UK greyhound racing to return on 1 June
Meetings will be held behind closed doors with 42 fixtures a week at tracks including Crayford, Romford, Hove and Monmore
Greyhound racing will resume across the UK from 1 June with 42 fixtures to be held per week across eight tracks.
SIS has published the full list of fixtures that it will be covering, including the reintroduction of the SIS service of Towcester, following trials in recent weeks to ensure the fixtures can be held safely.
Fixtures will be held behind closed doors to comply with social distancing requirements and only 10 races will be run per fixture, with the Greyhound Board of Great Britain expecting the number to grow in the coming weeks.
When racing initially returns, six fixtures will be held per day from 11am to 9.30pm, with two in the morning, two in the afternoon and two in the evening.
The spacing has been implemented with the needs of digital customers in mind, as well as when retail betting returns in mid-June as part of the UK government’s roadmap out of coronavirus lockdown.
The eight racetracks earmarked for fixtures are Central Park, Crayford, Doncaster, Henlow, Hove, Monmore, Romford, and Towcester.
Paul Witten, SIS product director, said he was looking forward to greyhound racing returning following the enforced shutdown and hinted towards the potential return of Irish greyhound racing in June.
Witten added: “Our UK tracks have been undergoing trials for the last week and will continue through this week to ensure that all racing greyhounds will have completed at least two trials before racing resumes on 1 June. We’re very pleased to see a return to racing and would like to pay thanks to our tracks who have been very supportive of these new measures.
“We continue to liaise very closely also with the Irish Greyhound Board and are confident that we will be able to extend our service in due course to include Irish fixtures sometime in June,” he concluded.