Frank is relatively new to the
Sport, having trained since 2001 having previously been an
owner himself. During the early part of his career many of
the dogs he trained were low grade, cheap purchases and
give-aways. He did very well with these dogs of limited
ability. The first dog he had in the kennels cost no more
than a few hundred pounds was running A3 at Yarmouth at the
time. He won Frank's first Opens with wins at Harlow and
Mildenhall and also won a good A1 on East Anglian Derby
Final night in 2003.
The kennel block (see pics below) was built to his own
specifications from scratch and bulit by Frank himself.
There is a capacity of 14 dogs when full. The kennels are
heated by thermostatic controls and there is an excellent
air management system which is serviced periodically.
Each year Frank has
achieved better results than the previous year with 2006
being excellent for the kennel on the Open circuit for a
very small kennel with 5 open race wins and reaching 6
category 3 finals at Harlow, finishing runners-up in two
of them.
We are very proud of our
achievements with Oklahoma Pride who broke his shoulder
in his first ever race in this country in an A3 at
Yarmouth. He was off for 7 months and came back to
excellent fitness winning an A2 at Yarmouth in a very
slick 28.49 at the start of 2006. Since he has stepped
up to 6 bends he has improved again winning an S1 at
Yarmouth and 3 Open Races at Harlow.
It very much is a family
affair with Frank being the trainer and wife Eileen and
son Leigh being kennelhands. Louise is the most
experienced member of the team overall having worked in
professional kennels for Ernie Gaskin (Snr).
The family pride themselves
on the fact that our retired dogs look as well as
our race dogs and all of the dogs get treated as
individuals not just a number.
They run graded at Yarmouth
and Mildenhall depending on the suitability of the dog
to each track so they have options to race dogs at the
track that most suits the style of running of your
greyhound. Dogs are let out and paddocked at least 5
times a day and walked daily without fail 365days a
year.
Feeding wise Frank strongly
believes you get out what you put in so we use quality
biscuit along with excellent meat and vegetables and
they even get fruit with their breakfasts on occasion!
The kennels are set in the
picturesque Norfolk countryside with numerous wooded walks
and miles of country lanes. Training Fees are only £4 per
day and the owner
retains all the prize money. We are not adverse to taking
dogs open racing if they are good enough.
