BitofaLegend

Id expect most trainers would be able to find injuries without a machine. It isnt too difficult to check a dog out. I have done it for yrs. Better people then me can tell just by watching a dog walk. Reading this is hilarious from my p.o.v. sounds like they have taken tips from the GRNZ.

I'd say greyhound racing is facing an uphill battle. Sent emails to some people regarding the concerns. Only ACT responded, but there response says it all to me.

Yes. I presume so considering 45% of Entains profits come from Greyhound racing.

Unfortunatly, many people then saw this as a good thing back then. Not everyone, but many did

Re your last point, the population now is less then it was 15 yrs ago when Cole had less then 50 dogs. The population didnt grow, he just replaced all the grassroot trainers that left because of him.

As someone who is removed from racing somewhat these days, I can tell you this does not surprise me at all. The sentiment goes beyond greyhounds too. Most people seem to be anti racing generally these days and it will only get worse with time I feel. I work in alot of private companies and it seems the only groups of people with positive thoughts towards racing are those in their late 50s+. The last few places ive been at do not even pay any attention to the Melbourne cup

Definetly not. Your guess regarding this is incorrect. Every single dogs origin is tracked now. Its why those 7 dogs they "misplaced" were raised. You would not get away with this behaviour anymore. Regarding the person you mention. The less i say the better. I will only get in trouble if i speak the truth on this trainer. I will say, luckily, the rules are very tight now and they cant get of with alot of the things theyve done historically. Is that ideal? No. However, its a major improvement.

Yep - this is the biggest hurdle. It is partly because public perception is based on incorrect information provided by groups such as the spca or safe based on data from the US of A and from a decade ago, part of it is also the media bias that GRNZ only started challenging last year, but apart of it is also deserved to, i wouldnt disagree with that either

To be fair. 21/22 was very different to now. While im extremely against people putting dogs down like that. You simply could not do it now. Rules were still very laxed then due to poor leadership and late rractions by grnz. Now, there is a euthanasia policy in place, a proper system to track greyhound population and a fund taken from stakes to cover serious injuries to dogs. Ironically, i remember talking to schoey back in the early 2010s who argued we needed these things back then. When he raised them then, not to many people took them seriously then.

Yep. And if the industry ban isnt overturned, id say 12 mths from now, they will be nearly the only ones racing because everyone else will be trying to rehome before the spca are involved

Many of the current people in the administration have been there for a long time. Not all of then sure, but alot have

Well Ive heard today that there is something going on behind the scenes to fight this. It will be an interesting watch. Ideally, i hope they give greyhound racing more time. As an asside, i see plenty of false narratives online now which seem ridiculous to me. Its sad that people seem to make up lies to justify some things. There is alot wrong with the industry but alot right too.

Some of your points sure. No way would the spca be able to rehome 3000 dogs give or take a few 100. I woupdnt trust them with my dogs in a 1000000 yrs. More likely to be put down under there care then to be injured on a race track. It would be great to see them overturn this and maybe push for real change. But i am not sure they will. Outside of the racing industry, i havent seen much support for greyhounds. This was even brought up today in my workplace as a positive thing which says it all.

I think there would have been hope if many of these reforms started a decade ago when they should have been implemented. Even now, its more then a few bad eggs that have ruined it for everyone in the industry. How they allow trainers to continue to breed 100s of dogs is ludicrous. How can a trainer be responsible for 200+ dogs? To be honest, i have 0 doubts people would still be doing other things aswell, just alot more undercover then now.

Signs have always been there. Who can forget, i think it was 2008 and the playing of possum sounds from mobile phones during stirup.

To be fair, from my own experiences, GRNZ have always been arrogant and turn a blind eye to any real issues, even prosecuting people that raise them. Unfortunatly, they created this enviromnent where the only way to voice any criticsm towards them has been via public forums. Ive seen and heard alot over the years and I can tell you that GRNZ and the board have failed this industry time and time again the past 2 decades, only ever attempting to fix something once media attention has been drawn to it. Manukau and Whanganui are great examples of this. Hatrick raceways track has been dangerous for decades, people have boycotted it, stopped racing there, complained openly about it. I remember having a dog 4 L in front that broke a hock and the stipe on the night argued the dog got checked and wasnt the fault of the track which was ludicrous. But they only tried to make real changes once this was public knowledge via media. Im sad its come to this but the powers that be completely let down the honest people in the industry. I hope the thouroughbreds, harness and even the racing industry in Aus look at the mistakes here and see where GRNZ went wrong.

Maybe they were hoping itd turn peoples attention away from the disastrous policy changes around rail and ferries? Only reason I can see why theyd drop this a day before anouncing that.

I dont think it matters. National and Luxon are both celebrating the shutdown on tiktok and facebook. Luxon even posted a picture of "Donald" and how he will never have to race again.

You could be right. I have also noticed, especially the last 6 months, that all tab advertising done outside of the trackside channels has excluded any images or references to dogs. I wouldnt be surprised if they all knew this was coming. I imagine that is also why they didnt announce this before the election as neither party wanted to turn it into a political debate.

Id say 2900 give or take 500 dogs. The real issue is how do you rehome 2900 dogs when we struggle to rehome 600 per year? We all know if the spca are involved, they will just put most of them down. Also heard from a trainer they are banning dogs being exported to Aus. What about the dogs owned by people in Aus? Surely thats illegal.

Grass tracks definetly resulted on alot of injuries. I think its fair to say that there were less injuries now then 20 yrs ago, however, i think the serious injury rate would be about the same Alot of the problems in NZ has come from poorly mamaged tracks though. I dont know why its been the case here, but the sand track surfaces have been poprly managed for a long time, same as the track infrustructure. Definetly causes alot of unecessary injuries. Especially if you look at Wanganui historically, or Auckland from feb-apr

It is definetly a sad day, expected but sad. I maybe critical of some in the racing industry, but as someone who grew up in the sport from birth, who has and still has family interests in the sport, its a very sad day. Some of my best momentd from my youth were at the track and will be memories I will have for the rest of my life. I just hope now that the breed in NZ does not fade away as Greyhounds make great pets aswell.

NSW had the support of the grassroots in the state. Unfortunatly, GRNZ has allowed larger trainers to completely kill off the grassroots in NZ. I dont expect any fairytail endings. Honestly, ive spoken to a few trainers in NSW the last weeks and it sounds like the report they are going through doesnt sound great either.

Talking of revenue, It will be interesting to see if Entain challenge this or not as they have only been in charge for little bit of time and this removes atleast a 3rd (probably higher) of their revenue in NZ

I will say this now though, the fact national supported this also means the other two industries are far from safe.