JIM CREMIN

Weblog: At large in the greyhound world

Consistency, value and hard work are the  secrets

AS the snow fell at Oxford Thursday night, Steve Nash, the Racing Post’s photographer, looked a little uneasy. It wasn’t so long since he had ended up marooned at Henlow, snowed in until early morning. At least Steve doesn’t play cards, otherwise it would have been hugely expensive too given the sharks who usually produce a pack around 11pm in the bar there.

Oxford was busier than you’d have expected with yet more European football on, and a miserable night that made for long, tiresome journeys in heavy traffic.

I’d actually time to kill having picked up the Racing Post Juvenile trophy for Tuesday March 2 on the wayfrom Mark Burridge and found myself at the Asda in High Wycombe well before 6pm.

Tip: pay for a small coffee at the in-store McDonalds there as you fill it yourself – which equals unlimited refills. McDonalds coffee is good, the only thing I can have there having read Fast Food Nation a few years ago. That is a expose of what goes on behind the scenes written by the admirable Eric Schlosser.

Walking into the track later, you do notice the genuine smiles from staff. GM Maureen Ridley has done a great job here and,  seeing the punters also piling in, I asked what her secret is?

Hard work of course:  “My daughter Katherine [Cloughton] is working hard as marketing manager and  advised doing away with a variety of pricing that she says customers found confusing and off-putting. Instead we have aimed for consistency and value for money.”

I asked Maureen about a rumour I’d heard that Oxford  is for sale.

“Rubbish, but I can understand why someone might be interested. We’re successful, and produced 70 per cent more profit last year.”

I’d pitched up for the Trafalgar Challenge Cup final. This is one of the great old trophies in greyhound racing, and even though it started back in 1929 at Wembley, I see it as ‘mine’ – once being a Wembley racing manager.

Of course it actually belongs to the Oxford layers this year, with Richard Dunn kindly stepping in on their behalf to maintain the event. Thank you Richard.

And for 12 months it now belongs to Paul Andrews and Peter Brown after their Stans Printer, trained by Jim Reynolds, took advantage of a going edge for wide seeds to romp home.

They weren’t able to make it on the night but with the trophy back in Oxford’s vault, I’d recommend them making a trip  to the track just to have pics taken of them lifting it. Guys, you won’t regret nor forget it.

I might not go back to 1929, but I definitely felt old when reading an ad in Thursday’s Racing Post that a ‘tweeter’ was required by us for Cheltenham. You need to be expert at using 140 characters for what I’d term electronic telegrams.

Not that I’d advise anyone to plan a career as a tweeter. Another fad will surely be around the corner and anyway, I noticed a headline in another paper that Darren Bent has quit tweeting in order to save the Black Cats from relegation. I think this must mean tweeting is addictive and he now needs to  concentrate. Darren’s decision might be the beginning of the end for tweets. Greyhound racing, though, has been around since 1926! This sport’s anniversary is on Saturday July 24,and perhaps it’s time to have an annual birthday party and remind everyone we’ll all be around for a good while yet.

New style jackpots and other exotic pools are galloping to the rescue – probably this summer - in terms of relaunching greyhound racing betting. Even tweeters might then notice us.