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Okay, I’m not into greyhound racing, but 156 fixtures sounds excessive to me given the number of stadiums we’ve seen close over recent years. Yet they’ve sold of 7 of their horse racing fixtures including the Boxing Day one. They only have 10 fixtures left. Surely they could have considered running both horse and hound fixtures on the same days? I assume the greyhound track will be floodlit so why not run the race fixtures in the afternoon as normal – which in the depth of winter will finish by 2-2.30pm and then run the greyhounds in the late afternoon/early evening.
I have absolutely no idea why Towcester have done this. You can get as much money as you like from selling your fixtures, but at some point you cease to be a racecourse.
At just ten fixtures for 2015, are they planning to add new days at some point or will they just become a big field with a dog track?
They will have a long-term plan in mind here but I am bemused as to what it is.
Mike
So the bha insist that these sold fixtures must remain jump meetings next year…what the betting that come 2016 they will morph into flat fixtures and end up in the sand pit at Newcastle?
Is it that much cheaper to stage a greyhound meeting? I have only been to a couple of local greyhound tracks and occasionally watch a bit of the Sky coverage. It seems as if there are a very small number of bookmakers and crowds are not exactly big. Are they bigger than horse racing, do they make that much more on the catering?
I am sure we all have preferred tracks. Personally, I would like Towcester to keep its jumps fixture but would happily see the back of Flat racing at the likes of Chepstow/Ffos Las and jump racing at Musselburgh.
It’s probably cheaper to put on greyhound meetings when the stands, bars and kennels area have all recently been rebuilt with the help of grants and/or interest free loans from the Levy Board.
But quite how they hope to make the dog racing pay once the initial curiosity factor fades away is a mystery. The recent history of Coventry, opened with a similar fanfare and promise of top class racing and facilities, now reduced to running flapping meetings, seems to have been ignored.
I doubt Towcester will get people travelling miles for dog racing unlike people would for the horses and it’s hardly got a massive catchment area crying out for dog racing so the whole thing is baffling
Is there a chance that the racecourse land could potentially be used for development (houses etc…).
EDITED:-
Considering that there used to be dog tracks at both Bletchley and Milton Keynes, not so long ago, both closed down, I really don’t think they will get many people through the turnstiles. I go to Henlow maybe twice a year, but I really find dog racing rather dreary and if anything even more unpredictable than horses.
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highwaysSomething fishy here they have sold them to ARC.
I will be willing to bet ARC put up an offer to buy Towcester shortly, this is just a way of saying "come and buy us" without officially saying it.
Interesting in one article I read that ARC cannot convert them to all weather as the BHA won’t allow the jumps to be changed.
One possible explanation of how this makes financial sense is that Towcester are selling the media rights to their dog racing abroad, specifically the Far East and Australia. And that the sums involved more than make up for the loss of horseracing income and the fact that the dog racing will take place with almost no spectators other than the owners and at times designed to suit that overseas market.
Which presumably is why they can’t do dog racing and horse racing on the same day, because the dog racing won’t be in the evening.
Oh and they will be running 8 dog races, also specifically to suit that market.
Or so I’m told ……
Time will tell whether the dog track catches on. It may. There again it could be a nine-day wonder. The media rights deal for coverage overseas is clearly the key focus. But as a horse racing lover and visitor to Towcester for about 40 years I find the move sad, and just hope it doesn’t mean the complete demise of the track for the sport. The free admission has pulled in huge crowds. Even when there’s been a £10 charge the crowds have been good – testament to the atmosphere of the place and the challenge of the course. So, let’s hope this is just a temporary diminution of fixtures and more can be restored to the list by 2016. It would be nice to be reassured the management aren’t so bowled over by the dogs that they forget the core appeal of the place.
Maybe there’s a BAGS contract in the offing?
There’s clearly something going on in the background. As others have pointed out, the litany of closed tracks attests to dog racing being difficult/impossible to make pay on a customer-only basis even in a metropolis.
Mike
Hi Alan
interesting.
best i know the only regular greyhound racing in Asia is at the Canidrome in Macau, where they have 18 races a night other than Wednesday [when there’s night horse racing in HK] and Friday [ditto in Macau itself].
September’s cards can be viewed here:
http://www.macauyydog.com/schedule/calendar.php
they don’t offer an english version of the site, and i didn’t think they were exactly coining it in, any more than is the limping-along Macau Jockey Club.
i’m not aware that Macau dogs simulcasts anywhere, other than to the members-only Macau Jockey Club in HK.
with HK/Macau eight hours ahead of the UK (seven during summer), Towcester would be going head-to-head with Macau dogs if the UK dogs started at noon UK time.
if they started at 19:30 UK time, that would be 03:30 in the Far East so understandable that Towcester wouldn’t race at night.
Towcester would need to start racing at 04:00 UK time if it was to supply betting opportunities to lunchtime punters in the Far East.
Looks like Doncaster and Sedgefield are taking on the races from Towcester.
The curious thing is that seven of the eight they have sold were their highest attended meetings in 2013.
Suicide to sell your highest attended meetings or a hope that people will now attend the rest and bolster attendances?
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