Towcester are hoping to race on Sunday afternoons from later this month – subject to planning permission writes Floyd Amphlett.
Racing manager Chris Page said: “As things stand, we need permission to begin racing before 7pm, but given a sympathetic hearing, we should be ready to go in a couple of weeks.
“We will scrap Thursdays, which was never in our long term plans, but we needed to put them on to allow trainers to give their dogs a run.
“The idea is, we will open for Sunday lunches with racing probably starting at around 3pm.
“We are already up to 280 graded runners which will allow us to be more sparing with the opens.
“Although we will continue to run them, we might not repeat last week’s idea of running three divisions of a sprint.
“At least the opens have enabled us to qualify runners for staying races and I would be keen to run at least one graded stayer’s race per meeting almost immediately.
“Ultimately, I would like at least three a night. I also want hurdle racing as soon as possible.
“We have the Coventry hurdles but they needed alterations due to the width of the track. The Christmas delays have held us up but I am expecting them any day.
“As at Walthamstow, they will be open to any trainer who has a hurdler.
“Things are going really well. We had a trainers meeting last week. There were so many good ideas and enthusiasm. At the end of the meeting, there was a round of applause.”
