Poole racing manager Ian Sillence is looking forward to the return of BAGS racing at the track with regular Saturday afternoons from early November.
He said: “The extra meeting puts a slight strain on the race strength but it is nothing we haven’t dealt with before. We have 280 dogs on the strength and will probably reduce the Tuesday card from twelve to ten races and knock the Saturday evening cards back by three races.
“The biggest problem is wide runners. The other day I had thirty A3 dogs ready to grade and only two were wide seeds. What is a bit annoying is that some of them run perfectly straight from the outside boxes but the trainers insist that they don’t want them to run from there. Most of our wide runners could get a race every meeting if they wanted it.”
In the meantime, the track are looking forward to hosting the penultimate leg of the BAGS/SIS Track Championship (Southern) leg on Bonfire Night.
Sillence said: “We started off okay at Crayford with three winners but had an absolute nightmare at Romford, we didn’t beat a single dog until the last heat. This competition gets tougher every year but I do enjoy it. Anyway, we’ve won three heats so far, and Hove have only won two!”
Best Ace, Sister Bluebell and Slanan Angel are tied as the leading winners at the track this year with 10 victories apiece. Of those, it is Alma Keppie’s Sister Bluebell (Droopys Scolari-Droopys Athena, Jun 13) who comes out with the best strike rate having only been to traps on 27 occasions.
