Greyhounds: Festival's back and it's bigger and better!

Byline: JIM CREMIN

AN outstanding card at Walthamstow tonight underlines that the Racing Post Festival (November 6-16) is just around the corner.

Thanks to the support of the directors of main sponsors Racing Post, Victor Chandler and Totesport, prize-money has been raised to over pounds 80,000 through the period, with the achievement of showcasing a true celebration of British greyhound racing firmly established.

A selection of the Grand Finals Night's events will be shown live on Sky Sports on Tuesday, November 16.

New this year is the Totesport London Scurry over 435m, and being the sole three-round event it has a pre-Festival stage on Tuesday, November 2 (entries close Thursday, October 28).

A freshening up of Festival events led to the idea of the resurrecting London's defunct sprinting Classic, the Scurry. The eventh originated at Clapton, down the road from the Stow, and was most recently run at Catford. However, the GRA has stated that it plans to run the Scurry, at some time, in Birmingham.

Walthamstow is therefore staging the London Scurry, and thanks to the generous sponsorship of Totesport, it will be worth pounds 4,000 to the winner - far more than when last staged by Catford. Totesport is also sponsoring the Festival Puppy event, the final of which is on Thursday, November 11.

The North vs South Challenge returns, but will now be for 475m pups and 475m all-aged; another feature is the Victor Chandler Invitation over 475m, worth pounds 4,000 for the one run. There is also the Victor Chandler Marathon, with a pounds 4,000 prize for two runs, and a similar format for the 640m stayers.

All the old favourites are there - the Veterans, Maidens' Derby, British-breds, Hurdles and staying pups. See the full list on page 101 today.

The Festival has also been given a London theme, and Jack Chandler, the Stow's MD, is expected to lead community singing of 'Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner' every night!

He's also guaranteed minimum run-money of pounds 100 on finals night, a minimum pounds 1,000 prize, plus a pounds 500 award for the top trainer.