Editor's Chair - Happy anniversary to us

Editor's Chair

Monday, July 8, 2024.

I sat on a Zoom call with Mike Davis, Floyd Amphlett and Jonathan Hobbs as we started the Greyhound Racing UK journey. It is incredible that we are a year into the venture already. There have been some huge successes so far, plenty of lessons learnt from mistakes made as well as a serious amount of planning already being done for 2026.

From four people on day one to a group of about 30 a year later, it has been 12 months of continual building. It was a huge help to have the Greyhound Star as a starting point for the editorial team, the foundation on which we have started to build Greyhound Racing UK. Other parts of the company didn't have that luxury so have been created from scratch.

Although it has been a year since we started the journey overall, Greyhound Racing UK itself was only given a soft launch earlier in 2025. That came just before we were plunged headlong into marketing the Star Sports & TRC English Greyhound Derby with only 10 weeks between the internal announcement and the opening round.

What was achieved in a span of time as short as that was incredible. Was it perfect? No, of course not, nothing ever is. Was it an improvement on what has been done before? I think so. Can we take what was learnt from the mistakes made in 2025 to make 2026 even better? At the risk of blowing our own trumpets, absolutely. 

The addition of the Gone To The Dogs podcast last summer was an immediate sign of intent. Dani Jackson was brought into the fold along with Joe Conneely to not only provide tips for the news website but also to build on the podcast and turn it into live broadcasts. The quality of both have been a testament to the hard work that has gone into that part of the business. 

More than 37,000 streams of the Star Sports & TRC English Greyhound Derby final broadcast have occurred on YouTube. There was a peak of 9,900 viewers for the Derby itself. The comparison to the old Sky days are always good to hear but the desire to continue to improve from the production side of things shows no resting on laurels.

There is clearly still an appetite for the sport. It might not be as voracious as it once was, and it may not extend to an ordinary Wednesday night meeting but there is enough of a starting point to push for more. Those drone shots alone on the coverage should be hung in a museum, if they don't get the juices flowing for the racing, nothing will.

There was a great comment from one of our members of staff after the event. “Watching my first Derby final, it brought a tear to my eye. Great stuff! So happy to be a part of greyhound racing.” This was from someone who came into the business without a knowledge of the sport and has been at least partly converted. She is also insanely talented at what she does!

The next step is to try and keep that momentum going. As has been the cry on social media since, the sport is not just about the Derby. That is absolutely correct and while making sure that the 2026 Derby is better still than this year, the crucial thing is to find a way to help push the sport between times. 

One thing that Mike has always been vocal about is solutions not problems. This is an area that the sport has never been great about.  The problems in the sport are easy to spot and are pointed out on a regular basis on social media, but what has been lacking for a long time is any ideas on how to fix them. 

As a business, we are not here to attempt to solve every issue that the sport has but there are a couple that we are in a strong position to at least try to help with. The first of those is one that people will have seen throughout the Derby and that is to try and market the sport better than it has been in the past. Yes, it is not the strongest bar that has been set but we are always looking to improve. 

Trying to engage a new audience is not an easy one but videos of dogs enjoying life at home produced a strong level of engagement with more than 10.6 million views across the Derby on all platforms. The content creation and marketing arms of the business have been working overtime for the last few months, producing quality content.

These are teams made up of people who (in general) a few months ago knew nothing of greyhound racing. What they do know though, is how to produce eye-catching visuals and more importantly, how to push them to as wide an audience as possible. 

People who understand the algorithms of both Google and social media sites will be key to the success of getting the word out there. As with everything that we are doing, it is an ongoing project with some skilled people in charge of it.

Skills like that are not seen often within the sport, there are exceptions of course with tracks like Monmore and Romford very good at utilising social media. It is just how we manage to drag the rest of the industry kicking and screaming into the 21st century by showing them what can be achieved. 

Showing rather than telling is another big deal with Mike. There are a lot of people in all walks of life who can talk a good game, those who can actually back that up with positive action are a far smaller demographic. 

TikTok has been one of the real success stories so far. It started strongly with a replay of Churchfield Syd winning at Monmore which ended up with more than 1.3 million views. Since then, it has been a steady diet of greyhounds enjoying themselves in their  home kennels which have ‘done the numbers.’ 

Particularly notable were videos of the Graham Holland runners courtesy of daughter Rachel. Cheap Sandwiches sat on a sofa with his pink flamingo toy watching Mean Girls was a personal favourite while the vlog of Bockos Diamond’s trip over from Ireland on the ferry was also a hugely successful piece. 

Rachel was also instrumental in some of the most read pieces of editorial during the Derby with her kennel blogs detailing the Holland team. Even at a young age, she has forgotten more about greyhound racing than most people will ever learn, has a serious work ethic as well as a string of great ideas. The company are very lucky to have her.

Naturally the antis are on TikTok as well so it is a constant battle to see off the attacks, but we are working hard on education which hopefully can reach some of the middle ground that is there. Videos on greyhounds colouring, their teeth, puppy diaries and cooling dogs off after a race are all to be found to try and educate those who are part of the huge grey area in society.

That is the area of education that we need to be targeting. Those who are already within the sport know all of the above, those who are anti the sport wouldn’t listen even if they were presented with facts in black and white. In the world of social media, there is nothing worse than being wrong!

One of the replies to the greyhound colours video on TikTok was “Oops, accidentally just liked a post supporting greyhound racing. Let me just remove that.” This was educational, beautifully illustrated but her prejudice against the sport stopped her from acknowledging it for what it was, a fine piece of content. Removing the blinkers from those who are willing to listen will be a tough task but worthwhile if it can be achieved.

Greyhoundhoming UK has produced something remarkable with the adopt section on the website detailing many greyhounds who are looking for a home. Trying to bring as many homing groups together in one place is very much a work in progress but for the long term good of the sport, it has to be tried. 

Pushing the rehoming out to a bigger audience is the second thing that we are in a strong position to try to help. We all know that greyhounds are an exceptional breed but there is little out there to combat the stories that so many retired dogs go home with from rehoming centres about how bad racing is.

The nonsense that they all have mental scars from racing has permeated social media for years. They are not mentally scared from racing, they have been taken away from an environment they know and are somewhere they have never been, surrounded by people they've never seen. That nervousness is not from being abused by the racing industry, rather that they don't have a clue who you are! Anyway, that's a rant for another day. 

The Greyhound Racing UK tagline of ‘Together We Win’ is not just some throwaway buzz phrase. It is the ethos by which the sport can not only continue but start to grow again. There is not a single member of staff who in any way underestimates the task that is in front of us over the coming years. There are also none who will shy away from a fight.

This is where you as greyhound fans can have a say. Help us to help you. If you have a solution to finding more homes for retired dogs, speak up. If you know how to bring owners back into the sport without demanding every track race on Saturday night as it’s never going to happen, let us know! 

Even if you don't have ideas, the more liking, retweeting, commenting and helping to push the content to as wide an audience as you can possibly do is hugely appreciated by all involved here. 

Roll on year two!