Yarmouth have upped their top staying event, the George Ings Memorial, to ‘Cat 1’ status but decided not to run with their summertime minor opens.
The 659 metre George Ing competition, worth £2,500 last year, will now carry a £7,500 first prize. The 36 runner event gets underway on Monday May 6, with the semis a week later and the final on Saturday May 18.
Final night will include a series of £300-to-winner one-offs over various distances, plus a puppy and maiden race each worth £200. All are sponsored by Quickcall.
Yarmouth promoter Simon Franklin said: “The Cranfields promised to expand the George Ing Memorial last year and they have been as good as their word. GBGB have managed to fit it in by Hove agreeing to move the Regency by a week.
“Although there will be supporting opens on final night, until the East Anglian Challenge in August, we won’t be staging any more. We simply don’t get the quality of entry due to our location.”
Franklin has confirmed that following issues with the hare last week, a major upgrade to the system is about to be implemented.
He said: “We had an inverter blow, replaced it with the back-up but that also failed. We then switched to the old system which involved changing the pressures in the tyres that pull the hare rope and we eventually started the meeting one hour and 52 minutes late. Thanks to some hard work by the racing office and track staff, we managed to get that deficit down to 29 minutes by the last race.
“In addition to buying a new inverter, we are also replacing the hare rail. Unfortunately, like so many things the trainers don’t see, that will be the guts of £25,000 that just has to be found.”
Current track champion is Erica Samuel’s Scotch Mist (Storm Control-Leezie Lindsay, Sep 16) with seven wins and two seconds from 11 starts.
The A1 regular is unbeaten in his last four with a best calculated time of 27.91 fir 462 metres.
The top stayer title appears to be between John Mullins’ Swift Dixon (Storm Control-Zaras Princess, Mar 16) with a recent S1 win in 41.16 (N) and Irene Barnard’s Swift Galloway (Paradise Madison-Swift India, Aug 16) who has S2 and S1 victories and the year’s fastest time to date, 41.10 (+30).
