Pelaw's grand plans as Star's first year anniversary looms

STAR PELAW is setting sights on major progress under the management and ownership of bookmaking firm Star Sports with grand plans for expansion of the racing strength and schedule almost a year to the day after their takeover.

However, more pressingly, work is ongoing to solve the issues which disrupted two meetings at the north-east track last week.

"Last Thursday we couldn't use the sprint/six-bend traps due to electrical issues," explained Star Sports' head of greyhound operations Kim Sanzone.

"It transpired that recently-installed new electrics throughout the stadium are more sensitive, triggering a situation with those traps, but a new transformer that's been ordered should resolve that.

"On Sunday, the hare rail and pulleys were damaged due to an operational incident and the timescale to repair it meant the meeting had to be curtailed, but the cable is to be fully replaced before this Thursday's meeting."

There is also planned work on replacing all the track lighting in early October, around which time a new kennel block housing 48 greyhounds for an on-site trainer - adjacent to Glenn Foot’s current kennel block - is to be delivered with interviews for the role taking place next week.

Next month is set to see not only the addition of a third weekly meeting on Tuesdays from 14th October but also the Category Two Untold Racing Stewards Cup over 590m and SR Transport Rose Bowl over 435m starting at a Saturday evening meeting on October 4th - details below.

"We're planning to make the Untold Racing Stewards Cup a Category One for 2026 and introduce a hurdles competition," said Sanzone, "we're hoping to have hurdles up and running by November once checked by Josh Sealey and approved by the GBGB.

"This year we'll also have three Category Three competitions running alongside the main two competitions - Kitts Pool Room & Bar Sprint (245m), Star Pelaw Ladies (435m) and Star Pelaw Future Stars (435m).

"A little further ahead, on Saturday 1st November we have a Gala Night featuring ten £1,000 opens plus four graded finals, while we are racing on Saturday evening 6th December with a Christmas menu and Category Three finals plus Boxing Day and New Year's Day afternoons.

"Finally, our next owner/trainer meeting is scheduled for February – these will take place every six months."