No news was good news for Romford who made a seamless return to the open race scene on Monday night.

Ladbrokes Coral Head of Stadia Ian Smyth said: “If there was going to be any problems they were going to be before the first race; the dogs weren’t going to behave any differently. But it wall went smoothly. There weren’t a large number of external trainers and the local trainers have been operating under the system for six weeks.”

Although horse racing now has provision for upto 300 owners to attend race meetings, Ian Smyth doesn’t hold out any immediate hope that greyhound owners will be able to follow them.

He said: “I am doing everything possible and exploring all avenues but the fact remains, it terms of space, horserace courses and greyhound tracks are very different places.

“Our tracks have four different licensing authorities and each has given slightly different advice. The bottom line is, the Sports Ground Authority views us in similar terms to other spectator sports like football and as such there is nothing we can do. As soon as we given the go-ahead, we are fully prepared to have the owners back. I am hopeful for September, but I simply don’t know.”

The star of the re-opening was 575m track record holder Sparta Master with an eight length victory over course and distance.

SPARTA MASTER leads at the first bend on his way to an easy victory in heat 2 of the “Welcome Back Open Racing” stayers competition.
Romford 3rd July 2020 Photo: © Steve Nash

GOLDIES LINEKAR scores in the pups open as Romford returns to open racing (behind closed doors) Romford 3rd July 2020 Photo: © Steve Nash

AERO RACKITUP wins 400m competition heat 24.05 Romford 3rd July 2020 Photo: © Steve Nash

SIGNATURE CALLUM (t6) beating Bubbly Yolo (t1) in the 400m heats WT 23.90 Romford 3rd July 2020 Photo: © Steve Nash

BE ASSURED clocks an impressive 23.73 in heat 2 of the 400m competition for Dave Mullins Romford 3rd July 2020 Photo: © Steve Nash

First open after lockdown goes to Yarmouth-attached Paul Burr’s Rob Roy, pictured leadng at the turn in the “Like Coral on Facebook Sprint”. Romford 3rd July 2020 Photo: © Steve Nash