Brighton & Hove Greyhound Stadium

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Brighton and Hove Greyhound Stadium
Brighton and Hove Greyhound Stadium - geograph.org.uk - 540920.jpg
A view of the grandstand in 2007
Brighton & Hove Greyhound Stadium
Location Brighton and Hove
Operator Entain (Ladbrokes Coral)
Opened1928
Tenants
Greyhound racing
Website
Official website

Brighton & Hove Greyhound Stadium is a greyhound racing track located in the Hove Park area of the city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex. [1] The stadium also has a restaurant and a number of bars and is owned by the Gala Coral Group and race meetings are held every Thursday and Saturday evening, in addition to three afternoon meetings.

Contents

Competitions

Origins

The plans for the site on Nevill Road and adjoining Hove Park were unanimously passed by the Brighton Corporation in January 1928. Charles Wakeling, Freddie Arnold and Major Carlos Campbell instigated the construction and the Greyhound Racing Association (GRA) had shares in the company called the Greyhound Racing Association (Brighton) Ltd. [2]

Opening

The first race to be held at the track known as the Hove Sports Stadium was the Hove Stakes and took place on 2 June 1928. 'Costs' the 7-4f won the 525 yards race for trainer Toone and won £16 for his owner W. G. Hooper, who was a solicitor by trade. [3]

Pre-war history

Originally the track was primitive with the hare being wound around the course by hand and it took ten years of racing before electric lighting was installed. A hand-operated tote was installed in 1932 but suffered from the government ban on tote betting the same year until the Betting and Lotteries Act 1934 reversed the ban. In 1940 the resident kennels moved to Morley Lodge, Albourne, Henfield, West Sussex. This purpose built kennel facility for over 200 hounds offered a modern brick facility and each range had its own grass paddock. Breeding kennels were set up on a farm in Sussex and rearing kennels were built in nearby Cumberland. The circuit was described as easy swinging turns of 160 yards and short straights of 85 yards and distances were 310, 525, 565 and 800 yards with an 'Inside MacWhirter Trackless' hare. Amenities included a club in both enclosures (the Nevill Road Club and the Orchard Road Club) and there were dining facilities in the Grand enclosure. [4]

1945–1980

Greyhounds racing at Brighton c.1960 Brighton & Hove Greyhound Stadium c.1960.png
Greyhounds racing at Brighton c.1960

After the war the company was called the Brighton & Hove Stadium Ltd and in 1948 the stadium introduced a new event called the Regency. The Managing Director Charles Wakeling who was also the chairman of Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. died leaving the stadium in the hands of Major Carlos Campbell. Campbell died in 1958 leaving the controlling interest of the shares in the hands of the GRA. They brought in Gerard Kealey as General Manager and Peter Shotton as Racing Manager (the latter replacing Tom King in 1964) [5] and the pair went about building up the reputation of the seaside track. During the sixties racing was held on Wednesday and Saturday evenings, in addition to the restaurant there was three buffet bars and seven licensed bars. The circumference had changed to 491 yards with distances of 550, 725 and 880 yards with an 'Inside Sumner' hare. The track trainers consisted of Fred Lugg, Arthur Hancock, Birch & Gunner (Charles George) Smith. [6] Gunner Smith steered Luxury Liner through to 1961 English Greyhound Derby Derby final.

George Curtis represented Brighton in two consecutive Greyhound Derby finals with Hard Held in 1969 and Sirius in 1970.

Brighton introduced travelling payments for open race trainers to encourage entries to travel south, and the Sussex Cup was inaugurated in 1972, followed by the Brighton Belle for bitches in 1975. [7] In 1976 a significant deal was struck in when Coral Leisure purchasing Brighton and Romford. Des Nichols was brought in as Racing Manager from sister track Romford when Shotton moved to Wembley in 1978. Jim Layton succeeded him a few years later. A fourth major race called the Olympic was introduced in 1979

1981–1999

George Curtis became a three times Greyhound Trainer of the Year winning the title in 1983, 1984 and 1986. Brighton greyhound Ballyregan Bob trained by Curtis became a household name after breaking the world record in 1986 by winning 32 consecutive races. One year later the stadium became the last course in Britain to remove their turf surface changing to all-sand. Gerard Kealey died in 1989 and Peter Shotton became general manager (he had returned to Brighton from Wembley). [8]

In 1991 Coral announced that their greyhound tracks would be sold to fund the purchase of 73 bingo halls from Granada Theatre Ltd, but, despite the deal being struck and subsequent birth of Gala Bingo, the tracks remained under the ownership of Coral. However, Coral did lose a court case around the same time to the Alliance & Leicester, forcing them to relinquish land where the Orchard Road enclosure stood. A new generation of trainers arrived at Hove in the 1990s. Brian Clemenson was three times champion trainer, and his assistant Alan (Claude) Gardiner replaced Bill Masters when he retired. Peter Miller replaced Jim Layton as racing manager in 1994. [9]

2000–present

The track in 2013 Coral Greyhound Stadium, Hove - geograph.org.uk - 3755224.jpg
The track in 2013

Brian Clemenson was three times champion trainer in 2003, 2004 and 2005. The track remains one of the premier venues in the country and attracts some of the best trainers in the country including recent acquisitions Seamus Cahill and Norah McEllistrim. In 2018 the stadium signed a deal with SIS to race every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon, and every Thursday and Saturday evening. [10]

In 2019 the track created new race distance of 500 metres; the track had previously raced over that distance in the 1970s. The 515 distance was retained for open races. [11]

In 2022, Entain signed a long term deal with the Arena Racing Company for media rights, starting in January 2024. [12]

Track records

[13]

Current records

MetresGreyhoundTimeDateNotes
285Jimmy Lollie [14] 15.897 October 2010
285Target Harris [15] 15.8912 June 2014
475Southfield Jock [16] 27.4222 October 2015
475Forest Con [17] 27.423 May 2017
500Antigua Romeo [18] 28.8623 January 2020
515Barnfield On Air [19] 29.2031 July 2007 Sussex Cup final
695Caloona Striker [20] 40.7321 June 2005
740Form of Magic43.5930 March 2002
945Aayamza Royale [21] 57.9012 December 2020TV Trophy heats
955Space Jet [22] 58.352 April 2022TV Trophy semi final
500 HDroopys Chaser29.6729 July 2023 Springbok final

Former records

+ Record holder during year

Pre Metric

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References

  1. ↑ "Track Search". Greyhound Board of Great Britain. Archived from the original on 25 December 2011. Retrieved 24 December 2011.
  2. ↑ Genders, Roy (1981). The Encyclopedia of Greyhound Racing, pages 36-38. Pelham Books Ltd. ISBN   07207-1106-1.
  3. ↑ Barnes, Julia (1988). Daily Mirror Greyhound Fact File, pages 73-78. Ringpress Books. ISBN   0-948955-15-5.
  4. ↑ Genders, Roy (1981). The Encyclopedia of Greyhound Racing, pages 36-38. Pelham Books Ltd. ISBN   07207-1106-1.
  5. ↑ "Remember When - September 1964". Greyhound Star.
  6. ↑ Genders, Roy (1981). The Encyclopedia of Greyhound Racing, pages 36-38. Pelham Books Ltd. ISBN   07207-1106-1.
  7. ↑ Genders, Roy (1975). The Greyhound and Racing Greyhound, pages 95-96. Page Brothers (Norwich). ISBN   0-85020-0474.
  8. ↑ Fry, Paul (1995). The Official NGRC Greyhound Racing Yearbook, pages 216-217. Ringpress Books. ISBN   186054-010-4.
  9. ↑ Hobbs, Jonathan (2007). Greyhound Annual 2008, page 189. Raceform. ISBN   978-1-905153-53-4.
  10. ↑ "SIS announces schedule for SIS British Greyhound Service for 2018". SIS.
  11. ↑ "When is a track record not a track record?". Greyhound Star.
  12. ↑ "No Competition - No Progress". Greyhound Star. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
  13. ↑ "British Track Records as of January 2024". Greyhound Star. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
  14. ↑ "2010 result". Greyhound Board of Great Britain. Archived from the original on 18 December 2018. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  15. ↑ "2014 equal track record result". Greyhound Board of Great Britain. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  16. ↑ "2015 track record result". Greyhound Board of Great Britain. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  17. ↑ "2017 track record result". Greyhound Board of Great Britain. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  18. ↑ "CORAL 500 - DIVISION A". Greyhound Board of Great Britain. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  19. ↑ "2007 result". Greyhound Board of Great Britain. Archived from the original on 18 December 2018. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  20. ↑ "2005 result". Greyhound Board of Great Britain. Archived from the original on 18 December 2018. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  21. ↑ "Coral TV Trophy - Heat 3". Greyhound Board of Great Britain. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  22. ↑ "CORAL TV TROPHY - HEAT 2". Greyhound Board of Great Britain. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  23. ↑ "2018 new distance track record result". Greyhound Board of Great Britain. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  24. ↑ "Race result". Greyhound Board of Great Britain. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  25. ↑ "Monthly Greyhound Star (Remember When 1988) August edition". Greyhound Star.
  26. ↑ "2015 result". Greyhound Board of Great Britain. Archived from the original on 18 December 2018. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  27. ↑ "CORAL Marathon". Greyhound Board of Great Britain. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  28. ↑ "CORAL TV TROPHY - HEAT 1". Greyhound Board of Great Britain. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  29. ↑ "2010 result". Greyhound Board of Great Britain. Archived from the original on 18 December 2018. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  30. ↑ "Monthly Greyhound Star (Remember When 1957) January edition". Greyhound Star.

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