To the 2025 Open Non-Winners points champion’s kennel sealing a first success of this kind is just a bonus, writes John Walsh.
Lisa, Hollie and Graham Whitfield, Susan Passon and Brian Atkinson’s home-bred bitch Lucky Legend landed the title but the family group go to the races mainly for the craic.
Ennerdale-based Lisa told me: “We don’t go to the trails expecting to win, doesn’t bother us if we come last because we go to meet people, have a good craic and enjoy the races wherever our hounds finish.”
Lisa, who was first around the hounds when she was a two-year-old, runs them now with husband Graham, nine-year-old daughter Hollie, her mother Susan and family friend Brian.
“I had a horse-riding accident in 1998 so couldn’t do the hounds and my mother was working full-time but we got back into them around 2012, and I got a pup off David Crowe and I called him Cool Return.
“We have never had a champion or even a points competition winner but Some Lad was runner-up to his brother In The Red in a non-winners in 2020, We also had Cool Dude who finished second in the puppy championship leader board in 1993.
“He had bad luck with injuries to his back and toe or he could have finished higher, but I suppose a lot of ours have been average.
“There was a time early on, when you could compete at three different trails on a Saturday. That’s when me and my mam and stepdad Tom had up to 20 in the kennel, a bit like the Foxparkes nowadays.
“But this year we have had five and one of them, La’al Domino didn’t run much at all after he was interfered with by another hound in a race and he was nervous too.
“We have Audacity, who used to be Lee Wall’s, after she came back from a spell running in Ireland and she’s had senior and maiden tickets this year. Black Edition has also had minor tickets for us.
“But the biggest surprise of the season was when we had a first and second at Bridekirk in May with Lucky Breeze beating Lucky Legend. We couldn’t believe it and were all over the place, shouting and whistling for them.”
Just called Lucky around the kennel and on the trail-field, she was bred out of Brian’s bitch Breeze and Graham and Lisa’s Black Legend.
Lucky ticketed consistently throughout the season and with only 10 open non-winner races she ticketed in half of them.
She took her first ticket at Bridekirk on May 17 where she finished 2nd to her kennel mate and littermate Lucky Breeze, and from there she finished 2nd again at Potter’s Park on June 11.
After that she was 4th at Kirkland at the Festival of Hound Racing on July 8; 4th at Redmain on July 26 and 5th at Shap on August 23.
With all that she managed to gather up 18 points to go three points clear of her nearest rivals Foxparke Rita’s Rose for Robyn, Ellie, Grace and Nicola Napier, Brooke Butler and Darren Clark and Spring Return for Jenny Horn.
Lucky ticketed at five venues throughout the season – Bridekirk, Potter’s Park, Kirkland, Redmain and Shap.
The open non winners races are for hounds that haven’t yet won a race in their racing career and is usually dominated by pups but there are a few old dogs that race in it too.
Lucky is still yet to win a race so she’s still good to go in the grade next year, by which time she will be a mother.
After being lined with Tanya Satterthwaite’s Samcro she is due to produce her litter on January 3.
Lisa says: “We will probably keep one to run in 2027 but we haven’t a pup for next year.
“However there could be something interesting from Lucky’s litter as Samcro is the brother of Swamp Fox who is the mother of this year’s puppy championship runner-up Tucker.”
Whatever she produces, you get the impression that as long as Lisa and family can get to the races, enjoy the banter and the friendships they’ve made, with their hounds getting round safely, results won’t matter. And isn’t that what sport is fundamentally all about!
- Following last week’s sad news about the death of Barry Laidler the funeral arrangements have now been confirmed. It will be on January 2 2026 at 2pm at Beetham Crematorium and afterwards at Brookside, Windermere.
