For example

1. Some time back I was invited to a stewards meeting to discuss a point I made about race times. In assessing a performance, stewards frequently made reference to a BON time as a guide. Yet BONs are a very poor measure in themselves. They can be affected by the class of runners, the weather or even by a talented maiden spearing out in front of a mediocre field and running great time. The more valid comparison, where available, is with times the dog has previously run itself.
2. At the same meeting one steward asked why I did not mention it at the meeting if I had a problem. Two answers there; my observations are that stewards are flat chat with their mandatory duties and running back and forth, hence it would be hard to pin them down for the question; second, I would want to review all the relevant facts when I do a post mortem of the meeting, prior to sounding off.
3. Currently stewards often quiz the trainer about a poor performance of a favourite but without assessing whether the dogs price was valid in the first place. Often it is not. Betting patterns often reflect an artificial follow-the-leader practice. Stewards are wasting everybodys time unless they evaluate the worth of the market info.
4. In Slaters case, the dog ran much slower times in winning the heat/semi/final of the Egg than other dogs did on the same nights, or that it did in an earlier series at Wenty, or in a heat at Horsham in March (27.02). It then began poorly and bombed out in the Horsham final, presumably incurring an injury at the same time. A keen form student would have been looking at this history as well as at how the dog raced.
5. If its a comparison, gallops stewards have dedicated expert form assessors briefing other stewards from race to race about likely or advised riding practices and sectional times. Greyhound stewards give the impression they dont do this.
6. A personal opinion I think assessments of fighting and resultant penalties need review. Its a question of interpretation. While nobody wants a nasty fighter, my observation is that many dogs pinged for fighting are doing not much more than trying to get to the bunny when a competitor gets in the road so they shove it out and race on. Often the offender itself has been knocked earlier in the race. Especially for inexperienced dogs, my tip would be to let stewards use a yellow card system rather than just a red one.

So my general answer is that steward performance can readily be improved with more professional training.

Terry, notice the Avatar, left top corner, racedog is Mal's post, other is doug post, please do confuse the two...