greyhoundtrader.com sales – Valley Greyhound Stadium, Tuesday 22 August – 10 am
With licensed, professional greyhound racing at the Valley Greyhound Stadium only weeks away, the UK’s leading greyhound auctioneers will be offering the chance to get your hands on a little something at a very affordable price in an exclusive sales event on Tuesday. Forty-six ready-to-race greyhounds will be on offer . Click on the greyhoundtrader.com logo to see a full rundown of the greyhounds that will be on sale. Visit greyhoundtrader.com for full details of how to register and then come and join us at 10 am on Tuesday.
29 July 2023
And so, after more than ninety years of independent greyhound racing in Wales, that was that.
Flapping in the Principality was given a grand send off, too. A packed crowd saw some super performances and you certainly couldn’t argue with a track record from the last independent Welsh Greyhound Derby champion.
Gunsmoke (who usually runs under the name ‘DTD’) got the perfect draw in Trap 1 but he had co-favourite David’s Fargo (David’s Fredo) – who had produced some bullet starts from middle draws – directly outside him. The other likely contender, Gem, got a stinking draw out in Trap 5, which made it look like a two-dog race. David’s Fargo came out well enough but turned right looking for his favoured middle ground. As all of the rest of the field were pushed towards the outside, Gunsmoke was given a completely open path to the bend. Once he had actually decided to face in the right direction, David’s Fargo steamed into the bend and it looked like he might muscle his way back into contention. What we hadn’t bargained for was a rollicking start from the unheralded Little Donkey on the outside. In fact, he actually led into the corner but tangled with David’s Fargo, leaving Gunsmoke in the clear. Once the red jacket led into the back straight, the race was over and he strode away for a highly impressive win. Kudos goes to Ryan Collins’s rank outsider, Snakebite, who came out of the chasing pack to take a completely unexpected second place at 10/1. (You can watch a recording of the last independent Welsh Greyhound Derby final by visiting the Videos section of this website).
Sophie – who ended up on the floor in the Derby semi-finals last week – bounced back with a storming run in the supporting rounder.
Big White Warrior was a bit of a let down in the Derby semi-finals, but he bolted away to take the open sprint in a time that was only a quarter-of-a-length off the two-bend track record. The only greyhound who might have lived with him was Doll, who swept round the outside in the supporting sprint.
It was good to see two Valley stalwarts, Liverpool and Iced Tea, win on flapping’s closing night but the honour of being the last winner went to a relative youngster, Pandy Charlie, who can be expected to reappear on the strength as soon as the track becomes GBGB-licensed.
Thousands sign petition to support greyhound racing in Wales
In a matter of weeks, more than 10,000 people signed the official petition supporting greyhound racing in Wales.
The Welsh Government has accepted a Senedd (Welsh Parliament) committee report that recommends bringing in a ban on greyhound racing in Wales. Not a single member of the committee, let alone any member of the Welsh Government, has ever visited a greyhound track or trainer’s kennels. They ignored official, audited data and based their decision on the lies of animal rights extremists.
It’s an awful, ill-informed decision and, if they bring in a ban in Wales, it will be Scotland and England next.
Please join the thousands who have signed the official petition and help us to make the Welsh Government think again…then share the link through your social media.
https://petitions.senedd.wales/petitions/245373
GBGB start date announced.
Valley to become licensed track by January 2024.
Dave Barclay – since November 2021, the owner of the Valley Greyhound Stadium – has announced that he has struck a deal that will see the track aiming to become Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB) licensed by January 2024. The track continued to be leased back to the former owner, Malcolm Tams, to operate as an independent track while the stadium was upgraded to meet GBGB licensing standards. (Click here to read more more about development of the stadium’s facilities).
The Valley continued up until the of July 2023 as a ‘flapping’ track, licensed by the local authority, where amateur trainers ran their own greyhounds.
Speaking when the sale of the Valley was agreed, Malcolm Tams said, “I know that a lot of locals have been looking for some certainty about the future. I hope that the timetable will give people the confidence to invest in greyhounds to keep flapping right up to the end of next year.” Amatuer owners and trainers responded by continuing to race their charges until the Valley was ready to turn professional.
In 2024, licensed racing will see professional trainers running dogs for appearance and prize money that is ultimately funded by high street bookmakers and media rights companies. Two main media rights companies, ARC and SIS, pay greyhound tracks for the right to broadcast their races live, not only into high street betting shops, but online around the world.
Four of the biggest greyhound stadiums that were affiliated to SIS have announced that they will transfer to ARC by 2024 and a fifth SIS-affiliated track, Central Park, switched to ARC as early as 2023. This means that SIS, which has deals to provide live coverage of UK greyhound racing to many overseas markets, would be facing a shortage of races that they would be able to broadcast. Dave Barclay has confirmed that he has signed a contract with SIS for The Valley to help plug the gap.
“Eventually, I’d like to think we could race up to four times a week,” said Dave Barclay, who is the owner and promoter of the highly-successful GBGB-licensed track at Harlow in Essex.
Richard Brankley, Head of Greyhound Operations for SIS, said, “I’ve been so impressed with Harlow, which is one of the best-managed tracks in the country and, if The Valley is run half as well as that, then it will be a fantastic addition.”
The project required significant development of The Valley Greyhound Stadium. When he bought the Valley, Dave Barclay said, “We need to build on-site kennels, as there are none at the moment, the racing office will be repositioned and then there is the hare to think about. It’s an inside hare at the moment. I did consider leaving it as inside, but it would be the only one in the country and I think it’s sensible to stick with what everyone else uses.”
In addition, both sets of traps were brought forward to shorten the run to the first bend, which meant that the standard four-bend distance was shortened from its original 515 yards (475 metres). However, the track layout remained unchanged, as there was more than sufficient room to accommodate an outside hare rail without remodelling the circuit.
Dave Barclay asked Malcolm Tams to manage the planning and development issues and the timetable enabled independent greyhound racing to continue while the building work took place.
“I put my money into Harlow to run it as a greyhound track and, thankfully, we’ve been very successful in recent years and I’m hoping for more of the same at The Valley,” said Dave Barclay. “I fell in love with it the minute I drove in. I told Malcolm that I’d definitely buy it. We shook hands on a deal pretty quickly.
“It’s been bought in my family name and my son Lee and his partner Katie will be involved in running it. There’s a lot to do.”
The Welsh Government’s Valleys Task Force Initiative has identified Caerphilly/Ystrad Mynach as one of seven strategic hubs across the South Wales Valleys “that will act as a focus for public investment and business growth.”
Caerphilly County Borough Council published its ‘Ystrad Mynach Masterplan’, which identifies the Valley Greyhound Stadium as being key to this strategy.
It notes how the stadium is “ideally located to capitalise on the many visitors to the area and there is opportunity to expand and increase the potential of the site as a tourism destination. Furthermore, there is opportunity for spin-off between this site and potential hotel and restaurant development on adjacent land.”
The Masterplan states that GBGB licensing of the Valley Greyhound Stadium presents an opportunity to create “a vibrant and accessible visitor destination” and to improve Ystrad Mynach’s status as a tourist destination. The plan highlights the prospects for job creation at the stadium with a knock-on effect for Ystrad Mynach town centre of increased footfall, bolstering the night-time economy.
With plans to stage up to four meetings per week, around £2 million per year could go directly into creating local jobs for local people and appearance money for local greyhound trainers to enable them to train and care for local greyhounds.
Dave Barclay has developed a reputation as one of the most progressive and successful promoters in the sport.
A successful building contractor in partnership with his brother, Dean, Dave became a keen punter and greyhound owner at Harlow after the track opened in 1995. In 2005, he bought the track from the original owners, Leaside Leisure, and continued to invest in the site, which now includes a restaurant, function rooms and a social club famous for popular poker and darts tournaments.
Harlow took off as a greyhound venue when Walthamstow closed in 2008. A raft of leading trainers moved to the Roydon Road stadium, including Mark Wallis who won the 2009 Greyhound Derby with Kinda Ready while attached to Harlow.
Crowds grew and, within a few years, Harlow was hosting live televised meetings on Sky Sports. A deal with broadcaster SIS to beam pictures live to betting shops has enabled the expansion of racing to five times a week with the track featuring live on RPGTV twice weekly.