Racing Manager Andrew Mascarenhas expects the eventual arrival of Sean Parker to coincide with Sheffield returning to their full racing programme.
He said: “Sean will be joining us from Doncaster in December. I am tempted to say ‘returning’ but of course his mum Elaine had the licence here previously.
“Our current kennel strength is 337, which is just about ideal if we fill four opens every week. But we’ve been down to 14 races on a Saturday when I would ideally like 16.
“We have also seen the Friday cards reduced to ten races, when we need them to return to twelve or even fourteen to bring back the on-line service. Sean has between 40-50 runners which should more than cover it.”
Elaine said: “We’ve had a fantastic time at Doncaster. We went through an awful lot of stress when Mick was taken ill and the track were fantastic, I cannot praise them enough.
“But ultimately this comes down to money. We have lost an awful lot of money in the last year, starting with the lock-down for Covid, but I kept all five staff on, even if it was a few less hours. But in recent times the money at Sheffield has gone up massively, the benefits for the trainers and prize money, and we had to make a decision. I explained it to Robert at Doncaster who was very good about it, but the decision has been made.”
Elaine plans to supplement the racing strength with some more home bred pups in the coming months.
She said: “We have the next litter out of Barnside Millie schooling. They are by Dorotas Wildcat and look a good strong litter. We also have Russanda Roslea waiting to break down in Ireland with Richard Culley. She had a good first litter by Aero Majestic and the plan is for her to be mated to Grangeview Ten.”
On the subject of open racing, the grader was delighted to report that Bandicoot Sammy fully vindicated the decision of connections and the racing office to change his seeding.
Ken Dobson’s runner had run from trap six in his previous three outings, but drew trap one on Tuesday night. The 5-6 favourite duly landed the odds when taking the 500m open in 29.06.
Andrew said: “There was a lot of chatter on social media that we had allowed a wide runner to switch to the rails. That was incorrect. He was a middle seed who had unfortunately drawn six in his previous races (two of which he won). I wasn’t in the racing office when the decision was made, but they suggested to the trainer that the dog had moved strongly across, and they were confident that he would run better from the inside.
“They were proved correct and Sammy ran in a straight line to the bend.”
