Meet the Syndicate

The Syndicate


'He winked at me' syndicate was formed around April 2011. Consisting of 4 members, based in Luton, Bedfordshire :






Ben Turnstill 
twitter : @theoracleben

Ben got into greyhound racing from a very young age. Often heading to Walthamstow/Romford with his Dad. When he was old enough he instantly got involved in ownership, and bought two pups (one dog, one bitch) from Ireland at the age of 12 weeks and reared them until they went to a trainer at 12 months old. He absolutely adored these pups and loved every minute of watching them grow and finally get on track.

Once trialled in 'Rookies Fantasy' won his first 3 races at Oxford, winning A5, A4 and A3 from off the pace in breathtaking fashion. Sadly a few races later Rodney (as he was affectionately known) broke his leg when leading round in an A2 at the halfway mark, he continued to run a further 450m on it and with his weight being near 40kg the damage was unrepairable and the fairest thing to do was to put Rodney to sleep. http://greyhound-data.com/d?z=UOigXo&d=rookies+fantasy&x=0&y=0

The bitch, Cassie, racing name 'Rookies Hawk' graded in and was just finding her feet winning two on the bounce and up to A7 when the accident to Rodney happened. Ben, who had grown attached to the greyhounds over the previous 18 months since he had them, instantly decided to take Cassie off track and take a break from greyhound racing. http://greyhound-data.com/d?i=1538502

Ben's next purchase was to be with the syndicate.

Martyn Smith

Martyn has had a passion for dog racing ever since his dad (Dave) took him at a young age to watch his pups run. His dad had 4 dogs in a syndicate with four other members. 

Dave would always take Martyn to all the races which gave him the bug to want one himself. Once old enough he took his chance to get a couple of greyhounds of about 2 years old from a local trainer at Henlow stadium. Ellies Mate (Known as Teddy) and LoudAsYouLike (Known as Ellie). They were brother and sister and were a pleasure to be around. 

Teddy turned out to be a great runner for owners winning a maiden open and running well regularly in A3-A1 grades, unfortunately he had a recurring wrist injury and the decision was taken to take him off the track for his own safety and now has a great life at home with Martyn, and is the perfect pet. Ellie turned out to be a dog that liked to run with the dogs instead of running after the hare so her racing life was very short but was found a lovely home with an older couple who fell in love with her right away. 

Now with Winking Shrewdie in the wings waiting to start running for The She Winked At Me Syndicate they all hope for a bit more luck than past, watch this space.....

Paul Turnstill

Paul has been into greyhound racing for as long as he can remember. Taken by his father to Romford on a weekly basis during his childhood he then when old enough began to broaden his horizons travelling to many tracks mainly in and around the London area. 
Paul's first unofficial dabble with ownership was aound 1990 when 4 friends of his owned a bitch callled "mamsell babbett" travelling with them far and wide watching her in open race action. 
Many years later when my son Ben also took an interest and purchased 2 pups from Ireland who we reared at home until old enough to race. These two, Rodney and Cassie  gave us some great times. Rodney's debut was my proudest day in greyhound racing, coming from last to first to win. Unfortunately Rodney also was involved in my worst night involved in greyhound racing after being seriously injured and put to sleep at oxford in september 2009.
In april 2011 the "he winked at me" syndicate was born when we purchased a promising pup from ireland called "oil strike" (darkie).  Unfortunately  "Darkie" turned out to be rather quirky and was disqualified in an open at henlow. After some very promising times in re trialling he then proceeded to seriously damage a wrist in his last one thus ended any chance of a comeback. He was re-homed into a good home and is enjoying his early retirement. 
I still go racing as much as i can and cannot wait for our next acquisition to reach the track, watch out for the "winking" prefix  coming to a track near you real soon ;-)