Greyhound Racing
The greyhound track was built in 1935 at Hoddesdon. In 1960 Gerry Bailey and Jack Carter improved the set up at the independent track after leasing the track from the Lea Valley Regional Park Authority. The circuit was moved on to the outside of the speedway track and facilities were improved.
In 1974 a new permit scheme by the National Greyhound Racing Club allowed several tracks including Rye House to switch to NGRC rules. In 1996 & 1997 the greyhound Night Trooper represented Rye House, the Nikki Adams trained black dog was one of the best greyhounds in the country and won the Pall Mall Stakes, the Reading Masters and finished runner up in the English Greyhound Derby final. Following a short closure the track re opened under the control of former Racing Manager Sue Picton in 2004. in 2006 the greyhound racing closed for good, just two years after re-opening, it closed on 15th November.
- Circumference: 420 metres
- Distances raced: 265,445,485,630,685,865,905 metres.
- Run to first bend: 80 m (4 bends),40m (6 bends)
- Hare type: Swaffham McGee
Read more about this topic: Rye House Stadium
Famous quotes containing the words greyhound and/or racing:
“Why, what a candy deal of courtesy
This fawning greyhound then did proffer me!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Upscale people are fixated with food simply because they are now able to eat so much of it without getting fat, and the reason they don’t get fat is that they maintain a profligate level of calorie expenditure. The very same people whose evenings begin with melted goat’s cheese ... get up at dawn to run, break for a mid-morning aerobics class, and watch the evening news while racing on a stationary bicycle.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)