With the Summer Stayers Festival out of the way, Ladbrokes head of stadia Richard Brankley can look back on a financially successful first half of the year.
He said: “Both tracks (Monmore and Crayford) have done pretty well to date, slightly ahead of last year. While we always look to progress, I think our key objective will always be stability. We need consistent racing with everyone confident in terms of the quality of the product, and as far as the owners and trainers are concerned, that their interest and livelihoods are safe.
“We are faced with the same pressures as the other tracks in terms of runner shortages and thankfully the model we put in place for both tracks appears to be working. We did a study at Monmore on the optimum racing strength and calculated that the number of runners required for a week needs to be around 80% of the total kennel strength.
“By taking on Katie O’Flaherty at Crayford, and two trainers to replace Chris Allsopp at Monmore, we have achieved that. Crayford’s strength is 431 and Monmore’s is 400 for its four meetings. Even from our comparatively strong position, I think there is cause for concern going forward for the industry. There is a shortage of young trainers coming through and there is little sign that that is being addressed.
“I think Henlow are showing the way forward by building their own track kennels. I can see others following suit. It seems to me that greyhound racing is going full circle from how things were many years ago.
“Our next big event at Monmore is the Gold Cup, with supporting competitions, in August and we should start to see potential entries appearing in our opens in the coming weeks.”
