TEAM 'ROSNEY' CALL TIME....

[BVADMIN]

Perry Barr Greyhound Stadium

Congratulations to Jaguar Jacob trained by Michael Connolly for winning the
Pat Rosney Retirement Stakes presented by Pat Rosney, best of luck for the future from all at Perry Barr greyhounds 🏆

[SALFORD GIRL]

Friday, 30th September, 2022

Perry Barr pays tribute to retiring trainer Pat Rosney

on Premier Greyhound Racing St Leger Finals night..

Perry Barr Greyhound Stadium and the sport of greyhound racing bids a fond farewell to a brilliant training partnership on Thursday evening with trainer Pat and his partner Julie McCombe bringing the curtain down on a wonderful training career.

To celebrate Pat’s retirement, a race will be run in his honour during a glittering card on Thursday evening at the track which features the £20,000 Premier Greyhound Racing St Leger Final.

Thursday’s meeting will be a truly poignant one for Pat and Julie as they bring to a close a run of success that started at the highest level and continued in that vein for more than two decades.

Both had strong backgrounds in the greyhound industry when they got together at the start of the millennium and, on the recommendation of Julie’s father Pat McCombe, they purchased kennels at Town Brow in Leyland in Lancashire from Belle Vue trainer Jimmy Gibson. Jimmy stayed on while Pat applied for his licence, but it was the Rosneys that were preparing the dogs and making decisions. It was the perfect location, adjacent to the M6, M65 and M61 motorways, making travelling to and from tracks in almost every direction a bit easier.

Pat and Julie had bought a bitch in Ireland called Talktothehand, a daughter of that great sire Top Honcho, in the summer of 2001, which they decided to race in the name of his mother, Elizabeth. Talktothehand scored a single victory in her opening five races in this country – an open at Belle Vue – then went straight to Wimbledon to contest The Oaks. She won three of her four races in bitch’s classic, including the final, and, while the record books attribute the success to “trained Gibson,” the truth is that this was the first of many triumphs for the new kids on the block. Nine years later Pat and Julie were to win the Produce Stakes at Swindon with Micky Robbie, one of Talktothehand’s sons.

Fast forward six months from Talktothehand’s Wimbledon triumph and “Team Rosney” had the licence and the kennel strength had been bolstered by the important addition of Pilot Alert, who took them all the way to the final of the 2002 Derby in their first assault on the sport’s premier prize.

The reputation of this partnership was starting to spread quickly as they delivered with winners, attracting new owners and there is a very long list of major victories in their list of achievements, including two Scottish Derbys, two Gold Collars, three Select Stakes, the Sunderland Classic and Northern Puppy Derby, and an All England Cup and a many more.

Team Rosney have often operated as an unattached kennel, the GBGB Calendar being the required reading material in the house as they scanned the pages meticulously in search of suitable targets for their canine stars. But they have also had successful spells operating within the discipline of track graded racing, starting at Belle Vue and taking in this racecourse as well as Nottingham and Monmore.

Pat says: “The highlights for us were the Scottish Derby wins up in Glasgow at Shawfield with Swift Hoffman (2015) and The Other Reg (2018), plus, of course, Talktothehand.

“Greyhound racing has been good to us and the dogs have been good to us.” says Pat, “We’ve never wanted to do anything else and we have a lot of good memories, but I’ll be 60 next month and I’ve always had it in my mind that would be a good time to call it a day."

“Training is very demanding and restricting way of making a living. It’s seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, with just the odd snatched break it you can manage to find the time. We’ve got a lot of things we’d like to do and places we’d like to see. I think that going on too long can be a big mistake. It might suit some people, but not us, although we’ve no set plans for the future.”

Pat and Julie have been good for the sport. Always approachable and honest and willing to give up their time to help someone if they can. We wish them all the best in whatever the future brings.

[SALFORD GIRL]

FAREWELL TEAM 'ROSNEY.
{Taken From Last Weeks Perry Barr Race Card}

[SALFORD GIRL]

....... EX GBGB TRAINER PATRICK ROSNEY ......
::: UPDATES TO FOLLOW :::

[BVADMIN]

Taken From The GBGB Calendar
Friday 21-10-22:


NO LONGER ATTACHED

Patrick Rosney
Perry Barr Stadium

[SALFORD GIRL]

TAKEN FROM THE GREYHOUND STAR
THURSDAY 30-5-24

Pat Rosney shows off his RPGTV Scottish Derby winner The Other Reg to an ever appreciative Shawfield crowd.
Shawfield Stadium, Scotland 14th April 2018

Retirement plan off Pat

It is 20 months since Pat Rosney handed in his licence and joined the ranks of the retired. Given the average age of Britain’s trainers, there are a significant number either approaching, or in some cases well past ‘gold watch’ time. Pat was a couple of months short of 60 when he sent out his last runner.

So does this ture lifetime dog man, who was a regular in the Trainers Championship top six, have any regrets, insights or advice to share?

He said: “I’ve loved it to be honest. I miss being around the dogs on a daily basis but I don’t miss racing or some of the aggro with the racing offices. I don’t suppose they miss me either.

“But I have kept an interest in what is going on. I continue to source a few dogs. That Antigua Falcon, in the Derby, is one I found for Nic Jeal. I enjoy all of that involvement still. I haven’t been to a track, though that is mainly because there isn’t one anywhere near me.”

So how do you fill your time?

“Julie and I travel a lot. We are down for three days to see the Derby and Oaks at Epsom. We have a holiday in Canada booked. I play a lot of golf and enjoy some gardening.

“The one mistake I did make was retiring at the wrong time of the year, September. I went from working seven days a week to no days a week going into the winter and I was bored stiff.

“The most important piece of advice I would give though – and I would ask all trainers to seriously consider it – get a decent pension.

“Most trainers don’t plan ahead well enough. I didn’t. They expect to muddle through and leave the game in a box. But without some additional income, life can be tough.

“We had the kennel to sell which has got us through, but in hindsight, a decent pension as well would have been a massive help.

“We sold our place to become boarding kennels and it might be worth trainers with suitable kennels turning some of those over to boarders themselves. Even now.

“These boarders are charged £20 per day, with food on top, or bring your own food. They are inundated with business. If I had tried to charge £20 a day for a greyhound – and that’s before you’ve bought the vans and all the running around – I wouldn’t have had a dog in the kennel.

“I don’t regret my time in dogs. I loved it but I think I got out at just about the right time.”

[topcat]

Good to read about the ex trainer Patrick Rosney..

[GRUNDY]

I think they got out at the right time.