Desirable Fella will create history on Friday though Shawfield racing manager Daniel Rankin reckons he could be Britain’s best kept secret.
The ex-Irish runner runner will make his debut for Thomas Jordan, the first of the new owner trainers – colloquially stilled referred to as ‘permit’ trainers to run in a graded race. (The first open runner was at Henlow on Sunday)
Shawfield have ten new handlers in the process of qualifying runners (the second runner could be Goodison Bark dependent on a last minute registration hitch) though Rankin believes there are many more would-be trainers working to misapprehensions about the new license. It was originally suggested that the scheme would be a trial restricted to five non-BAGS tracks. This is not the case.
Rankin said: “Most people haven’t worked it out yet. My message to anybody who fancies taking out a greyhound trainer licence is, phone the track where you want to race and ask if they are prepared to accept you. Some of the bookmaker owned BAGS tracks may not want you, though I think most of the tracks are keen to take trainers on. This is a great initiative for new people to get involved in the sport.”
Meanwhile at Pelaw Grange . . .
Racing manager Dave Gray said: “We should have our first owner trainer runner this weekend and I am expecting the first runner will be trained by Kevin Robinson from Ashington. Kevin has quite a few dogs with different trainers and as soon as he heard about the ‘permit’ licence he went and bought himself a couple of cheapies from Ireland.
“I think he brought about half a dozen people with him and that is the thing that we have noticed, there seem to be a lot of family interest among the permit lads. There is another guy who has been coming to the track for years. He has just taken a permit and on Sunday he was here with the family of six for a meal.
“With no BAGS or RPGTV contracts, these small guys are as important in terms of the turnstiles as they are with their dogs, though they are also buying feed and bedding too which helps with turnover.
“Overall we think there are 15 or 16 trainers local trainers from this first tranch of applications and hopefully with more to come.”
