What's going on Auckland?

[Yankiwi]

Five dogs coming into contact with the running rail today.

THE WRITTING IS ON THE WALL.

Do something about it before dogs start having career ending injuries or killed outright.

https://www.grnz.co.nz/catch-the-action/15434/stewards-report.aspx

[kizanan]

*writing

Hmm, maybe they should remove the entire rail? 

Any ideas Yank on how to 'do something about it'? Obviously, it is not ideal with five runners contacting the rail in one race day. However, the possibility of it happening a few times isn't totally crazy. Could have just been a bad day for it, time will tell.

[Yankiwi]

Three of those races were PBD. Putting the dogs where they want to run doesn't help prevent it?

The lure on the new arm is now much further away from the rail. That's not keeping the dogs further from it?

The lure is now allowed to be further ahead of the leading dog. If it is getting further away from the field in the corner, it could be bringing the dogs in closer to the rail?

I see Wanganui has reinstated their rail protection, which was supposed to be a test prior to rolling it out to all the tracks, several years ago, that seems to have been forgotten.

 

[Yankiwi]

The rail's back at it again today collecting four dogs.

https://www.grnz.co.nz/catch-the-action/15438/stewards-report.aspx

[Yankiwi]

Collected two more today.

Clock is ticking Auckland.

 

 

[Yankiwi]

Not a good read.

A rough beginning to the third quarter of the year Auckland.

Was hoping we'd be seeing some improvement by now. 

 

Running totals for the year thus far.

 

 

First reveal of the 2022 stats.

 

With the new arch lure arm (10/07/22 to 29/12/22).

 

With the old straight lure arm (03/01/22 to 03/07/22).

[Special Agent]

Oh dear!!

[Yankiwi]

Is this the answer to Auckland's rail strike issue, stop reporting them & the issue will go away?

Has the RIB's commitment to welfare been compromised?

 

Did the #2 hit the rail or have an epileptic fit?

A dog's tail does not swing to the right when they are trying or preparing to turn left.

 

Your report claimed one rail contact, my spread sheet will have 2 entered & a note that in the other instance I'm sure happened, the dog wasn't referred to the vet for a check after the race.

Honesty has always been the best policy. Consider reverting back to it.

 

On another age-old note, why weren't the racing actions of the #3 (hot favorite) in race #4 noted and/or deemed satisfactory in the steward's report?

If my money were on it, I'd be quite upset it was chasing the #8 dog and not the lure.

[Chief Stipe]

On 9/07/2023 at 7:39 PM, Yankiwi said:

With the new arch lure arm (10/07/22 to 29/12/22).

 

With the old straight lure arm (03/01/22 to 03/07/22).

Isn't the key statistics the number of injuries per rail strike?

Afterall striking the rail seems to be inherent to a greyhound racing.

[Yankiwi]

2 hours ago, Chief Stipe said:

Isn't the key statistics the number of injuries per rail strike?

Afterall striking the rail seems to be inherent to a greyhound racing.

It's the most important part of the equation.

16 injured out of 27 contacts in the data you've highlighted.

That said, dogs that don't strike the rail are not injured by contact with it.

 

[Chief Stipe]

5 minutes ago, Yankiwi said:

16 injured out of 27 contacts in the data you've highlighted.

 

So assuming that the injury the dogs sustained was caused by striking the rail then the key figure is 16 not 27.  Which is 7% not 12%.

[Chief Stipe]

Do your Auckland stats incude Waikato racing at Auckland?

 

[Yankiwi]

Homework for AGRC, GRNZ & RIB.

Spot the differences.

Wanganui (image from Friday): Currently 6 year-to-date contacts, 1 injury, with a 3.82% chance per race.

 

Addington (image from today): Currently 69 year-to-date contacts, 5 injuries, with a 5.49% chance per race.

 

Auckland (Image from Sunday): Currently 92 year-to-date contacts, 24 injuries, with a 18.11% chance per race.

[Yankiwi]

Just now, Chief Stipe said:

Do your Auckland stats incude Waikato racing at Auckland?

 

Yes, the stats are per track, not club.

[Chief Stipe]

18 minutes ago, Yankiwi said:

Yes, the stats are per track, not club.

Well then you have errors.

[Chief Stipe]

19 minutes ago, Yankiwi said:

Auckland (Image from Sunday): Currently 92 year-to-date contacts, 24 injuries, with a 18.11% chance per race.

 

Where are the rest of your figures? e,g, Number of races year to date.  

Any variance estimates?

[Yankiwi]

31 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

So assuming that the injury the dogs sustained was caused by striking the rail then the key figure is 16 not 27.  Which is 7% not 12%.

Call it what you like.

4 1/2 times as many dogs per race hit the running rail in Auckland than they do in Wanganui.

3 times as many dogs per race hit the running rail in Auckland than they do in Christchurch.

 

Chances of injury per race from rail contact in 2023?

Auckland 24/508 = 4.72%

Christchurch 5/1256 = 0.40%

Wanganui 1/157 = 0.64%

Any wonder why I'm highlighting Auckland?

[Yankiwi]

14 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

Well then you have errors.

You are out of your depth.

A race on a track is a race on that track, no matter which club it is raced under.

[Yankiwi]

14 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

Where are the rest of your figures? e,g, Number of races year to date.  

Any variance estimates?

The rest of my figures are in a spreadsheet that I've manually gathered and entered the data from Stewards reports.

Here's the 2023 running totals.

 

[Yankiwi]

1 hour ago, Chief Stipe said:

Do your Auckland stats incude Waikato racing at Auckland?

 

Same race used in the above example chief, which TRACK was it raced on?

Edited July 14, 2023 by Yankiwi

[Chief Stipe]

2 hours ago, Yankiwi said:

You are out of your depth.

A race on a track is a race on that track, no matter which club it is raced under.

That isn't what I was referring to.  Your stats are incorrect.  As is the the metric you are using to prove your hypothesis.

The rate that dogs hit the rail is irrelevant.  The relevant metric is the injury rate.  I guess that is your "depth".

[Yankiwi]

27 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

That isn't what I was referring to.  Your stats are incorrect.  As is the the metric you are using to prove your hypothesis.

The rate that dogs hit the rail is irrelevant.  The relevant metric is the injury rate.  I guess that is your "depth".

 

I gave you this info, which was easily compiled from the information in the summary.

2 hours ago, Yankiwi said:

Chances of injury per race from rail contact in 2023?

Auckland 24/508 = 4.72%

Christchurch 5/1256 = 0.40%

Wanganui 1/157 = 0.64%

Nearly 1 injury requiring a stand-down for every 10 races held in Auckland.

 

My data does not include any injuries which turned up after the vet check straight after the race. There is no public data published on that, but if it were the number would be huge. Often dogs injured during a race don't show the effects of the injury until after they've cooled down or sometimes even the next day.

 

Here's an example (I'm sure you'll want to quantify my claim).

"Mirko"

https://www.grnz.co.nz/greyhounds/profiles.aspx?AnimalID=33495

On 07/05/2023 hit the rail (rather seriously) and was cleared of injury.

 

After striking the rail on 07/05 it didn't race again for 4 weeks. When it did race on 04/06 it finished 6th.

 

That 6th was Mirko last race. He's been quietly retired after that one race, one race after being cleared of injury.

 

I 'm sorry Mirko. My gears are churning now to get this corrected for your mates. The wheels of AGRC & GRNZ doing what is the right thing move far too slow to give you the chance to continue your racing career.

 

I know that you knew your way around the Auckland track like the back of your paw. Someone should have done something to protect you from the running rail that got in your way when you decided to try to cut the corner behind all the other runners to get to the lure first because you knew where the lure was going to go, before it even got there.

 

[Yankiwi]

Here's my prediction on how this rail issue will progress.

Nothing substantial will be done with the Auckland track until all the issues with Cambridge are resolved and it's running smoothly.

Once that's archived, then and only then will Auckland issues be addressed.

GRNZ and their claim that welfare is paramount, is only actually somewhat important when it's convenient for them to address the underlying issues.

They can't risk both northern tracks being shut down for repair at the same time. That would substantially affect turnover and participants.

You heard it here first.

[Yankiwi]

Bad luck & good news.

Bad luck - two rail strikes yesterday. Both instances were well around the bend and due to interference pushing the dog down onto the rail. These are the sorts of instances that the safety rail you should have had years ago could possibly have helped to alleviate.

Good news - no dogs contacted the rail just prior to or at the pinch point entering the corner.

Below examples of races from yesterday were a huge improvement.

Here's why - See how the dog furthest back on the rail still has a direct line of sight to the lure, without having to look over the running rail to see it?

Addington has their distance down pat, so it appears that someone has had a go at the homework assignment I offered.

 

 

Same (yes I am aware that the #1 dog contact the rail much further around the corner).

 

Tick.

 

 

My opinion - 6m behind the lead dog looks to be your sweet spot, especially in 318m races.

Just keeping near that will drop the number of overall incidents by 50% or more IMHO.

 

Want a bit of a field trip? Park the lure in the corner, across the track from roughly where the end of padding is on the outside fence, get yourself down on the track, put your head down at the level of a dog's head & view the sight lines at various distances out to maybe 24m or 8 uprights (to allow for 9m behind the lead dog which was already 15m behind the lure the way you were running it a couple of months back), using their vision perspective (see below), while running as fast as they can.

If you do that, I'm sure you'll be thinking, "Holy shit, Charles is still an asshole, but you know what, this time he was right."

 

Going forward - Addington has also mastered one other important measure that I've yet to see that you've addressed on your track. Have another look at the previous comparison photos again & work it out for yourself, then you can be the hero for making things ever safer for the dogs.

[Yankiwi]

Big positive difference.

June silver collar meeting, the race meeting just prior to when I started barking about the lure distance (remember the container Chief?).

 

Yesterday - After 5 weeks of barking.

 

An easy fix that didn't need to be made difficult. Don't be so stubborn. Listen to concerned people's input. Maybe even scratch me off from your anti's list.

It should have been fixed years ago.

Why didn't all those tasked with the responsibility of insuring welfare raise the issue? Doesn't anyone know how to use a tape measure? How did any one of you let it become the problem it did?

AGRC?

GRNZ?

RIB/RIU?

You're the ones that should have been doing the barking.

Water under the bridge. No need to thank me.

Now, all of you sit down together, do a bit of soul searching, identify where/when the problems began, how it progressed & put firm measures in place so it never happens again.