Floyd's Column - Finance, Emotion and History

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We are now just 351 days until greyhound racing’s 100 year anniversary (in Britain).  

The USA celebrated its century during our Covid winter, in May 2020, though to be honest, there wasn’t much to celebrate.  

It was the year that the ban on greyhound racing closed the remaining tracks in its biggest racing state, Florida.  

More have gone since, to a point that there are now just two tracks operating in the USA, Tri-State and Wheeling, both in West Virginia. 

Two tracks is not an industry. There are probably more businesses selling bondage gear to dwarves – not that I’ve checked! 

American racing was ultimately killed off by its welfare issues, and for anybody who saw their racing at first hand, it was long overdue. 

Over the years, I met many truly decent ‘dog men’ (and women) who loved their hounds, racing and the sport for its own sake.  

Sadly, there were also a much greater number who viewed it simply as ‘a business’. 

By the time they realised that they (cynically) had to raise their welfare game, it was too late. 

But the welfare issue was only part of the story 

There was a political and criminal angle that dogged American racing throughout its history. 

In his brilliant book ‘Please Mister The Golden Age of Greyhound Racing’ Charles Blanning explored the original gangster connection to greyhound racing with Al Capone being a dog track owner. (I know what you are thinking. Stop it!). 

But the grime went deeper. The owners of horserace courses, via dubious politicians, ensured that greyhound racing had never legalised in certain states. 

However, in later years the dog tracks faced a different problem; they struggled to attract crowds and make money. 

They relied on on-course ‘handle’ (tote) as a sole betting source and many would have been shut down far earlier but for a loophole in the law. 

Basically, the dog tracks were historically protected gambling venues. Only they, and the ‘First Nation’ communities, who were allowed to open casinos on their reservations, were permitted to stage gambling events. 

Over time, casinos flourished on the site of the dog tracks. Some were the size of several football fields and rammed with gambling machines, roulette wheels, craps tables and the rest. And they were forced to pay a significant levy for the privilege of sharing the site. 

The casinos subsidised the dog tracks for years. Unsurprisingly, the casino owners were resentful. 

Whether any of them funded the anti-racing groups, or the politicians with the power to abolish the sport, will probably never be known. 

But if I was a betting man. . .  

I confidently predict that we will make 24 July 2026 with more than two tracks, though I suggest it will be ‘some’ less than we have at present. 

Sure Swindon is going, and Perry Barr, though the latter will be replaced by Dunstall Park. 

In all honesty though, and without evidence to name other venues, I would bet money on there being more. 

The problem is, the future of greyhound racing in Britain is in a downward spiral in three separate spheres which I will call ‘financial’, ‘emotional’ and ‘historic’. 

FINANCIAL 

Greyhound racing makes no financial sense and that is from its starting point - breeding. 

The whole breeding sector doesn’t stretch as far as being an industry. There are no commercial greyhound breeders in Britain and less than a handful in Ireland. 

In the vast majority of cases, breeders would be better off churning out different breeds. (When was the last time Blue Cross ran a campaign to shut down puppy farms?) 

As an example, there is a litter out of an Oaks winner for sale on greyhound-data out of a fabulously bred English Oaks winner with the dogs and bitches offered at a little either side of €3,000. Roughly the cost of a Bull Dog or half decent German Shepherd.  

A ‘designer bred’ (or ‘mongrel’ as they were once called) Miniature Golden Doodle will set you back a minimum of £2,500. 

Add on the cost of rearing, inoculations, registrations, schooling, and the rest, and any greyhound that is sold for less than £2,500 represents a subsidy by an Irish breeder. 

As an experiment, I tracked down a Shelbourne Park sale for 50 years ago this month.  

The top lot at 1,000 guineas was a dog called Moon Man. He was unexceptional. Not a hound who went on to greatness, nor was he priced to be. Indeed the next highest lot cost 900 guineas, and the third 850 guineas. 

The equivalent cost today for Moon Man today would be £14,800. Remember this was not a ‘Towcester Pre Derby’ showcase. 

A few days later, the top seller at a bang average Hackney sale made 700 guineas, roughly £10,360 today. 

Yet how can dogs be expected to cost more when prize money is stagnant? 

This year’s English Derby winner collected £175,000 because Mike Davis agreed to subsidise the event. 

Kevin Boothby, who had dug deep for every Derby since the event returned to Towcester, had previously, and reluctantly, decided it would be £125,000. 

Although Nottingham staged a £50K to winner Derby in 2020 (due to Covid), ARC’s first ‘non-Covid’ Derby winner, a year earlier, had seen the first prize slashed from £175,000 to £100,000. 

In fact, overall, the Derby has fared better than most.  

Go back 20 years and the Essex Vase was worth £6,000 to the winner. By now, in line with inflation, it would be worth £12,500. It has actually remained at £10K since 2009. It is a similar story for the Sussex Cup. 

This is NOT having a dig at Entain. What they have done is upgraded some of the Category Two events, like the Coronation Cup, and also attempted to ease the burden on expenses by running ‘double header’ Cat One races. 

As for ARC, the 2005 Scurry was worth £5,000. It was worth £7,500 last year when in-line with inflation it would have been worth, £10,370. 

These aren’t specially selected events, the vast majority of events have become less valuable in real terms. 

Nor are we comparing prize money with ‘the post war boom years’. 

EMOTIONAL 

The reason why British and Irish owners, trainers and breeders continue to engage, unlike the majority of the American counterparts, is due to an emotional connection with the sport. 

Passion and ‘love of the game’ fills the financial gap in an ailing industry. 

Breeders continue to produce pups knowing that for the majority – certainly the small breeders – they have minimal chance of breaking even. 

Owners pay six figure sums for greyhounds without ever expecting to see a fraction of their money back. 

They take on a racer knowing that there will probably be more lows than highs and with the full commitment to cover all registration, veterinary and retirement costs when the industry has finished with their hounds. 

They do so in the knowledge that far from being prized and cherished, in many cases they are something of an inconvenience at certain tracks. 

As far as the trainers are concerned, they pay the greatest price of all. They toil for hours that wouldn’t qualify as minimum wage. 

In cases where they could be converted and local authority licensed, they would be massively better off becoming boarding kennels or ‘doggy day care’ centres. 

I advise all trainers to put an exit strategy in place. 

HISTORIC 

The third critical metric is the industry’s failure to plan long term. 

This industry generated owners when it offered great facilities and attracted big crowds. 

Fewer tracks and daytime racing have largely staunched that flow. 

The GBGB records will show over 3,000 owners in the industry, though those figures are massively misleading. 

Aside from track promoters Kevin Boothby and Dave Barclay, who are the biggest owners, all the significant ‘owners’ in the game are trainers, either directly, in partnerships or heading syndicates. 

Furthermore, the trainer production line has long since been put into mothballs. 

But for the former flapping folk, this industry would have closed already but the independent tracks have now been wiped out. 

The reason for empty traps isn’t a lack of greyhounds – albeit we only breed half as many as 20 years ago – it is a decline in the number of people who want to (or can afford to) own or train them. 

FINAL THOUGHTS 

The fact that racing ceased in the USA is generally reckoned to be because of the welfare lobby. That is only partially true. 

In my view, greyhound racing in the USA was a terminally ill patient being kept alive on a casino powered ventilator until the well funded ‘antis’ pulled the plug. 

The GBGB have done an excellent job in producing a welfare system that can be held up to scrutiny – not by the antis – but by our civil servants and general public, should they ever decide to put factual evidence above half truths and lies. 

But we would be foolish to see welfare as our biggest threat. 

We are more likely to go broke – or fade away due to lack of interest. 

Will PGR or SIS want to breed and own their own dogs? Take responsibility for rehoming and vets bills? 

PGR could probably afford to, SIS, who reduced payments to tracks two years ago simply wouldn’t have the financial resources (or desire) to keep going. 

Besides – if we simply became an all graded, sterile ‘betting shop product’ – would you want the sport to continue anyway? 

After 105 years of racing, we might just be down to two tracks.