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Peter Cooke has
been involved in greyhound racing for as long as he can
remember. His parents were involved in greyhound racing during
his childhood, initially as owners and that is where Peter's
love for greyhound racing developed. At the age of 12 Peter
visited Ireland and returned little over a year later to work
during the summer holidays and after being involved with a very
good dog called Hit The Headlines, who won an Open at Shelbourne
Park there was no turning back.
When he returned
home his mother took out a Permit License and Peter was heavily
involved in training a couple of greyhounds at home which ran at
Rye House. From here, Peter went to work with Bryn Ford for
little over a year before he took out his own professional
license and moved to his present Kennels in 2000.
Cookes
Kennels are set in 7 acres of land and consists of 2 large
kennel blocks all of which have their own individual runs. There
are several grass paddocks, a 200 yard grass gallop and a Whirly
Gig. The Whirly Gig (check out the gallery for pictures) is used
by Peter to help school pups in his care or indeed, for other
trainers who use his services. Peter has increased his breeding
programme and has whelped down numerous litters for other
people. He now has two purpose built whelping pens each
individually heated and having their own CCTV system. Each pen
opens out into its own individually CCTV monitored safe and
spacious paddock for the early weeks after whelping. He has one
litter of his own who are almost 11 months of age – Droopys Rhys
x Mistress Jo. They are all sold, and are looking very good!
Peter is always
happy to travel with his better dogs and whilst he does contest
several Open races, one of the more pleasing results in his
short training career was when
Fell from Grace
won the 2005 British Bred Stakes and Peter was successful a
second time in the 2006 running of this competition with his
Dad’s dog Hartwood Stag., the family receiving both the £500
owner’s prize and £100 for the trainer.
Peter won the Mildenhall Trainers Championship competition in
2002.
Cookes Kennels
is very much a family run business with Peter's wife
Anna and his Mum and Dad, Jo and Alan all contributing to a
successfully run operation. 3 full-time and 4 part-time staff
are on hand to look after not only the racers, but also the
retired greyhounds at the Kennel. If you are based near Lakenheath and are looking to home a retired greyhound, please
contact Peter on the number above. Peter is always willing to
take in-season bitches and long-term resters. Please call him
for further details.
Peter has several
loyal owners, not only locally to Mildenhall but throughout the
country, some as far away as Yorkshire! Whilst he always has
pups and racers available for sale Peter always sells his dogs
with the understanding they stay with him. Whilst many owners
will re-home their greyhounds when their racing days are over,
all racers unable to be re-homed by their owners always have a
home at Cookes Kennels when they retire. See below for
information about their most famous resident, Kylemore Cracker.
Owners are
always welcome to walk their dogs on Sunday, but given the fact
that Mildenhall sometimes race on Sundays, Peter is always happy to
be flexible and allow owners to visit their greyhound/s outside
of this day.
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