☀️ THE RPGTV SHOW IN 2020 ☀️

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SUNDAY 2-2-20::::

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Jimmy Fenwick is Thursday's studio guest



Live RPGTV schedule for the week ahead.



Now on Sky Channel 175. All 6pm start


Monday 3rd: Nottingham & Yarmouth
In the studio: Darrell Williams, Tony Bullen & owner Frank Jackman

Tuesday 4th: Poole & Sheffield
In the studio: Jason Barrasford, Dave Clark & journalist Chris Oliver

Wednesday 5th: Peterborough & Sunderland
In the studio: Ian Meek, Rose Draper & Brett Williams

Thursday 6th: Newcastle & Yarmouth
In the studio: Rachel Casey, Richard Harkness & Jimmy Fenwick,
trainer of Greyhound of the Year Ice On Fire

Friday 7th: Nottingham & Romford
In the studio: Julie Collier, Kaan Hughes & kennelhand Joe Conneely

Saturday 8th: Crayford & Sheffield
In the studio: Tanya Stevenson, Jonathan Hobbs & James Pryce.
Programme features the Golden Jacket heats at Crayford.

Sunday 9th: Central Park & Poole
In the studio: Ian Meek & Dave Clark...

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Quality shining through at start.....



BY GBGB TRAINER Mr MARK WALLIS


THIS season has started well for our team at Imperial Kennels with an excellent victory for Amanda and Nic Jeal’s Antigua Rum in the curtain-raiser, the Coral Coronation Cup at Romford. The added £5,000 winning bonus was a lovely touch from Ian Smyth and Ladbrokes Coral and well appreciated in this day and age of too much negativity.

It was a classy final line-up that would have graced any Category One decider, and if the rest of the year’s major finals are anywhere near as good then greyhound racing fans are in for a treat.

Judging by the quality of the Winter Derby at Hove that got under way on Saturday, and then looking at the ante-post list for the forthcoming Ladbrokes Golden Jacket, it could well be a stellar year for the sport.

The Racing Post Juvenile rounds off February nicely and we will see one of the best greyhounds of the last decade in action in it at Sheffield, namely Ice On Fire, a brilliant and deserving winner of the Greyhound of the Year title for Jimmy and Melanie Fenwick.

We hope to put forward our promising prospect Antigua Breeze, who had his qualifying trials at Sheffield with his breeder John Mariott.

Talking of the Awards, we had a fantastic evening last weekend at the plush Royal Lancaster hotel in London and overall it I thought the night and all the awards went the right way.

The GWA award presented posthumously to Michael Fortune was a highlight as well as the short film ‘From the track to the sofa’ featuring the great work done by GBGB ambassador Kelli Windebank.

I was humbled and privileged to collect an 11th Trainer of the Year title, but the question I keep getting asked many times is whether the desire and passion to try to stay at the top is still there.

Well, I feel this has already been answered by our start to the year. If you don’t put 100 per cent into what you do and what you try to achieve then it’s time to call it a day.

At some point we will be dethroned but while I have great staff and a fully supportive family behind me that will not be easy.

The Jeals are tremendous supporters of not just our kennel but greyhound racing as a whole, and with the likes of Antigua Romeo, Antigua Fire and Antigua Rum (Golden Jacket) may even give the Brendon Keogh-led KSS syndicate a run for their money in the owner of the year race this season.

They have been deserving winners of this award for the last five years and I have the utmost respect for what they and Liz and Rab Mcnair achieve with their successful breeding programme.

There is always one gripe among the many that attend the awards, though, and that is the high prices at these top London hotels.

Rooms, drinks and many other things are charged at well over the top – nobody minds paying for a bit of luxury but each year this seems to be getting more out of hand, with a 12.5 per cent service charge on everything a total rip-off.

Maybe it’s time for a rethink? I would love to see the Awards perhaps staged at one of these country hotels that offer a bargain for staying the weekend. It should be easy to find one that offers a package to use their facilities for a lot less money than the likes of the Royal Lancaster charges for one night, and it could be a much more relaxed than the centre of London.

Winning awards, of course, is all about winning on the track, but at present we are short of top-class four-bend dogs so landing a third Derby will not be easy. With the likes of Antigua Fire, Bumblebee Bullet and Antigua Rum, though, we have some stunning six and eight-bend stars for the big events.

As for issues off the track, we need to again upgrade our kennels and facilities which is not cheap by any means and we are forever fighting to get promoters to increase prize-money which is key to making improvements viable.

Britain’s greyhound racing is sold to more than 70 countries and is loved by those who use it, not least because of its integrity. Yet how much of the money made gets back to those that supply the product? I would love to see some figures produced that show how much the races are sold for and who’s profiting most.

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There's live action from Hove on Saturday featuring the Coral Winter Derby.


Live RPGTV schedule for the week ahead...



Sky Channel 175. All 6pm start



Monday 10th: Nottingham & Yarmouth
In the studio: Phil Donaldson, Jonathan Kay & Nottingham trainer Colin Wilton

Tuesday 11th: Poole & Sheffield
In the studio: Darrell Williams, Kaan Hughes & owner Andy Backhouse

Wednesday 12th: Peterborough & Sunderland
In the studio: Tanya Stevenson, Dave Clark & punter Gary Mehegan

Thursday 13th: Newcastle & Yarmouth
In the studio: Errol Blyth, Richard Harkness & Newcastle trainer Steve Anderson

Friday 14th: Nottingham & Romford
In the studio: Ian Meek, Tony Bullen & former trainer Tony Johnston

Saturday 15th: Crayford & Hove
In the studio: Tanya Stevenson, Rose Draper & owner Nick Usher.
Jason Barrasford live from Hove for the Winter Derby final

Sunday 16th: Central Park & Poole
In the studio: Errol Blyth & Ali Brown...

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Greyhound racing still a key player as Ice shows.....................


BY JIM CREMIN


ICE is one of those betting and gaming exhibitions that you either love or hate.

This year’s edition took place in London last week. I’ve always found it fascinating in terms of underlining the competitive gambling marketplace that our sport is part of – which ranges from games, virtual racing, 49s and various sports, but particularly horse and greyhound racing.

Random number-based games might be quick and easy but cannot compare to the satisfaction of working out what actually happens in a real, live event. UK greyhound racing with six runners wearing standard trap colours for me is hard to beat.

When it comes to excitement it was intriguing to hear some enthusiastic shouts emerging from the SIS stand at Ice last Thursday morning.

A number of visitors, including Gordon Bissett, the SIS greyhound operations manager, were watching the morning finale from Waterford.

“What a finish – neck, short head, short head,” said Bissett, still grinning. “Who’d have imagined before we took it [Irish greyhound racing] that this would regularly produce such exciting fare?”

I had been one of the sceptics, but an early visit to Mullingar changed my perception. The team there wanted to make it work – and that included racing officials, bookmakers and most importantly of all, the owners and trainers. Cute fellows faced a tight leash.

Back at Ice, Bissett said Kathleen Lennon, Waterford’s racing manager, sets a high standard. He explained there was particular rivalry with Kilkenny because the racing manager there, Tom Kinnane, is her brother-in-law!

The feedback from bookmakers I spoke to was that of the Irish tracks Limerick had done well, with Kilkenny and Waterford also indeed noted for their exciting finishes.

Gossip was that Youghal’s future, which is in serious doubt, may yet be reviewed once the apparent photo-finish of Saturday’s Irish General Election gets resolved. It was claimed by one visitor that Youghal did better than the Indecon figures appear to show – because free entry was regularly used there.

Perhaps surprising that of the general UK service the top dog for bookmakers is Harlow – but that’s only in terms of pure margin.

In general, greyhound racing remains a key product albeit the long-term viability of the two deadly rival services from SIS and Arc is in question.

Clearly the success of the product for SIS both at home and internationally may have played a part in the thinking of Arc in taking over the mantle of the GRA at Belle Vue (at least for now) and Perry Barr.

Helping cope with the overload is the modern availability and innovation within digital displays. Leo Walker, head of greyhound product and trading insight for GVC, told me at Ice that the Racing Post’s digital displays set the standard.

He was keen to see how RP can help take the greyhound product further through enhanced visualisations to help engage new customers through all betting channels – over the counter, mobile, track, self-service terminals etc.

Everyone could also think about promoting RPGTV even more. A free-to-air service is a mutual asset and it would be helpful if its new position on Sky Digital channel 175 were widely highlighted.

Stakeholders such as the Greyhound Board and Greyhound Trust plus IGB and Irish Greyhound Trust also have plenty of impressive activities to showcase. When the new GBGB commercial executive director gets appointed, they should immediately think about the potential traction available.

Talking of the GBGB, everyone is still buzzing about the success of the Greyhound Awards at the end of last month. Returning to a lavishly refurbished Royal Lancaster set a new level, although the rivalry underpinning who gets what remains undimmed.

For instance, Kevin Boon at Crayford on Saturday had just seen his Sheldan shine in her heat of the Ladbrokes Golden Jacket but wanted to make the point that we greyhound writers had “failed miserably” in his view by only putting her third! It’s all about opinions.

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Analyst Richard Harkness is in the studio on Saturday night

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Mr Paul Brown






I like to be sensible in my betting but it’s not made easy..


BY PAUL BROWN



BOOKMAKERS seem to be under pressure from all quarters nowadays, and a big plank in answering their critics is that they urge their customers to gamble responsibly. It’s a prominent part of all their adverts, and that’s something to be lauded.

But what is responsible gambling? Well, if you believe various adverts it appears to be about having fun bets, enjoying the thrill of matching wits with an unseen adversary (the odds-compilers), not losing a silly amount of money and maybe even winning a few bob. When the fun stops, stop, as the slogan says.

All very reasonable, but does it work in practice? For me, responsible gambling should be all of the above but also about being as well prepared as you can be in your chosen field – which in my case is obviously greyhounds, and solely greyhounds – before parting with your hard-earned.

A pre-requisite is being able to accept losses and move on without a blink. If your character is such that you struggle to do that, or you go chasing, then gambling should not be for you. I never bet more than I can afford to lose, but neither do I like simply chucking it away. That, for me, is being responsible when it comes to betting.

However, trying to be responsible in my betting does seem to mean my custom is undesirable to many bookmakers – not all, I hasten to add – and that’s where their calls to gamble responsibly can be questioned.

In greyhound racing anyone who is even half serious about having a bet is pretty well obliged to study video form and take notes. That’s what I do, and it can take a fair bit of time. So it’s just as well that it’s a hobby for me, one I enjoy rather than being a necessity because I’m under pressure to make money like a pro.

It does occasionally come in handy for the job as well, of course. When resident open-race expert and news-gatherer Jonathan Kay took a rare break from the grind recently, I covered for Romford.
I focus on the track because it’s a five-minute drive from my house, I love the place and I’ve been going there for 40 years, so putting together a Friday night Open Check was reasonably straightforward because the legwork was already done.

Indeed, it was refreshing to put up in the Racing Post the dogs I would be betting, not least because it concentrated the mind into making a sound case for each tip.

I expect the various odds-compilers for the bookmakers to also do their homework – after all, it is their full-time job – but some of the prices put out make me wonder.

I made one dog a solid 9-4 shot for a race, with a high probability of it going off shorter. One firm went 9-2. Granted, they might have taken the view it wasn’t going to win but that price just looked wrong to me. It went off 11-8 and was beaten, but if you are able to get value like that in the long run you can only win.

The rub, of course, comes when attempting to get on at those ‘wrong’ prices. I’m a long, long way from being a big hitter, but with the bookmaker who went 9-2 I’m restricted to literally pennies, and with others getting on even £20 is often impossible.

This is not to say the layers should leave themselves open to having their trousers taken down by shrewdies, but it’s a no-brainer that if you are being responsible with your punting you should only be having bets where you spot a bit of value and have a chance of winning.

Punters nationwide turning over their cash in an afternoon in the betting shops, or those eternal optimists who aim for the stars with multiple-leg wagers, are basically a guaranteed income stream for the layers. Are they gambling responsibly? Not in my book, although you could argue they’re paying for their entertainment.

None of this is trying to put myself up as one of the greyhound world’s ‘judges’ who’s too shrewd to get a bet on – I’m definitely Vanarama League compared to some Premier League greyhound players – but the fact someone who goes about betting with even a modicum of awareness is ‘account restricted’ material clearly shows what’s what.

Lose responsibly really doesn’t have the same ring though, does it?

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Julie Collier reports live from Sheffield on Saturday


Live RPGTV schedule for the week ahead...


Sky Channel 175

all 6pm start


Monday 24th: Nottingham & Yarmouth
In the studio: Jason Barrasford, Dave Clark & Pat Cooney

Tuesday 25th: Poole & Sheffield
In the studio: Rachel Casey,
Ali Brown & Sheffield expert Rob Crawford

Wednesday 26th: Peterborough & Sunderland
In the studio: Julie Collier,
Rose Draper & enthusiast Michael Monan

Thursday 27th: Newcastle & Yarmouth
In the studio: Jason Barrasford,
Richard Harkness & former bookmaker Steve Allen

Friday 28th: Nottingham & Romford
In the studio: Ian Meek,
Jonathan Hobbs & Nottingham trainer Anna Thompson

Saturday 29th: Crayford & Sheffield
In the studio: Darrell Williams, Tony Bullen &
Jamie Norris from the GBGB,
Julie Collier at Sheffield for the RPGTV Juvenile

Sunday 1st: Central Park & Poole
In the studio: Errol Blyth & Rose Draper,
Dave Clark at Central Park for the Cearnsport Springbok final..