“I said to the trainer that I wanted a greyhound and was told, ‘you have to decide whether you want a racer or a pet’. But I wanted both.”

Glen and Kenny pick up Cokey. “I was a bit emotional that day”, recalls Glen “because we were still thinking about poor Chips”

It might “only” have been an A7 grade at Yarmouth on Saturday night, but for Glenn Hockings, partner Jade and son Kenny, when Batteredbroccoli crossed the winning line to win her first race, it was a dream come true – writes Floyd Amphlett

While the greyhound industry is regularly labelled as being simply a gambling tool for making millions for bookmakers, the human element is ignored. The fact that the greyhounds are so much more to so many people: owners, trainers, breeders and kennel staff seldom gets a mention.

But there are many stories to be told about folk with a beloved pet, who just happens to be a racer.

The Batteredbroccoli story has its roots in the childhood of Glenn Hockings. Among the 40-something’s happiest memories were going racing with his dad – no longer with us.

He said: “Dad was a greyhound man, and I remember going racing with him as a kid and talking about greyhounds. I was born in Essex and was regularly at Romford and Walthamstow. One of my fondest memories was, as a 15 year old, seeing Westmead Move win the Grand Prix at Walthamsow.”

Glenn’s life journey eventually took him to East Anglia; he and Jade run a Lowestoft based business, cleaning and renting out holiday caravans. He worked as a part time kennelhand, and had a runner with a professional trainer but came to the conclusion “I wanted a dog that I could train myself at home and I wanted Jade and Kenny to be part of it.”

The Hockings trio: Blondie, Gaggy and Cokey

Although they have a nine year old ex-Yarmouth racer in Pompey Blonde, plus a second retired, ‘Gaggy’ who never got as far as the track, life changed for the Hockings family when GBGB announced that they were to introduce the owner trainer scheme in January 2017.

Glenn said: “It was what I had been dreaming of. We had a large kitchen, which we partially converted to a kennel area, and also part of the garden to be a small paddock. We bought a 20 week old puppy which we called Chips and I planned to train her.”

Sadly, all didn’t go to plan. It was while the family were away on holiday and Chips was being cared for by friends, that the young pup developed a serious virus.

Glenn recalls: “Her organs just gave up and she died in my arms on Boxing Day 2017. We were absolutely devastated.”

Although grief stricken at the loss of their pet, Glenn decided that the dream wouldn’t die with Chips and early in 2018, he paid £275 for a three month old British bred pup by Swift Hoffman out of Fast Fit Tina. Her pet name was Cokey (“Kenny loves Coca Cola”) and she was given the racing name, Batteredbroccoli. She was named “because of Nan’s poor cooking” confesses Glen.

Chase bunnies and balls – me

Moving swiftly on. . . Cokey was reared in the back garden with regular trips to the Yarmouth beach.

Glenn says: “I made a mistake with Chips by taking her to the park where she hurt herself. With Cokey, we didn’t gallop her every day, but quite regularly.

“If you went when it was quiet and the tide was out, and you also had to choose which part of the beach you went on, avoiding the stones, it was a beautiful empty beach to gallop on sand. I even set up a 300 yard gallop.”

Meanwhile the Hockings family learned everything they could about greyhounds and there was no shortage of free advice.

Glenn said: “It started before I bought Chips and I contacted Bruno Berwick. I asked him about Salad Dodger and how he had chosen him. Bruno couldn’t have been kinder; he gave me all sorts of useful advice. Since then I have contacted so many people, starting with John White who originally found Cokey’s litter for me.

“But there have been so many kind people on Facebook including Alan Power, Paul Ryan in Ireland, Kate Rowlinson and Donna Witchells. Really though, too many to mention, and all happy to help.”

But while Cokey was a future racing greyhound, she was also a much loved family pet who played games with a ball in the garden and went on shopping trips to the High Street.

Galloping on the beach

Glenn said: “You name it, shopping or car boot sales, and Cokey came along. We even had one unusual experience, after I had broken my arm and decided to take her to the vets, on the bus. She loved it. The only thing that unnerves her are small dogs. She is fine around greyhounds.”

Cokey was eventually schooled on the late Henry Chalkley’s schooling track near Wisbech – she chased first time – before heading to Yarmouth for qualifying.

Shopping between races with Kenny

Glenn said: “Yarmouth were absolutely brilliant with me. Nothing was too much trouble, Simon and Justin (Franklin) even arranged for me to get videos of trials.

“I remember Cokey trialling and Kenny standing near the winning line and cheering her home as though she was in the Derby Final.

“He kept shouting out ‘catch the rabbit’, which is quite funny really, because we have pet rabbits at home that Cokey wouldn’t even think about chasing.

“We also had an amazing experience going to Romford for a trial. They were trialling pups for the Puppy Cup and I didn’t think they would allow us a run.

“Cokey was beaten 16 lengths by Lemon Express but it was memorable seeing such good dogs in action. The Romford people were brilliant, so kind and friendly. ”

Batteredbroccoli made her racing debut in an A7 at Yarmouth on August 31 and, such is the way of greyhound racing . . .she finished lame.

Glenn said: “I was distraught, wondering if it was my fault that she was lame. Had I missed something. I took her to see (Romford vet) Stefano Melegori three times. He diagnosed that she had some fluid on her wrist. I went onto Youtube to find out everything I could about ultrasound.”

The nursing paid off as can be seen in this video taken by Cokey’s excited ‘mum’, Jade. Cokey ran from trap four.

Glenn confesses that his first win as a trainer left his head totally spinning.

He said: “I was still awake at 4am with the buzz of it all. It has been such an amazing experience.

“We don’t have any big ambitions, we have already achieved everything that we could have wanted. If Cokey could go on and reach top grade it would be amazing, but I couldn’t be happier. We have some money put aside, in case the worst happened and she needed a major operation, but we are just going to enjoy her.

“The whole experience with Cokey has been amazing. It was brought us all so close together as a family. There must be so many more people out there who would find training their own dog equally as rewarding.”

Glenn, Jade and Cokey

 

++There is, sadly, a tragic twist in this amazing tale. On Sunday, Glenn phoned Cokey’s breeder Roy Griffin to tell him the good news, only to discover that Roy had died earlier in the day.  Our sincere condolences to the Griffin family