Towcester have plans to stage a one-off kennel championship every month worth £500 to the winner, and with all the prestige an owner could ever dream of.
The precursor will be staged on Saturday night when six local runners who fell short on their journey to the big Wimbledon showpiece, take their place in the £500 invitation event, the 480m Towcester Derby Plate.
Towcester racing manager Chris Page is hoping to stage a race of at least equal calibre on the last Saturday of every month.
He said: “There were 51 Towcester runners in the Derby, and we thought it would be an idea to invite six of them to a one-off at their home track.
“But following a conversation with Floyd Amphlett about a concept he ha always wanted to see staged, we have decided to try to turn the event into a monthly kennel championship to crown our local champion.
“It will be called the Greyhound Star On Line Towcester Kennel Championship to be contested by the best six greyhounds at the track who are available and willing to compete.
“There will be a minimum of £500 to the winner, £100 to the second and £50 for the others. We also plan a presentation, a photograph in the racecard of the winner for the duration of the month and even a special parade coat to be worn by the track champion on every occasion that he races during that month; a bit like the yellow jersey in cycling.
“No one racing here will be unaware of the track champion and hopefully he or she will return a month later to defend their title. I hope the owners and trainers embrace the concept and I anticipate there being a great deal of local pride at stake.
“I remember discussing the idea with Floyd many years ago when I was at Walthamstow, but it was so hard to introduce new ideas there. It is so much easier at Towcester.
“We will probably run the first couple as invitation events, as some of the potential entries may not have enough local form to qualify for a graded race, but if it works, they could simply become kennel championships.
“The thing is, we have so many top class dogs attached to the track, but they are often off open racing elsewhere. It would be a great spectacle from a racing and betting perspective.”
Saturday’s race is a cracker in its own right with five of the six runners boasting sub 28.30 form including recent 27.91 (calc) winner Ashburton Lark.
But with Mark Lowther having recently purchased Coolavanny Jap and Seamus Gaughan’s Barefoot Apollo having clocked 28.25 in Wednesday’s trial sessions, there would be no potential shortage of quality.
