Wheatfield Rocket and a mad dash to Ramsgate

Mrs Pessoa told me of how clever Jack was.  I sometimes wondered how he would have fared on the track if I had kept him and would he have been too clever to chase a mechanical hare.  I did give his sibling a few trials on the track but he got injured and never had a race.  His Dad-Wheatfield Rocket was a very genuine runner in a brief racing carear.  Most of the races he ran in were on the independents.  I well remember his first under rules at about 18 months of age. It was an open puppy race at Dagenham.  The favourite was King Conquer an expensive puppy purchased by George Flintham in Ireland and trained by Jimmy Jowet at Clapton.  I led my fellow around the track so that he would not be fazed by the noise of the crowd.  He was ripping at the lid trying to open it.  When it did open he flew out and led all the way.  A great friend of mine called John Black from the banks of Lough Neagh, our biggest lake, was with me and backed him at 10/1.  I was putting Rocket back in the car when I saw John coming running with two thieves after him.  I yelled for help from the driver of a another van.  He was a big bloke with a stick.  The two little thieves gave up and John was able to get into my car with his winnings. 

I was keen on hurdle racing and I schooled Rocket over a pair of jumps that I made.  I used to take them with the dog in the van and go to Hinkley and Peterborough for trials.  The managers there, Joe Grant and Rex Perkins, were very obliging and generous with their time and my friend Jack West often came with me to help.  For his first hurdle race I entered Rocket for Hall Green on a Saturday.  They did not accept him--  he had no race form -- but they took him as a reserve.  On the morning there was a withdrawl and I got a phone call to bring Rocket along.  I could not fancy him as he was in against four old experienced hurdlers but he jumped over the first in front and stayed there!  John had a tenner on him and was as pleased as if it was a tonne.



Jack West





I had also tried to get him in a race at Ramsgate on the Monday but there again he was taken only as a reserve.  When it came to midday without the phone ringing I did not expect to be travelling. Then at one o`clock the call came.   I did not fancy the long journey alone.  John worked in a car factory ten miles away in Coventry.  I drove there without delay hoping he would get a half day off.  By the time we got through London we should have been kenneling the dog.  Instead we were still 50 miles away.  Just after Sittingbourne a lorry in front of us threw up a stone which smashed my windscreen.  I could see nothing.  Quick as lightning John took off his jacket and put it around his fist.  Instantly he smashed a hole through which I could see.  I remember the cold wind on my face as we pressed on as fast as possible.  As we entered the car park we could hear the hare going round and hoped it was not for our race.  An official came rushing out to meet us saying if you are Mr Sweeney come in quickly till I weigh your dog; you're in the next race.

 As I was approching the traps with Rocket I heard a bookmaker shout 6/1 Wheatfield.  The favourite for the race was a fast son of Ballymac Ball called Doran trained by Barney O`Connor for the famous Chandlers at Walthomstow .  On Saturday this experienced hurdler had broken the track record at White City and here he was drawn in trap one.  Our fellow was in three.  When the traps opened the two dogs came away together and took off simultaneously.  Rocket jumped high and to the left.  When he landed he had grabbed the rails position. He kept his advantage and stayed close to the rails and won in a photo! 

He was one of the most determined and genuine runners I ever had.  Sadly he had a fatal injury all too soon.  That was the most depressing aspect of owning greyhounds.  The tight turns caused many injuries particulaly to the wrists and hocks of the faster ones.  The slower and smaller were subjected to much less stress.  After losing a hundred of my own dogs I began preaching and writing about the need for circular tracks with bigger radii.  In thirty five years of racing the only track on which I raced greyhounds without incurring an injury was West Ham.  The turns there had a radius of 58 metres.  The other factor in trauma was the surface.  In the early days I remember peat on four or five but all the others had turf.  In wet weather the grass became cut up along the inner rail.  It was chuned into mud which offered no grip.  In dry sunny weather it became rock hard and did not allow the claws to grip.  In frosty weather it was not uncommon for promoters to scatter peat on the turns and commence racing.  Runners who came off lame might have toes dislocated or fractured or have nails ripped out.  Complaints from racegoers caused meetings to be abandoned but rarely before the fifth race had been run --so that entrance money would not have to be refunded.  I raced on three tracks where there was a canopy to protect the surface from heavy rainfall.  These were the original Crayford, Gosforth in Newcastle and Liverpool's White City.

About 1960 I learned that tracks elsewhere -- throughout the world - used sand and I began writing about its advantages.  Initially its reception was cool.  The first real supporter I had was the man I called Mr Greyhound.  He was the Tipperary genius Pat Dalton.  Apart from his experiences in Ireland he was successful with his runners at the bigger USA tracks.  He had crossed the Atlantic more often than anyone I know.  Like all great men he could not have got where he was without his great wife Ellen, their daughter and three boys.  The first British promoter to use sand was Tom Stanley of Rayleigh after seeing it while on holiday in Las Palmas.  When I heard of Tom's venture I telephoned him and entered a coursing dog I was training for Norman Donaldson of Morpeth called Curraroe.  I was quite impressed with what I saw.  Without a trial the dog handled the turns on the sand comfortably and won in a close finish.  In Britain the first of my clients to be interested was Joe Hayden of Coventry.  When he read my first article in praise of it I had three of his most expensive purchases in my hospital undergoing surgery.  He came and had a chat with me about how he could help to persuade promoters to change to sand. I put  a weekly advertisment -- SAND THOSE BENDS!!  in the Sporting Life and Joe paid for them.  The first promoters that we
converted were Leo Craven of Kings Heath and Bob Beckett of Bletchley.  This independant track was later called Milton Keynes.

Pat Dalton



Curraroe was one of the greatest dual purpose greyhounds I trained.  He had great conformation and he was very intelligent.  He was honest on the track but he never chased with the same enthusiasm that he showed in the field.  He made a great impression at Altcar in the '70 Waterloo Cup.  He had been hard run when he faced the eventual winner Rodney Magnet in the fourth round and only just failed to get the flag.  He was a great character in the kennels and very popular with my staff.  He was the only dog who gave the impression that he was laughing when we greeted him.  He was a great traveller and slept all the way to the tracks.  My boys often talk of him as "Marty".