A week into his new job, Gary Matthews reckons his Sittingbourne role will prove tougher than grading at Wimbledon. The Wimbledon RM graded his first Sittingbourne meetings last week and all went well. But he has observed some distinct differences between the two circuits.
He said: “There are a couple of things. Firstly the shortage of runners actually makes grading at Wimbledon comparatively easy. This week we had 86 dogs available for one 12-race meeting so I can grade a card in about 15 minutes.
“Secondly, Sittingbourne is a very forgiving circuit on the bends so the dogs need to be graded very closely to keep races competitive. I would also like to integrate some of the grades. I think A1-A10 is too wide a stretch.”
Matthews is planning to introduce opens at Wimbledon within the next month as he plans ahead to the track returning to two meetings per week from September.
He said: “We will bring them back on Saturdays as an introduction with the plan to switch them to Thursdays for full open race cards from September 1 when we switch to RPGTV.”
Matthews believes that the modern trend, with minimal midweek racing, has made life more difficult for racing managers.
He said: “You can’t run the same dogs both nights when you race Friday and Saturday and at Sittingbourne this week we had 35 dogs left over. Tracks who have an RPGTV meeting on a Tuesday or Wednesday are able to accommodate those dogs who didn’t get a run.”
