THE Oxford trainers merry-go-round is about to stop, according to racing manager Gary Baiden.

Over the past few months, Nick Colton and Alan Stevens have left, while Terry Kibble, Robert Hannan, Paul Clarke and Dean Childs have joined the ranks.

They have been recruited in a bid to get the necessary number of greyhounds to run two BAGS meetings and three evening meetings a week - which involves around 400 hounds.

Baiden said: "We now have the required amount of graders to fulfil our needs, and contrary to rumours there are no plans to increase the training staff."

However, to add to the variety of racing, Baiden has appealed to owners and trainers to trial their lower grade dogs over the 595m trip, something Oxford have been woefully short of.

Thirty-four hounds were passed off for grading on Monday, which brought the strength up to 430, the minimum Baiden requires to sustain 12-race programmes.

New trainer Dean Childs will be pleased with the performances of Saleem Tom (27.30) and Talavara Form (37.66) at the session.

However, there is still a shortage of wide runners.