BRITISH sport officially returns on Monday as greyhound racing resumes following the country’s coronavirus lockdown hell.
While many people are still confined to their homes and there will be no fans at events, the calendar is starting to fill up with Ascot and the Premier League returning behind closed doors.
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Monday’s 10:21 at Perry Bar, Birmingham, will be the first live sport on these shores since the March 24 shutdown.
And top trainer Kevin Hutton has revealed that his pacey pooches are desperate to get back to doing what they do best.
He told SunSport: “Mentally, you could tell they really missed the racing – especially towards the end in the past few weeks.
“Literally, the first time the van pulled up to go to trials, they were going absolutely berserk desperate to go back to doing what they do. So it was clear they missed it greatly.
“We are lucky that we can do a lot of work at home with them. They had miles of walking and a lot of galloping on our 290m straight gallop which all the dogs ran down a minimum of three times per week.
“But in a strange way, lockdown was quite nice for us as it allowed us to spend more time with the dogs at the kennels.
“Normally you have me or a member of staff going off to races or to the vets, or the physios come – normally there’s one or two major things happening each day whereas it was just a quiet time to spend time and nurture our group for a few weeks.
“All the dogs had a bath, a groom and time relaxing in our garden, they loved it!”
Owners and trainers have been hit in the pocket by the pandemic and the return to racing will provide a much-needed boost to the industry.
But their speedy return also offers an opportunity to grow their fanbase and bring more punters to the tracks when they can safely open.
Derby winner Hutton added: “It’s so important that the sport can start again as quickly as possible – the dogs were missing it greatly so getting them back doing what they love couldn’t come soon enough.
“And obviously financially it’s crucial, the prize money helping the owners to pay the kennel bills.
“So we have really been looking forward to getting back to it and I think the organisers have done brilliantly to get it back so soon. Being the very first back is the icing on the cake, to showcase to the nation how exciting our sport is.
“Remember we were almost the last show in town as well before lockdown, so great that we’re the first live action of any sport to come back and it’s a tremendous opportunity to capitalise on it to raise our profile.”
