“Dad first took us racing to Westhoughton and Ellesmere when we were kids. We absolutely loved it. I tried to get a trainer’s licence to train a couple of dogs but was told that I couldn’t have one because the kennels were under the house; GBGB wouldn’t license them. Then I heard about the new owner trainers licence (which didn’t require a kennel). I was one of the first to apply and it has all gone from there.”
Cronody Zero might be one of the most popular names on the open race scene at present. On Monday night he landed his seventh consecutive sprint open and his consistency and ability are a testament to the training skills of his 26 year old handler Ben Reynolds and twin brother Jack.
Ben said: “We bought Zero from Steve Atkinson at Newcastle but he then picked up a track leg and it took a little while to get him right. But since he has come back, he has done nothing wrong. After he led last night we thought he would just pull away. Something happened at the first bend, where they started to catch him, but he ran on well enough. We’ve had him checked over this morning and he seems fine. Hopefully he just lost his footing.”
Based near Bury in Lancashire, Ben earns his living as a gardener – not that he has been able to do much gardening in the last couple of weeks! But he and Jack are hoping to extend their interest in training.
He said: “We only have the two dogs, Zero and Cronody Mike, who has had a setback after his qualifying trials. But we are planning to build some more kennels, up to GBGB standard in the garden and take out a greyhound trainers licence. We have spoken to Perry Barr about running some dogs there and are just waiting for them to get back to us.”
