Towcester team ready to go for Derby again, says Davis

AS THE dust settled on his first year as the promoter tasked with staging the Greyhound Derby, Towcester boss Mike Davis was in reflective but upbeat mood on Monday following Saturday’s pulsating conclusion to the 2026 Star Sports & Orchestrate-backed Classic.

A leading greyhound owner with champion trainer Mark Wallis, Davis, who assumed control of the non-racing side of the track’s operation before last year’s competition, took full control of the lease soon after at the Northamptonshire circuit and is looking to build on the success of Saturday’s big night.

He said: “I learned a lot from my involvement last year in terms of what worked and what didn’t with regards to putting the big night on, and there will be lessons to be learned again from this year’s Derby.

“I’m 100 per cent committed to keeping the competition here at Towcester if that’s what the industry wants, and with the planned reintroduction of horseracing by the end of next year, there’s a real opportunity for the two sports to come together and cross over.”

Those horseracing plans will begin with the introduction of point-to-point racing early next year, but Davis and Richard Thomas, managing director of Davis’s Orchestrate company, are driving on with plans to bring jumps fixtures back to Towcester too.

“There’s a lot of work that has already been done on the horseracing course and we will be full speed ahead in the aim of getting regulated and racing under rules again by the end of 2027,” Davis said.

However, those plans will not hamper ambitions to continue improving the greyhound racing side of the business and further elevate the sport’s premier competition itself.

Davis added: “The Greyhound Derby is a special event and we were at capacity on Saturday in terms of numbers we could accommodate given the weather. We had around 3,000 last year, and while the final headcount has yet to be done for Saturday, I’d expect to have exceeded that.

“It’s an event more for the greyhound community rather than local footfall, and that is reflected by the full terraces in the grandstand packed with people who have come to watch the racing.

“With regards to the Derby itself, I’m indebted to Ben Keith for the support and sponsorship from Star Sports. It’s a tough gig from a business perspective and not one you put on expecting to show a profit.

“Of course I’d like to see the winner’s purse go up again, but that’s something for discussion. I’d love to see the industry get behind the competition and those with political influence try and drive more mainstream television coverage.

“The more exposure the racing gets on the bigger platforms the more it will drive betting revenue. That then will push the prize-money levels higher.

“My focus is on providing the right track and facilities for those coming to Towcester. Currently that’s mainly people already invested in the industry, but there’s a lot of residential development work going on around the venue and we will be targeting the local community to see what they’d like to see from us too.

“We will ask, listen and see what we can introduce in terms of facilities to bring local people through the gates, not just for greyhounds and horseracing, but for other activities too.”

There will always be those opposed to the sport and that was evidenced by an attempt to sabotage the big night by damage caused to the hare rail.

Davis said: “We have overnight security and people always on site, so we’re trying to ascertain how they slipped through undetected and knew which area to target. There will be more cameras installed and we remain vigilant.

“There are always going to be people out there who want to attack the sport, but thankfully this was a rather clumsy attempt at causing damage and we have a good team who were able to put things right.

“We introduced the new hydraulic traps following plenty of feedback from trainers, and then saw criticism saying dogs couldn’t break from one or six.

“There will always be complaints, I accept that, but over the whole competition we saw dogs winning from all boxes and if you watch the freeze from the final I thought Ballymac Duffle did break okay from trap one.

“I’m grateful to the panel who gave us the green light to stage the Derby this year and we will definitely be hoping to retain that role. It’s an honour and a privilege to put it on and hats off to Paul Hennessy and Lee Craze and all connected to the winner Lennies Eddie – what a run that was in the final.”

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