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Just after 3pm on a Wednesday covered in spring sunshine and the hare is running at Wales’s last greyhound track.
Nestled between the Rhymney River and the A469 at Ystrad Mynach, four miles from the historic town of Caerphilly, a small but loyal band of followers have made their way to the Valley Greyhound Stadium for racing woven into Wales’s sporting fabric.
Greyhound racing made its debut in Wales on 7 April 1928 – two years after the first recorded UK race at Belle Vue in Manchester – and 25,000 were soon watching dogs run at the Welsh White City Stadium in Cardiff.
Mick The Miller, arguably the most famous greyhound in the history of the sport, set a world record of 29.55 seconds for the standard distance of 525 yards when winning the 1930 Welsh Greyhound Derby.
Racing was held at Cardiff Arms Park from 1945, but ended in 1977 because the Welsh Rugby Union needed the track to extend terracing at the national stadium. Tracks elsewhere have come and gone and the Rhymney Valley circuit is the last one standing.
But is the final bend now approaching after Welsh government proposals to ban greyhound racing, which has been criticised for harming dogs, “as soon as practically possible”?
Deputy first minister Huw Irranca-Davies said it is not “impossible” it could become law before the next Welsh parliament election in May 2026.
The UK culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, responded by saying there are “absolutely no plans” to extend a greyhound racing ban to the rest of the United Kingdom.
“Disgraceful,” said octogenarian fan David Langford, briefly breaking from studying a programme detailing 11 midweek races at Ystrad Mynach, of the proposed ban. “I’ve been watching and had dogs for 65 years. It’s just a brilliant sport. What else would I do? I’m 82 and the next stop for me is up in heaven.”
The Wales ban follows cross-party calls to outlaw greyhound racing, government consultation and a petition attracting 35,000 signatures. Racing enthusiasts say many of those names are from outside Wales, but animal welfare charities have welcomed the news of a potential ban.
Racetrack manager Malcolm Tams said: “We received a licence from the Greyhound Board of Great Britain in 2023 and had to meet certain conditions.
“Air-conditioned kennels, a vet on site who checks the dogs before they race, extra security with cameras everywhere. We’ve spent a fortune here.”
Essex businessman Dave Barclay, owner of the Valley Greyhound Stadium since November 2021, is understood to be taking legal advice since the ban was proposed.
Ending racing in Wales would leave 18 greyhounds tracks in the UK, after the closure of Crayford in January, and a hole in the local economy with 30 jobs lost.
Mike Burton played international rugby for England and the British and Irish Lions and is now a successful greyhound trainer. Burton, 79, said: “I come to Wales because they are good people, they are all grafters and love the sport.
“Other tracks wanted me associated with them but when I’ve got a dog running it says: ‘Michael Burton, The Valley.’ I’m very proud of that.”
