Nottingham Greyhound Stadium

Nottingham Greyhound Stadium

Location	Colwick Park, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, NG2 4BE
Coordinates	52°57′00″N 1°06′40″W / 52.950°N 1.111°W / 52.950; -1.111
Owner	Nottingham Greyhound Stadium Ltd.
Operator	Nottingham Greyhound Stadium Ltd.
Capacity	1,500
Field size	437 metres (1,434 ft)
Surface	Sand
Scoreboard	None
Construction
Opened	24 January 1980
Renovated	19 August 2008
Expanded	19 August 2008

Nottingham Greyhound Stadium is a greyhound racing track and stadium on the outskirts of Nottingham, England. It was voted ‘Central Region Racecourse of the Year’ by the British Greyhound Racing Board for 1998-1999 and 2001-2002.

Races at the course are held on Monday, Friday and Saturday evenings as well as an additional BAGS (Bookmakers’ Afternoon Greyhound Service) meeting on Tuesday mornings.^[1] The circumference of the track is 437 metres (1,434 ft).^[1]

Competitions

The stadium holds several competitions annually, the most prestigious of which is the Select Stakes.

• The Select Stakes

Other competitions include:

• The Futurity Cup – January, 500 metres (1,600 ft), puppy event
• The Grolsch Grand Prix – April, 680 metres (2,230 ft)
• The Betfred Select Stayers Stakes – July, 730 metres (2,400 ft)
• The Caffreys Puppy Classic – August, 500 metres (1,600 ft), puppy event
• The National Oaks – September, 500 metres (1,600 ft), bitches only
• The Autumn Puppy Cup – October, 500 metres (1,600 ft), puppy event
• The Produce Stakes – October, 500 metres (1,600 ft), British-bred event
• The Betfred Eclipse – November, 500 metres (1,600 ft)
• The Stadium Bookmakers National Sprint – December, 305 metres (1,001 ft)

Origins and opening

In 1970 the White City Stadium in Nottingham closed down leaving the city without greyhound racing. However members of the Severn and Trent greyhound clubs had maintained a presence in the council’s thoughts and several year’s later plans for a new track within the Nottingham horse racing course began to surface. The site of the racecourse was east of the village of Colwick and the racecourse had opened way back in 1892. ^[2]

On 24th January 1980 the Colwick Park greyhound track opened, it was situated on the north side of the race course where a car parking area had stood and previous to that it had been an old bed of the River Trent. The circumference of the track was 442 metres and was described as a very good galloping track with long straights and the sand used was Worksop Grey. The Managing Director Jon Carter announced that there were over 2,000 attending the first meeting which consisted of eight races, six over 500m and two over 295m. The very first winner was a greyhound called Tartan Al trained by W Horton who won in 32.98sec at odds of 7-1. ^[3]

History

An initial investment of £250,000 included the Panorama Room with a state of the art restaurant and totalisator. The first Racing Manager was Jim Woods, the Director of Racing was Terry Meynell and the first trainers were Bill Horton, Christine Lawlor, A Coppin, T Smith and one Charlie Lister. Another trainer that appeared on opening night was Geoff DeMulder and he joined the track in 1984. Racing took place on Monday, Thursday and Saturday evenings and the nature of the large track soon attracted some of the sports best greyhounds including Scurlogue Champ who broke the track record in October 1985 and then Ballyregan Bob who won two races at Nottingham that formed part of his world record breaking run during November 1985 & April 1986 with the first run creating a new track record. It was also in 1986 that Coventry closed resulting in the Eclipse competition finding a new home at Nottingham. In April 1989 the 'Outside Sumner' hare was replaced by the 'Bramich' and race distances were re-measured as 310, 500, 700 & 747m. ^[4]

In 1988 Terry Corden took control of Nottingham from Wiseville Ltd, Corden had recently sold Derby Greyhound Stadium and had been successful during the property boom. Racing Manager Jim Woods left to join Monmore Green Stadium and was replaced by Mick Smith before Peter Robinson took over. One of the first tasks of the new owners was to invest in new facilities and in 1989 the track underwent a considerably upgrade. ^[5]

A new competition introduced to the track in 1990 was the National Sprint, the important race had struggled to find a home since the closure of Harringay Stadium and would be held towards the end of the year and was known as the Peter Derrick Christmas Cracker for a few years. Wembley also closed to greyhound racing in 1996 and Nottingham was awarded the prestigious Select Stakes as a consequence. Terry Corden brought his daughter Rachel and son Nathan into the business and they are now both heavily involved in the running of the track. Another event (the Produce Stakes taken from Hall Green Stadium) came to the track in 2009. ^[6]

Main achievements

• Dawn Wheatley's Ayr Flyer finished runner-up in the 1994 English Greyhound Derby.
• Charlie Lister won the 1997 English Greyhound Derby and Scottish Greyhound Derby with Some Picture.

Track records

^[7]

References

External links

• Official website