This is the famous Joe Booth & His wife with one of their big winners during the eighties.
Joe always broke down in tears whenever one of his champions broke a hock.
I first put a plaster on a hock for him in 1951 after a race at Dillington Park in Barnsley.
Joe was the greatest greyhound trainer ever.He could turn a moderate dog into a champion.What a legend.
ReplyDeleteI knew Joe Booth very well, the lady in the photo is not his wife but Joyce? is companion, his wife lived at the kennels a strange sort of lady who Joe ignored. Joe was a good feeder of greyhounds and kept the dogs slightly underweight, I do not think he was better than other trainers but certainly very dedicated and knowledgeable, he was the King of the Flappers with his NGRC contacts he bought a lot of very fast disqualified dogs, super fast open class dogs, a bucket of food before the trial then a one-race-hit. Joe dare not show his face on any flapper track and sat outside in the car or the bookies would guess something was going down. He had a lot of loyal friends and helpers all the top NGRC trainers respected him. He lived and trained at Clipstone, 2 miles from Mansfield, a flapper legend, he once told me he had been down the Pits. I liked Joe and so did everyone else apart from the bookies, he never wrote the promised book, if he had of done - dog tracks would have closed 30 years before they did.
ReplyDeleteThat isn't Joyce! Joyce is my mother!
DeleteI am not sure but the dog in the picture I think is Cricket Bunny, Joe kept him as a non-racing pet, he once won 26 races in a row and broke several track records, because of my friendship with Joe Booth, I purchased Cricket Bunny dam an bitch called Fevata Flash, we mated her to a famous Irish dog closely related called Shamrock Sailor (Tric Trac and Spectre White City Derby breeding) and bred 6 pups, these all went to Ireland to be reared and schooled at great expense, the guy they were sent to proved unreliable, dishonest and sold the lot (he claimed the best pup had been injured and destroyed which was untrue) I mentioned how Joe Booth bought dogs who had fought during a race, they were kennel bored and jaded and wanted to chase the real thing, re-schooled he had some champion winning dogs whose flapping track competition was zero. The top flapping dog of all time was Red Wind-a legend in the 1950s, his owner once dressed up as a priest to fool racegoers. The Greyhound Owner paper had Red Wind advertised at stud, along with a list of his track records and wins, R WILSON FORMER KENNELBOY, CLEVELANDS PK MIDDLESBROUGH NOW LEEDS
ReplyDeleteLynnn, I need to ask you then who is the lady in the photo, I went with her and Joe many times to dog tracks, he always referred to her as his wife, but the bloke who Joe had as a driver/helper 1976 -1978 whispered to me that's not his wife, he said the real wife lived alone in the house attached to the kennels, I enquired no further, if the 2nd bloke is still around let him know I was enquiring after him and ask you let me know his whereabouts? Good days for me but on reflection not the best of hobbies and pastimes. We all grow up, mature and move on. Like many I never thought the Going to the Dogs would fade away into obscurity. Bob Wilson, Leeds.
ReplyDelete