A £2,500 Greyhound Star Marathon is among a series of Henlow open race competitions currently before the GBGB open race planning commitee and due to be run off in the next three months.
The Bedfordshire track have curtailed their Sunday open race schedule during the winter but are asking for permission to stage the heats of the first of the events, the 550m Henlow Maiden Gold Cup, as early as Sunday February 24.
(The 2018 decider, won by Inky Holdem, featured the staying debuts of the 2018 Stayer and Marathon Greyh0unds of the Year, Bombers Bullet and Slippy Maggie).
The semis and final meetings of the maiden staying event (March 3rd and 10th) will also feature the heats and finals of the £2,500 Greyhound Star Marathon over 870m.
They are scheduled to be followed by the similarly distanced Bunny Bookmakers Gold Cup, (2018 forecast – Slippy Maggie and Saleen Ash), with provisional dates of March 17th, 24th and 31st.
The Bedfordshire Sprint (277m) is slated for April Sundays 7th, 14th and 21st. The track’s first Cat 1 of the year, the Henlow Maiden Derby, is due to get underway on April 28th with semis on May 5th and the final a week later.
The event is worth £5,000 to the winner, with significant additional cash including £1,000 to the runner-up and £500 for the other finalists.
Promoter Kevin Boothby said: “I hope GBGB will give us permission to stage the Prestige as a ‘Cat 1’ event over the 692 metres, probably in June.
“I am also hoping to have GAIN back for the (Cat 1) Puppy Derby, but hopefully we can move it to earlier in the year; August would seem ideal. That would then be followed by another Cat 1 event, the Henlow Derby, hopefully in October.
“I miss the open racing at Henlow, but I am not a big fan of the one-offs, particularly the maidens. We have a very high calibre of runner here now, and the A2 are better than the maidens, so why run them.”
Henlow recently took possession of the two tier stewards box and racing office, which have been joined onto the original judge’s box and hare control tower.
Boothby said: “We needed the room. We now have three full time racing managers and there was just no room to move. We are still bedding in, and we will shortly have the old hare tower cladded to make it look smarter alongside the new building.
“We have come on a long way in the last year. We now have five full time track staff, all working sensible 40 hour weeks. We had too many years of people working 60-70 hour weeks. It is a disaster for morale. And nobody wants a track prepared well more than me, I own over 100 dogs.
“We now have 130 greyhounds trained on site and other trainers asking for kennels if we build more. All the kennels are rent free, with no charge for electricity or water. A lot of these people were with us through the hard times.
“I was looking the other day at all the new vans on the car park and it made me smile. Some of the trainers join me for a latte, before the morning meetings. It all still seems so unreal.”
Like Barry Stanton at Central Park, Boothby has complained to BGRF following their decision to cap the number of runners paid the ‘£5 runner bonus’ at 336 at each track.
Boothby said: “It is unfair on our dogs. The Fund should treat all the dogs the same, irrespective of which track they race at. No track pays more into GBGB in special license fees than us and all the shops take our service. I have written to Coral asking them to take it up with the Fund.
“I don’t see why our trainers should miss out. I could take it out of the prize money budget but that doesn’t seem fair, so I will pay it myself. This year it will cost me an extra £30,000.”
