New Trainers, The Open Race Situation

Evening all!

I thought I'd use this blog first and foremost to say a hello to the spate of new trainers that have joined us recently. 

First in the door is Ken Mitchell from Poole. Ken is based near Reading and used to train there before it's closure. He's been fielding dogs for Poole and Harlow since then. He has some useful dogs indeed, most certainly a litter out of Ballymac Class which look pretty decent.

Brian King is another to take to the Blunsdon sand. King used to run the Shelbourne Stud and has come over after a good career over in Ireland. He doesn't have a large strength, however he has some quality Shelbourne dogs which will no doubt enter the top grades.

Hayley Keightley joins us after being unattached. Mostly known for fielding open racers, including the legendary Roxholme Girl, Keightley has some pups that will be coming through the ranks.

Last, but certainly not least, is Terry Atkins, who joins us from Oxford. Terry's a great character, who used to train at Reading. He has a good kennel strength of dogs, and is a great addition to the Swindon team.

Welcome to all the newbies, and I hope you all have a great time at Swindon!

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Now that those formalities are out of the way, I wanted to open discussion on the state of the Open Racing game in the greyhound world at the moment. It's plain to see, if you've taken notice of the open race entries around the country, and the quality of the open races being fielded at the moment is pretty dire. We had two open races this past Saturday, and realistically they were pretty awful in terms of quality. When you think of an Open Race, I automatically cast my mind to seeing 6 quality greyhounds genuinely competing to see who's the best. However, what we seem to have at the moment are cards that are being filled basically by graders over open racers. So what's the solution?

Upping the prize money for tracks doesn't really seem to be working. To me, tracks are going to have to compete with one another to fill these races. I think for a track to succeed, they need to establish 'a night'. For example, when you're looking through your calendar, you know full well that you can have a full card at Coventry on a Sunday, Nottingham on a Monday, Romford on a Friday, a mix of Hove/Henlow on Thursday. Swindon's pitch of Saturday night to me would work less well than a Wednesday. On a Saturday, you find that most tracks run a graded card, alas you have to rely on the trainers that wish to attend 2 or more tracks to enter your opens. I, personally, feel Wednesday nights are the best nights for opens.

Another thing to establish is a good mix of races. As much as I am not a fan of filling a card with maidens (I very rarely record Romford on a Friday for this reason), you have to put a mix of maiden six bends, sprints etc, along with good standard trips etc. Also, puppy races seem rather popular. I've looked into veteran races, but they don't seem to attract a decent enough entry (I can only remember one at Sittingbourne a little while back), though I am all for veteran derbies for the graders that have done such hard work for their trainers (more on that later).

Next thing, which might prove horrifically controversial, is to offer something, and this can be anything, that is completely different from the others. Sittingbourne introduced a form of lottery with a £1,000 prize for a trainer. Those sort of initiatives will get entries in the book. My idea would be, obviously dependant on bookings etc, is for OR entries, is to offer a table in the restaurant, or a form of buffet for those entered. One thing that seems to be a real stickler for travelling support is the quality of the grub on offer. Why not have a decent spread in the paddock bar or something for those that have travelled 2/3 hours to get to the track so that they can have a decent meal. It's amazing how word of mouth can spread the word in greyhound racing, and this sort of thing, where you look after the travelling trainers, could do wonders not just for the morale of those in attendance, but also with the hope of repeated future entries from said trainers.

Again, like most things in greyhound racing, I think it's really minor tweaks that are needed just to up the quality of the product a bit. Other things that you could look at include the quality of the trophies, having a decent presentation area, presentation jackets etc. You could literally look at every detail and fine tune it in my opinion. The best thing is that you know when you have a winning formula, because the entries will then be stacked.

Now I'm not blind, there is quite obviously a pretty serious greyhound shortage at the moment. It's not just here, so I'm told, Ireland is also suffering pretty badly. As much as it must be a headache for tracks, racing managers, and everybody involved, surely now is as good a time as ever to step back and take a look at what you're offering in terms of a product and see what you can do to make it better? 

As I alluded to earlier, as much as I am a fan of the open racing, I also completely understand the plight of the 'bread and butter' greyhounds. Obviously the graded races, with the BAGS situation etc, is vitally important. Prize money always seems to be a bug bearer, and I can see both sides of it. Obviously an increase in prize money is very much sought after from trainers and owners. However, the other side of the coin is that to even put a £1 on all levels, you're looking at an extra £20,000 odd quid on the prize money bill at the end of year. The essential problem is that any prize level increase would have to be significant to assist trainers and owners, alas the total added cost over a year could be alot more. 

I am all for, as I have posted on previous blog postings, are alot more trophy meetings and specialist nights. I think the Owners and Trainers evening that we run usually around Christmas is great, but I do think the same thing could be done once a month. I don't think that taking one evening a month would hurt. We could have a full trophy card, special offers for owners and trainers for the restaurant etc. I think it would be a really good morale boost, and a meeting that people could look forward to.

Another thing that I reckon would be cool for the local greyhounds are some local kennel sweepstakes. Yes we have the Owner's Bonus Series and the BAGS/SIS 500, but why not do some extras? As I said earlier, why not have a veteran's derby for the old charge that have been running for a while, so that their owners and trainers can win a decent bit of money and win a nice trophy for the greyhound? Also, as I've seen Monmore and Crayford do, why not have trophy races for greyhounds that win a series of races?

These are just merely ideas how, again, with just minor tweaks, the morale could be increased amongst owners and trainers. Winning trophies and just being made a fuss of even for 5 minutes is a massive bonus for everyone involved in the greyhound. It's something that greyhound racing as a whole has to do. We have to look after the product first and foremost.

Apologise that this has been a rather long post. I think I might have got a bit carried away! If you have any views, agreements/disagreements feel free to comment. I just hope I've got the mind thinking as to what sort of things could be done relatively easily.

Anyway, happy punting!

Chris Watts