Swedish History
by Robert Hanebrink
Dog racing in Sweden started 1953 with some happy amateurs. It was some guys in Stockholm that thought it could be fun to have this sport in Sweden. It was made very simple; a wire that ran on some strategically placed milk cans and the traps were actually the owners’ hands. One, two, three, Let Go!! was the way to start the race.
The sport has grown since then and is now spread over Sweden in 18 clubs of which 11 have their own track, from Älvsbyn in the north (probably the most "northerly" track in the world) to Simrishamn in the south. All clubs are registerd with the Swedish Dog racing Federation (SHCF) which contains approx 1200 members. All members are not dog owners - they could be family members, support members etc. The number of licensed dogs is just about 1000 of which a bit more than 800 are greyhounds. (The rest are whippets which also race on round tracks in Sweden).
Amateur Sport
The sport has up to now been an amateur sport. No official waging and no OTB. The purses have been collected from different sponsors and an average good first price has been something around 1000USD. Those purses have only been for the top dogs. All work on the tracks has been carried out by the members themselves, most during springtime, before the season starts. As you can understand, the sport has survived just because some are real idealists.
The Racing
So how do we race? Well, Friday evening we normally load our cars and caravans with our dogs and will happily travel some 5-6 hours to a track where there is a race, suiting our dogs. The race will be on a Saturday or Sunday; semi-final on Saturday and final on Sunday. The "semi-final" will be a qualification race, where the first three dogs in one race meet the best three dogs in another for Sundays "final". Saturday night, after the first racing day, all dog-racers are living at the track in their caravans, having barbecues and socialising in other ways. Some happy to have reached the final, some not so happy having been fourth or worse in the qualification (Yes, we have six dogs in each race).
Classics
There has been some "Classic Races", such as the National Championship, the Derby, Elite Race and Breeders. The biggest is the National Championship that goes over a week. It is separated into Open, Bitches, Veterans and Whippet. The 48 best dogs will be qualified to start and it goes over four rounds, Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday and the Final on Saturday again. In each race it is the best three that continue to the next. And during the whole week almost all dog racers in Sweden gather to compete or just to watch and be together. A way of living I would call it. From next year 2000, dog-racing is officially a waging sport in Sweden with OTB and everything. It has taken us a long time to get here and it will be thrilling to see how it works out. We have built three official tracks, Stockholm, Borås and Landskrona, where there will be races several days a week. Now we are not racing like before - two days in a row. The dogs have to rest 4 days between each race and there will be approx. 8-10 races each racing night. The races will be broadcast on TV, just like the harness races are today and you can bet on any of the three official tracks. Unfortunately we haven't got enough dogs to race each night, so we start with broadcasting some English races to fill out the week. But I'm certain that after some years there will be enough Swedish dogs to cover the whole week. Also the season will be prolonged, from today May - Oct it will be Mar - Nov. The purses will be spread out and a bit bigger, however it is calculated so that normal dogs will cover their own costs. (There will still be some driving to do between the tracks.)
Dogkeeping.
Today a Swedish dog-racer keeps between 2-5 dogs. Most dogs are also used as pets and family members. Don't be surprised to find the dogs sleeping in the same bed as their master!! (Mine do). However most owners also have very nice doghouses to keep them while they (the owners) are at the office or other work. The dogs are granted a licence to race at the age of 15 months and can race until they are 5 years old. After that they can still race as a veteran as long as they are healthy, but normally they are taken off the track at 6-7 years. After that they can expect a pretty wonderful retirement, just lying on the couch and eating dog candy. They normally stay with us until they are 10-11 years old when they are put to sleep. But it is not unusual that racing greyhounds stay healthy until 12-14 years of age.
Copyright © Robert Hanebrink