Where are Walthamstow's ex- racers?
~UPDATE~
Thank you to the owners and trainers who have given further information through our website http://www.greyhounds-uk.org/ about greyhounds which ran at Walthamstow. The BGRB has also provided details of greyhounds which have trialed at other tracks, several only last week, and some other dogs.
It is now clear that 67% of the greyhounds that ran at Walthamstow shortly before it closed in mid-August went on to establish new stable lives elsewhere – either racing at other tracks or joining a re-homing scheme. However, despite it being 3 months since Walthamstow closed, there is no evidence that any of the remaining dogs are stable – most of them have trialed or raced only occasionally over the last 3 months and many have not been seen for 2 months or more. Finally, the number of greyhounds which have disappeared from view altogether now stands at 18. The first priority for the BGRB is to find these dogs.
I continue to have cause for concern and repeat my call to the industry in my letter last week to get its act together: the BGRB racing form data should be extended with details for every greyhound of its destination after ceasing to race. In the meantime, we will continue our analysis of the greyhounds which raced at Reading.
Yours faithfully
Annette Crosbie OBE
Where are Walthamstow's ex- racers?
The Editor
Racing Post
Dear Sir
Walthamstow closure
Today Greyhounds UK has published its analysis of the greyhounds which ran at Walthamstow shortly before it closed in mid-August to identify how many dogs have gone on to establish stable lives elsewhere.
The data is on our website http://www.greyhounds-uk.org/ which has the facility to accept update information on any dog. We intend to do the same for dogs displaced by the closure of Reading track.
This analysis concentrates on the 399 dogs of Walthamstow-attached trainers and is entirely factual. It contains no judgments and uses only information publicly available or from anyone having direct knowledge of specific dogs.
The initial results of this analysis were passed to all relevant trainers, kennels, the BGRB, NGRC, and RGT and any comments received have been included. So what did we find? Broadly, 60% of the dogs have definitely established stability elsewhere.
However, 38 dogs have not been seen in public since Walthamstow closed; the remainder have not raced with a frequency likely to pay their keep for two and a half months. This is very worrying in itself without considering the future viability of dogs displaced at other tracks by ex-Walthamstow arrivals.
What we have done for Walthamstow is the product of the efforts of one Greyhounds UK analyst in his spare time on a home computer – literally one man and his dog.
So why hasn’t the greyhound industry, with all its money and resources, done full analyses of the destination of every dog at every track – and published the results?
This week’s disclosures in the Sunday Times of the ending of the lives of discarded greyhounds in such ruthless and shameful fashion should make the promoters and bookmakers realise that they have to sign up to openness and guarantees for the dogs’ futures if their businesses are not to be overwhelmed with sleaze.
If the Greyhound Board of Great Britain is to be any different from its secretive predecessors, it must get a grip on this issue.
Yours faithfully
