Betfair Official Blog

Wide-running and one-paced: hopes of having a world-beater are soon dashed once you've bought your first dog

Greyhound broadcaster Darrell Williams with more tales of Lockham Rosemary

Unlike horse-racing where you pay to enter your horse for a race and receive prize money usually only when they finish in the frame (first four), in greyhound racing, with the exception of Open races, your dog is paid 'run money' every time it races. Admittedly it won't make you rich as an owner, but generally the rule of thumb is that if your dog runs once a week and wins one race per month, that should all but cover its training fees.

Of course dogs are prone to injury, during which time they are not earning; however most trainers usually reduce their charges during these periods. For us - my family and I - it made taking on Lockham Rosemary at Catford an almost no lose situation. As I mentioned in a previous article, the added advantage when we took charge of her in early 2002 was that she was already running at the track, and at that time was competing in a reasonable level of race, S3, the third highest grade for dogs running over six bends or 555 metres in the case of Catford.

I remember going down to the track to see her the very first time she 'performed' for us - one cold Thursday evening in early February, with the kids in tow. I'd already considered that given she was only just over two years old and had probably therefore not reached her peak, that maybe we'd even end up with a top grade (S1) dog on our hands. But that first night we just wanted to cheer her home. A win would have been great, but we simply wanted her to run well and most importantly return home safely.

We walked round to the kennels beforehand. Catford was always pretty accessible in that respect and it was easy to wander up to where the dogs were being checked and prepared. At that stage, although we'd taken her for a walk the previous weekend at her kennels near Canterbury, we still didn't know about all of her traits and habits. It soon became apparent that she was quite a shy, laidback dog, who just seemed to take everything in her stride, and so the idea of a 'fan club' wanting to call her name and offer her support wasn't particularly greeted by too much enthusiasm coming back the other way.

Having seen her, the next thing was to have a bet, which would become something of a painful and at times costly ritual over the next few months. But on that first night, and indeed for at least the next three or four races at least, we believed we had a greyhound that was still improving.

That initial run - she finished fourth - wasn't too bad, as indeed most of her performances weren't. To sum her up, Rosie was a wide-running one-paced stayer. Often slow away, as she was that first night, she would keep herself towards the outside of the track and run on past beaten dogs, but sadly lack that change of gear in her races. Despite a quick drop in class, and another, that first win for us was proving hard to come by.

Maybe given her ability to run on, she needed further; a step up to 718m or eight bends could be just the trick needed to achieve that all important and somewhat elusive first win.

To be continued...