It has been an amazing few days starting with the awards night in London. We weren’t at all confident of Cornamaddy Jumbo winning the Greyhound of the Year title, particularly after Roxholme Dream and Newinn Yolo had both picked up two awards.
But it was a great moment for the kennel and the owners to hear his name announced.
I know a lot of successful trainers don’t bother with hurdlers but this kennel has always enjoyed having them going back to Linda’s (Jones) days with the likes of Rossa Ranger, who was the best of the lot, Lethal Rumble, Apple Rambler, Bomber Bailey; there have been quite a few.
Jumbo is genuinely a lovely greyhound who was worshipped by his breeders who came over for the occasion.
It is interesting that despite all the big money spent on dogs, here is a Greyhound of the Year who cost £1,000.
As to whether he will run again, I do have some doubts. He injured a gracilis (muscle) a month ago and while it isn’t the worst I have seen, they are never nice injuries to get, particularly with a four year old.
He will be off for a month to six weeks. If he doesn’t look like coming back to his best, we won’t race him again.
But there will be no sadness about it. He has done us proud and the breeders have lined up a couple of bitches to have litters by him.
It was also very gratifying to pick up the champion trainer award for the sixth time. I understand that the sixth win puts me on par with some of the greatest ever. It is a very humbling experience.
Charlie Lister has been my inspiration. He was in his pomp when Linda was training and time after time he beat us.
When we won our first championship, I remember Charlie going in the press saying something like, ‘its all very well winning lots of races, you have to win competitions’
When we won it again, he was quoted as saying ‘its all very well winning big competitions, you need to win Derbys’ which of course we then did.
Some people would find Charlie’s attitude a bit off-putting, but I am not one of them. It is inspiring for me. I keep a scrap book and have those two press cuttings side by side.
Charlie is ultra competitive and so am I. Having him to follow has hopefully made me a better trainer.
Charlie comes across a bit grumpy on the TV, but he will often phone for a chat, and if he phones home, he will often end up chatting to my wife Sarah about all sorts of things. I love him to bits.
Then of course on Tuesday we won the Prestige at Hall Green with Billys Bullet. You never expect to win but I really expected the to come on a bit from his semi final and so it proved.
There is some talk about him going for the Ladbrokes Golden Jacket. I think the distance will suit him, but I am not sure whether he will run the track.
Physically, he is such a long dog, almost like a sausage dog, and I am not convinced he will be able to stretch out at Crayford. But I will discuss it with the owners before we make any decision.
More definite plans would be to run him in the Trainers Championship meeting and then the Regency.
He ran very well in the Ballyregan Bob Memorial at Hove last year. He finished fourth but was only beaten a length and a quarter by
Millwards Teddy in an incredible race.
As for Crayford, the only likely runner at this stage is Black Francis. He is a 33-1 chance and looks value. I don’t know whether he has the class of Roxholme Dream but I would hope he could make the final and then who knows?
It would be fantastic to win the competition again after Hometown Honey’s exploits last year.
She is over with Gary Goulding in Sligo and has a stunning looking five month old litter by Head Bound of which we have five.
I am very much looking forward to the first Sunday meeting at Towcester this weekend.
I am not convinced that February will be a big turn-on, but it can be massive in the late spring and summer. I could imagine thousands turning out.
I am delighted that they have introduced a policy of paying appearance money (as separate to prize money which goes to the owners) for outside trainers.
Over years it has been a source of huge disappointment to me that I could have dogs in open races at other tracks, the local trainers get paid appearance money for having a runner, just as they do in graded races, but I don’t get a penny.
What encouragement is that for trainers to travel?
I made a significant financial loss last year, if fact I have done so every year since Walthamstow closed. If I had been paid just £10 for each of our 1,200 runners it would have made a significant difference to my accounts.
There is big money at stake and the bookies, here and abroad, are doing very well out of our dogs.
Any tracks that follow the Towcester policy are sure to attract more open racers in my opinion – and its only fair that they do so.
In fact, if Towcester were to get more BAGS meetings, I would seriously have to consider reducing my open race commitments and concentrate more on graded racing. It would be financial madness not to do so.”
