6.5 (b) Give preference to drawing full fields for all races.

This means giving preference to an 8 dog 280m race at Wenty over a 6 or 7 dog FFA over the 520m or 720m.

The point system still needs a lot of work. There is simply not enough reward for greyhounds competing at top grade level and group level. Victorias point system is a lot better.

As it stands if you come 4th in the Million Dollar Chase final, or the Golden Easter Egg final, or any other group final at Wentworth Park you will receive less points than a greyhound that has come 3rd in a 5th grade 280m at Wentworth Park and less points than a greyhound that comes 2nd in a provincial 5th grade over 259m or whatever the latest shortest distance is. 8th in a group final is equivalent to 3rd in a 5th grade in country class.

I wonder why they have changed the terms for different classes of racing, from metropolitan to city, and from non-TAB to country.

I also wonder if Wentworth Park Wednesday night provincial meetings will keep their prizemoney levels or will they be reduced to be consistent with other provincial meetings?

As for the points system I cannot see any justification for a maiden to attract less points.

I have no issues with maidens being less but not as much less as they are and I don't understand why all maidens are the same points whether it's a group race maiden or a country class maiden.

Its a carrot to go to the city to race

The 2 x 5th grades per track per distance is now gone

The only shortcoming I see is the absence of a Novice grade unless they set up programming with 1-2 win non penalty races for various distances

Grant,

I rarely comment on grading as that is best done by people who are involved day to day.

However, let me point out that the original Wenty prize money was equalised over Sat/Mon (not Mon/Fri). At that time I noted that field quality was much different between the two and it was about time that the cash reflected that. So they eventually changed it.

But now that has morphed into a common rating for 280m and 520m races, thereby encouraging the squibs and downgrading the overall product, even to the extent of offering $5k for a 280m winner this Saturday!!! Last Wed had 4 x 280m @ $2.5 - the same as for 520m.

This leaves us with serious questions: why are better dogs not being nominated for Saturday or Wednesday; why not develop the track to provide races longer than 280m; why are 280m races not paid at country levels; what are they trying to achieve by running any 280m races in the first place; will the new grading make things better or worse at Wenty (4 x 5th Gr wins)?

Ok, there is a dog shortage but even worthwhile grading changes may not address the need for answers.

We raced on Sat/ Mon & we also raced Fri/ Sat never Fri/Mon.

I believe it should be Tues/Sat with Gosford moving to Wed.

My point is the prize money has been halved on nights other than Saturday
& we need GRNSW to rectify this asap. to keep good dogs in NSW.

Gillian,

Absolutely, but after watching the good dogs on the Richmond first turn last night I am not sure Wenty is the worst. The sad thing is that RICH535 is easily fixable by shifting all the 400m stuff away from its current location and fixing the camber.

Sure, but it is a question of priorities. And they had a big go a few years ago (for over half a mil) and did no more than put back what they had before.

My suggestion would be relatively cheap, thereby leaving funds to apply elsewhere. Bulli has a comparable camber problem and the Gardens could be further improved. So could Gosford.

We would all like to see a state of the art track at Wenty but that would involve a total re-make of the circuit, not just a fiddle with levels - which is all that has been done for the last 20 years.

At the moment it is. Whos to say it wont change.

GRNSW/ GWIC in 2017/2018 FY had a surplus of $4.7 million. At the end of 2018/2019 FY they had a deficit of $1.5 million. Thats a turnaround of about $6 million in one year. Ive been told its not looking pretty this FY. The Governments Plan is coming home to roost n its been well accommodated.

Lets see if the two authorities can pull a rabbit out of a hat or find the goose that lays the golden egg.

Every other meeting it states either city, provincial or country after the track name but on Wednesday nights it just says Wentworth Park.

The grading policy still refers to just 3 classes of meetings; city, country and provincial, so I have no idea what it means for grading and prizemoney at Wednesday night Wentworth Park meetings.

EXTERNAL LINK
Still no clarification on grading of Wentworth Park Wednesday night meetings.

Note also that it seems for the next few weeks NSW dogs and interstate greyhounds will be graded differently. Will this mean that for the Easter Egg and Association Cup heats dogs will be under different grading policies for the same race? What policy are the interstate dogs graded under? The old policy, that no longer appears online? A different policy, that also doesnt appear online?

Carly,
Yes, I know that youve been down there for awhile now, but you still have an interest up here in NSW and Im glad you do, because too much goes unscrutinised.