George Curtis & Ballyregan Bob Memorial final confirmed for Saturday, November 14

Hove set new date for staying final

Hove is confident Sunday's semi-finals of the George Curtis & Ballyregan Bob Memorial will go ahead as planned.

A week later than scheduled after issues with the traps forced their postponement last weekend, the track has also confirmed the final of the Category One event over 740m will now be staged on Saturday, November 14, alongside trial stakes for the upcoming Coral Olympic. 

Rob Abrey, Hove racing manager, said: "We know what the issue is with the 285m and 740m traps and are confident that by the end of the week everything will be in place.

"Gavin Smith, whose expertise and knowledge of traps is well known, is coming down to oversee the work, which is effectively replacing the pillar attached to the arm of the traps which means they can be swung on to the track. The traps themselves are perfectly okay.

"However, given the work to be undertaken, we have opted to run 500m races for the rest of the week - including on Saturday. However, sprint trials will be held before racing on Saturday.

"Everything will be vigorously tested before any 285m or 740m races are staged and hopefully we can now look forward to not only Sunday's Coral Gold Collar Final this Sunday, but also the semi-finals of the George Curtis & Ballyregan Bob Memorial - and then the final some six days later.

"We always had opens scheduled for Saturday, November 14, and that night should be a special evening here - on and off the track. It kicks off our festive period really and hopefully they'll be a party-like atmosphere.

"We have an Elvis tribute act here on the night which always goes down a storm."

*There will be no trials on Monday at Hove as work also begins to replace the hare rail.