Greyhound racing is 100 not out but how many more can we score?

100 up, but the vultures continue to circle

Dunstall Park this evening hosts the centenary celebration card as greyhound racing celebrates 100 years of racing action in the UK, with Belle Vue hosting that very first meeting back on July 24, 1926.

It feels fitting that the newest track in the country is the venue for the meeting, an almost full circle moment with Belle Vue brand spanking new when hosting 100 years back. There has been plenty of interesting little bits going into the card from just six races as there was at Belle Vue to the £1.926 on offer to the winners of each race.

Despite the sport celebrating a milestone, the grey clouds continue to loom, with a march in London planned for tomorrow by anti groups, starting at the GBGB offices. We can sit and disregard them in any way that we wish, but the truth is that they are the ones who are getting through to the middle ground of those who are not all that fussed about racing one way or the other. 

It is where the work of Fortitude Communications and Shaun Reynolds in particular is so important. They are putting out good news homing story after good news homing story and are making national news with them. To have some positivity around greyhound racing in the national press is not something that should be taken lightly as it is something that has been missing for along time. 

Next week will be the first anniversary of Sir Philip Davies being announced as taking over as the chair of the GBGB, taking up the role on September 1 of last year. There has been another excellent appointment recently of Abbie Macgregor who is the new corporate affairs director. Those who read her interview in the Racibg Post on Thursday will have been impressed by what she has to say, hitting the nail on the head on a number of things. 

She said, “there is an uncomfortable truth at the heart of animal welfare. Increasingly, some campaign groups like Animal Aid, ask us to judge animals not by what they are but by what they think they should be.”

Continuing, Macgregor said, “the problem isn’t that people care too much about animals - it’s locking society into an empathy trap by assuming animals want the same things we do…true welfare means learning to understand animals on their terms not ours.”

We had the pleasure of a couple of sessions with Macgregor at GRUK, brought in to do some media training on how to handle ourselves in debates on television with antis. Unfortunately, the way things went with GRUK shortly after meant that there was never really an opportunity to put it to the test in the wide world but Macgregor left everyone on the senior staff with the same impression, she is a very smart woman who is worth her weight in gold to this sport.

The hope has to be that the GBGB will utilise her skills in the right way. They should allow her plenty of rope to go about things the way that she thinks that they should be done as I would have little doubt that this has the potential to be a massive plus for the sport at a time when it is in dire need of some further good press. 

Recent temperatures has meant that the Hot Weather policy from the GBGB has been under scrutiny once more.  There was consultation with a string of vets made before the policy came into being as well as with the GBGB’s welfare charity partners. It is open to amendments and it could be that there will be some further discussion around this ahead of next summer. Could we see the 33c threshold lowered? Would that be seen as pandering to the antis by too many or a genuine step in the right direction?

Now if you read the anti groups, you would be told that all of the vets who work within greyhound racing are bought and paid for by the sport and that they have no integrity. Now if I were a track vet, I’d be pretty pissed off by these baseless accusations from those with a clear agenda,  but vets are thankfully a thick-skinned group who actually know what a greyhound requires!

Some tracks have been proactive and cancelled meetings over the hot weather below the 33c threshold set out by the policy. Trainer’s vans are air conditioned as are the kennels at each track, although you’d not know it from more accusations thrown around on certain sites, though antis have as much experience of being in a trainer’s van as they have being in a racing kennel. 

That said, we cannot be too blasé about the antis as they are relentless in their we’ll shout louder than you attitude and if they aren’t listened to, the toys come out the pram and they will shout louder. 

There have been a couple of counter protests to their track antics in recent weeks, at Central Park when a group of young men turned up to greet the protestors and then at Star Pelaw on Saturday night. As a sport we should absolutely defend ourselves against the lies that are told but that needs to stay within the laws of decency. 

Jokes have long been made about protestors being the great unwashed but having stuff thrown at them as happened at Star Pelaw does nothing to help the image of the industry. ‘If they can do this to humans, just imagine what they do to dogs’ was the outcry and to those who are on the fence or have no great interest in racing, it’s impossible to defend that behaviour. 

There would not have been the protestors at Star Pelaw in the first place if there had not been the deaths of dogs in the care of trainer Ross Miller. Unacceptable doesn’t even begin to come close to the death of these dogs as something that should never have happened. Add to that the recent 2025 figures from the GBGB which has seen track deaths go up 30% and anti groups are rubbing their hands together to be handed such fodder to go to war with. 

100 years of greyhound racing is a huge milestone for the sport but it’s hard not to feel that at times, the sport must be a centipede to keep plugging on given the amount of times that it has shot itself in the foot.

The Star Pelaw incident leaves a very unpleasant taste in the mouth of many that I have spoken to within the sport, with a serious failing in more than one area. It is not my job, nor those on social media and certainly not those who want to end the sport to sit as judge, jury or executioner with regards to the tragedy but it is something that surely should have been prevented by someone. 

The trainer, his staff, the track, the stipe, the welfare officer, there are more than enough people around to have prevented such a tragic event but instead of figuring out how the f**k it ever happened, there is just a pointing of fingers as blame is being cast in every direction. Until the investigation is concluded we won’t know the full details but whatever happens, this must be a watershed moment in the sport, we cannot afford for it not to be. 

We can go ahead and celebrate 100 years of racing tonight at Dunstall Park but we then have to get to work to actually provide some sort of future for the sport. With more and more pressure growing on us from those who won’t rest until the sport is finished, the last thing that we can do is hand them open goals like the Miller case. 

I saw on X today that the Pro Racing Club might be done with the sport. They have had plenty of decent dogs down the years. It is the first time in 15 years they don’t have any dogs currently running and don’t know if they will again. Their crack sprinter Pro Parker was retired last week and this is a tale that is seen more and more from those who were huge followers of the sport.

Disillusionment within the sport from those who were once its biggest fans is a disaster. The GBGB can run every flag up the pole when it comes to welfare, the tracks can keep on racing but until the fundamental flaws are figured out, it’s hard to find the positives we need to push the sport outside of its small following. 

There is a 2012 song by Justin Jones that says ‘every blow I give has me take two more, til I don’t believe in what I’m fighting for.’ The antis know exactly what they are fighting for, but some in the sport day in and day out are not so sure these days. 

Looking after the welfare of the dogs is without question the number one priority of each owner, trainer, kennelhand and track in the country. There is nothing more important than the dogs, so let’s get back to showing that is the case.

Today is 100 up but just how soon will we run out of feet to keep us gong?