A Few Good Men and their Dog

/ Maxliu / 27 June 2008 / Leave a Comment

Alan Morris tells Max Liu how Betfair provided the forum for a community of greyhound enthusiasts to realise a sporting dream and a kennel-warming tale of life beyond the tracks.

The Betfairers syndicate met online in the early days of Betfair and, led by Bob Fox and Alan Morris, raised £7000 to buy Dotty, a promising young bitch.

After Betfair agreed to fund her training fees and medical expenses, Dotty was lodged at Walthamstow where trainer Jimmy Reynolds sprung a surprise on the syndicate by entering her on her 2nd race into a hot puppy open.
"None of us were on as she scooted in at 10/1 !!!" laughs Alan.

As the guys scrambled to keep up with the pup's progress, she came of age when Reynolds stepped her up to 640 and started to win good open races. Highlights included appearances on Sky-Sports and victories over then local hotpot Soviet Gypsy 2 weeks in a row.

It wasn't all plain scurrying as Dotty regularly came into season every 6 months. This scuppered her momentum, making it difficult to get a good run of races going.
"We thought she had a hot chance of the Golden Jacket at Crayford after being stepped up to eight bends," says Alan.

But again Dotty came into season. "We decided to retire her and send her to Ireland as what on paper looked a top brood bitch."
According to Alan, the first litter was disappointing but, he adds, "Some of the 2nd litter now on track look promising."

After the sad death of stakeholder Bob Fox last June the syndicate decided to retire Dotty.

Alan offered to take her in and with a huge forest and beach on the doorstep, his home at Tayport Fife is an ideal greyhound retirement home.

When she moved in last August, Dotty was in a dishevelled state. Years of living outside amongst lots of other dogs had left the once resplendent hound brown, fluffy, riddled with fleas, ticks, dreadful teeth and bad breath.

Alan says: "We got her treated de-flead. My partner is a dental hygienist so she was able to fix Dotty's teeth. They were actually just dirty and she did not lose any."

In fact, the road to recovery was shorter than anticipated and Dotty can be considered an example of how greyhounds can lead fulfilled lives long after they have hung up their jackets.

"After 4-6 weeks she shed her shaggy coat and was transformed into a gleaming panther.
She gets on great with our highland terrier Toby but our cats live in constant fear of being devoured !!!
"She runs around the local common in a clockwise direction in big looping circles. Now I believe that all greyhound tracks are run anti-clockwise. I am sure she would have been a world beater if they had gone the other way."

Plausible as Alan's theory may be it is unlikely that a gleaming panther will be stalking the forests and beaches of Tayport Fife muttering, "I coulda been a contender."