Bigfellas Irish adventure!

[Bigfella]

Some of you will know I bought a place in Ireland a few years ago which was linked to my other hobby (apart from poker) which is greyhound racing. My dad was a bookie so from the age of 5 I was always being dragged down one of his bookie shops, or to the dogs or horses - it really was a tough upbringing lol 

Anyway, my dad owned dogs and as soon as I could sneak out on my own I'd go to the Wimbledon track and study the form and lose my money. Eventually I decided to buy a dog, that was in 1989, and I've been involved ever since. As my interest grew I found myself going over to Ireland when a good dog was spotted, and over the years have built a good circle of friends over there. So about 5 years ago, with my visits being very frequent, I decided to buy a place over there that needed a lot of work doing to it but I knew that given time and a few quid spending on it, it could be a nice little complex to bring on some nice dogs.

Of course, things dont always go to plan and I found that for various reasons my trips were becoming less frequent. Grass grows very quickly you know, and maintaining a property from afar is not something to be recommended. Fortunately, last October, a good friend of mine who has been involved in the dog game for years was looking to return to Ireland and we worked a deal out for him to run the (yet to be built!) complex. So this year we have embarked on renovating the outbuildings, installing kennels, concreting the barn area and installing paddocks, cutting and bailing an acre field and having puppy runs installed - to name just a few jobs. The improvement in the place has been great to see and we're now ready to breed a few dogs and see how things go - I tried loading photos on here but they were too big or something so you can follow the progress on my blog if this sort of thing interests you: www.landfallkennels.blogspot.com

I'm quite excited today as our first bitch is due to be mated next week so we will have our first pups born late October/early November. I'm sure by then I'd have worked out how to upload photos so I'll keep you updated. Maybe a Blonde night out when one of them has their first race in England in early 2010!

Glenn

[Colchester Kev]

Nice read mate and good luck with the venture ...


A question, what is the average cost of buying a dog and having it trained ... just wondering if it would be viable to get a syndicate going

[Laxie]

FFS!!!  Tipperary?!  We've friends in Tipp too, which means a place for us to crash.  If you land on this side again and don't give us a wee heads up, you're GROUNDED!!!  They look lovely and so does the site.  Be sure to give us a shout next time Landfall Scholes has a run. 

[Hairydude]

Nice read mate and good luck with the venture ...


A question, what is the average cost of buying a dog and having it trained ... just wondering if it would be viable to get a syndicate going

Not a bad idea- could name it Blondepoker.com like devilfish and his horse

[Graham C]

Nice one Glen   Will keep an eye on the blog

[Bigfella]

lol @ blondepoker the dog!!

Kev, race dogs (eg those already racing) come in varying degrees of quality. In todays market £1,000 would get a reasonable racer who would win plenty of graded races without being Derby class. Some of the top dogs would only change hands for silly money. Monthly training costs should come to no more than £150 on average allowing for run money.

Buying a young pup at say 12 weeks old is fun (you can dream of owning a champion for a year!) if you are prepared to wait and at that age they'll cost about £600 for a dog and a bit less for a bitch. Some litters will cost more than others depending on the quality of the parents. Rearing the pups will cost say £80 per month until 13 months old when this may rise to say £150 with the schooling costs included. They can start racing at 15 months but most will have their first race at closer to 18 months old.

Laxie, I was down at Cork track a month ago when Scholes was running in a final - he didn't win and we headed back to Tipperary as quickly as we could. But message received, would be great to meet up with you and Timmy again.

[Bigfella]

OK just got a great idea. Forget the syndicate - when the pups are born I tend to keep some and sell some. One of the ones I keep I'll name Blonde Poker (can't use dots in a name so BlondePoker.com isn,t possible) and I'll make sure progress from day born to first race is posted on here - how does that sound?

[Laxie]

Great stuff all around!  Looking forward to the lot!!!

[reenot]

Great read and Good Luck!

Blondepokerdotcom FTW!

[Rookie (Rodney)]

nice. gl

[Rookie (Rodney)]

ps, take some money off the mug! Sell him a dog and rear it etc for him. Sorted

[Gryff]

You have to call one Santa's Little Helper.

[Snatiramas]

promises to be a good read

[jizzemm]

promises to be a good read

+1

[Bigfella]

Just back from a week at the cottage. Here's blondepokerdotcoms mum, definitely in whelp and blondepoker the dog due to hit this world in early November!! Watch this space.