New Ladbroke Coral head of racing Ian Smyth admits to feeling a little cursed following decimation of Crayford’s Tuesday night card by two accidents on the M25, including the overnight closure of the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge on the Dartford crossing.
Ian Stevens, Jim Reynolds, Dean Childs and Mark Fenwick all failed to reach the track for kenneling which results in one race being returned as a ‘walk over’ for the single runner Protocol.
There was an exciting two-dog buckle where Said And Done (4-6f), got the better of Cronody One (1-1) by a head. There were three 3-dog races and four 4-dog contests.
Smyth said: “Basically anybody trying to come from Essex was caught up in it. Jim Daly switched to using the Blackwall Tunnel and it took him five hours. But because the hold ups were both ways, even traffic heading through Kent was held up. The tailback was at least five or six miles.”
It has been a tough three months for Smyth who inherited major building works issues at Romford and Hove, saw the Gold Cup fail to fill at Monmore and recently lost two senior trainers from Crayford.
He said: “You can only put Tuesday night down to bad luck. Now I’m just waiting for a plague of locusts.”
