Monmore have been rocked by the handing in of the notice of long standing and well respected trainer Stuart Buckland. Currently with around 40 greyhounds on the Monmore strength the Buckland kennel would be one of the largest at the track and indeed sent out 2046 runners throughout 2021 yielding a winning return of 347. Numbers wise the Lee Field kennel sent out the highest amount of runners at the track with 2138 yielding a winning return and a record for the year of 375. The miniscule gap between the Buckland figures and those of Field highlight the huge loss that this will be to Monmore.
Stuart Buckland
Lichfield based Buckland , 53 , has cited becoming ‘jaded’ with the sport as a major reason behind his decision. Stating that in his own view the sport has become somewhat of a ‘treadmill’ and totally different from the sport he decided to get involved in 32 years ago at the age of 21.
Jooles Slater with Supreme Bully
Aided massively for the past 11 years by assistant trainer Jooles Slater the kennel have regularly enjoyed success not just at Monmore but also on their travels. Jooles told me “I totally understand the reasons given by Stuart for calling it a day. The opportunity is there for me to take over the kennels and it’s something I’m giving thought to but I’ve got to say I do really enjoy the Irish way of training greyhounds where there is definitely a little bit more left to yourself with regards to picking when and where you race. Over here it’s just non stop , 6 days a week and it can become hard going not just for the dogs but for the owners and trainers. I’m going to consider my options I love the sport and I really love the dogs so will be staying in the game but whether that is here or over in Ireland a place I really love then we’ll see”.
