The Irish Greyhound Board has released figures from the first nine months of the year which show that, despite a 11% per cent drop in attendance at the countrys nationwide stadia, it is still on target to maintain prize money and industry distributions in 2009 around the record levels likely to be achieved in 2008.

There is no doubt that this has been a tough year for attendance at tracks, said Adrian Neilan, Chief Executive of the Irish Greyhound Board. Poor weather and the general downturn in the economy have hit our sport in the same way as many others.

Despite this we remain on target to produce a capital surplus of close to 5 million which will be used to support capital development and prize money which sustains this great industry. This itself represents a 10% drop on 2007 levels but will still represent a very substantial increase on the figure of 2.8 generated in 2006 and shows the fundamentals of the sport to be in good health.

There have been many positive advances through the first three quarters of the year, most notably in the area of welfare where track improvements at Harolds Cross and Waterford as well as a new injured greyhound transporter at Curraheen Park have set an international standard of best practice. We will continue to devote energy and resource to the vital area of greyhound welfare.

This year we introduced a loyalty card which rewards regular customers of our tracks, and a number of initiatives with Filte Ireland have had a very promising start with 13,000 French holidaymakers taking advantage of a pre-booking facility to enjoy a Night at the Dogs. This single initiative has already generated revenue of well over 350,000 and is being rolled out to Spain, Italy, South Africa and Scandinavia in time for next years tourist season.

The Paddy Power Irish Greyhound Derby Final at Shelbourne Park, won in magnificent fashion by Shelbourne Aston, was an historic occasion being the first time that on track betting turnover had burst through 1 million.

Greyhound View continues to broadcast the sport to a wide audience and this year will feature live broadcasts from Cork, Waterford and Galway for the first time.

The updated websit EXTERNAL LINK with faster results, news and a video archive has proven immensely popular and will be developed further over the next twelve months.

These are all positive signs as we face into the important final three months of the year and look towards 2009.

We do not hide the fact that overall attendance is down 11% across our 17 stadia and our marketing plan for the remainder of this year and next year will explore new markets and reflect analysis on the return of current marketing and advertising spend. Harolds Cross has bucked the trend showing a 2 per cent increase in attendance, and Waterford will benefit from the major refurbishment that has been undertaken throughout 2008. The new centralised sales centre in Thurles is already showing positive results with Christmas bookings ahead of the same period last year whilst providing the means to explore new business opportunities from new sources.

Betting from tote operations is also down but not by as much as attendance. It has fallen eight per cent versus the corresponding strong first nine months of 2008. This will be addressed through working on attendance and by the introduction of new advertising of Tote products which was unveiled on Paddy Power Derby Final night.

We are reaching out to the new Irish communities and have translated our betting material into twelve languages. We have also looked beyond our shores. Tote betting on Irish Greyhound racing was introduced to Swedish outlets on a trial basis in the spring. This has already generated revenues of over 300,000 and is growing rapidly. We are working towards similar agreements in other jurisdictions that will broaden further the appeal of the sport and increase revenues.

The role of Irish Greyhound racing in betting shops remains strong, as evidenced by the continued welcome support of all the nations largest bookmakers as key sponsors within our sport. The continued importance of the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund to our industry cannot be overstated, supporting as it does some 11,000 jobs within the country and contributing over 500 million to the local economy each year.

Greyhound Racing continues to play a vital role at the heart of rural communities, as well as being an ever popular urban night out. We have upheld our proud tradition of community support through our participation in this years Positive Ageing Week.

The full annual results will be published in February 2009.