Shawfield racing manager Daniel Rankin is reporting an escalating growth in interest in the new owner trainer licences.
“Your story said there were 96, you can safely say it has gone well past 100 this week” he said on Friday morning. “At the moment we probably have over 20 owner trainer runners, plus another dozen trainers who are still qualifying runners, one or two dogs each.
“Then there are about ten others, including some who have just left Gretna, which appears to have been sold, who have phoned up asking how they go about getting a licence. It is definitely building as word gets around.
“Earlier in the year we had 16 races a week. This weekend, there will be 22, and although they include three opens, most of the runners are Shawfield dogs anyway.”
So where do they come from?
Rankin said: “There are quite a few ex-flapping lads but there are several who used to train before and have come back into the game to take a licence. We even had one guy apply, who the steward realised had enough kennels to qualify for a greyhound trainer licence, so he changed his plans and he will eventually have six dogs with us.”
Meanwhile interest in the RPGTV Scottish Derby continues to grow. So far, Paul Hennessy, Pat Buckley, Pat Guilfoyle and Owen McKenna have indicated plans to take part. The English based contingent preparing to trial runners includes Tony Collett, Pat Rosney, Paul Young, Liz McNair, Kelly Macari and Kevin Boon.
The event gets underway on April 22.
