsy had arrived at a factory full of women just as they had gone on their lunch break.

“She had a group of them pinned behind a grid which she kept butting – they were terrified.”

Natalie was no luckier with Westy.

She said: “Nick and Paddy Dunne decided to teach him to speak, and needless to say, they taught him all sorts of bad language. They also left the radio on for him and he used to try to imitate it. Then he learned how to sound like the phone ringing, which was a real pain.

“He made such a racket and if you tried to drown him out be turning up the TV, he’d respond by squarking even louder.”

Nick’s version of events is slightly different. He said: “I tried to teach him two phrases to enamour him to Natalie. He was supposed to say ‘Natalie I love you’ or ‘Natalie I am hungry, if fact I am starving’.

“I thought I had cracked it when I heard him call her name, but it came out as ‘Natalie – f*ck off’

Needless to say, Nick and Paddy found the antics of their foul mouthed feathered friend hugely amusing. Natalie less so.

She said: “If I went to the cage to talk to him, he would say ‘What are you looking at? F*ck off!”

Sadly Westy’s linguistic skills didn’t extend to the paranormal, much to the disappointment of Paddy Dunne.

The eccentric Irishman famously wrote numbers on a bowlful of mint imperials. Although Westy dutifully selected six sweets from the bowl, they never did coincide with the week’s national lottery draw.

Westy became ill quite suddenly and died. The air around Westmead kennels became less blue for a while – at least until the arrival of assistant trainer Gary Slater!

 

Nick’s reputation as an outstanding trainer has always been enhanced by the non-Westmeads that he turned into champions – the group would include Larkhill Jo, Toms The Best and Flashy Sir.

With a ‘Westmead’ champion, the line between Savva the breeder and Savva the trainer, was always a little blurred.

Not dissimilarly, some questioned, could any competent breeder have produced dogs of similar calibre if they had been blessed with brood bitches like Hacksaw or Westmead Move?

Mega Delight should have convinced most of the cynics – though her racing reputation and bloodlines would have made her a decent bet to be a top brood.

More interesting though was a 17 month old pup who arrived at Westmead in 2005 – Droopys Jean.

Nick said: “All I was looking for was a litter by Westmead Hawk and all my broods were related to him.

“I asked Sean and Michael Dunphy if they had anything suitable and they offered me this unraced puppy. I later discovered that she had been sent to Ted Soppitt but was returned because in schooling trials she didn’t look capable of staying four bends.

“But I took an instant liking to her and she duly produced a litter of eight pups by Hawk. Although she didn’t produce much milk, probably because of her age, she proved a very good mother”

What a litter it proved to be. It was headed by the inseparable brothers Westmead brothers Osprey and Diver.

Osprey won the Ocean Trailers Puppy Stake and the 2008 Swindon Produce Stakes. He was third to Fear Zafonic in the Graphite Puppy Derby (Diver was runner-up), beaten half a length in a £4,000 Puppy Final at Sunderland and just over a length (1-2f) in Nottingham’s Puppy Classic.

Following the first of two serious hock injuries, he would start at odds on favourite for the 2010 Arc Final.

Diver, whose early form included a 28.53 run at Walthamstow broke a hock while stick a pup.

Five of the litter went on to win opens, though it could have been better still.

Nick says: “There was another litter brother, Condor, who looked as good as either Osprey or Diver in his schooling trials. Unfortunately, he was killed when he hit the fence in his qualifying trials at Henlow.

“They were not a lucky litter. We spent £5,000 on Diver’s operation but he came off sore when we re-trialled him.

“There was nothing between Diver and Osprey in my opinion. They even kenneled together. Both had good early pace but didn’t have to lead to win.”

The unknown, imported maiden, Droopys Jean, was voted as the 2008 Dam of the Year.

 

It was Napoleon who appreciated ‘lucky generals’. Nick doesn’t under estimate the value of lucky owners.

He inherited Jack Elias, one of the joint owners of Derby winner Moaning Lad, when brother Theo decided to return to Cyprus.

The pair won the ’99 St Leger with Dilemmas Lad, and the 2006 Produce Stakes and Oaks with Dilemmas Flight.

Lad was from a litter that Jack had bred himself out of his St Leger winner Kens Dilemma.

Flight was a litter sister to Spiridon Louis, being by Droopys Vieri out of Sonic Flight’s litter sister Early Flight.

Like the best partnerships, Nick and Jack are good friends though Nick was initially reluctant to have Jack Elias as an owner, because of all strange things, he is a Cypriot – albeit one who has lived in Britain since he was a small boy.

He trained as a barber, moved into the property market and through shrewd investments went on to become a multimillionaire.

Nick said: “I’ve had bad experiences of Cypriots as owners; they tend to be gamblers and naïve as to the many downsides of owning dogs.

“But Jack’s son Andrew was very persistent about me taking their dogs and two things went in Jack’s favour. The first was that he was lucky. Any man who wins the Derby with the first dog he owns and the St Leger with the second cannot go far wrong.

“Secondly, I worked out he must have been a decent guy to have stayed with my brother Theo for so many years. Theo could fall out with his own reflection, so Jack could not have been too bad to train for.

“That is how it has turned out. Jack is a very good sport and a realist who doesn’t expect to win every time but has also become a good friend.

“I often meet up with him when we are both taking a break in Cyprus and I am in awe that he achieved so much despite becoming profoundly deaf following an accident when he was a boy.

“But as husbands all around the world can testify, sometimes a curse can turn out to be a blessing.”

 

Throughout his time in greyhound racing, Nick has retained an interest in industry issues, either through failed official bodies and committees or through action groups.

Nick was one of the 500 or so audience at Paddy Sweeney’s inaugural Greyhound Council of Great Britain meetings back in the early 1970s.

He was a founder member of the owners and trainers group NAGO in the early 1990s, and at the time of writing, was an active member of another pressure group, GOBATA.

He says: “I know some people would say, ‘he isn’t as badly affected as the trainers who rely on graded racing’ but I don’t approve of the trainers who adopt a ‘blow you Jack, I’m alright’ attitude.

“The Greyhound Council had very good motives. We could see that the industry was being run for the benefit of the promoters. The behaviour of the NGRC towards owners and trainers, and their dogs, was absolutely scandalous.

“As soon as Paddy set it up, the NGRC set out to break him. I don’t know if the Council could have survived if Paddy’s tactics had been more subtle. Realistically I don’t think they had any intention of making any changes.

“NAGO had many similar aims because nothing had really moved on. Also, I’m not sure that everyone connected with the organization had the same motives. It certainly didn’t help when the chairman Roy Gibbons went on to become a promoter at Brough Park.

“GOBATA was different in that it came into an industry after the break up of the NGRC and BGRB. The priority was less about change and more about industry survival.”