Towcester Greyhound Stadium is a

greyhound racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around an oval track. The sport originates from Hare coursing, coursing. Track racing uses an artificial lure (usually a form of windsock) that travels ahead of th ...

track located within

Towcester Racecourse Towcester Racecourse is a greyhound racing track and former horse racing venue at Towcester (pronounced "''Toh-ster''") in Northamptonshire, England. It has staged the English Greyhound Derby in 2018, 2021 and has won the contract for the ne ...

Towcester Towcester ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. From 1974 to 2021, it was the administrative centre of the South Northamptonshire district. Towcester is on ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

, England. It has been the home of the

English Greyhound Derby The English Greyhound Derby is the most prestigious race on the British Greyhound racing in the United Kingdom, greyhound racing calendar, with a history stretching back to 1927. It was first held at White City Stadium, but moved to Wimbledon ...

since 2021, having previously hosted the event from 2017 to 2018.

Opening

Towcester opened on 6 December 2014 becoming the first track in Britain to open since the 1995 openings of

Harlow Harlow is a town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a Planned community, new town in 1947, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire, and occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the ...

and

Sittingbourne Sittingbourne is an industrial town in the Swale district of Kent, southeast England, from Canterbury and from London, beside the Roman Watling Street, an ancient trackway used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons. The town stands next to th ...

. The idea of a track inside the horse racing course was created by

Lord Hesketh Baron Hesketh, of Hesketh in the County Palatine of Lancaster, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1935 for Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh, 8th Baronet, who had previously briefly represented Enfield in the House of Co ...

the racecourse owner and Chief Executive Kevin Ackerman. Former

Walthamstow Walthamstow ( or ) is a town within the London Borough of Waltham Forest in east London. The town borders Chingford to the north, Snaresbrook and South Woodford to the east, Leyton and Leytonstone to the south, and Tottenham to the west. At ...

Racing Manager Chris Page, Deputy Racing Manager Andy Lisemore and Steve Cale were recruited to run the operation.

Construction

At a cost of £1.5 million the 420 metres circumference circuit was created by laying down 60,000 tonnes of soil so that the greyhound racing surface met the horse racing home straight at a level setting, resulting in a six-metre rise. The bends are very wide which assists the occasional eight dog race. The kennels were constructed inside unused horse stables and new trainers included five times champion trainer Mark Wallis, 2011 champion trainer Chris Allsopp, Kevin Hutton and Matt Dartnall. The distances are 260, 480, 500, 655, 686 and 906 metres and the first race was won by 4-1 shot Fairest Royal trained by Wallis. A big screen situated on the home straight was a new feature to greyhound tracks.

Achievements

* Trainer Kevin Hutton won the prestigious Trainers Championship in March 2015. * Hutton twice retained the title in 2016 and 2017, joining a select group of trainers to win more than one title. * The track was crowned the BAGS National Champions at

Perry Barr Stadium Perry Barr Stadium (also known as Perry Barr Greyhound Stadium and previously as Alexander Sports Ground(s)) is a Greyhound racing in the United Kingdom, greyhound racing and motorcycle speedway stadium on Aldridge Road in Perry Barr, Birmin ...

in December 2015 (team manager - Andy Lisemore). * Retained the BAGS National Championship in December 2016 (team manager - Simon Pearson). * Awarded the Greyhound Derby after the closure of

Wimbledon Stadium Wimbledon Stadium, also known as Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium, was a greyhound racing track located in Wimbledon in southwest London, England. It also hosted stock car and other small circuit motor racing events, and until 2005 hosted motorc ...

. * Awarded the Puppy Derby in 2017 following the closure of

. * Kevin Hutton won the 2018 English Greyhound Derby *In 2018 the track gained another original classic race, the Oaks, from the

Greyhound Racing Association The Greyhound Racing Association was a UK-based private company founded in 1925 and existed until 2019. It was involved in the management of sports venues, notably greyhound racing stadia. The GRA was responsible for introducing Greyhound racing ...

(GRA). * In 2018 the stadium signed a deal with ARC to race every Saturday morning and Sunday evening. * In 2021, Thorn Falcon won the Derby for Belgian born

Patrick Janssens Patrick Janssens (born 19 September 1956) is a Belgian former politician. He was a member of the SP.a and the former mayor of the port city Antwerp. Career Janssens studied "Political and Social Sciences" and "Applied Economic Sciences" (bo ...

2018 administration

In August 2018 the future of Towcester racecourse was put in doubt. A statement released by the racecourse on 16 August read: "Towcester Racecourse Company Limited, proprietors of Towcester Racecourse, are currently experiencing trading difficulties and are in discussions with key stakeholders and professional advisers on the way forward. However, the directors have concluded that they have no alternative in the short term but to seek court protection and are now taking steps to place the company into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

. As a result, the last greyhound meeting was on 12 August. On 23 August

KPMG KPMG is a multinational professional services network, based in London, United Kingdom. As one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte, and PwC. KPMG is a network of firms in 145 countries with 275,288 emplo ...

were appointed as administrators and 134 out of 137 members of staff at the racecourse were made redundant. Eight trainers joined

Henlow Henlow is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of the county of Bedfordshire, England, about south-east of the county town of Bedford. The name Henlow is believed to derive from the old Eng ...

, including

Mark Wallis Mark Andrew Wallis (born 1964) is an English greyhound trainer. He is a record 15 times UK champion Greyhound Trainer of the Year. Profile In 1990, Wallis joined leading trainer Linda Jones at the Imperial Kennels (Linda would later become ...

and

Nick Savva Nicolas Savva known as Nick Savva is a greyhound trainer and breeder. He is a four times winner of the English Greyhound Derby and is regarded as Britain's most successful breeder, along with his wife Natalie Savva (1935–2019) who also held ...

while Kevin Hutton joined Monmore. On 13 November it was announced by the administrators that the racecourse's assets were being sold to a company called Fermor Land LLP. This company was formed on 18 October (26 days before the sale) and is headed by Lord Hesketh's brother-in-law Mark Westropp, a trustee of the Hesketh Family trusts.

Re-opening

In October 2019 Kevin Boothby, promoter of

Henlow Stadium Henlow Stadium was a greyhound racing stadium located at Stondon, in the English county of Bedfordshire, slightly to the north of Hitchin. The stadium had a restaurant, a number of bars and a bistro. Racing formerly took place every Monday an ...

, signed a deal for a 10-year lease at Towcester, with the intention that greyhound racing would re-start in March 2020. The stadium's re-opening was delayed by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

before eventually opening on 22 May 2020. Several major competitions returned to the track including the English Greyhound Derby, Puppy Derby and Juvenile.

Competitions

*The

*The English Greyhound Derby Invitation * The Puppy Derby * Juvenile *

Blue Riband The Blue Riband () is an unofficial accolade given to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the record highest Velocity, average speed. The term was borrowed from horse racing and was not widely used until ...

Track records

Current track records

Former (2020 onwards)

(2014-2018)

References

{{English greyhound tracks Sports venues in Northamptonshire 2014 establishments in England Sports venues completed in 2014 Greyhound racing venues in the United Kingdom