Coventry Statement

I am pleased to announce that I will be grading a number of dogs on at Coventry Stadium in the very near future.  I stress I will not be leaving Monmore Green as I am very happy there, but the situation has arose that my kennel strength at Monmore has gone out of control and ever increasing daily.  Monmore Green General Manager, Richard Brankley and Racing Manager Jim Woods, both have given me full support and permission to have talks with Harry Findlay to supply some graders at Coventry.

I understand this is the first time a Ladbrokes owned track has allowed this to happen and I thank Richard & Jim for this opportunity.  There will be no change at all to my current contract at Monmore Green and I have no intention of jeopardising my future there.  As you are well aware I'm a Coventry kid born & bred and took out my professional license when Coventry re-opened its doors.  I had a fantastic 18 months at my local track and then landed the lucrative contract at Monmore.  Since Harry Findlay re-opened the track this year I have had quite a lot of my old owners and others, asking me if I ever will return on a graded basis.

After thinking long & hard and a kennel block lying empty after the retirement of Martin Burt it made sense with my ever increasing dog strength, attracting new owners daily and also I have started my own breeding venture with my old kennel superstar 'Ballymac Ace' who has already pups on the ground from some great bitches including 'Daughter of Peg, Southern Dooey, Zafonic Oyster and Raynes Park'. Therefore Coventry my local track would be ideal to run as a second track.

After a chat with Harry who was delighted to bring myself the local boy back home, have agreed that I grade on around 15/20 dogs. Harry has some big ideas for Coventry and with the low tote retention and other plans, I hope I can help him achieve great things here. With other tracks threatening closure and the sad news on Walthamstow, we need small tracks like Coventry to survive, so I hope with my doubling up Monmore and Coventry I can keep attracting owners to the sport at both.

I will also be trying very hard next year to get back to the top in the Trainers Championship. We have had an up and down season this year with some bad injuries not helping us, but overall we are still doing well, currently lying a safe third and once again for the 6th year running leading graded trainer at Monmore Green.  I have some nice dogs coming through for next year so fingers crossed we can have a good campaign in 2013.

Many Thanks

Chris