If you don't care where your money is coming from you reduce yourself to the kids running a lemonade stand in the street.

Over time, income has moved from the locals who turned up with their mates to have a bet with bookies to countywide and worldwide gamblers who have no idea what they are betting on, just as Aussies are invited to have a blind punt on Swedish trotters. Clubs no longer bothered to push their wares, instead sitting back and relying on Santa Claus to send them a cheque every month.

We have gone from trackside commission rooms which hosted professionals betting mostly on the horses and who therefore allowed the local club to skim a bit off the top to minimal involvement from professionals of any description, whether computerised or not.

For a while, offshore players (Fiji and Vanuatu) made monkeys out of
local operators, thereby diverting income from local clubs (see Packer and Hawke, amongst others).

Today, we have been swamped by international financial behemoths who make up their own rules and who are unconcerned about the progress of Aussie racing as such. It's just a vehicle for their whizz kids to squeeze blood out of the stone. Like four-legged poker machines.

In short, GRNSW and others do not "earn" anything - they simply count the pennies as they come in, regardless of their worth or their longevity. Everyone is flush at the moment as they reap the benefits of housebound gamblers unable to get to their favourite outlets or even to spend money on restaurants or attending football matches.

Perhaps that is also why they spend it badly, regularly allocating funds to unproductive ventures such as crook tracks, bonuses for stayers that can't stay, big money for 300m squibs and chest-thumping increases in cash for feature events. All the while ignoring the fundamental changes in the nature of the breed and the effect this is having on current and future racing.

So who cares? Well, I do, I have more years than I can count invested in this industry and it's painful to see it degrading.

I will leave you with one thought. It has been a long while since a greyhound club could make ends meet on its own. The income from a few hours of exposure once a week is not sufficient to carry all the land, infrastructure and labour costs involved. A racing club will prosper only when it has a partner and/or a secondary income to make better use of the facility.

If it wasn't for the mug punters and the controls that are currently in place to fund the industry's needs from the mug punter revenue i.e. if we left it to private operators and punters to rule the roost...the position of our sport would be in the same shape as it is in the USA

Non-Existent

The game has changed dramatically. Everydog born will not have the characteristics or quality that you expect from a betting product.

To live in your idealistic world, the burn rate for greyhounds would be at about 90% and the 10% worth betting on will make the cut.

What happens to the rest?
In your scenario, the industry can only shrink further.

The current scenario is now returning as much as money as it can to a broader base of participants willing to race dogs from the lowest level to the highest level.

The industry has a chance to grow.
The longer term problem is that the sport in the rest of the world isn't growing with it and replicating our template.

You need to come to terms that every dog has to have the chance to earn its existence in a safe racing environment and then be re-homed

That takes money, money that can only come from mug punters betting on these dogs, as distasteful as it may be to you

Times for being a purist are gone. Reality has taken over.

I think you are living in the past mate

They were racing for about $800 at Newcastle in the early nineties. Please, it took a very long time to get to $1500, but I appreciate that we finally did.

Qld bred dogs are eligible to win $4,000 per dog in bonuses, just by being bred in Qld. Do we have something similar? I'm not a breeder so I don't know. Are we breeding more in NSW or on the East Coast of Aus?

My learned friend remembers the Mestrov-Brown show about 5 yr ago going to Lismore, stating they will take GRNSW back to the top of the tree as the Premier Greyhound Racing State of Aus. What do you think, have we got there yet? Has he done well?

We need tracks to race our dogs! I once emailed Judy Lind about greyhound trainers who will race at 9am in the morning up here on the MNC because that's what we do. Nec minute, it happened. Probably not good for the punters in pubs and clubs, but anyway we raced. I see that Victoria is now doing it.

Your claims and adjectives are yours, not mine. Please dont verbal me.

1. Together with the UK and USA we share one common denominator the majority of the public do not like greyhounds and many also dislike betting. No-one has succeeded in overcoming that problem and few are trying.
2. The USA has a special problem in that virtually all the racing is part of a dual racing/casino operation where the casino bit is far more profitable than the racing bit thereby making it easier for the racing opponents to hamper development and win regulatory battles.
3. I have outlined the historical development of the Oz betting sector as that is the lifeline for both past and future racing. Over the course of a century it got better but then it has got worse - temporarily eased by Covid-induced home betting (ie while customers were unable to spend on other recreations, from movies to restaurants to footie matches, etc). Do not expect the next few years to be as rewarding as the last couple.
4. The Oz betting customer has degraded over the past decade or so observable in several ways partly because the Tote is now pretty useless and a multiplicity of corporates are hell bent on screwing every last ounce out of any old gambler they can find, using bung rules to do it. (Not so applicable to the gallops due to the size of that market).
5. Consequently, good knowledge of the greyhound caper is rare. They dont know how to bet or how to gauge the worth of a dog. And, of course, there is no need for them to go to the track so they dont. Thats a severe loss.
6. Your mates on boards in the three eastern states all had some idea of the live baiting going on but did almost nothing about it not until the volcano erupted. (Not my words they effectively admitted it).
7. The same guys threw away millions upon millions on poor track works, most of which have failed to bring about any real improvements. Or, where they did not spend money, the tracks remained disruptive.
8. The bottom has fallen out of the breeding game, in turn leading to short fields and a general weakening of field quality. There are tiny improvements in NSW numbers recently (not Vic, though) but they are not enough to change the trend.
9. In the training ranks, good earners are reasonably common. Plenty of battlers are there too, but have to be satisfied by having lesser quality dogs competing in lesser quality races for lesser cash. If they dont like it they have to get out of the kitchen.
10. You are voting for a continuation of the status quo. Very risky. The industry has two assets a core of top quality dogs and a core of competent trainers. The problem is that it is not putting them to good enough use. This is a management challenge. You cant just buy your way out of that you have to work harder to catch up with the rest of the world. Its that hard to define thing community standards and acceptance.

I repeat the measure is to have good quality 5th Grade events everywhere, every day of the week. Do that and the rest will fall into place above and below.

I HAVE TO SAY BRUCE, UP UNTIL NOW I HAVE PUT UP WITH YOUR BULLSHIT RANTINGS AS BEING HARMLESS AND SELF ABSORBED, BUT THESE RESPONSES TO MY POST SHOWS YOUR TOTAL ARROGANCE AND ABSOLUTE LACK OF RESPECT
AND INSULTING IGNORANCE OF THE PEOPLE INVOLVED IN THE SPORT WHO HAVE STRIVED TO KEEP IT UP AND RUNNING

IT ALSO SHOWS YOUR TOTAL LACK OF UNDERSTANDING OF HOW THIS SPORT NEEDS TO BE RUN IN THIS COUNTRY NOW

IT IS ALSO AN INSULT TO THE GOOD WORK DONE BY THE ADMINISTRATORS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY SINCE THE CRISIS OF 2015 TO CHANGE THE CULTURE OF THIS SPORT SO THAT IT BECOMES SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE

IT IS AN INSULT TO ALL THE GAP AGENCIES AND PRIVATE REHOMING AGENCIES THAT HAVE STRIVED TO GET PUBLIC ACCEPTANCE OF THE GREYHOUND SO THERE IS UNNECESSARY EUTHANASIA

IT ALL STEMS BACK TO THE FACT THAT YOU DONT CARE ABOUT THE GREYOHUND ITSELF , IT IS MERELY A BETTING OBJECT TO YOU

(Edited by Admin)

There will be a backlash if you are banned!

Non ratification/ammendment to TAB Intercode agreement
Certain aspects of GWIC, if indeed not GWIC in it's entirety
The lack of a breeder's incentive or programme
Grading

He has a way with words, but I don't think I have every read (well, not lately anyway) the most strongest words used that have totally rebutted his ones.

All due respect where I can, but seriously I get headaches and I'm somewhat confused when reading some of his posts. Most of his arguments just don't `gel' with me.

This has occurred despite my fairly regular reviews of my past proposals, only to find out that they were and still are valid but not acted on. Try checking yourself, if you like.

Incidentally, I have long since stopped betting because the product, in various ways, is no longer a sensible proposition. I have found many others of the same view. Today, I am just an observer and a commentator. Still, over the course of half a century, I have contributed mightily to the code's income, fortunately making a modest profit at the same time.

I note comments by a couple of blokes before you. I don't have sufficient knowledge to talk about some of the four items but I must mention that changes to the Intercode Agreement are not well understood. First, it was badly set up by previous administrations with the help of GBOTA/NCA so essentially the industry has to blame itself. Second, it cannot be changed by government - only by a mind change of the other two codes (notably V'Landys). Third, continuing administrations have freely decided to increase race numbers beyond the contract level at which greyhounds would get full value (ie up from 590 to 900 races pa), knowing that it would boost income for gallops and trots. The same principle applied during the equine influenza.

(Note, we are getting away with it at the moment because a higher proportion of betting turnover is coming from corporates. While they pay lower rates they are outside the IDC so greyhounds get all the commission).

Some credit should go to a more recent GRA/GRNSW in that it did try to get the agreement upgraded - but failed.

There is no point in playing the man and not the ball. Especially when people get their facts wrong or pretend they are not there.

There are lots of us writers in the other two codes but hardly any in greyhounds.

While not a journalist I do generally follow their principles - which is more than I can say about some newspapers and the ABC.

I am not over-interested in the employer's philosophy - only in what I see as fair and sensible comment. IF the employer does not like that he is free to sack me - and two have done so (the Recorder and QGRA) while I quit another because they censored my writing. Several others have not. So be it.

You might ponder that there are a variety of approaches in the greyhound industry, depending on where the writer is coming from. It would be good if all of them had some appreciation of what the various sectors think and do. Sadly, they often don't.

The trick is that until I shut down my operation three years ago I was one of possibly half a dozen people in the country who owned and could analyse track, race and dog performances to the n'th degree. No owner or trainer could get within a bull's roar of that source of data. However, those folk have other knowledge and assets which can be valuable to me and others - which is why I entered this forum in the first place.

By the way, writers seldom earn a fortune but I always insisted that I would not write for nothing as a matter of principle, just as a trainer believes he is entitled to petrol money after taking his dog to the races.

Every single article I write is either fully factual or at least based on facts to which I may add an opinion. I try to make sure the difference is clear.

No progress or change? Well, there has been some but it is limited to (a) a few functional items such as drug testing for which the authorities are responsible or (b) developments in technical areas outside the core industry - feeds, equipment, medicines etc. However, generally the industry has been inefficiently run, mainly because is it bureaucratically and politically influenced. So that's what I often write about. We can do better.

Gavin,

Defamation laws have always been there and will remain. A major intent of the new laws is to unmask the anonymous writers on social media and also to hold the site operator responsible to some extent (which does not apply on this blog as anonymity does not exist).

Of course, defamation would consider lies and abuse. Reasonable opinions are a different matter but should always be welcome. That's what makes the world go round.

It's not hard but it is worth studying.