Stan Kennett has been in touch regarding a recent Remember When story about a ‘doping’ fine from his training days at Hackney.
‘Blond Stan’ (as he was christened by the Daily Mirror correspondent Harry Lloyd) had a runner finish sore in a graded race at a Thursday meeting ‘at the Wick’ and phoned the track vet to arrange a consultation.
The vet suggested giving the dog a Phenylbutazone tablet for pain relief and an appointment was booked for the next day.
Stan said: “But by the next morning, the dog was completely sound. He must have just jarred himself. So I cancelled the vet and phoned (RM) Michael Marks and told him not to grade the dog for the following Tuesday.
“Anyway, the dog was back on the card on the Thursday. He found 40 spots and I got an enquiry. Because I had reported the tablet in the treatment book, they decided to give me an inquiry for ‘running a dog within seven days of treatment’.
“I argued that the tablet was administered on the Thursday and you can’t have two Thursdays in a week. But they fined me £800 anyway. That was £300 for the time finding and £500 for administering the substance, ‘by my own admission’. The thing is, they wouldn’t even have known about the treatment if I hadn’t notified them. The drugs test came back negative.”
So if I appear to be more mellow about the racing authorities in recent years, it isn’t because I have become more sensible. ? It is because THEY have!
These days, Stan earns a crust buying and selling racing dogs. But that trade has come to a virtual standstill due to the surplus of greyhounds waiting to be re-homed in trainers’ kennels.
He said: “This is normally a busy time, but I have only sold two dogs this year. Nobody has got any room. I gather Paul Young has 42 dogs neutered and ready to rehome. Laurence Tuffin has 19 and Paul Clarke has 24. He doesn’t have room for all his own and is paying £700 a week to keep them at Danny Brock’s own kennel. These are all dogs that are fully paid up on the GRS bond scheme. Something is going to have to be done about it.”
The post pandemic ‘return to work’ has seen hundreds of thousands of pets dumped on animal charities. But greyhound racing takes care of its own welfare responsibilities.
Well at least it should.
Which brings me to this advertisement (right) which was sent to me by a very irritated Greyhound Trust volunteer. It is a text of an internet advert which I think is self explanatory.
The Retired Greyhound Trust, which was originally set-up by Portsmouth trainer Molly Redpath and daughter Liz, and since taken to a third generation by Chris, used to be ‘our’ charity.
For many years it was underfunded, but it soon became the single biggest beneficiary of greyhound racing’s re-homing strategy.
The renamed Greyhound Trust has since been taken over – let’s not kid ourselves – by people with varying levels of enthusiasm for racing.
The occasional lapse of literature even suggests that some within the organisation might be described as ‘anti’.
But at a time, when trainers are desperate to find intermediate measures to free up kennel spaces while ‘forever homes’ are found, can it ever be appropriate for the Greyhound Trust to be operating as a holiday boarding kennel?
As always – there is an opportunity for the ‘CHARITY’ to respond should they so choose!
Greyhound Star passed its 40th birthday a fortnight ago and I was reminded how many people I have met through it, and how many are no longer with us.
But I will confess that the death of Lenny Ponder less than a fortnight ago left me completely stunned. He was just 57.
I was aware of his long term battle against cancer but the last time I spoke to him, he was fighting bravely. We talked dogs and football. Along with his dad Len, we had watched plenty of both. From Paris for the Champions League Final, to Cardiff for FA Cups, Highbury, the Emirates, Wimbledon, Shelbourne Park, Derby lunches, Annual Awards, Lenny was fabulous company and such a nice, kind, funny guy.
His funeral takes place at Kemnal Park Cemetary, Chiselhurst at 11am on Wednesday April 26.
By sad coincidence, I was also made aware of the death of two other greyhound enthusiasts, though both would have been less shocking given their advanged years.
Liz Mort mentioned that she was recently given the memorabilia left by the late Pat (PR) Saward who died last year.
I didn’t know Pat at all well, though our paths were linked years ago. Back in 1986, Bob Betts invited me to write a breeding column in The Sporting Life, and a few months later, Pat was rolled out as the Racing Post equivalent.
Out styles were very different, Pat was far better versed in breeding history than I was, and alongside his well researched articles on pedigrees, he would often throw in history lessons on both track and field.
Known to be quite reclusive, I only spoke to him on a couple of occasions on the phone, but as a writer, I always held him in the highest esteem.
I was also sad to hear that one of the biggest owners to have entered the industry in the last 30 years, Mario Lanfanchi passed away early last year aged 94.
Mario was a fascinating character and perhaps the least unlikely greyhound owner you would ever come across. He worked in theatre, and opera, directed one of the first Spaghetti Westerns, and was a pioneer of the Italian TV. He was an actor and a writer. Spend a few minutes on Google and you will be amazed how much he achieved in his life.
In doggie circles he was known as the ‘El’ man with El Premier, El Grand Senor and El Tenor to name but three. His support of the Mullins Kennel played a considerable part in Linda’s six trainers championships.
While he didn’t fit the mould for many in the industry, I really liked Mario.
I remember one meeting in particular. I can’t remember the race but it was a Cat One final and his runner was strongly fancied. The race didn’t go quite to plan and Mario’s dog was beaten in probably the longest photo finish decision I can ever remember.
I stood with him as the result came over and his dog was beaten a short head.
I immediately offered my sympathies only to find he was beaming, arms waving around and being very ‘Italian’.
“Magnifico, magnifico”
What the . . .?
Then he explained. The result didn’t matter, but he loved the tension and the drama awaiting the result.
“Life is nothing without the drama and the passion”
At the risk of sounding like some corny American TV host, I realised he was right. I reflected on a lesson about competitive sport and life in general.
If it doesn’t really matter . . . .it really doesn’t matter.
Win or lose, the only true buzz is when it does.
I have never been particularly concerned about being popular or conforming to suit the herd, so many of you may not agree with the following oberservation. No problem.
Ever since they were introduced, I have hated the idea of ‘juvenile’ competitions, as opposed to puppy events.
Greyhound Racing Ireland introduced them to ensure that they could fill events like the Harolds Cross Puppy Derby which then became a juvenile event: open to dogs who were just adults by the time the event got underway.
The issue was, many of the better pups were sold onto England, so pups on the cusp of their second birthday could compete. Now some people say, ‘what is the difference if a dog aged two years and one month old wins the competition?’
In my view – plenty. Because even the gap between 14 months when Irish dogs can qualify and 23 months, is massive. The physical advantage and experience of an older pup puts the younger ones at a huge disadvantage. Unraced stakes aren’t ideal but at least there is a levelling up of experience.
Years ago, we would occasionally see events confined to pups of 20 months or less. They were much fairer, though obviously more difficult to promote and stage.
Which leads me to the recent RPGTV Juvenile, won by Arkady, a dog closer to his third birthday than his second. Now I say this as a friend of the Mullins family, and I couldn’t be more chuffed to see how David tackled that one bizarre race in Arkady’s puppy career at Sunderland and turned him into a Cat One winner. But isn’t a two and a half year old dog winning a ‘juvenile’ race something of an oxymoron?
Bradys Bullet was giving away 14 more races and 10 months in age.
The original competition, created by Greyhound Express, was staged in December, not at the end of March, with entries invited to the winners of the various puppy competitions from that autumn. The Northern Puppy Derby, Wimbledon Puppy Derby, Trafalgar Cup, Midlands Puppy Derby, the Puppy Oaks, the Manchester Puppy Cup, the Kent Puppy Cup, the Dagenham Puppy Cup . . .
Most of those events don’t exist anymore but there are plenty of other new events spread across the year. Let’s have more!
So why not a Spring and an Autumn Juvenile?
As I said, you may not agree.
So you will probably be okay with Brendan Keogh’s plan to enter Fromposttopillar in the Oaks? Apparently he identifies as a brindle bitch.
Last but not least, my apologies to readers for indulging Pierrepont and Harnden with their April Fools story about the latter setting up kennels in Australia.
I am delighted to see than many on social media spotted the appropriate date for last registrations and saw straight through their schoolboy plot.
So huge disappointment for the Aussies – obvs – missing out on Britain’s greatest living horseman. Of course Peter wouldn’t be the first Harnden to settle Down Under. Though he might be the first not to arrive chained below decks.
