Simon, That article came from a GRV media release which was not in the headline area but parked away in a list I had not seen before and then republished by ARG. As stated, the test was done at Lismore over a year ago but the results or conclusions were never published. That's not surprising - I watched all of them closely and found "nothing to see here". That is, I have seen plenty of interference in 3-dog or 4-dog races - it all depends on the circumstances. You may use English 6-dog racing as an example - interference would appear to be lower there - but that involves an outside lure and box seeding by the track manager, both of which tend to spread the field out. As at Lismore, GRV plans to use the test in Maiden races where most of the runners are still learning the caper. In particular you could expect early speed to be variable as they are still learning to jump. Some will also run all over the place as they are still working out where they want to go - if at all. They will also have had less experience in 6, 7 or 8 dog races anyway. How much would you learn about cricket by watching the under 12s play? Would AFL change the bump rules based on what is happening in park football? The proposed exercise is a complete waste of space for those reasons alone. Anyway, how will they measure "safety", as GRV is trumpeting? Falls, bumps, injuries are all meaningless measures for this standard of racers - and not a lot better for experienced dogs. The related but less understood aspect is that those issues are also a function of the nature of the track - box positions, turns, cambers, distance and so on. One has to be separated from the other. It is a scientific challenge. For a start, of the three test tracks Cranbourne has notoriously risky turns - possibly due to the cambers - especially around the 520m first turn, where some runners regularly veer off. Shepparton and Ballarat have smash and grab starts for 545m and both middle distance trips. All these seriously stress young bodies yet to mature. Fortunately, there is an easier method - although it may be too late for this high priced committee to adopt it. In the month of December to date there have been 128 races in Victoria with 6 or fewer runners - say around 400 over the desired 3 month period. Ask a GRV boffin to pull these out of the database and stick them in file so that every one can get around the table and watch them one after the other. I have no idea what they will be counting but it has a chance of providing more info than a string of maidens which hardly know what they are doing. What GRV has also failed to mention is how it will be counting the potential loss of turnover in races with short fields. Speaking of numbers, GRV has just told us that "breeding numbers have now returned to the levels required to sustain the racing program". The truth is that 2017/18 litters are now 31% lower than in 2014/15, which is why the above 5, 6 and 7 dog fields are commonplace, to say nothing about meetings with fewer races. Some program!
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