As Towcester plan ahead to expand into the corporate market, they may take some heart from the experience of Sheffield who opened their new £6m conference centre and executive suite facility last November.
Utilising the new and existing facilities, the venue can now cater for up to 1,020 people on a food package (restaurant, VIP and executive boxes) PLUS a further 800 on Six-Pack and all have been given a rattle over the Christmas period.
Venue Director Dave Perry said: “It has gone really well over Christmas and New Year. The weekends were virtually full and the bookings are now coming in for midweek.”
With a full year now to plan for, the Owlerton team have a wide variety of activities and functions lined up.
Perry said: “We have already started on the weddings which are proving very popular. We also have wedding and conference showcases planned, to show what we have on offer. Among the bigger functions are some sporting dinners with speakers such as Bruce Grobbelaar and Ian Botham due to attend. We have some K1 fights in the diary but the big opportunity is in charity evenings.”
So has there been any resistance from charities about coming to a greyhound track?
Perry said: “Yes, there have been a few attempts from antis getting onto sponsors but we send all our bookings a copy of the Greyhound Commitment. To be honest, it is something that this industry has been very bad at doing, defending our corner.
“But we will have a lot of people here during the year, for various activities, and we will be highlighting our welfare record.”
Sheffield racegoers welcome the remarkable Shotgun Slade (Kinloch Brae-Bread Head, Oct 13) back to the racecard on Thursday night.
The Jamie Smith trained black, who was off the strength with kennel cough is due to contest the 245th race of his career. He arrived at the track in the summer of 2015, and although now in A8, he reached A1 company at his peak.
Jamie said: “He still loves his racing and gets excited when he goes to the track. He is looking after himself a bit these days, but if he gets any kind of run at the bend, he can still do a decent time. He has never had a serious injury and we’ll keep him going as long as he is enjoying it.”
The Smiths have a long reputation for durable hounds, normally with the ‘Stepaside’ prefix. In recent times ‘Stepaside’ littermates Bigjak and Glenis both came close to 200 races. Stepaside Lucas is due to contest his 182nd outing later this week.
