Greyhound racing is the sport written into this stadium's web address — and into a good part of its modern history. While speedway built West Row in the 1970s, it was the arrival of the dogs in 1991 that turned Mildenhall into the multi-discipline venue it is today.
Opening night, 1991
The idea of adding greyhound racing was put to landowner Terry Waters by Dick Partridge in August 1990. A little over a year later, on Saturday 21 September 1991, the track held its first meeting — an eight-race card whose opening 375-metre event was won by Coppacabana in 24.61 seconds. The new operation was built properly from the start, with 74 kennels, a paddock and a weighing room, and an "Outside Sumner" hare system driving the lure around the circuit.
A regulated track
Mildenhall has always raced under regulation rather than as an independent "flapping" track. It opened under a licence from the National Greyhound Racing Club (NGRC), and when the NGRC merged with the British Greyhound Racing Board in 2009 to form the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB), the track came under the GBGB's authority. That means racing here follows the GBGB Rules of Racing, with a qualified vet at every meeting and compulsory pre-race and post-race examinations — the welfare framework set out in the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and the Welfare of Racing Greyhounds Regulations 2010.
The track and its distances
The greyhound circuit is a 325-metre sand track, traditionally laid with King's Lynn silica sand and quite distinct from the tighter shale oval the speedway bikes and stock cars use. Over the years the track has settled on a full spread of race distances, from a one-bend sprint to a true marathon of more than three laps.
Greyhound race distances
Six distances are run on the 325-metre circuit — from a one-bend sprint to an extended marathon of just over three laps.
The shortest 220-metre sprints are flat-out dashes where trap speed and railing decide everything; the middle-distance 545 and 700-metre races reward strong, balanced runners; and the 870 and 1,025-metre marathons are tests of stamina that suit dedicated stayers. After the 2022 resumption the track's primary race distance was reported as 388 metres.
Closure, comeback and the 2026 return
Greyhound racing has had a stop-start recent history. On 15 January 2018 racing ceased, after most of the track's trainers had moved to other venues and the fixture list had dwindled to a single night each week. The dogs returned on 8 February 2022, when promoter Kevin Boothby reopened the track under the new name "Suffolk Downs" following a trial session that January.
The stadium fire of 30 July 2024 interrupted that revival, closing the venue. The next chapter is already set: from 2026 greyhound racing at Mildenhall is being taken on by the Arena Racing Company (ARC) under a lease, with operations overseen by Simon Franklin and racing broadcast through Premier Greyhound Racing. The stadium reverts to its Mildenhall name, while Spedeworth International Ltd — the stadium's owner — continues to run the speedway and stock cars. Fixture dates and the weekly schedule for the new era are to be confirmed.