Rose Draper assistant trainer at father Barrie Draper’s kennels who have a longstanding history with Sheffield stadium has arranged something a little bit extra and fun for the forthcoming Steel City Cup Final night. An end of meeting ‘Human Handicap’ race will send patrons home with smiles on their faces as six track regulars put their dignity on the line by lining up to take part.
Track racing manager Andrew Mascarenhas has been designated the scratch runner with a 500m start pencilled in. Matthew Hamilton is venue director at the stadium and also a trustee at Sheffield Retired Greyhounds is set to start 20m further forward at the 480m start with him being described by one local as a ‘dark horse’. Connor Davy will be representing his father Sean’s kennel and is set to get moving from a first bend position whilst regular charity fund raiser Billy Brennan has been allotted a position at the second bend. Popular Sporty Stuff TV presenter Dani Jackson will be taking off like a rocket from the 280m sprint boxes whilst commentator Rob Crawford will be strutting his stuff from somewhere around the 660m start.
Human handicaps of course have been seen on tracks previously. A two runner affair at Newcastle saw the tracks general manager Ian Walton come from way back to land the spoils whilst Mark Pierrepont’s supporters infamously landed a huge gamble on Eclipse Final night at Nottingham back in 2018 with his early morning odds of 14/1 smashed down to 4/6 by the time the hare was set in motion. The result was a facile front running victory.
The event is all in a good cause however with all money raised to be donated to Sheffield Retired Greyhounds. Rose Draper said “We’ve been planning this for a little while we thought it would be a good fun way to end what should be a great evening whilst also raising funds for a great cause. Thank you to everybody who has pledged to run on the night and I’m sure there might be a fun bet or two to be had and much banter amongst the crowd and participants’.
Any donation however small or large will be appreciated and can be done so via the following link https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-sheffield-retired-greyhounds-rcn-1204143?utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer
