Our UK tracks have seen a very successful return to action over the last two weeks. The additional biosecurity and social distancing procedures have been implemented and tracks have responded professionally and positively to all the requirements.
The return to racing has gone so well that the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB) has taken the decision to accelerate through its planned return to racing phases. They are skipping a whole two-week phase and moving straight from 30-minute gaps between races to 20-minutes gaps.
This will come into effect from Monday 15th June and run for two weeks to 28th June. This allows an increase from 420 races to 519 races a week staged on the SIS greyhound schedule and ensures our full UK retail programme is in place to coincide with the reopening of betting shops in England and Ireland. Three of the meetings held at Romford, Hove, and Central Park will also feature on RPGTV on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night, respectively.
There is further good news from the industry with the announcement that open racing will be permitted from 29th June and the opportunity to stage several of the high-profile classics during the second half of the year.
Over the water in Ireland, the return to racing date has been brought forward to 15th June and tracks are starting to retrial their runners. Confirmation on the date that Irish greyhounds will be added back into the service will be made in due course so watch this space.
If all tracks successfully navigate through the next two-week period with 20-minute gaps we can then move back to racing with further reduced time gaps. These are not fixed but are invariably between 16-19 minutes at each track, allowing the optimum time to be chosen for each race so it complements and fits alongside our UK and Irish horse content.
To view our schedule for 15th-28th June please click here
