“Crowds are down. There is no atmosphere. The track seems to have given up” – said no one at Romford ever – writes Floyd Amphlett.

As the London Road track prepares for another Cat One double header, even GM Karen McMillan quietly concedes “it could get a bit hectic”.

And it’s nobody else’s fault!

She said: “I set out with a strategy for the whole year and it has gone a bit better than I dared hope to be honest. We’ve had solid 800-900 here every Friday and 1,100 every Saturday night.”

The resturant is booked out every Friday and Saturday and bookings are coming in earlier and earlier.

She said: “We’ve noticed that a lot of the Saturday diners pre-book ahead on the website for the following week while they are still here. Technically, we can squeeze 180 into the restaurant, though some of those tables of four will be for two people so a realistic figure is 160, with 90 in the Pavilion.

“It’s funny, sometimes when I am due to go out socially with friends they say ‘we’ll book the restaurant closer to the time’ and my first thought is ‘you wouldn’t be doing that at Romford’.

“Last Saturday morning one of the trainers asked if I could squeeze one of the owners in for that night. I told him the only way was if they brought their own table and chairs and were prepared to sit on the terraces.”

But it isn’t just late night racing.

Karen said: “We have set aside Thursday afternoon for the OAPs. We put on afternoon teas at £15 a head and get 60-70 turn up. It isn’t a big earner but we are racing anyway, and by the time a few of them have had a drink and a bet on the tote, it is worth doing. The Kids Club on A Saturday, where the local youngsters can get close to the dogs has gone really well too. One week recently we had 54 here.

“We spent a lot of money on a refurb of the Pavilion last year but it is really paying off. We are getting more events, inlcuding a lot more ones, being booked. We’ve had quite a few wakes, christenings, and although I am not particularly keen on them, the occasional stag do. We have one in June for 90 people. The whole private hire thing has gone really well as have the party deals.

“One of the other bonuses of the private hire is that it has introduced new people to the sport and some have gone on to become owners.”

So how have you done it?

“We did a small offer on Group-On which worked very well. We have a great relationship with our local newspaper the Romford Recorder, but an awful lot of business is generated on social media platforms. Even if I say so myself we are pretty good at it.

“We have events organised throughout the year, any kind of occasion and we’ll create something around it. One of the next big ones in the Coronation. As far as the catering is concerned, we make sure there is always more than enough food and we change the restaurant menu every three months to stop diners getting bored.”

 

The post Covid ‘return to work’ has seen national animal charities inundated with pets being returned and that squeeze has also affected greyhound racing.

Karen said: “We have had a particular problem with the Dunton kennel closing meaning we have had to move some dogs around. At the moment, I believe we have 43 greyhounds ready to be re-homed, in other words, neutered, teeth and feet done and assessed as suitable. There are others in the system but not quite ready yet.

“A couple of the trainers have retirement sections on their websites and we are just helping Gemma Evans do something similar for hers.”

Despite her best efforts, the GM feels there is a long way to go to educate the public about greyhound racing and greyhound welfare.

She said: “It sounds unbelievable, but I sometimes I get asked, ‘how many times do they run in one night?’ I was even asked recently, ‘why did that dog run from trap one in the first race and then from trap three in the next?'”

Work to be done indeed, and no finer woman for the task . . . . .