Sheffield have launched probably the swishest website in the business. The homepage features an impressive time-lapse video showing the buzz of the stadium during a typical meeting.
GM John Gilburn said: “I looked at our website and I realised that I couldn’t find my way around it, so what chance did the customer have? The rebuilt site is a lot simpler to navigate but still offers all the information that the customers are looking for – including racing information.
“I think it is important to remember the different type of customers that we attract to the stadium and the website attempts to cater for everyone. Even something as simple as booking a table can get too complex if you are not careful. Hopefully we have addressed that.”
Gilburn reports ‘virtually full’ bookings in the restaurant in recent weeks, despite the Euro 2016 football.
He said: “We knocked a fiver off the deals and got the bookings in before most people realised that there might have been a football clash. Footfall has understandably been down, and now we have the Olympics to take on, but that is the nature of the business so we are planning to announce a complete rebranding in the near future.”
Although they are not yet shown in the GBGB Calendar, the track have increased the winner’s prize in their opens to £200 and also-ran money is up by a fiver to £45.
Gilburn said: “We used the streaming money to increase graded prize money and decided that we should also do something similar with the open racers if we want to continue to attract the best dogs. Our also-ran money is now among the best, with the exception of a couple of the bookmaker owned tracks.”
As expected, Elaine Parker leads both the 2016 graded and open race tables by 50 and 15 winners respectively, from Barrie Draper on each occasion.
The most prolific open race winner is Walshes Hill with six wins from his nine races to date.
Lisa Stephenson’s Ballycowen Colm (Head Bound-Ballycowen Sal, Apr 14) has been the track’s outstanding performer this year. His 21 races have resulted in 10 wins and six second places.
Also on 10 wins: Rashers Legend (29 races), Swift Darius (28 races)
