Greyhounds
There is currently 1 person viewing this thread.
press release at 3.00 today
sort by:
Show
per page
Replies: 147
|
By:
christ
 |
|
By:
no more crayford golden jacket riddler be gutted
|
|
By:
It is no longer viable for us to continue operating the site' - Entain announce intention to close Crayford greyhound stadium after 38 years
Crayford Stadium: facing closure Crayford Stadium: facing closure Credit: Steve Nash Entain on Wednesday announced that it intends to close Crayford Stadium, ending 38 years of greyhound racing at the track since it opened on its present site in place of the previously closed Crayford & Bexleyheath, which first saw racing in 1932 and was shut by Ladbrokes in 1985. The news was revealed by Entain UK communications director Simon Clare. He said: “We are saddened to announce the intended closure of the Crayford greyhound track. “We have been exploring various avenues to avoid this decision for some time but, ultimately, it is no longer viable for us to continue operating the site. “The dwindling support for the venue has led to insufficient trainer interest to fulfil our schedules, fewer competitive racedays and, therefore, lower attendance which has sadly driven our decision to close." As an illustration as to the challenge Crayford has been facing, Clare said: “Only 18 per cent of races at Crayford this season have been six-dog races, substantially below the 90 per cent target.” He continued: “Ladbrokes have a long history in greyhound racing, helping to build and open the Crayford venue in 1986, so the decision has not been taken lightly. “Impacted colleagues have been informed of our intention to close the track and we will shortly commence individual consultations with colleagues to discuss the support/options available to them. “We will also continue to support all trainers impacted by the disruption and hope that many of them will continue to race their dogs at other UK greyhound tracks. “We remain committed to the highest levels of animal welfare. As such, every affected greyhound will be cared for through an enhanced investment and rehoming strategy. “We are looking to expand our infrastructure to rehome dogs, develop new rehoming partnerships in the UK, the US and Canada and support trainer and greyhound transition to other tracks in the UK." Entain already has positive news about rehoming affected greyhounds, with Clare adding: “We have already found homes for 14 dogs in the US via our new initiative there.” Clare confirmed that Entain’s other tracks are not under threat, stating: “We will continue to fulfil the current fixture schedule at our remaining tracks at Romford, Hove and Monmore.” Crayford packs them in for the Golden Jacket final in February this year Crayford packs them in for the Golden Jacket final in February this year Credit: Steve Nash He said Crayford trainers would be allocated positions where possible, but also stated that it was too soon to know whether the track might be sold as a going concern. He added: “We have to go through the consultation periods with all the staff first.” Crayford’s premier event is the Golden Jacket, a competition originally at Harringay, and it was won by stars such as Glin Bridge in 1976, Keem Rocket (1985), Chicita Banana (1990) and Bellmore Sally, the last to do the Jacket double (2022-23), following in the footsteps of Bobs Regan (1991-92) and Wexford Minx (1993-94). Barring an unexpected reprieve of the track, Rick Holloway’s Dazl Rolex will go down in history as the final winner of the 714m event this year. The news may also signal the end of the road for hurdle racing, with the track almost the sole bastion for jumpers and the Grand National taking place there on Sunday, although Hove still has its hurdle wings in place and until recently was staging jump racing. |
|
By:
the laugh about that statement is the paragraph which says.....“The dwindling support for the venue has led to insufficient trainer interest to fulfil our schedules, fewer competitive racedays and, therefore, lower attendance which has sadly driven our decision to close."......they have chosen to stop all the meetings people wanted to attend and changed race start times to make it almost impossible for working people to have enough time to make the start of a meeting.....it is not a shock but the reasons are bullsh1te.....
|
|
By:
exactly winja
culling the sat night meeting to save what dogs they had for a glut of other meetings how many times has it been said on here what total bs this business "strategy" is |
|
By:
its their insatiable desire to feed the betting shops which has driven the stupid decisions they have made.....put on a saturday night and a monday night both with 7.30 starts by getting rid of two bags meetings and they would soon see attendances improve beyond their comprehension....i would not be surprised if Sainsburys have made them an offer they cant refuse.....just like when catford went to the GRA.....never interested in the sport itself...
|
|
By:
Be surprised if Sainsbury have made any offer. That land has to be a leisure facility. A few on the local council have said change of use for it is next to impossible…
|
|
By:
It’s outrageous
But not shocking ****g circus running this sport truly are |
|
By:
isn't it just
|
|
By:
O2 been down here had no signal all day if u have msg
|
|
By:
A great shame to lose a track which at least managed to put on plenty of variety at certain meetings. One of our better tracks in my view.
|
|
By:
danny raiment said a few weeks ago, losing the sat morn and night meetings has not helped
|
|
By:
omly entain know why they took away the sat morning meeting and give to monmore only they know
|
|
By:
As soon as PGR released there schedule for this year after Entain were known to be switching from SIS it struck me Crayfoed was being sacrificed in negotiations to secure the Saturday night slots and Romford Fridays for the other three tracks. Does't explain why they took away Saturday mornings other than maybe they were forced to take a Sunday night slot somewhere to get what they wanted.The great thing about Crayford was variety, the only track where I would follow an entire graded card. If someone were to take it on i guess they could get an SIS contract assuming PGR/Entain couldn't block that as part of a deal, Pelaw was presumably mid contract,so there maybe a glimmer of hope. The flat completions will presumably be reallocated among Entain tracks and if the hurdles aren't picked up by them maybe Bootby will get the chance to finally put on hurdles as he has preciously shown interest including Cat Ones. He only needs to sign up Ricky and they will be 2/3s filled.
|
|
By:
Sadly my earlier post appears to be outdated re change of use
|
|
By:
very very sad news , Always a decent mix of Racing ,Also Brings to an end Hurdle racing in the Sport ? , what will the Trainers do ? cant see romford taking any ?
just shocking what has been allowed to happen over the years .. |
|
By:
Sorry didnt see Felix about the Hurdles
|
|
By:
more dosh Punted at Cray than any other track on here over the years , I would say
|
|
By:
Loads people want night at dogs
On Saturday!!! 7.30 not 6.28 ffs Want trumpets blasting when dogs come into the track Want tote board lite up Ain’t asking for much Sickening people running this game clueless |
|
By:
Seemingly there has already been a number mentioned by a developer
, if that’s the case it’s almost impossible to try keep it as a going concern. Chan dlers and The Stow all over again! |
|
By:
It's a huge disappointment, Crayford have held some top notch racing for many a year. When they changed the morning opens to Saturday afternoon I was thinking that I'd get a dog to run there. Unfortunately it soon changed to Sunday evening's and that didn't appeal to me.
|
|
By:
Managed decline, the Saturday mornings very good until they lost that slot.
Sunday nights was always the kiss of death. Could be the end of hurdle racing |
|
By:
Sunday nights was always the kiss of death. Pubic in door
Or cos shorted of dogs ? |
|
By:
Sorry in hell I’ve totally misread your post
Thought you said Saturday Spec savers needed for me |
|
By:
Scandalous
|
|
By:
I wonder if Ben star was aware this was going to Happen ? surely would have made more sense buying crayford ? Or perhaps a massive difference in price to Pelaw it baffles me why he has Bought Pelaw TBH
All I can say is we were the last Generation to be lucky enough to have followed this great Sport, 20/30 years it will be gone , It will Die with us |
|
By:
sadly that's right case
|
|
By:
there looks to be some hope in the star racing approach......lease extension only for them so it may be a non-starter.....roger cearns mentioned as well....
|
|
By:
Correct case, we have the memories of yesteryear.
It was a lot of fun while it lasted for sure. |
|
By:
no way will PGR let ben keith have crayford.....it is a 10000/1 shot
|
|
By:
any trainers news whos going where starship
|
|
By:
i did hear ENTAIN has paid for a 28 year lease and quoted a bid of around 10 million for the lease
very hard to see someone coming with ten million for the lease, so what are entain going to do, leave it dorant for the next 28 yeas. you would think if someone wanted to take the lease off entain, they would bite their hand off.. heard nothing about where the trainers are going |
|
By:
Has been queried locally that no date has been set for the closure. Surely they must know what their plans are by now. However, i did hear a rumour at Central on Saturday that Sunday 19th Jan will be the last night.
|
|
By:
I hope Ricky gets a contract some where he has been flying round there lately
Sadly he will end up with a House full of hurdlers ,that have just been thrown on the trash heap Not heard of any plans for Hurdle racing anywhere else ? Ricky will look after everyone of them , Been a few amusing threads over the years regarding Ricky Myself and others referring to short price failures , I think Winja had a system in place What ever , the truth is the mans dedication to Greyhounds as in the dogs ,is second to none I will put my name up to take one of them , Sadly I live along way away now but something could be arranged I don't know if all the Hurdlers are trainer owned, if not I hope the owners can help out re homing .. The whole situation is Tragic was never my favourite Track , but another massive loss to the Sport The whole craic started with the Closure of The Great White City , that they were going to Rebuild Harringey, Catford , Wembley, the Stow and the Don other massive casualties , not to mention many others This Sport has been run for Decades by Either the Incompetent or Grifting Lunatics , Also a few who tried but were quickly Removed by the either of the former two . And the race goes on , but for how long ? when the last drop has been been drained , many will run for the hills , and many left broken hearted |
|
By:
so far at crayford, the staff have been given no notice of when crayford is going to close
|
|
By:
Was told this morning Trainers are being spoken to today…. ?
|
|
By:
I heard that 19th january will be the last meeting
|
|
By:
i will be sad to see it close
|
|
By:
i was there on sunday and closing a track that is clean well kept and ready to race is just a joke....like everyone i heard a few suggestions that may be off the rumour mill or may have some truth but it did seem sensible for a possible take over if the track did close before reopening as the closure would end the contract with entain and allow sis money to acquire the track and show races on their outlets....of course that does not help trainers or staff in the short term especially as trainers going to another track may well be asked to sign contracts but from a bad situation there may be a future....i also heard that date and it does not look like there will be a gala last card either...
|