Its a great move and hopefully it will continue beyond 30th June 2021

Sandro,

Surely that's the real issue - time.

This is good but essentially it is a backdoor way of combatting the huge rise in ultra-short races - without actually saying so.

In any event, promoting 500/700m races for four months would be a complete waste. Longer racing and stamina in general are long term challenges which need to be addressed over a good five years to have any hope of success.

It has not worked in the past - but note that all the states which have launched programs never report the outcomes.

For Mestrov to claim it is "beginning to pay dividends in boosting the staying ranks" is merely waffle and without evidence.

I predict minimal success unless and until some ultra-short races are deleted and/or their prize money halved.

Anyway, I thought we were at death's door so where is the $1m coming from?

Its not the ants pants but its a move in the right direction

At least 500m races are getting supported and rewarded

It needs to continue beyond 30th June 2021 and needs to be extended to 600m and 700m races for lower grades

I am pretty sure that COVID was good to the dogs in terms of gambling on corporates so the money boost would have come from there according to their latest Annual Report

We have a review of the Act and potentially a TABCORP sale of the gambling business so hopefully our Board representatives can negotiate and lobby for a viable long term future of the sport

Quite so - but I am always annoyed when somebody dishes up figures and claims in part only. Greyhound racing is notorious for not disclosing any more info than they think is good for us - which was true of Mestrov's latest media release.

Worse, they make claims that are just not sustainable.

The key is that noises are always made when they SPEND (our) money but never when it comes to ACCOUNTABILITY for that expense. Auditors are no better as they simply count the dollars in and out and forget about checking whether the expense was worthwhile. This contrasts with other government audits which do verify that the expense actually achieved something (roads and rail investments are cases in point - so was the Auditor General's rejection of incorrect Baird claims about international practices and his subsequent advertising).

In the current release, Mestrov said nothing about income fluctuations; rather he claimed what a good boy he was by cutting expenses. So who knows?

Another example is that since GWIC took over the reporting of breeding and injuries has improved tenfold on what GRNSW did.

Similarly, GRNSW gave itself a pat after spending big money on the Gosford rebuild yet not a soul has commented on the actual changes made, nor their reasoning. In practice, the 388m trip is no different to the previous 400m - ie falls and interference - while the 520m first turn is equally disruptive.

It has always been so.

The saver is that GRNSW obviously recognised the dangers of increasing numbers of sub-400m races when it completely omitted them from the current announcement. A bit left-handed, though.

As for TABCORP - any buyout will simply shift allegiances from local shareholders to overseas types who are wedded to financial manipulations, not the welfare of racing. Much as I hate to say it, nationalisation of the wagering market is the best greyhounds can hope for.

If Tabcorp does decide to sell up,hopefully the current 12.5% that our industry gets,can be re- negotiated & we recieve a much fairer " slice of the cake",i heard at present,that Greyhound Racing should be about 20%,not the crumbs that were agreed to over 99 years.
I still can't believe that it was signed off on,just unbelievable bad business model when that decision was made.

Sandro Bechini wrote:

Got to start somewhere Bruce Its not the ants pants but its a move in the right direction At least 500m races are getting supported and rewarded It needs to continue beyond 30th June 2021 and needs to be extended to 600m and 700m races for lower grades I am pretty sure that COVID was good to the dogs in terms of gambling on corporates so the money boost would have come from there according to their latest Annual Report We have a review of the Act and potentially a TABCORP sale of the gambling business so hopefully our Board representatives can negotiate and lobby for a viable long term future of the sport

Goulburn

Other tracks close to that distance include ,
Coonabarabran 410 m

Lithgow 414 m

Lismore 420 m

Muswellbrook 429 m

Bathurst & Maitland 450 m

Wauchope & Temora 457 m

Why do you ask Bill ??

Bill Deguara wrote:

can someone tell me how many tracks in nsw have 440 m races. I can think of one gunnedah, any others.

We must get our facts right.

TABCORP has nothing to do with the 12.5% or 20% figures you mention (actually they are 13.1% and 20%-plus), nor does the NSW government. They are the result of a private agreement freely entered into by the three codes - greyhounds by Ross Maginn (then Chairman) on advice from GBOTA and NCA reps. Weak but true!

Equally, it will not be changed unless the three codes agree - which they don't (see V'Landys).

The more disgraceful effort was last year from Troy Grant and his boss to provide greys with only 10% of the benefits of the tax equalisation (with Victoria) based on spurious grounds which had nothing to do with normal betting activity. It should have been at least 13.1% but more fairly 20%.

Perhaps (see your lawyer) a more successful method might be to disband GRNSW and the relevant Acts and reform the industry in a totally different context as a new company and then renegotiate agreements. Obviously that requires government support to bring it about.

Anyway, the latest "gifts" from GRNSW are mostly for one-off programs, not standard week to week races, which may or may not lead to permanent upgrades. Nice but it does not justify taking out a fresh mortgage.

Secondly, what really supports the alleged move of dogs from NSW to Vic? A little more availability of longer races perhaps but otherwise there is not a huge difference in day to day 5th grade prize money, especially not when you realise quite a lot of them are for VicBred dogs only and apart from Cranbourne there are no sub-400m races available in Vic.

The best way of encouraging more 500m racing in NSW is to hold back on scheduling the horrible 300m trips - which are still growing. In other words it's the trainers who are stopping 500m progress because they are nominating for races of 400m or less. In turn, halve the prize money for 250m/350m races and give the savings to 500m or longer races - permanently.

Mark,

In both states there are massive numbers of empty boxes while in NSW they are often flat out getting 10 races on the program (see Gosford last Tuesday).

Tonight, prior to scratchings, the only reserves at Wenty are for the Maiden race, while the Masters is two short of a field. And, apart from the bookie, there are no races supported by real sponsors.

Victoria has had a formal policy of drawing races with only 6 runners, which means they will often jump with even fewer. (Ditto for G-SIX in SA).

Mate, we have run out of dogs - everywhere - which is part of the reason for the growth in short races (employing often crook dogs which can't run out of sight on a foggy day).

Breeding is the big problem - the incentive to breed, that is. Yet nobody knows why this is happening or what to do about it.

I come from an era when trainers would crawl over broken glass just to get a draw at Wenty. Today they can't get them for five grand a time.

While I don't begrudge some of the country tracks a chance at bigger money the outcome is that crook, slow, short course dogs are entering the ring - and there are empty boxes all over the place.

Sadly, we have dumped quality in favour of quantity but even that quantity is suffering now. In any state.

Good points. But consider how we got here.

1. Trainers (much more than owners, I suspect) kept asking clubs to put on shorter races. Why? To accommodate slow/weak dogs which did not otherwise justify being kept on. In part, this was an outcome of pressure about lifetime tracking, to get some return on the investment and to avoid disposing of them too quickly.

2. Clubs agreed (clubs are made up of owner/trainers anyway) and GRNSW funded the changes and new boxes without question.

3. Simultaneously GRNSW awarded many of them full 5th grade money.

4. Trainers eyes widened and said Ill have some of that a logical approach.

5. With increasing nominations the concept grew like Topsy so now everybody is doing it to (a) keep up with the Joneses and (b) maintain a full 10-race program. That includes Wenty or, more correctly, GBOTA which has also done it at Lismore and Bulli.

6. Customers were not asked and apparently do not care as betting volumes are similar for all distances. That tells you a lot about the quality of those customers they are betting on four-legged poker machines. Serious investors are as scarce as hensteeth. NT bookies and Tabcorp are lapping up the mugs dough.

So now we have 60%-plus of the product running over 400m or less, more races fitting into the disruptive category, fewer dogs slotting into the 500m+ group, the proportion of good quality dogs dropping, customers who could not care less, breeding remaining at appallingly low levels and a state authority which has all the vision of a gnat.

The short term solution is easy ban races shorter than 400m. Failing that, cut their prize money in half.

Longer term, work out why breeding is declining and take suitable measures to reverse the trend. No guessing, please, do it professionally under a five year plan, preferably with extra stamina in mind.

PS: I mentioned Bulli where GBOTA increased shorter races as soon as it took over. The previous proprietors refused to run even 400m events unless they absolutely had to. Their reason was that 472m and longer races brought in much higher betting turnover. How times have changed in all areas!

what a joke, bloody politicians.

Any reduction in races and therefore in income is not permissible, regardless of the facts. Consequently, given the dog shortage, 300m racing got in through the back door by using otherwise poor quality dogs.

Any longer term interests of the code were ignored. Breeding numbers and quality were somebody elses problem. Serious punters had disappeared into the ether. The Tote, the codes golden goose, turned into a bedraggled sparrow. Spending and decision-making about track issues got relatively little attention. Excessive rules and regulations a Baird triumph pushed some operators to the brink.

In short, as a commercial undertaking, greyhound racing is in doubtful shape, and dependent on my favourite group mugs in pubs. Its not yet in the ICU but it does need specialist attention.