it is 1985 and you’re 19 at Wembley dogs
drinking Hofmeister from a brown plastic bottle
after a shift answering phones at the mini-cab office
and there’s a hurdle race coming up in 17 minutes
with a dog in it called Everything
and you read the form and see that it has three 4ths a 2nd and a DNF next to its name
which is not very encouraging
but you notice that it has never run over hurdles before
so being enamoured by its name
you decide to put 10 pounds each way on it at 25 to 1
it is in trap 2
and when the hare comes around you are watching it wondering why
no one is allowed to bet on the hare
and as the hare passes the traps
the steel gates shoot open and all of them launch out
everyone around me is cheering for their dog to get its nose in front
but no one seems to be cheering on Everything
then I look at the race and can see why
Everything is stone last, and all the others are 6 or 7 lengths in front of it by the 2nd bend
and just as I’m thinking Everything is gonna let me down
at the last hurdle Zorba the Greek the 8/13 favourite in trap 6
who is three dog-body-lengths in front of the rest
suddenly losses his footing
stumbles
and does a sort of sideways cartwheel flipping himself up into the air
before landing back down
right on top of the chasing pack
taking all of them out
it is a kind of greyhound mosh pit soup
with greyhounds flying into the air or else falling down
and as they are all trying to get themselves back up onto their feet
work out why this had happened to them
Everything – 9 lengths behind – suddenly is upon them
all he had to do was leap over them
and he and me would be tasting victory
only while in mid-flight sailing over them
Everything took his eyes off the fence coming up and looked down
intrigued at what was happening to his fellow greyhounds
all spread out on the floor trying to get back up on their feet
as the fence suddenly loomed up
Everything smashing his turned-down head straight into it
knocking himself stone cold out
before falling to the floor
unconscious
sometimes
at 19
you can see your whole life playing itself out right in front of you
and there’s nothing you can do about it
