Noble delight as auction secures five-figure charity boost

ORGANISER Livi Noble, on behalf of the retired greyhound charities who are set to benefit, has expressed her gratitude to both those behind the recent Greyhound Trader charity auction and those who supported it.

A total of £10,800 was raised by the project during the running of the Star Sports & Orchestrate Derby at Towcester, which saw an auction of four well-bred pups donated by leading Irish breeders Liam Dowling, the Matthews family, the Dunphys and the Kennedy family and some well known names were among those who snapped up the potential future stars.

Noble said: “It was a fantastic result and massive thanks to the breeders who donated the pups and also to James and Nathan Corden of Greyhound Trader for organising the auction.

“GBGB chairman Sir Philip Davis was one of those who made a successful bid and secured the Ballymac pup, which was great to see, and the auction even enticed Nic Jeal back into ownership.

“I think we have his daughter Hope to thank for that! Nic has bought the pup bred by the Matthews family and they told me he’ll be renamed Hopes Rainbow.

“Owner Marc Johnson has bought the bitch bred by the Kennedys, who are known for their Epic prefix, and she’ll go to his uncle Sean Devlin’s Hi Dingle kennels in Armagh for schooling, while the Droopys pup was snapped up by Richard Tuncliffe and will come to Esther Driver and Paul Sallis at Nottingham. I really hope they all do well.”

GBGB chief Davis confirmed the news as he said: “I’ve bought the pup in partnership with Dr Jim Walker, who is chairman of the racecourse owners’ association.

“We have a horse in partnership and have said for some time we should have a greyhound together, so this is it. It’s great to get such a high profile racehorse owner such as Jim into our sport.”

With regards to the allocation of the funds raised, Noble added: “The plan is for half the money to be split directly between six operations with Lincolnshire Greyhound Trust, Retried greyhounds South Lakes, Hersham, Romford and Sittingbourne retired greyhounds and the Irish Greyhound Trust all getting £900 each.

“Then we will do a random live draw for the other half to allocate a £5,400 cash injection to one of them, which will hopefully make a big difference. I only had the idea on May 6, so it was all a bit of a whirlwind, but it just shows how supportive greyhound people can be. 

“Carly Philpott was a massive help, not just with the auction but also helping to look after the volunteers and retired greyhounds during the rounds. Thanks again to everyone who got involved, I’m delighted with how it went.”

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