| Dave Do not lose heart. The only thing that the IGB respond to is Legal Action. This has been demonstrated in the many cases that they have lost over the years. Although all the information on the positive tests in each of the suspected races is available to any owner who had a dog in one of the affected races, under the Freedom of Information Act, it may be better simply to hand over the case to one's own solicitor. There are two issues running in parallel here. Firstly, all dogs who have tested for a banned substance, regardless of the level in terms of procaine, prior to 23 December 2013 will be disqualified and the prize money and race Title handed over to the next placed dog in the race that has not failed the test. The Board have already applied this principle in the 4 Procaine cases that were reported in the Sporting Press 3 weeks ago. In fact, they not only disqualified the 4 greyhounds in question and allocated the prize money to the next dog to finish, they also appear to have allocated the fines in relation to the level of procaine in the dogs system, ie whether it was under over over the threshold. It is difficult to understand what is taking so long to carry out this simple part of the exercise and it should be implemented immediately for the remaining cases. The second issue is probably more difficult for the Board and its Control Committee, that is, what they should do with the multiple offenders. The Board appear to be taking its' own legal advice in this matter and are understandably twitchy about this, as they have a poor track record of defending such cases. Looking at this in two stages makes it much more clear as to how the Board can take action. Point 1 Disqualify any dogs that have failed the tests. Instate those clean runners up as the rightful winner. Point 2 Deal with the penalties for those who have been found to be positive. The only question is when the Board will actually do this, not if. If the Board considers that they cannot uphold their own testing procedures in a Court of Law, and face down those trainers whose dogs have been found to be positive, and who are contesting the judgement, then the Board will end up paying out two lots of Prize money as a minimum and the allocation of the Race title will be for another day. We are still in the very early stages of the Process, but the Minister has now managed to offend and anger the more than 500 greyhound people who took the time and trouble to complete the petition. It would be far better for the image of the Sport and Industry if the Board would simply come, out as the Turf Club did yesterday, in the pending horse racing case, admit that the positives are there and that due process is taking place in a transparent manner. Surely with all the Ministerial Advisors, there is some Public Relations Guru with a finger on the pulse of the industry. Joe Duffy would have a field day and Minister Hayes will find himself taking over from Minister Shatter on the Front Pages. It is time for the Board to stand up and do the decent thing and be counted.
| 
Do you have questions how to use the Greyhound-Data website?
