The contracts were finally signed at Lifford Stadium on Monday this week – with a planned opening date of Sunday March 6 2022 – writes Floyd Amphett.
Lifford track images & videos Josh Sealey
The new owners are the newly formed The Lifford Greyhound Racing Club (Canaradzo Ltd); a syndicate with well in excess of a hundred years of greyhound racing experience between them.
Best known, and the driving force behind the plan is greyhound enthusiast Harry Findlay.
He said: “There has been such incredible enthusiasm from greyhound community in the north of Ireland, I’d especially like to thank Cathal Magee , Sean White, Tony Maxwell, Ruiri Doherty and Eamon Shiels.
“Many, of the shareholders were at Monday’s meeting and those who hadn’t been to the venue for a while were astounded to see how much work had already been done.
L to R. Cathal Magee, Paul Lawrence, Sean White, Harry Findaly, and Tony Maxwell.
“It would have been impossible to put the syndicate together or to do the deal without the U.K. Totes full support and they will be running all our pools with a 10% retention on every market both on course at Lifford and on www.tote.co.u.k.
“In the last 15 months, their CEO Alex Frost has completely transformed the company into the best betting value option anywhere in the tote world.
“It now bets to an average 6% takeout on all U.K. horse racing at tote.co.uk and I believe the Lifford model will be the ideal way to show how low margins really work.
“In terms of the facility itself, the new sand will be delivered next week and with a settling in period of two months we will be trialling by mid January.
“Some of the best kennels and breeders in Ireland are based in this region. We already have some major sponsors lined up and I don’t think it will be long before we have some high class open racing on a Sunday evening.
“Ger Dollard has now left the GRI but I’d like to thank him not only for the license but for his active assistance in driving this through.
“We look forward to working with the new GRI board going forward and fully intend to repay their confidence and support.”
