Puzey retires from training

MICK PUZEY, a Walthamstow trainer for the past 23 years until its closure in August, is to retire at the end of the year.
Puzey and his wife, Sue, yesterday thanked their owners and Dave Barclay, the Harlow promoter who took their runners on when the Stow shut, but cited "not being able to make it pay" for the decision.

"My staff are devastated, as are we, but it's just simple economics," he said. "Since Walthamstow closed, we've taken in three dogs, and 35 have gone out. We've raced at Harlow and Henlow, but the figures aren't adding up."

Puzey admits to losing money every single week following Walthamstow's closure, with the business being supported by the family savings. "But enough is enough," he added. "We just can't continue like this."

Puzey will leave his kennels at Claverhambury, which he has rented for the last 14 years, in December. "Our landlord has been fantastic, as I hope we've been to them. But we'll leave Galley Hill by the end of the year," he said.

There are currently around 30 greyhounds at Puzey's kennels and, as with the staff there, Puzey hopes to have them placed elsewhere by December. But his association with a sport he has worked in over 50 years might still not be over.

"We're moving to Essex, a greyhound heartland. I'm 65, as fit as a fiddle, and never wanted to finish. If anyone wants to give me a part-time job then who knows? But I won't go looking for it.

"While Sue's a lot younger than me, we realised recently that we'd both not had a Christmas Day off since we were 14. That's going to change, and perhaps from our personal point of view that's something to look forward to.

"But anyone who works in greyhound racing knows it's seven-day-a-week,full on. But we love it, and wouldn't have changed anything. But that was when Walthamstow was open. When it closed, there was nothing for us."

Puzey is critical of the lack of support for trainers when the Stow closed.

"Any sort of redundancy payment was minimal when you consider the dogs we had left here. That's galling enough, and that's before what we were told over the track's future we were told beforehand."

A trainer at oldMilton Keynes track Bletchley, Puzey then had eight years at Portsmouth working for the GRA, before switching to the same company's Harringay, and then Walthamstow, which he joined in the mid 1980s.

Puzey trained 2004 Greyhound of theYear, Fire Height Dan, and the Rob Kisby and Peter Pigott-owned superstar has been with him ever since he retired. "And wherever I go, I can promise you Dan won't be far behind!" he added.