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With the Irish greyhound Derby about to get under way tonight I've just at this very late hour received a call from England to say that Towcester track has gone into adminstration with immediate effect. I hope like Donald Trump this is fake news but a screenshot of a supposed text I've seen appears that this story is true.
Anyone any update and hopefully it isn't false news This does not agure well ffor our great sport if this his true
Daniel Davin United Kingdom (Verified User) Posts 71 Dogs 0 / Races 0 16 Aug 2018 05:27
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Unfortunately it appears to be true ,gone into administration with immediate effect.
Brian Johnson Ireland (Verified User) Posts 86 Dogs 6 / Races 0 16 Aug 2018 13:29
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no place for derby anyway was there this year prick of a place out in the middle of no where even if God for bid I had a dog good to go there I be staying at home they ran out of drink closed one of the bars down stairs after derby final
Jeff de la Cruz Ireland (Verified User) Posts 13 Dogs 0 / Races 0 16 Aug 2018 14:11
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brian johnson wrote:
no place for derby anyway was there this year prick of a place out in the middle of no where even if God for bid I had a dog good to go there I be staying at home they ran out of drink closed one of the bars down stairs after derby final
What an incredibly selfish statement. A track is closing and all you worry about is you couldn't get a drink. You need to seek help from a certain organisation pal.
Brian Loughnane Ireland (Verified User) Posts 2514 Dogs 107 / Races 6 16 Aug 2018 16:26
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Terrible news for yer industry guys I wish ye well and hopefully something good will turn things around the guys involved in the track events did a fantastic job advertising the sport and deserve all the praise they can get...its not the end of the world for you guys theirs plenty of other great tracks that can be every bit as good as towcester with the right vision and mindset so chin up and push forward this is still a fantastic sport and always will be as long as we all stay positive...
Brian Johnson Ireland (Verified User) Posts 86 Dogs 6 / Races 0 16 Aug 2018 16:46
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if you read the hole statement and not just the piece about drink you no what I meant the track was to far away from everywhere 2 hours wait on a bus from Milton Keynes that took over a hour to get there and no buses back out of it Sunday morning now you tell me it was the right place
It is a very sad day for greyhound racing in Ireland and the UK with the closure of Towcester. The owners and their executive spent substantial monies and effort to try and make the track a success. The greyhound trainers played their part. Their sponsors were fantastic. The facilities were first class. The location was not ideal and it was extremely difficult to attract crowds outside of the Derby. Clearly the financial return from SIS, ie the bookmakers, was not enough to make the track financially viable. Not surprisingly bookmakers will only pay for product that they have to have and that decision will be dictated by turnover and margin. The upside is that the lesser number of greyhound tracks the more bookmakers will pay for product. The declining number of tracks means substantial savings in administration. In my opinion Ireland has too many loss making tracks, but more importantly too many tracks means that millions of the government grant goes in administration. If agreed rationalization took place then prize money would double and owners and trainers could afford to stay in the game they love. So far nobody has explained to me the logic of BAGS racing in Ireland. The Board are paying bookmakers 250 euros to stand, they lay fantastic odds at a percentage of 135 per cent but nobody can get a reasonable bet on either at the track or in the bookmakers offices. Sorry to me this does not make sense. Of course a number of owners welcome this arrangement as they can run their A4 dogs for decent prize money. However, what is the incentive for new owners and existing owners who like a bet. Not to mention the excitement that a good betting market generates. I was in SP last Friday night. The attendance was dreadful, Very few doggy people there, very few punters and not surprisingly the bookmakers odds were horrendous. By the way the food and the service was excellent. Again my commiserations to everyone involved with Towcester. A very brave and expensive project that deserved to work. We have all had business dealings that we thought would work but unfortunately did not . Yes it is a sad, sad day for the sport of greyhound racing in The UK and Ireland.
Paul Gebhard United Kingdom (Verified User) Posts 330 Dogs 613 / Races 81 17 Aug 2018 08:55
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HESKETH has a track record of business failure, my surprise is that people are surprised
1) Its in a lousy location (from a commercial point of view)
2) Any fool can give something away for nothing
Hopefully the media from now on will at least stop kissing Towcester and Heskeths arse
Sad to hear that Towcester was placed into administration yesterday. I am sure that there will be IGB apologists who will use this example as an excuse for the IGBs failures but the simple fact was that their location was too remote. The mantra location, location, location is vital in every successful business and while their marketing efforts and use of technology were far superior to the IGB, the time and resources spent could not convenience enough paying customers to regularly travel to their meetings.
What this closure does highlight is the stupidity of the IGB in closing HX last year. It is ironic that the closure of the one greyhound stadium that was properly promoted in this part of the world coincides with the resignation of the IGB chairman whose legacy will be the replacement of a greyhound stadium with a local population of 1.3 million for one with a population of 200,000.
Paschal Taggart wrote:
In my opinion Ireland has too many loss making tracks, but more importantly too many tracks means that millions of the government grant goes in administration. If agreed rationalization took place then prize money would double and owners and trainers could afford to stay in the game they love.
Paschal talks of the rationalisation of Irish tracks to ensure prize money is at a level that adequately compensates greyhound owners & breeders for their costs and time so that the next generation gets involved in the greyhound game. While this is very true, the million dollar question is how you quantify that a track is loss making if it is not being marketed efficiently using the latest technology similar to what its competitors are doing.
Therefore before we can write off any track there is a need to quantity its maximum potential and this requires fundamental changes to the Irish greyhound board and executive so that its objective is to benefit the greyhound owners & breeders who are the life blood of the sport and not the executives who currently draw large salaries for little performance. In order to achieve this change, the various bodies that represent the owners & breeders need to unite because it is in the interest of the current board and executive not to change the status quo.
However at the moment, the individual GOBAs are more concerned in getting their person elected onto the IGOBF or getting an extra 10 a BAGs race for their local track than who will be the next IGB Chairman. This micro mentality will be the ruination of the greyhound game. Many tracks do not even have a GOBA!!!
Horse Racing is breaking prize money records at the moment. The horse owners & breeders are represented on the HRI boards because they organised themselves, recognised the bigger picture i.e. getting more people involved in racing and then all pull in the same direction.
The GOBAs are the exact opposite, segmented and everyone looking after their own personal interests. This has resulted in the various greyhound owners & breeders groups being too busy in-fighting to hold the IGB accountable. You only have to examine the various GOBAs non-existent input into the selection of the new IGB Chairman as it is vital that the minister does not reward failure by appointing an existing board member remember these current board members are responsible for some of the worst financial returns in the history of the state.
Greyhound owners & breeders cannot moan about the IGB being inept when they cant even organise themselves and the IGB's incompetence is a reflection of their own.
Keith Elliott United Kingdom (Verified User) Posts 214 Dogs 0 / Races 0 17 Aug 2018 13:17
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Paschal Taggart wrote:
It is a very sad day for greyhound racing in Ireland and the UK with the closure of Towcester. The owners and their executive spent substantial monies and effort to try and make the track a success. The greyhound trainers played their part. Their sponsors were fantastic. The facilities were first class. The location was not ideal and it was extremely difficult to attract crowds outside of the Derby. Clearly the financial return from SIS, ie the bookmakers, was not enough to make the track financially viable. Not surprisingly bookmakers will only pay for product that they have to have and that decision will be dictated by turnover and margin. The upside is that the lesser number of greyhound tracks the more bookmakers will pay for product. The declining number of tracks means substantial savings in administration. In my opinion Ireland has too many loss making tracks, but more importantly too many tracks means that millions of the government grant goes in administration. If agreed rationalization took place then prize money would double and owners and trainers could afford to stay in the game they love. So far nobody has explained to me the logic of BAGS racing in Ireland. The Board are paying bookmakers 250 euros to stand, they lay fantastic odds at a percentage of 135 per cent but nobody can get a reasonable bet on either at the track or in the bookmakers offices. Sorry to me this does not make sense. Of course a number of owners welcome this arrangement as they can run their A4 dogs for decent prize money. However, what is the incentive for new owners and existing owners who like a bet. Not to mention the excitement that a good betting market generates. I was in SP last Friday night. The attendance was dreadful, Very few doggy people there, very few punters and not surprisingly the bookmakers odds were horrendous. By the way the food and the service was excellent. Again my commiserations to everyone involved with Towcester. A very brave and expensive project that deserved to work. We have all had business dealings that we thought would work but unfortunately did not . Yes it is a sad, sad day for the sport of greyhound racing in The UK and Ireland.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You say"financial return from sis was not enough" actually therein lies part of their problem towcester were not in the sis group they wrongly decided to join the arc package for considerably less money,they wanted out, but couldnt leave their arc contract until i believe dec19,apparently a lucrative sis contract would have then been available for them
ARC (Arena Racing Company) strong contenders to purchase Towcester according to the Times. They have 16 race courses in their portfolio, would keep the greyhound racing.
Martin James Ireland (Verified User) Posts 1128 Dogs 5 / Races 0 13 Nov 2018 15:04
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It seems the good Lord may have bought back his track from the receivers.
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