If ‘innovation’ is the current buzz board, then nobody represents it better than Central Park. The Kent venue, who recently introduced handicap racing are waiting delivery of a set of eight-dog traps.
Spokesman Barry Stanton said: “We are not proposing at this stage to run eight dog races but we want to be ready for any opportunities that may present themselves in the future.  Handicap races are proving to be popular with our customers and most meetings we try and put two on”
The track are also looking to expand their hurdle options.
Stanton continued: “The hurdles are being given a make over by Jeff Sealey in readiness for the Grand National later in the year. We have also introduce conditional hurdle races into the calendar restricted to hurdlers that either are open maidens or have only one, two or three race wins to try and encourage interest in hurdle racing.
“We did this after the Springbok to encourage those connections who had entered the Springbok to carry on hurdling but to date it has not generated the interest we had hoped.”
The recent expansion of the training ranks has increased the local the kennel strength to a point that it can now support four meetings per week. The timing was impeccable with the news that Belle Vue was dropping out of RPGTV Thursday coverage. Central Park slot in from July 6

The track are planning 20th anniversary celebrations in November – more details closer to the time.

Dan Homewood from Wimbledon has settled in very well and is working closely with Andy Clayson and Julie Wilson.

Stanton said: “Dan will be a real asset in the racing office now that we have four meetings a week to deal with. His grading skills are there to be seen and it won’t be long before he’s in the grading chair pulling together a full meeting for us.”