The Northern Sprint will return to the calendar at Sheffield this year thanks to the backing of local businessman Nic Brereton, the owner of last year’s top two-bend performer, Geelo Vegas.
The 280-metre contest will be bigger and better as the South Yorkshire track looks to attract the fastest greyhounds in training with a £4,000 first prize, twice the amount picked up by the connections of Magna Bound when it was last run in 2011.
But the 36 runners that line up for this renewal will face a sterner task with the event upped to Category Two status and going from two to three rounds, the first of which will be on Tuesday, July 21. The first three in each heat will contest the semi-finals on July 28, with the final on August 4.
That will be the highlight of a bumper 14-race open meeting on that night, with two more Category Three competitions worth £1,000 to the winner, one for pups and one for stayers, four one-off opens offering winning connections £500 and another seven with a first prize of £200.
Sheffield managing director John Gilburn commented: “We are very grateful to Nic for this generous sponsorship. He has given us his backing in the past, but this will take his involvement to a new level and we are delighted. He has told us that he wished to develop the competition into something much bigger, increasing the prizemoney each year.”
