Tuesday night proved particularly successful for Peterborough trainer Richard Devenish who landed two of the big races at Wimbledon: the British Breeders Sprint, plus the Lawrence Brothers Intertrack Final, and a supporting open.
Surprisingly, Romany Rouge, winner of the six bend event, was the only dog born at Glatton kennels at Turves, previous birthplace of many champions of track and field.
Richard said: “Mac Foiche (Ballymac Vic-Waspinajar) was bred by Heather Dimmock and reared in Ireland. They are a very good litter, and Heather reared on some of the others herself. We had three come into the kennel when Heather decided to switch from Peterborough to Towcester but the owners didn’t want to move.”
Richard and partner Dilys have 39 racing dogs, or whom 25 are currently available for Peterborough plus a six month old repeat mating from the cross that produced Romany Rouge.
ROMANY ROUGE
Richard said: “We have to travel with some of the better dogs because we aren’t getting races for them at Peterborough due to the grades they are in. We used to have two or three litters at a time but now we only have one.”
Could they be persuaded to breed more greyhounds in the future?
Richard replied: “It is all about money, particularly getting staff to look after them. If we go racing, you always need someone here. The more dogs, the more staff and you just can’t cover it. Most kennels at Peterborough are limited at what they can charge.
“Most are around £6.50-£7.50 per day but if they increase that, the dogs go to trainers who charge virtually nothing because they are doing it as a hobby. If we could charge £10 per dog, per day, we could breed more, but I can’t see that day ever coming. So we do what we can manage.”
