BitofaLegend

I know most trainers I still talk to regularly, training fees tend to cover all of the necessities for them regarding dog food, transport, utilities etc and the winnings tend to be bonuses (obviously the stake split tends to be 70-80% to the owner). They also own 1 or 2 dogs outright to get bonuses. Most trainers with more then 15 to 20 dogs, it would be there main source of income. A limit on racing greyhound numbers would really only impact probably the top 7, although people like fahey and cole probably have enough quality dogs to breed and sell the ones that are not c5/his best.

Many people probably hoped theyd be leading the charge here. You did not see the Australian greyhounds associations act this non-chalant when their respective states greyhound industries were under scrutiny.

These numbers are all season long. You will find people with dogs ranging from 30-45 here probably have about 25-35 dogs at one time. And many of these people are making 130+k per year which on top of training fees which would be more then sustainable. There are only a handfull of trainers that would actually have over 40 racing dogs in their kennels at a time (excluding brood bitches, pups and retired dogs).

That does appear to be the case. Ive heard there are two seperate groups looking to challenge the closure as it is right now, but I havent heard whether GRNZ are involved in either. The message sent to LPs however reeked of weak leadership and atleast from the outside looking in, appeared as though they have no real plan at all to fight for the industry when they should be leading the challenges made against the ban and supporting all of the LPs now more then ever. The ban will have 0 chance of being overturned if the leadership is weak during this time.

Most trainers could make more then enough of 30 dogs in todays climate. I know several trainers with less then 30 living of racing dogs. Anything more has always been pure greed and unsustainable long term. As for race numbers. Large majority of races are c1 squib races. Waste of space anyway and trainers wouldnt be so lazy if they were limited to 30 dogs. I'd say 85% of sprinters can get middle distance if fit and trained well. Ive seen the current internal memo to participants and have to agree, there is nothing in it to bode confidence at all that they have any sort of case. ESSENTIALLY says lets just keep the industry going and show them we wont be phased.

Im not to sure about this one because they would have had to make this public information for betting purposes. Plus i doubt the vet would have let a broken toe through. Think its more likely Hes all go has just been a bit tardy of the boxes lately. He seems to be miss the jump more frequently at Auckland

Watched the full video today. It leaves out the part where they were going into peoples dogs trailers which led to the altercation.

Im sure you would get fustrated to if they call you 3x a year about a dog thats raced in 1995 once every 8 mths. One of my mates who no longer trains gets ph calls about the same 6 dogs from GRNZ every year and every year, its the same answer. I agree its probably not a high priority but im sure the above happens to others too. Truth is the historical data prior to 2019 probably isnt great because there was no real oversight and the majority of trainers did not tell GRNZ where there dogs went post retirement. I do think the above situation is funny though. I think the real concern here is these registered dogs are still included in GRNZ official numbers for the current years which probably makes the numbers look even worse.

I think its been a long time coming even before the anouncement with them mostly selling pups the past few years. Still, she was a top conditioner of dogs. Sadly, we will probably see more of this the next year

Well they are the main two airlines between NZ and Aus (exc Jetstar but Jetstars just Qantas anyway now) which trainers historically have used.

Last I heard, it was nearly impossible to get dogs into NZ anyway now. This was before the ban but AIR NZ completely stopped Greyhound transports and Qantas have continously changed its policies on transporting greyhounds.

Agreed - While im critical of GRNZ failure to lead and make changes, leaving alot of the critical changes needed to the past year, to say the industry is harmful to animals is complete lies. Truth is Greyhound racing in NZ is now one of the safest industries for animals in the country. If you wanted to ban Greyhound racing on the basis of it not being safe, where do you draw the line? Ban 1080 for hurting wildlife and possums? Ban rat & mice poison/traps? Ban Cattle because they are all slaughtered? Ban thouroubreds and Harness because they have higher injury rates? Ban the SPCA because they put down 1000s, probably 10s of 1000 of animals per year as do Animal Shelters? Ban Pets as many are harmed daily and alot are abandoned/not managed well? Wouldnt need so many vets if pet owners were more responsible right... The list goes on. You cant use the argument that dogs are a comodity either because so are cattle and dairy cattle too. So are farm dogs. Should we ban farm dogs if animals shouldnt be used to make money... what about bees. They slave away from birth to death making honey for us 🤣

I know for sure they arent. I dont think O can say much more for now.

They had two come over the past 6 years. Unironically both destroyed tracks in NSW during their time there and were forced out/"Left"

GRNZ have 15m to spend in 18 Mths. Offer them a 1m contract 🤣

I would say its not just pet owners but alot of vets aswell. Had an aunty whose dog dropped a back muscle about 10 months ago and the vet suggested no exercise for 3 months. Poor dog could barely run afterwards and retore it right away.

Contrary to popular belief, most trainers do not like to put dogs down. It happens sure, but its not like they take joy in it. Quite the opposite really

Spoken to a few trainers. I dont think any trainer would let SPCA rehome their dogs because the majority of them would be put down. While the dogs cant be euthanised (they couldnt before the legislation passed), govt still cannot tell the owners of those dogs what to do post racing. I have heard there is already a rush to get the dogs into rehoming agencies. However, many will keep 1 or 2 and rehome the rest of them themselves.

What about the presenters on trackside? I dont really listen to them but surely some of them have mentioned it

My guess is they want to stay as far away from this as possible. Out of curiosity, has there been any interactions with Entain group yet? From what I have heard, there has not been, but this could change.

Many of the points here, I put to those in govermnent via emails. Unfortunatly, Act was the only party that acknowledged it with a response and it seems they are providing a blanket response to everyone who has emailed them regarding the closure. Still better then Mr Peters who doesnt seem to want to front anything right now.

Yep. That head in the sand argument is why greyhound racing has such a bad name now.

NSW probably isnt a prime example right now considering alot of the GRNSW lost their jobs due to incompetence and is currently under heavy reviews from the state govt which arent looking promising. Add to that, the broken deals between them and Entain and Entain trying to pull out of its deal with GRNSW due to negligence. I think the biggest issue in NZ which I have mentioned several times is the public doesnt support racing anymore. The general public are happy the greyhounf industry is shutting down, and I have 0 doubts the same eyes will fall on the horses next. Compared to Australia where racing for a large part, is still engrained in their culture, its no longer the same here. Even the NZ Cup coverage has started diminish outside of trackside over time which was a big event even a decadd ago.

I dont know why GRNZ keep hiring the bad people from NSW. This is like the 3rd time they have done this.

Dogs definetly will run through injuries. Trainers should be looking over most dogs a bare minimum once, maybe twice a week and before they race/trial. Its pure negligence imo if they arent. Im not saying they should be able to pinpoint an injury, but there tend to be signs when a dog is injured. Its very rare that a dog wont show any signs of favouring an injury. But i doubt a running machine would pick up an injury better then any one person.