Racing of Greyhounds isn’t as popular as it once was in United Kingdom, with annual attendances down to around the 2m mark from a high of over 34m in the late 1940’s. Saying that, there is still a massive £2.5billion gambled every year on them which makes you think, doesn’t it?
Competitions and Races
Over 70,000 races are contested every year, employing around 7000 people at the 28 Greyhound Board of Great Britain registered Race Tracks across the United Kingdom. Of these 28 tracks, 25 are located in England, 2 in Northern Ireland and 1 in Scotland. There are also 9 independent stadiums from Ystrad Mynach, Caerphilly in Southern Wales to Kirkcaldy, Fife in Central Scotland.
Across these 37 stadiums, various competitions are arranged with the biggest and the best being the Greyhound Derby. There are 3 arranged every year within the UK with the most prestigious being the English Greyhound Derby which takes place at the Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium in Southwest London, England. Rio Quattro, the winner of the 2015 English Greyhound Derby raced away with a prize money of £250,000. Not to be sniffed at, I’d say.
The other 2 are the Scottish Greyhound Derby which is held at Shawfield in Glasgow and the Northern Irish Greyhound Derby which is held at Drumbo Park, in Lambeg, South West of Belfast. Winnings for these two races were £20,000 and £25,000 respectively. Like the English Derby above, these two Derbies have produced some fine winners as well, notably Atitboy who won the Northern Irish Derby in 2014 and Swift Hoffman who won the Scottish Derby in 2015.
There are numerous other races carried out throughout the year and these amount to around 55 across the UK with some notables being the All England Cup, the Grand National, the Ladbrokes Summer Classic and the Yorkshire St Leger. Barring the national derbies, my two favourites would have to be The Ladbrokes Summer Classic for the amount of races on the card. The other would have to be The Yorkshire St Leger, as its one of the majors and its from my home county, I thoroughly enjoyed the night the last time I were there, back in September 2015.
The Greyhounds and Retirement
I know what you’re thinking now, what happens to the greyhounds when they reach a certain age and retire from the sport of racing? Well that is a very good question and here comes the answer.
On average, greyhounds retire between the age of 3 to 4 years old. With some retiring as early as 2 years of age due to not performing that well within their first six races. Many others continue racing and retire at five, which is compulsory by law in the United Kingdom. Many people who own Racing Greyhounds continue to own them long after they’ve retired from racing with many dogs living to the grand old age of twelve. There are also many retired Greyhounds available for adoption.
If you decide to adopt a retired greyhound, then there a few things to bear in mind such as the age of the dog you decide to adopt. Whether you have children or small pets, such as cats or rabbits, living with you. Remembering that adopting a greyhound is for the rest of its life and not just for one or two months. What is the home or property like that the dog will be living in? All these things and more need to be taken into consideration before thinking about starting the process of adoption.