Swindon are about to move into the next phase of the building work for the new stadium and Director of Racing Bill Glass is warning of significant disruption in the coming months.
He said: “Basically the building moves to part of the car park and while we have plans in place, there will be some changes in procedure. The message really is – don’t assume that you know where you are going, you will have to follow the signs.
“Everything appears to be on schedule and there is a lot of positivity about the new stadium.”
Darryl Porter once again finished as Swindon’s top trainer in 2016. He has by far the biggest kennel strength and finished with 423 winners – exactly 200 more than closest rival Pete Swadden.
Bill Glass said: “Darryl does amazingly well to consistently provide so many runners – without being rude, he is way out of puppy status – and yet he still fits in time for a bit of fishing! There have been a few comments flying around about his ‘lowly’ strike rate of just 16.8%. But that is misleading; he is doubly represented in so many race, and only one of them can win.”
Kevin Hutton finished as the leading open race trainer with 26 victories, five more than local handler Paul Foster.
The leading open race winner for the year was Foster’s was Swift Europe (Makeshift-Swift Fanta, Nov 12) with 13 wins from 26 races – all over the 509m course.
The leading graded title was split six ways – also with 13 wins apiece. They were Boolamore, Wellswell Splanc, Boccas Rose, Granvgeview Mist, Barro Belle and Wi Fi. In terms of strike rate, Terry Kibble’s Boolamore (Everlast Lee-Langan Blocks, Aug 13) was exceptional, his wins coming from just 31 races.
Average open race winning times: 280m-16.46, 480m-28.80, 509m-30.19, 685m-41.90(N).
Most successful traps (in order) T6-T3-T1-T2-T4-T5
