As many of you are aware on Saturday night Warzone Tom did this in the final of the Ladbrokes Stayers Classic . .
But if the story was only this simple. . . .
Warzone Tom, a lightly raced young dog arrived from Ireland in the spring of 2021 and Rab McNair soon realised that joint owner Brendan Keogh had done it again by snapping up another fast greyhound for very reasonable money. In his third race, the 21 month old pup set a new Towcester 500 metre track record of 29.18.
But within a couple more races Rab noted that despite all his ability, things get going wrong. In the beginning Rab thought it was just clumsiness and he suggested Brendan invest in ‘braincell transfer technology’ because ‘if he ever developed one he would be the fastest greyhound in Britain.’
Rab also spotted something else – Tom’s speed was well backed up by stamina.
As six consecutive defeats over four bend, he was entered in a maiden 642m open at Central Park and Tom just . . . . took off. His 39.86 would be the fastest time recorded at the track in 2021, and it was recorded on -50 going.
Tom’s first competition over six bends was the 2021 Ladbrokes Stayers Classic where he reached the final unbeaten. He started at 7-4f in the final but missed his break and finished last.
The disaster was compounded by seeing his great mate Jimmy Wright (assistant to Angela Harrison) walking off with the trophy.
Rab’s worse nightmare!
But something else was ticking away in the McNair grey matter. Was Tom ‘one of them?’
Rab said: “There is nothing at all ungenuine about Tom on the track, you will never see him mess around and in the kennel he is a lovely kind dog. Perfect manners. But I soon realised that he had his own ideas about the game.”
Put another way – Tom could quite easily get bored if he went to the same track too often. But when he was fully focused and motivated, he was a machine.
Rab said: “It was that night at Monmore that was the turning point. Jimmy and Angela won the final with Coolavanny Bani who absolutely flew out of the boxes. I had a long chat with Jimmy and Big John (Mullins) about keeping the dogs motivated and Jimmy told me he’d had Bani on the drag lure before the final. I know John uses it too and swears by it.”
That was it – Rab had it cracked.
He took Warzone Tom to Romford without a trial and landed a Champion Stakes trialstake in 35.29 (575). He won his first round heat in a calculated 35.03 but walked from the boxes in the semi finals and was eliminated.
Back to square one!
Like most seasoned dog men, Rab reckons ‘every day is a school day’ and he realised that he had been outsmarted.
He said: “The gallop on the drag hare idea was great but it only worked once. The next time it had no effect at all. I had to start thinking of new ideas.”
Rab can’t recall what he did for Tom’s next race, a supporting open on the Champion Stakes Final card. Despite being Tom’s fourth consecutive run on the track, he beat Troy Suzieeq in 34.76, the final was won in 34.94.
Since then, it has been a series of fresh challenges to maintain Tom’s concentration level.
Rab said: “I changed his routine and that worked – once. I took him into the woods, on a lead, so he could hear the foxes. That worked too – once. You name it, I’ve tried it.”
On the plus side, Rab knew he could turn up anywhere and the novelty value of a new track was all that was needed.
After famously stating that he would “always trial a dog at Crayford”, man and dog arrived in DA1 without a trial and landed a 540 metre open in 33.15. It is the fastest time recorded over course and distance in the last five years. Tom duly went on to land the Gold Collar in his fourth consecutive visit to the track.
Between then and Saturday night, Warzone Tom’s career has been a series of cat and mouse games between McNair and the flying blue who continues to outsmart him.
So what was the secret to Saturday’s final?
Rab said: “It was on my mind since last weekend. Then it came to me. I phoned my old pal Barry O’Sullivan and asked if I could bring Tom along to his schooling track during the week.
“Barry was shocked and said that the track was way too dry and he wouldn’t want to risk trialing him. But that was never the plan. I kept Tom on a lead and and asked Barry to move the hare. We messed around for a few minutes but I never let Tom actually get the hare. By the time I eventually put him back in the van, he was raging. But I was pretty sure it had worked.”
Despite the success, Rab reckons life is being made unnecessarily difficult for trainers.
He said: “What irritates me is that they are messing around with the rules that make it harder. Before this four day rule, I would have probably given the dog a sprint trial somewhere but now that is off the table. Who the hell do these people thing they are telling me how I should be training my dog.
“Then you get idiots emailing into RPGTV, saying ‘well I agree with the four day rule!’. What the fuck do they know about training greyhounds? I will guarantee you that Tom could race again this morning, just 12 hours after the race. Just leave trainers to train greyhounds!
“As for the ‘you must trial before you enter an open’. Why do you think they can’t fill their opens? I do understand that they are trying to cover themselves for numpties who should know their dogs and which ones would need to trial. So why not give themselves the option and make it advisory for the tracks that need it but not the others?”
Rab himself has enough on his plate about now – how next to outsmart a ‘thinking’ greyhound.
The Aftermath – a comment piece by Star Editor Floyd Amphlett.
Unfortunately, it is the nature of competitive sport that long after the result is forgotten, the memory of a controversial incident remains.
Despite the success of Saturday’s finals, the abiding memory of the 2022 Stayers Classic Final will be the controversy following the balloting of the second semi final. It occurred after the traps opened too slowly, Night Time Danny was hampered and following a review of the race, it was made void by the stewards.
Most readers of this article would be aware of the background to the event which led to a ballot with Chelms Cub and Great Name That being placed in the final.
Following a review on Monday, Entain’s Director Of Stadia made a gesture of goodwill payment to each of the four runners eliminated in the ballot along with an offer of a place in future one-off invitation event worth £2,500 to the winner, where they would be joined by Saturday’s first two. It is evidence of the congested nature of the six-bend calendar that the first date that this could take place will be December 29th.
But the controversy continued unabated on social media, much of which degenerated to topics not directly related to the events themselves. ‘Owners wishes not being considered’, ‘a failure to be flexible by the Monmore stewards’ and more complaints about the new ‘Four Day Rule’ which ruled out a re-run in order for the final to be run on its scheduled date.
I doubt any industry journalist has been more critical of the Four Day Rule than myself, though even I could see that it would disingenuous to blame it for Monmore’s issues.
Most of the ‘who makes the final?’ problems occur as the result of dead-heats for qualifying places. The first option was always a run-off (something that would also have impacted Monmore) providing both runners agree to take part. However, it appears that this is no longer an option under the rules of racing.
A draw must take place and the loser is entitled to act as reserve – providing that the seeding allows it.
It seems to me, that the type of incident at Monmore could become a regular occurrence going forward. But instead of trap failure, it could be a dog being knocked over, a hare breakdown, outside interference, or a multitude of other eventualities.
The point is – run-offs have never been popular with trainers, given that they then probably only have three or four days to prepare for a final, particularly in the case of stayers.
With this in mind, I had several questions of Ian Smyth this week.
Do you have any regrets over the decisions that were taken?
Smyth said: “No, having considered all the options, I think we took the least worst option open to us. I was in consultation with the racing office who liaised with Pete Rosney. The only thing that could have been done better is that we should have made the decisions sooner so everyone was aware of what had been decided.”
So what would have happened if connections had chosen not to participate in the ballot?
Smyth said: “I wouldn’t have blamed them at all. It is the trainer’s responsibility to do what is right for the owners and the greyhound itself. After all the effort that had gone into getting the greyhounds to that stage, I felt genuinely sorry for them. We didn’t choose this situation. It also has to be said that the debate might have been a little less fervent had the two greyhound who came through the ballot been the same two who crossed the winning line in the void race. But that would hardly have been fair to Night Time Danny either.”
So why not just postpone the final for a few days or even a week?
Smyth said: “That would have been the easier – and the cheaper option. I did not want to be impacting on other competitions or force other qualifiers to miss out on the final because they were committed to those competitions which kick off this week.
“Have you had a close look at the Calendar? You only have to look at the knock-on situation that occurred following the postponement of the Juvenile Classic Final at Towcester and Rab McNair having to bring Havana Lover along for a trial.
“The (£20K to winner) St.Leger closes on September 5 and any runners must have form at Perry Barr before they can enter. Would we have been fair to the connections of the Stayers Classic finalists if we had run our final on September 3rd?
“Another example, George Cunningham entered a runner for the one-off Select Stayers. Between that and the Leger, could we have ended up with one or two non-runners for our Monmore final?”
Surely you can’t expect owners and trainers to put up with this type of situation on reasonably regular occurrence? Why not bring in a policy so everyone knows where they stand before they enter?
Smyth said: “Again, that sounds easy, but you give yourself more restrictions that may stand in the way of common sense. I thought we were quite unlucky last weekend. Had the void race occurred in the first round, we could easily have fitted in the semi final four days later and delayed the semi finals.
“If the traps hadn’t opened in that semi final, we would probably been given dispensation to run the race later in the meeting or on Monday or Tuesday, subject to a veterinary check. That was never likely after the dogs had completed 620 metres.
“Had the issue occurred at a different time of year, the option to extend the competition would have been more viable. The calendar is much fuller at this time of year than in the spring for example.
“So the short answer is – why would I impose a blanket policy when the circumstances of each event are different?”
