Henlow have switched to their summer ‘two meetings a week’ schedule but are already pushing to ensure they don’t face a second autumn/winter runner shortage.
(Monmore have taken over the RPGTV Thursday slot, as Henlow return to a Saturday/Sunday format.)
Promoter Kevin Boothby said: “We are currently building another 50 track kennels which will be split between Jason Bloomfield and Steve Fletcher.
“Jason will have space for around 28 and Steve, who has been down to eight or eight runners a week in the old kennels, due to increase to 14/16.
“Work on the kennels has been going on for the last few weeks and we expect them to be finished in about a month. Once they have been inspected by the GBGB we should be ready to crack on.”
Boothby, who is already the track’s biggest owner with around 30 dogs on his own, or in partnerships, does not anticipate significantly increasing that number.
He said: “We have a sale coming up and I might take a couple, but I am really trying to encourage some of our existing trainers to get their numbers up again.
“Also, we plan to announce a series of category two races when we hopefully re-introduce the third meeting in September.”
Boothby also plans to open discussions with RPGTV prior to the autumn, over any future deal.
Saturday nights have fallen victim to the televised Thursday and Sunday meetings, often being reduced to eight races and comprising mainly four-runner fields.
Boothby said: “It has decimated our tote turnover which is down around 40%. Very soon we can go back to 12, or even 13 race meetings with six runners per race.”
The ease in schedule has allowed racing manager Paul Mellor to activate his annual re-grading exercise.
He said: “We have again reached the stage where most of our top heat runners are now in A4 and we need to push them up a couple of grades.
“At the bottom end of the scale, we ‘ve ended up with three different A8s which is far from ideal.
“I know some of the owners will kick-off because they think their dogs are being upgraded, so I’ll just have to wear ear-muffs for a month or so until is settles down.
“Overall we have about 130 dogs and we will continue to stage opens on a Sunday.
“Hopefully though, they will be of a little better class, and I would be surprised if we have more than between four and six, instead of stretching it with dogs who are really only good graders.”
