“With the loss of any sport or pastime, it’s the people you miss in the end…”

Sir Mark Prescott on the people he met over four decades of coursing

Every sport has its share of characters — the people that influenced and shaped the sport, for better or worse. Babe Ruth. Lester Piggot. Hank Aaron. Sterling Moss. Michael Jordan. Caitlin Clark. Eric Liddell. David Beckham. Mike Krzyzewski. Bobby Knight. Billie Jean King. Depending on your perspective, these names can elicit a variety of emotions and memories of your favorite sport.

The world of Greyhound coursing has its own cavalcade of characters who left their own mark or legacy on the sport. Historical figures like Colonel North and Edward Dent influenced the glory days of the sport. Lord Sefton, while influential, left artifacts and records of the Waterloo Cup to be burned and abandoned after his passing.

Then there are the memorable judges, owners and trainers that left their mark on the sport of coursing. Jack Chadwick judged meetings from atop a horse with a permanently outstretched leg. Owner Lilah Shennen delivered both criticism and support of the sport and its organizers over the years. Harry Skinner made contributions to the sport in the design of the fields and courses to be run.

In this episode, host John Parker sits down with his own favorite coursing characters — Charlie Blanning and Sir Mark Prescott — to talk about the larger community of coursing’s beloved and not so beloved. Their discussion covers the gamut of historical figures to coursing’s contemporaries right up until the last Waterloo Cup.

This episode is dedicated to Michael’s Greyhound, Raleigh (fka Mr. Bates), 3/2/2016 – 12/13/2024. Raleigh was one of ten puppies in the Dublin and Kell’s Casino litter from 2016. This was a hobby bred litter courtesy of John Parker. If you’d like to learn more about Greyhound hobby breeding, listen to our fifth episode — the Hobby Breeder Roundtable.