It takes some greyhound – and some trainer to string together a graded eight-timer. Unfortunately, Doncaster regulars will never get the chance to see if Glaise Tracy could extend her winning sequence. (But for a third place back in February, she would have won 11 in a row).
Faced with limited options, the Sean Parker trained coloured bitch returned to Ireland where he contested a couple of heats of the Irish Oaks but then finished lame in a home gallop and has been retired.
Sean said: “It all ended quite well really. She has gone back to her breeder and we have done a deal for pup. Unfortunately, there were so few options here. After winning that many in a row, some of the other trainers would have given the racing office grief if they had kept grading her, and there are just no opens in the north of England.
“Our biggest owner Roy Ball has taken most of his better dogs back to Ireland, and sent another Get The Cash, down to Patrick Janssens. Roy is a good friend and they have all gone with my blessing. I said to him at the end of lockdown that there would be very few opportunities for the better class greyhounds and the best thing that he could do is move them on.
“I don’t have any top class dogs in the kennel any more. The best is probably Barnside Luther who is running at Sheffield in the British Bred competition. He is a nice dog, but not top class. The days have gone when I would travel down to the likes of Romford, Hove or Central Park, take on Patrick, or Mark, or John with better class dogs. For what? £50 runner money? It wouldn’t even cover the diesel.
“I am lucky to be at a well run track like Doncaster. I am treated fairly and get plenty of runners, but with such an industry wide shortage of decent quality dogs, they tend to be in the lower grades.
“We have roughly 30-50 graded dogs at any one time with roughly 70-80 in total including triallers and retireds. Ten years ago when my mum was training at Sheffield and the prize money was so lucrative, we would always have 120 dogs in the kennels and at least 70-80 on the graded strength. She thought nothing of spending £5K on an A1 dog, but you could justify doing it.
“The tracks might not want to run opens, but no trainer I know is itching to get into the kennel in a morning for low grade racing.”
