The Select Stakes: Nottingham’s Flagship Invited Race
The Select Stakes at Nottingham is the stadium’s most prestigious single-night event — an invited competition that draws some of the fastest greyhounds in the country to Colwick Park for a Category 1 showpiece. In 2024, the Select Stakes reached a milestone when its first-place prize money hit a record £12,500, the highest in the event’s history and a statement of intent about the competition’s ambitions.
For a race held at a track that opened in 1980, the Select Stakes carries a weight of history that stretches well beyond Nottingham itself. The competition existed before Colwick Park was built, migrating across several venues during a period when British greyhound racing was reshaping its fixture calendar to fit a shrinking number of stadiums. That the Select Stakes landed at Nottingham — and has grown there — is a testament to the stadium’s ability to stage events that match the sport’s highest standards.
This is the story of how it got here, what it looks like today, and what to expect if you’re planning to attend or bet on the next edition.
From Wembley to Colwick Park: How the Select Stakes Moved
The Select Stakes originated as one of the marquee events in the British greyhound calendar, with its earliest editions held at venues that no longer exist. Wembley Stadium — the original Wembley, the Twin Towers — hosted some of the most memorable greyhound events of the twentieth century, and the Select Stakes was among the competitions that graced its track. When Wembley closed its greyhound operation, the event needed a new home, and it moved through a succession of venues before finding permanent residency at Nottingham.
The format of the Select Stakes is distinctive. Unlike graded races where any dog in the appropriate class can enter, the Select Stakes is an invitation-only event. Trainers nominate their best dogs, and the competition organisers select the field based on recent form, time, and quality. That invitation process means the Select Stakes field is curated rather than random — every dog in the line-up has earned its place through performance, not just eligibility. The result is a competition where the weakest runner in the field would be a strong contender in most graded races.
The event is staged during National Greyhound Week, typically in August, which gives it additional promotional weight and public visibility. It shares the evening card with the JenningsBet Puppy Classic, creating a doubleheader of Category 1 racing that represents the biggest single night on Nottingham’s calendar. David Evans, General Manager at the stadium, has described the level of enthusiasm surrounding the competition: the interest around the Select Stakes and Puppy Classic, combined with National Greyhound Week activities, creates an evening designed for both dedicated followers and newcomers to the sport.
Within the broader context of British greyhound racing — where the total annual prize fund across all tracks reaches £15.7 million, and the English Greyhound Derby alone carries a £175,000 first prize — the Select Stakes’ £12,500 purse sits at the upper end of non-Derby competitions. It isn’t the richest race in the calendar, but it’s the richest event specific to Nottingham, and its growth in prize money reflects the investment flowing through the Premier Greyhound Racing structure.
Recent Select Stakes: Results, Times and Standout Performers
The recent history of the Select Stakes reads as a catalogue of some of the best greyhounds to race in the UK Midlands and beyond. Each edition produces a winner whose time and performance provide a benchmark for the following year’s competition.
What distinguishes Select Stakes winners from regular open-race victors is the consistency of their form across the preceding months. An invited field means that every dog in the race has been running well enough to catch the eye of the competition organisers. There are no weak links, no dogs making up the numbers. The winner has to beat genuine quality to take the title, and the margins are typically tight — half a length, a length, sometimes less. A Select Stakes win earned by three lengths is a statement performance that marks a dog as something exceptional.
Times at the Select Stakes tend to reflect the quality of the field and the competitive intensity of the race. Nottingham’s 500m standard distance — the distance over which the Select Stakes is typically contested — produces benchmark times that are comparable to any Category 1 event outside the Derby. The track record for 500m at Nottingham stands as a reminder that the venue’s sand surface is capable of producing seriously fast racing when the conditions are right and the dogs are elite.
For punters, Select Stakes form is among the most bankable in the calendar. Dogs that run well in the Select Stakes — even in defeat — tend to carry that form into their next three or four outings. A second or third place finish against a Select Stakes field represents a higher level of performance than a win in a standard A1 graded race, and the market sometimes underestimates this. Checking a dog’s form line for a Select Stakes placing is one of the simplest ways to identify quality that the prices haven’t fully accounted for.
The event also serves as a showcase for trainers. Handlers who regularly produce Select Stakes finalists are operating at the top level of the sport, and their other dogs — the ones not quite good enough for invitation — often represent strong selections in open races at Nottingham throughout the year. A trainer with Select Stakes pedigree is a trainer who knows how to prepare dogs for big occasions, and that expertise transfers across the kennel.
Attending the Select Stakes Night
The Select Stakes night is the busiest single evening on Nottingham’s calendar, and attending it requires more planning than a standard Monday or Friday card. The stadium’s car park — 1,000 spaces on a normal night — fills up substantially earlier, and the restaurant is usually booked solid weeks in advance. If you want the restaurant experience on Select Stakes night, reserve your table as soon as the fixture date is confirmed.
The atmosphere inside the stadium lifts noticeably on Category 1 nights. The crowd is larger, more vocal, and includes a mix of regulars and visitors who might only attend a handful of meetings per year. There’s a sense of occasion that standard graded meetings — however competitive — can’t quite match. The Select Stakes is typically staged as the feature race of the evening, positioned in the middle of the card to build anticipation through the undercard and give the crowd time to settle into the rhythm of the meeting before the main event.
Betting activity on Select Stakes night is correspondingly heavier. Markets open earlier in the day, prices move faster, and the on-course bookmakers are more competitive with their odds because the volume justifies tighter margins. For punters, this means better value is sometimes available on the undercard races — where the bookmakers are paying less attention — rather than on the Select Stakes itself, where the market is efficiently priced and overlays are harder to find.
The Select Stakes falls within Nottingham’s regular Monday/Friday evening slot, with the first race going off around 18:00–18:37 as usual. But the card extends slightly on feature nights, with additional races and sometimes a later finish time. Check the full card on the Nottingham Greyhound Stadium website once the racecard is published, and plan your evening around the feature race slot.