BitofaLegend

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.

Ive said it for a long time now, the industry has failed to act in NZ and took to long to do anything, from the rib, grnz to the trainers themselves

Clearly, this is something you know very little about and it shows. Phone use near the dogs before a race has always been a big nono. Ever since a trainer was giving his dogs live kills while playing a sound and had a bystander playing the sound during stirups. The rule is there for a reason and should be enforced.

Should reword that to say its a controlled substance on raceday because cobalt isnt banned, just a certain level of the product is. And as Yankiwi has pointed out, they are more concerned about how it was given raceday then the fact it was given

In this case, i dont think it matters if it actually is or not because its banned regardless on raceday. The only fault i could find is he gave it race day. If he did this 2 days earlier. It probably wouldnt have been an issue and a high reading wouldnt have been returned. I doubt he gave it to the dog for improved performance either. Probably gave it for recovery after the race.

What a fucken moron jesus christ. Vets give this product to dogs aswell. Its a common supplement. This isnt a harmful drug at all. Its commonly used to help with recovery. Thats it. The only issue here is too much cobalt can lead to a positive because it can be considered a performance enhancer which is why there are guidelines in place to not give products containing cobalt within 48hrs of a race

Think its more of a behavioural trait. Wide runners used to go to what we considered the outside of the straight and railers to the inside. Used to be a somewhat good indicator when breaking dogs in too.

Interestingly enough on our own straight track we used to train on - wide dogs would all run to one side of the track and railers would run to the other even with a drag lure through the middle. This always seemed to be a pretty common action from the 100s of dogs that came through

I could be wrong here but I believe muzzles in kennels are no longer allowed either so there arent alot of preventitive measures.

Not entirely true. Arsenic can and has been used as a performance enhancer in dogs. There has been sole research in Aus that suggests doses a little over this threshold has led to improved cardiovascular systems. Its not safe to do but doesnt stop people from doing it. Ironically enough though, it was the RIB forcing people to use treated timber and paint so i suspect this is apart of the reason. I've meet Arch Lawrence a few times and I would be very surprised if he purposely did anything of a sort with his dogs. The spike in arsenic cases this year for the most part all go back to the RIB and grnz meddling in the way kennels are built and what materials should be used. Ill let people draw there own conclusions here when these people forcing trainers to change kennel blocks that have had countless champions raced out of under the context of "welfare" to then return positives to the very thing they said is acceptable.

Yep. Took the bookies 3 races to give my money back and I had a pretty big multi running through the race. Wish they would just remove the abandoned racer but nope, apparently the whole multi gets cancelled

So R2 is a no race - does that mean anyone who lost money with the tab gets a refund as they already paid out?

Heard this one with my own ears actually. Very common practice amongst larger trainers in NZ, nominating sprinters or injured dogs with no intention of racing them. The worst being a few years ago at palmy where the evidence was irrefutable. While it is against the rules and could technically be considered fixing, rib/riu have never really enforced it because its difficult to prove without hard evidence. Even moreso now that you can scratch a dog for 10 days without any questions. Probably easier to resolve this issue by allowing smaller fields though as for a long time, 4, 5, 6 dog fields were not allowed

To be fair its not a conspiracy feeling. The trainer in question used to brag about doing this at the track.

Probably also worth noting thay racing greyhounds isnt actually whats banned in alot of the states, its the gambling on racing that is.

I think the issue is there aren't enough homes in NZ and Australia to keep up rehoming numbers long term. If 1000 dogs retire a year, roughly 800 will be rehomed I'd imagine. 800 per year over 10yrs is alot of dogs needing rehoming and the rehoming programs been going for 15+ years.

To be honest, I watched the replays. Although the injuries were nasty, I'm not sure the track was at fault regardless of whether the surface was inconsistent. Looked more like the dogs fell as a result of them checking of one another. The inside dog tried moving out and clipped the outside one which resulted in them both falling. I'm sure if the surface was hard, it wouldn't have helped. But looked like a racing incident to me.

I dont know how this guy can still have a job as a Stipe.

My understanding atleast regarding the rehoming costs and costs of injury rehabilitation post racing, is that these funds come of the top of what would be stakes for the trainers. I forget the exact number that was mentioned but there is a percent taken of each race for this. I also know entain group are very supportive of greyhound racing generally, being large sponsors in Australia already and from what I've been told from a few of the people I still talk to here, seems like they will be here too with members going to board members meeting or meeting trainers etc. While I am critical of the industry at times, it has improved alot since i was involved which i am happy to see. I also doubt any government will ban it. I imagine the deal with entain would have come with guarantees and I doubt they'd be happy to lose the second largest income for their entire operations.

I think the issue is that rehoming agencies here are too overwhelmed. Increasing foxton, the south island and the northern regions kennel numbers for rehomed dogs hasn't increased the number of dogs being rehomed, it's led to an even larger backlog of dogs and dogs under care of the grnz. Wait times in the CD and northern region can be from 3-6 months from my understanding.

This is a good thing. Auckland is an awful track. Especially this time of year. Its ridiculous how poorly managed this place is