Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2013 18:00:37 GMT
THE naming of greyhounds can be a difficult task. There are people that work hard to come up with something appropriate or clever, some look for a name with resonance, worthy of a champion ... and sometimes you find yourself asking "why did they do that?" Sunderland is now the home to one in that latter category, a greyhound that has been handed the moniker Armitage Shanks, a name he shares with the famous toilet suite makers.
Not that owner Dave Matthews - who is quick to point out that he is not responsible for the name - is complaining. You could say that he is flush with success after a very loo-crative start to the dog's racing days on Wearside.
Five runs for trainer Julie Calvert have brought two victories, the last in the final of the track's latest Owners' Bonus Series, raising the August 2010 son of Droopys Scolari and Lumos from an A5 starting point to A2 and almost repaying his purchase price at Thurles sales last October.
While I have no doubt that there was probably a bit of mischief in the choice of name I understand that it was forged more in frustration that desperation.
Ann Wade, who originally bred and raced him in Ireland, explains: "I gave the dog to my son James and he came up with the name. He said that when he sent name forms up to the Coursing Club they were always coming back stating that you couldn't have that name, or the name was already taken, and he was fed up with it. He then turned to me and said "Call it Armitage Shanks, nobody will have that for sure," so we did."
Matthews, who goes over to Ireland about once a month looking for dogs to pass on to North East trainers, admits that it was the name that originally attracted him to the dog, although he made several other more professional inquiries amongst his various contacts before getting involved in the bidding.
"Whilst I can't be blamed for the name I thought that it was a good one," he recalls, "so I had a word with one or two of the Irish lads about him and they told me that he had produced some good times against decent dogs in private sprint trials.
"He won his sales trial really well and I picked him up for just 900 guineas. He is a nice little dog with a lot of early pace and, as I thought, he appears to be ideally suited by Sunderland."
For most people the hope is to recall their dog's triumphs by looking up at its name in the headlines, in this case the constant reminder is looking down and seeing it etched large in the porcelain at you as you jettison the evening's lager consumption at the last port of call before the journey home.