SHEFFIELD’S TOUGH 2016

Like most tracks, Sheffield struggled with footfall in 2016 with the Football European Championships, followed by the Olympics, hitting overall attendance.

GM John Gilburn said: “General attendances were down nearly 5%, though the restaurant and other bookings didn’t do so badly. Overall spend per head was up and we had a good Christmas, despite losing two major Saturday meetings, though I would rather have a smaller spend per head and more people here. The problem was all in the middle of the year with two and a half months of a big dip – we struggle particularly here because there is a big following for athletics – and of course people get out of the habit of coming racing.

“But we will carry on doing the same things this year, concentrating on value for money. We are also planning some minor refurbishment work in the exec boxes and possibly extending the restaurant. There will be some other changes on the racing side, though I am not prepared to go into them at the present.”

Elaine Parker, who finished joint 19th on the open race trainers table, with fellow Owlerton handler Barrie Draper, maintained her position as the leading graded race trainer in 2016 with 360 winners, 99 clear of Norman Melbourne. They included 95 open race winners with Mrs Parker’s Mexican Peso the most prolific of all with 12 victories.

Swift Darius (Kinloch Brae-Swift Venom, Jul 14) was easily Sheffield’s most prolific open race winner in 2016 with 17 victories from 54 starts. Russ Warren’s brindle began the year in D3 and graduated on to win A1 with a personal best of 29.07 for the 500m. If you had backed the brindle for a £10 stake every time he raced, you would have ended the year £213.50 in profit.