Greyhound running for charity makes race debut on Friday

Cruse looking to raise money for a great cause

The 2.44 at Star Pelaw on Friday afternoon is a bottom grade sprint which would generate very few waves in the sport on an ordinary Friday afternoon. The blue jacket will be sported by Westfield Cruse who will be making his race debut, running for the charity, Cruse.

Cruse is a bereavement charity who I came across the day after my wife Laura passed last November. Jason (Smith, trainer) drove down from Yorkshire early on that Saturday morning to make sure that I wasn't on my own. I felt a pull to head down to Herne Bay which was one of Laura's favourite spots by the sea.

There is a small bar on the pier cannily named Beer on the Pier, it was one of our favourite places for a cider (or four) on a summer's day and even at the end of November, it's a friendly place for a pint. 

On the bar was a charity tin for Cruse. Pete who owns the bar and Adam who is one of the bar staff both raise money regularly for the charity, each running the London Marathon MyWay for the charity earlier on this year. 

It seemed like fate had put the charity tin there to speak to us as Jason and I had a lightbulb moment at the same time. We had a litter who were 14 months old at that point but a bit backwards. Given the time of year, we were not going to be getting them on the track over the winter and run the guts out of them, but we decided there and then that one of the pups would run for the charity.

A home-bred pup, Cruse is by Westfield Bullet who was a 14-time open race winner for us, out of Westfield Jennie. Bullet is a litter brother to Churchfield Syd, and although we mainly campaigned him in sprints, he had no issues with a bit further, only 11 spots off the quickest of the year at Star Pelaw over 435m last year, which was Unanimous Leon.

Jennie was a dual open race winner, with one each over two and four bends. She also very much had a mind of her own but is a half-sister to Birmingham Cup runner-up Darley Diglake who is by Droopys Sydney, as Bullet is. As we knew we were keeping them all ourselves to race, it was a cross that was worth a try, to us at least! 

Cruse is unlikely to be anything special but he has improved small steps with each of his trials and will continue to go in the right direction when he is getting regular racing. The litter shape like they will get four bends well enough, so hopefully that will be the case.

Every penny of win and run money that he earns on the track will be donated to Cruse, so it would be nice to see him stay sound throughout his career and pick up plenty of success.