Harlow racing manager Mark Schellenberg spends most Saturday afternoons praying to St. Ayrton, the patron saint of motoring, hoping Anne Kirby’s vehicles won’t break down.
The track has a racing strength of 85 greyhounds which the Harlow grader tries to weave into two racecards. On Friday he has eight five-runner races. On Saturday the remaining 45 runners are split equally over nine races. Anne Kirby has 15 of the 45 runners, including 60% of the runners in three different races.
Schellenberg said: “Every dog gets a run. We didn’t have any open entries again this week. We used to phone Ernie Gaskin if we were one or two short, but you can’t really do it when you are six short.
“Anne isn’t actually our biggest trainer, James Daly is. Anne has 15 runners, James has 20. But James is here Friday and Saturday; Anne is at Mildenhall on Friday.
“Friday night’s attendance is very average, but Saturdays are good with decent numbers through the door.
“It has been suggested that we could stage one bumper card on a Saturday with 14 races and drop the Friday. But that wouldn’t work either because some of our trainers are committed to Sittingbourne or Yarmouth on Saturdays.
“I just hope that we don’t lose either James or Anne because at that stage I don’t know what we would do.”
