Doncaster have opted to drop their Saturday afternoon open race competitions – though they will continue to stage regular one-off events.
Racing manager Stephen Gray said: “So far only one of the six competitions has filled but we have already the individual opens in the Calendar for May.
“Overall the level of entry has been disappointing. Of all the trainers who originally said they wanted to run dogs in our opens, probably 10 percent have actually entered.
“It appears we are a rose between two thorns with Nottingham on a Monday and Sheffield on a Tuesday.
“Whether the divide between the two media groups has anything to do with the low number of outside entries. . . whether trainers are told not to enter. . . I just can’t say.”
The track still have vacancies for new trainers though there is no open-door policy.
Gray said: “We still have many smaller trainers here from the old tougher days and we are loyal to them. But going forward, we decided that we weren’t prepared to take on trainers with less than ten runners, or the potential to build to ten.”
Saturday’s card includes five opens and features the track champion Jet Stream Trip (Rio Quattro-Forest Mollie, Jan 16). Owned by Mick Freshwater and trainer by Paul Prior, Trip has seven wins in her last nine races, most recently in a 450m open though Saturday will provide her biggest challenge up against Marians Dream and Roxholme Poppy.
Stephen Gray said: “She was knocked over in one of her early races and it set her back a bit. But she is now the best at the track. She has a tough race on Saturday. Although she has won several race from two, she absolutely loves the inside rail.”
Look out for a bumper Easter Sunday meeting at Doncaster. It will be a real family day with a special novelty race with six appropriately jacketed trainers will be pursuing a racing official dressed as a bunny.
No – it will be Nathan not Stephen – the race might last a bit longer – Ed
