Heres some ideas I propose for future

5 dog fields for maidens up to 2 wins
This helps with making fields ,but more importantly it creates the best possible environment for new chasers and their confidence at this early age , the most important part of their careers eg one bad bump could change a greys head for months !
Boxes 3 , 5 , 7 vacant

Every track should hold a speedster event in the last week of each month for the Dogs that have accumulated most points at this track
3 heats 6 Dogs with a final being held in the first week of the new month

Speedster works as a spectacle and a betting system ....accumulators are the newest fad in betting

This also takes away the fastest 6 greys for a week at that track ,giving the others who had little chance of victory a bigger chance for a week or even newcomers to a track knowing that the local speed dog isnt there
And so again for final taking away fastest 2 greys
It encourages all participants in all angles but most importantly we have created the safest environment for our chasers that put it on the line every time they are boxed !

6 dog fields for the accomplishment greys are a must in the future of this industry
Give them a chance , it needs to be implemented ASAP

Cheers

I like two dog shoot-outs x 2 races, but.... all four in Final the following week. Just a thought but more so for non-TAB meetings once a month

The industry survives on the punting Dollar, how much revenue would be lost via 5 and 6 Dog fields ???
If you want a better product / racing get rid of corner starts they are a disgrace and do nothing but promote the Sport in a bad light !!!

Dual or even three out racing there is always punters punting
If you think punters will stop punting because there is 2 dogs missing (which there is a lot of the time anyway ?) or exotics will suffer ..... please

When has a punter boshed in on exotics in greyhounds ?
Never .....! Lets chase that big $50 tri , get real .

Leave that to the horses or melb cup

The industry relys on a product first fellas
Aint no product ...... everything else is pointless even talking about

Talking about helping the industry and making it thrive again but placing betting dollars as priority, is putting the cart before the horse

Why do you think most owners /synd of racers leave after 2 or 3 years
Paying for a greyhound that races once in 2 1/2 years and then paying more to have it sit in the kennels again is laughable !
It finally gets to the track again and is smashed within 3 sec of racing .....??
Guess what fellas , sorry injured its shoilder this time
8 weeks ....... shell be right fellas !!!

Too late , more Poeple gone , less interest and no money revenue within the industry itself .

Luke , thats a shame if those early results ring true
Maybe it is boxes 7 and 8 go , I dont know
I asked for 5 dog maidens and up to 0-2 wins catogory, 2 more then a pt in nsw where most pts I see are clean
Something vic dont do , some of those maidens luke wouldnt have passed a pt
It had nothing to do with less numbers , rather not race ready

But less runners is less chaos , its simple %s

You will always get hits , but you can reduce them and have cleaner racing

Poeple just wanna see their racer go round win or lose and finish the race and back up the next week after week

Not 10-20 races and go you wanna reinvest again for another 2 1/2 year wait

I was at Goulburn last week and watched the best race Id seen in ages
We all bet and had a ball
It was a 3 dog field .....!
Thats putting the industry in its best light !!!!!

Dont tell me 6 dogs would kill the industry, please

Theres more avenues to worry about money at present and it isnt the tab volume $

Wasteful Spendings ......!

Luke,
6-doggers work in England because the track manager seeds then according to running style and they have an outside lure. Nobody else does that (or not on purpose).

Here I pointed out previously that GRV has hundreds of 6-dog races to look at simply by examining their own database over the last few months. Most of those will be graded races and not maidens which have yet to learn the caper. This supposed experiment is a gross waste of time and money.

But what will they learn?

1. Typically, a field sorts itself out roughly into two divisions of four (plus or minus one). "Average" interference results from bumps within one of those groups. Further interference is caused mostly when one in either group moves quickly back or forward.

2. I have seen heavy interference in 3-dog races. It's a function of one dog trying to best another.

3. What can you possibly learn from 6 inexperienced dogs trying on a newish (to them) caper?

4. The shape of the track and the position of the boxes is heavily influential on the clean running of the race. Cranbourne, for example, has a crook first turn which throws many dogs off, and a home turn which some dogs cannot handle.

5. Without knowing the form of the individual runners it is impossible to assign blame for any bump to one thing or another. Maidens' habits will be even less predictable. (By the way, do you note how Tornado Tears is reluctant to pass a dog on its outside - it waits for room on the rail. It is not alone - all dogs are different).

6. GRNSW did the same thing last year at Lismore and there was nothing to learn there either.

All that's without giving any consideration to betting preferences. It's a total dud. A brainstorm gone wrong.

How many ideas re grading . corner starts,novice races,finish on lure. Etc.etc,etc,etc,have been sent in to GRNSW over the last few years,I BET THERE HAS BEEN DUNDREDS, Now the question. How many of these have been answered to ,adopted,or even discussed with the senders,You guessed it as far as I am concerned ABSOLUTELY NONE,AND i BET THE SAME GOES FOR MANY OTHERS,What chance has the industry got?????????

Allen,
I sympathise with your general push but to include "university studies" in your criticism is not a good idea.

This more or less concerns the WDA examination of live baiting and the UTS ongoing study of track designs. Both occurred under the Newsom reign and both were/are essential following decades of poor practices and amateur-built tracks.

As of today, the principles of track design are unknown. I have looked at finely detailed plans for new tracks, as prepared by well qualified engineering firms, but none of them had a clue about dogs or racing, and it showed. See Gardens and Gosford for a start.

The industry lurches from one mistake to another. It has grown up like Topsy and so millions have been thrown at building jobs which do no more than repeat last year's errors.

The gallops have their problems, too, but at least they are trying to do something about it via studies and experiments. Even the trots have recast their basic concepts about track layouts.

Certainly the welfare banner has been flown too often but not in respect to greyhound track designs where we have to overcome almost a century of ignorance and amateurism. Where else can you start, other than by going back to scratch and building up a reliable picture?

In that event, success will benefit the dogs, the punters, the trainers and owners and the industry at large.

All the one turn TAB tracks in NSW seem to be suffering

Maitland 9 races
Bulli 8 races
Goulburn Thursday - cancelled due to lack of nominations

However, the tight track 400m races are pretty well supported

I can't understand why the participants from Gosford/The Gardens won't race at Maitland over 400m

Its doesn't make any sense to me

Bulli and Maitland are hard 400s

No where to hide on these straights in comparison to Gosford nearly break 22 sec and the gardens
Completely different tracks ....Suit different runners ....lid pingers or not

Bulli and Goulburn are travelling tracks in comparison to Richmond

Bulli 400 is a 3 -5 length difference in standard needed aswell
Eg you can win at Richmond in 23.20 over 400 and get a bludge if your lucky

Bulli you need to run 22.70 and your chaser will feel it even if only placing

Its not so much the one turn tracks its more location and who you come up against at certain tracks and can your chaser back up week in week out on a long finish straight track ...is it worth traveling all the way there ?

In short Gosford /garden Dogs to Maitland doesnt or isnt always in the Dogs best interest
Same as Richmond/Gosford to Bulli over the 400 journey

Not sure what was on offer at Goulburn this Thursday , from memory not much !
Sometimes its what lays ahead on offer at the track and saving or maximising your Dogs grading ( holding it back and being eligible still )
Itll bounce back next week im guessing and be strong for next 4 weeks from what Im looking at whats coming up

Thats all it is with other topics raised

Cheers

I am not criticising what you are saying, but if we can't get dogs to run a solid 25-30 seconds on any shape of track, then we are in real trouble.

In Victoria most of the tracks with distances ranging form 390m to 480m

They don't seem to have any trouble getting fields or running out the distances

I don't think the breeding of the greyhounds is substantially different to the breeding of greyhounds in NSW

Why can they run 400m out well on a horseshoe track? What's the issue? It has to go back to the trainers.

My opinion is that these days, there are more 400m trainers than 400m dogs

They just aren't prepared to put the work in to get the dogs fitter and further

Its far easier just to keep them fresh, don't waste money or time on a midweek trial and sprint them on a low level two-turn 400m corner start where luck plays a far bigger part in the result than talent.

Its crap racing in my opinion

Personally, if I was in charge of the sport, I would ban every 400m bend start on a two turn track

First, "I can't understand why the participants from Gosford/The Gardens won't race at Maitland over 400m".

There are probably a few reasons, one being that since time immemorial the two have never mixed well (going back to Beaumont Park days).

A prominent factor would be that they have dogs better suited to one but not the other. Big striders, wide runners, moderate beginners???

Another is that the longer straights (Bulli, Maitland, Horsham) find out the weaker dogs. Even those which can handle a circle 500 often find it tough.

Remember that I reported that once I checked several hundred dogs at each of Maitland and Wenty. The Maitland dogs averaged 2kg heavier.

Re "In Victoria most of the tracks with distances ranging form 390m to 480m. They don't seem to have any trouble getting fields or running out the distances".

Yes, they do. Short fields are just as common for those too. Just yesterday at Shepparton, Horsham and Ballarat, and ignoring the maidens, 9 400m fields were short, only 5 were full.

As for "Personally, if I was in charge of the sport, I would ban every 400m bend start on a two turn track", I would find that tempting. However, I repeat there is often a solution (as I mentioned re Richmond) - knock down the fence and move the boxes out beyond the back straight. There is no basic need to site the boxes on the track proper. None at all.

As for running out the trip. My regular observation is there are plenty of dogs fading at the end of a 400m. But that only goes to emphasise your point about training techniques.

Much better to ban racing over 300/350 everywhere except on straight tracks. They satisfy no-one.

But, yes, we are in trouble as I have been saying till I am blue in the face. The breed is weakening - or at least what is being put out on the track is weak. A minor part of that would be due to racing the runts of the litter but it is obviously a much bigger issue than that.

It is not an answer to say we have to improve GAP figures. Those slow or weak dogs will still age and have to be processed somehow, whether at 2yrs or 5yrs.