I must say on the whole i was very impressed with the way they had done everything.
On busy nights the little country lane leading to the car parking might be a bit congested once racing has finished due to having to turn onto a main road but we left before the last race and drove straight out.
The staff were first class and couldnt do enough for you but on opening night i would have expected this,i think give it a few months and see how things settle in as im sure they will cut the staffing levels down.
The hospitality suites have a great view of the track and although Mark thinks they hold 40 easily i have to disagree with that as we had four tables...two seating 8 and two seating 10 and the two nearest the patio doors leading to the balcony area were much to close together causing me to have to move my chair every couple of minutes to let people back to the next table and the waitress who kept bringing PART TIMER a pint every 10 mins......
Maybe they need to arrange that side a bit better..
The food was fairly decent but was very slow in coming and seeing that they have horse racing on and these facilities are used then i cant see how there was a delay especially as it was a cold buffet.
They had one tote desk in the hallway to cater for four suites which was another problem as the two girls who were taking bets from the suite guests were not there for all races. I think they got a bit caught out with this due to the shorter time between races compared to the horses and of course plenty more bets to be had for dog racing.
I know there was a lot of people unhappy about the bookmakers that were on track. Betting to 151% and 172% is as poor value as you can get but as there were a lot of "first time" punters i think they got away with it. Once the true punters turn up meeting after meeting i think the bookies will have to look at pricing up the races for value otherwise they will not be making it pay.
So onto the track...
I was surprised how great the view was as the talk before hand was the track was too far away from the stands...This was rubbish as people who were at ground level were also impressed by the viewing.
It was superbly lit and a massive screen ment that where ever you were you could still view the race easily. The one slight draw back was for the longer races the large screen blocked the view of the traps in certain viewing areas...
The track itself allows dogs plenty of room due to its sweeping bends and in the 11 races we saw i dont think there was more then a couple of unlucky dogs. The straights look a bit on the short side due to the sweeping bends and i think it will favour inside dogs especially fast starting ones for the time being.
All in all i think Towcester and the people who have put this together need a lot of praise for the way this has been done especially at a time when the sport is in decline . A top class venue and im sure that this can be the start of the sport going forwards again with more new tracks opening.
As long as they keep up the efforts of opening night and of course the racing stays at the highest level then Towcester will be the home of dog racing.
Here are a few races from Saturday night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy48Pfoju3M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNq5uC-Wj2Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7lCsziAb2Y
