“Looking back, I would say that the upgrades that were made to the circuit last September, had a far bigger impact on racing than changing sides.”
Like all the Romford staff, racing manager Mark Arkell is anxiously looking forward to the opening of the new grandstand on Friday September 6.
The building is currently being fitted out, the bars are due to be stock today, with only the carparks behind schedule, though regulars will will probably see huge advances even within the last two or three days, according to the grader.
It will be two weeks on Friday since the track re-opened with the first 400 metre race staged from the old 575 metre boxes and vice versa. Punters looking for an edge following the switch might seem disappointed. The fact that four 400 metre opens were won in sub-24.00 times on Friday was misleading according to Arkell.
He said: “The track was just running quite fast. It was a warm evening and there were also some very fast dogs running, I thought the two Newcastle puppies (Droopys Carat, Droopys Reel) in particular, ran well.
“Overall, there has been very little difference in how the dogs are running the track. If I had to choose, I would say that the 400 metre dogs might be running the new first bend even slightly better than the old one.
“Of the graded dogs, there have been a handful that have show marginal changes in how they have taken to the change. But that has worked both ways, some moving in, some taking a more middle course. I have had to upgrade some dogs without a win, but there are also a few who are taking a few races to adapt.
“The only graded runner who I have deliberately changed the seeding for is Bonville Tequilla, who was ‘absolute trap one dog’ on the opposite side but now looks happier with a middle draw.
“I would have to say that the biggest change came when the track was dug up and relaid with new drainage a year ago.It is a very different circuit now. It takes so much water. The new drainage is so efficient that we are having to water between races.
“But it is running so much better and is more consistent. We were always at the mercy of the weather to keep the track in good condition and without a bias. There has also been a reduction in the number of injuries.”
The big night will feature a 16 race card. In addition to the Coral Champion Stakes Final and heats of the TV Trophy, there will be seven £750 invitation races, plus a couple of £1,000 competition finals, which get underway this week.
Mark said: “It will be a 16 race card, which is what we ran last week. We have 100 racing kennels so we are limited to 16 races with four reserves. We probably had enough entries last week for 20 opens.
“Going forward, the plan will be for 16 races every Friday and 15 every Saturday with the last race at 10.30pm. Our ideal kennel strength is between 500-510 and we currently have 491. I think a few owners were a bit hesitant when all the work started, but the number is building.
“We would never want much above 510; at one stage we had nearly 530 dogs available but quite a number of them weren’t getting enough races.”
Negatives have been few in the whole process to date, though there have inevitably been glitches. Reader James Doyle wrote