Yarmouth have lost two sponsors this year but the main event, the East Anglian Derby WILL go ahead.
The George Ing St.Leger, sponsored by local owner Jack Cranfield, via his Quickcall property maintenace company, had been due to take place at the end of March. It appeared in the GBGB’s ‘2023 Calendar of Events’, published last year, but was never actually advertised in the main Calendar.
Promoter Simon Franklin said: “Jack was in touch at the start of the year and explained that for various business reasons, he wouldn’t be able to go ahead in March. But he remains committed to the race and plans to stage it again next year.
“Bresbet have also been in touch to say that they won’t be sponsoring the Derby again this year. But another company with a national profile have stepped in. I hope to be able to make a full announcement very shortly.”
The logjam caused by the surplus of pet dogs flooding into re-homing centres following the pandemic was highlighted on this site by Stan Kennett last week. No track is immune to the issue, least of all, Yarmouth.
Simon said: “We are probably 40 dogs short of the ideal racing strength but most of that is down to trainers not being able to take in more dogs. Among our locals, Roland Samuels has just built a new kennel to cater for 16 retired dogs. I believe Pam Cross has somewhere between 24 and 28 retireds that she is looking after. The majority of the kennels are having to deal with it.
“We have even seen it with the track homefinding scheme. Typically, we expect to home, give or take, around 100 dogs a year through the scheme. The record was 120. Last year we only re-homed 65.”
Yarmouth expect to unveil a whole new new track lighting arrangement by the end of June.
Simon said: “It won’t be quite as stunning as ARC’s (at Central Park), which I believe cost somewhere over £200K. We will be using a smaller manufacturer but it will still cost in the region of £70-£80K, and should make a considerable difference.”
