6 - Greyhound Ages

In this section I discuss how to calculate in months the age of a greyhound from it's whelping date and explain why a dog's age may effect race performances. Please note a link to Greyhound Welfare sites is now provided in the hope of rehoming retired ex-racing dogs.

What's this Greyhound's Age in Months?

Knowing a greyhound's age is yet another very important factor to take into consideration when predicting races, as it indicates to the dog's future racing potential and overall implies to the consistency of racing performances.

Greyhound Predictor v2.0 Software allows all dog racing ages to be entered in months.

In all UK greyhound racing form dog ages are always taken from the first day of the month they were born, even if born on the last day of the month!

All dogs less than 24 months of age are classified as 'greyhound puppies'. These inexperienced pups will at approximately 12 months of age be introduced to the idea of racing, after initial schooling trials and further 'grading in trials' most young dogs that achieve a 'grading in time', will make their race debuts between 15-18 months of age.

Dog trainers may choose to bring certain 'well bred pups' on slowly at first, deliberately keep them back, wrap them in cotton wool perhaps! and then introduce them fresh in the spring from a winter's break, in order to start to get them fit for the forthcoming competitive 'Puppy Opens' held later in the summer months.

These raw lightly raced greyhounds are always said to be "open to improvement" and will usually improve rapidly over a short period of time, as overall they possess good future racing potential, which is always thought a good sign, when predicting future greyhound winners. However, 'greyhound pups' frequently run a little 'green' and race inconsistently, as obviously young puppies are still learning to win dog races.

I personally consider most greyhounds reach 'racing maturity' between 21-30 months of age and believe dogs and bitches of this age range to be the perfect racing age for greyhounds running over middle distance race lengths.

Older greyhounds lets say between 36-48 months old will no doubt be competing in their second or third racing season, these mature experienced race dogs are usually battle hardened to the hustle and bustle of regular races, having acquired 'good racing trackcraft' and therefore often produce very consistent racing performances, illustrated by the close proximity of their recorded racetimes.

A greyhound's racing career is a short one! as dogs still racing at an age of 54-60 months old, will be approaching the twilight of their careers and sadly many of these fondly remembered 'greyhound veterans' will be retired, although there are always exceptions to the rule, as a few 'seasoned old campaigners' may continue to compete and even win greyhound races at perhaps 70 or 80 months old. However, many of these 'veteran racers' are generally past their best and therefore will lack that bit of spark or back-straight pace they once possessed!

The Greyhound Predictor website has an extra page dedicated to 'greyhound rescue sites' if you can in anyway help in the re-homing of retired racing greyhounds then please check out our greyhound rescue page.

Now check your racing newspaper.

To know how old a greyhound is? you need to find the raceform statistic known as the 'whelping date' this data is usually located in the greyhound formlines to the right of the dam's name. Now simply calculate the approximate number of months that have elapsed since the whelping date occurred!

Now enter into the 'Predictor' this greyhound's age in months.

Next Page: Racing Weight

Age Handicapper

	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
2008	JAN	FEB	MAR	APR	MAY	JUN	JUL	AUG	SEP	OCT	NOV	DEC
2007	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1
2006	24	23	22	21	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13
2005	36	35	34	33	32	31	30	29	28	27	26	25
2004	48	47	46	45	44	43	42	41	40	39	38	37
2003	60	59	58	57	56	55	54	53	52	51	50	49

How to use the chart:

Find the month this set of races is being run in and circle the number above it.
Point at the month the hound was born in and move your finger down that column until it is on the line showing the year the dog was born in.
Add the number you circled in the top row (0 - 11) to the number your finger is pointing at.
The sum of the two numbers is roughly the hound's age in months.

Next Page: Racing Weight