Towcester promoter Kevin Boothby has announced plans to allow crowds into the stadium and the return of Saturday night racing from September.
He said: “We have plans in place to allow customers to watch the racing, from inside the stadium buildings, from Sunday September 6. They will need to be pre-booked and socially distanced in the restaurants or boxes. The new Indian restaurant on the second floor of the smaller stand will also be opening. We will also have three marquees, all serving hog roast, and each maquee will have its own portaloos.
“The Saturday meetings will commence on Saturday September 19 and I am looking for sponsors for ten open races at £1,000 per race. They will operate under the same rules and restrictions as the Sundays, but I am confident that we can still cater for 850-900 people.”
The Saturday meetings will not form part of the betting shop service, but will be available to view through the previously hugely popular Towcester TV internet channel.
Boothby has reached an agreement with the brains behind the HD service, Steve Katz, who is promising an even more exciting and innovative service.
Boothby said: “We have a number of options open to us with Towcester TV which will initially be free to view. It will be a gradual build but there are all sorts of options open to us. If the owners and trainers support us in the way that they are promising, I am confident that we can produce the quality of racing that we talked about before lock down.
“If that happens, and I am determined that it will, I can imagine there being a huge demand for it from the betting companies. I understand that the betting shop figures for our Sunday racing are exceptional.”
Maintenance work is well underway to get the facility back to its former glory. Within the coming months, there will be a new fence to protect the track and Astroturf is to be laid to produce a better visual spectacle. The track lighting is being further improved with a £150K refit from the American manufacturers and the track recently took possession of a new modern Racetech totalisator system.
Boothby said: “The lighting was under warranty from Cree International in America and I can’t speak high enough of them. Not only are the replacing the lights with the most updated version, they are even giving us a labour cost to get them fitted.”
Away from the track, Boothby has reached various commercial agreements for use of the site. Among the most interesting are those which will allow for camping, caravan and on-site lodges for ‘staycations’. When fully implemented, the site will offer weekend accommodation for approximately 2,500 visitors.
