Do you know how long it will take to be all up to date ?

A big thanks must go to Werner Scholz our database manager who uploaded 8,600 races himself.

Well done Werner and thank you for all the time you put in on this and the constant work and time you have put into Greyhound-Data since its very begining.

I understand this problem was caused by a change to the GBGB website but before you start celebrating the success of correcting some races I think your success needs to be put in prospective.

Greyhound Data has established itself as the preeminent site for greyhound owners in the key Greyhound Racing jurisdictions, including the UK. Unfortunately for the last few months UK owners have been living in the dark ages in regards to the relevant performance of their/and other dogs.

Youre a pure online site that has been established for some time so should be fully up to date with the various IT challenges of the current era, to be completely undermined by an update to the GBGB website is not only surprising but disappointing. But more disappointing is the inability to solve the problem within a reasonable timescale, at present the races/ratings that have been loaded do not include accurate allowances for the tracks/conditions concerned, thereby causing the ratings to be completely irrelevant to all concerned.

My assessment might sound harsh but as an advocate of the site I cant find an easier way of expressing by opinion that GD is irrelevant to all UK owners if you cant resolve this issue as a matter of urgency.

Best regards.
Mark

This matter has been treated as a matter of urgency and your assessment is harsh. If all members were paid members there would be adequate funds for us to employ several top I.T. people and get the job done a lot faster. This is not the case. All the voluntary work from team members such as Werner in this instance deserve recognition. Without team members doing this year after year, google adverts and members supporting us GD would be gone.

We have no control of the allowances for the tracks/conditions and again do not have the manpower to correct every race at every meeting. This is the job of the GBGB who have a much larger budget than us.

Let me say this again, the ratings on Greyhound-Data are only a quick guide to any dogs form and should be treated as such. If you are going to buy a dog do your own research first.

Mark members can also add races to GD, I see you have never added one, please do one and you will realise just how much work Werner has done. I am sorry if this sounds harsh but it is our reality.

Best regards,

Tony

Well done Werner.

Please be assured Im a massive fan of GD, but I dont think you realise just how important the GD site/ratings have become to genuine owners/breeders/trainers.

Theres obviously a problem with the GBGB front end website but the raw data is still ok, the Racing Post website/app along with the various UK betting sites have accurate formlines as its critical to their business, the GBGB website changes have not effected their data.

Clearly it would help if more users were financial members but isnt this more of an indication of a disconnect between GD and the GBGB? As a semi-commercial site is it not a prerequisite that you have a relationship with the regulator, and that any major changes would be discussed before implementation?

Best regards.
Mark

Please accept my apologies if it appears Im criticising GD and the work of everyone concerned, that is not my intention.

I care about the Greyhound Industry in the UK and understand the importance of GD, everyone gauges their dogs performance on the ratings and anything above 100 is considered the benchmark of a good dog. This is why accurate allowances matter.

Im more than happy to help with anything that is required to address the current situation, but please understand without accurate GD ratings I genuinely believe the the UK owners will lose interest !

There is no problem. I will always stand behind the team a 100% because I know what is going on behind the scenes and understand their passion and determination to keep the website going and keep it moving forward. The ratings are only one side to GD and we have to try to spread the work and funds over many different aspects.

Greyhound-Data was originally created by Holger Von Boehn and his son Gunnar. The website was for the benefit of all greyhounds and enthusiasts around the world. One of the main driving forces to create the website was the family's involvement in keeping retired greyhounds which they are still doing today. I might add I have been friends with the family for many years, even before GD was every thought of. The point I am trying to make is that you have picked up one point where you feel we are letting people down and you are right but for years we have also been letting down the members who have adopted/homed or kept their own Greyhounds. It really is a shame it has taken us so long to give them their place to show photos, videos etc of their dogs. Did you know that the adoption groups registered with GD have homed over 100,000 greyhounds since the website began, this is a great tribute to them and the Von Boehn family.

Mark I am from a racing background and fully understand where you are coming from and in an ideal world we could look after all aspects of the website quickly but with limited resources we can only do what we can.

CLICK HERE
https://greyhoundbet.racingpost.com/#search-dog/dog_id=532026

Unless I can get volunteers to manually input all the going allowances for every single race at every single meeting we will continue to use the GBGB results as we have always done. If the official racing body in the UK is not correct then all racing participates who are concerned about the going should contact them. We simply would not have the time or the people to maintain this.

At some point we will get to this and the team will decide how we will move forward. In my opinion there has always been far to much emphasis put on points in regards to buying a dog. It makes people lazy and also creates more work for the Greyhound-Data team than its worth.

You know and I know you should at least look at the dog you are buying, check the kennel out that the dog is coming from, research if the dog has been racing on a similar style of track you are buying it to race on, check out the trainers background, check out the breeding, check out how the rest of the litter are going etc, etc.

I have bought many dogs over the years and have recommended many others to people and have never even considered looking at "points".

Anyway guys thanks for your input GD will get time in the future to address this issue and will reach a solution.

Luckily we are now up to date

//Werner

As you say no serious buyer would be misled by Ratings but there are many newcomers to the sport who can be fooled and take the printed word or number as gospel and they need protecting from themselves.

I am sure the Team will come up with the right solution.

Everyone can see and appreciate the effort that is being made to add the missing races, and where possible add the allowances/ratings.

I understand that GD was originally designed as a rehoming site and has evolved over the years to something even bigger.

I was earlier looking back at the pedigrees of my first few dogs, Beatties Spring was my first ever dog, purchased as a 4 month old pup to hopefully be a great. But as with a lot of owners I then got impatient and bought a young racer, Fortune Forecast. On GD we can only see their breeding as it was before the sites birth. I then bought Beatties Bonanza as a pup, who was a dream dog, fortunately he ran a few opens which made it on to the site at a later date. Bonza as we called him lived to the grand old age of 13 at home, Spring until she was 11, but Snowy (Fortune Forecast) surpassed them both hanging around until she was 15 !

I get what GD is about, but please, please, please do not underestimate the relevance of your ratings. Owners love their dogs and follow every race, they cannot all be superstars but every race is a time to shine. Every time a dog achieves a rating it matters, How Did it Compare with previous runs ? Was that a best ever run ? Ratings matter to Breeders/Sellers/Buyers but they matter so much more to the owners of these fantastic animals.

Unfortunately in the UK most of the websites available are about the basic functionality of results/formlines. GD has always been so much more, its a place that those passionate about their dogs can enjoy, please dont lose that.

I apologise for being a major pain but GD is so important to all UK owners.

Lucky i don't run GD because i would
Remove the ratings for all tracks and let you guys do your own home work .
Other sites have ratings and stats to use as well and if you are reliant only on GD ratings to buy a dog then i feel you are not doing enough homework yourself

Why would anyone buy a Dog based on that rating alone ..
First you would be watching it's race track performances and traits on video and then you would be looking at it's bloodline.

British times and Ratings take no account of the going allowances.
NEVER purchase a dog based solely on Greyhound-Data's computer generated points system.
Always do your own research before purchasing a dog.

CLICK HERE

One of our UK members has offered to help with the UK going allowances so this is a start.

It was good to see the "points" in a different light so thank you for showing me this. Our main man who looks after this side of GD along with Werner is currently away on holidays so it has been a bit of a learning curve for me. We will get the going allowances sorted as soon as possible.