Hi Neil Just as an addendum to my earlier posting; the following article was in the news section today on the Greyhound Recorder website. I think it's fairly apt in light of your observations of Wenty the other night. "SATURDAY'S Paws Of Thunder heats provided spectacular racing yet, with only 38 nominations for the Group 1 series, serious attention to the Group Race Calendar must be had. So few were the noms at closure (Tuesday at 9am), it took another two days for the meeting to be structured and all heats had vacant boxes (obviously no reserves). The Paws of Thunder was once the National Coursing Association's time-honoured St Leger but it has completely lost its relevance as new races are added to each state body's calendar. GCA only aggregates the national calendar and has no call on what or when new races are scheduled but GCA is funded by member states (fees for races being considered as Group events) and time has come for some to be jettisoned. In recent years, the Million Dollar Chase, Phoenix, Sandgroper, 715, Gold Bullion, Dubbo's Country Classic, the Summer Six Hundred at Gosford and Pink Diamond (to mention but a few) have evolved. GRNSW has warmed to a carnival-like outcome for feature events but this Paws Of Thunder episode absolutely compromises depth in the National Derby and Futurity. In 2023, the story was not a lot different yet the concept was given another chance and history repeated itself. Being age restricted', the Derby and Futurity are very important events yet their value (prize money-wise) has been lowered in the past few years as has the Paws Of Thunder. I was fortunate enough to win a Paws Of Thunder (2013) with $100,000 going to-the-winner it's now $75,000 to the winner. Clearly there are budgetary issues in NSW and a rationalisation of sorts (regardless of what GCA might do or not do) is front and centre. Surely the closing of nominations only on Thursday before a Saturday event and snaring only 38 hounds is enough evidence that change is needed." Mention is made in this article that first prize money for the Paws of Thunder final is only $75,000 so what therefore must be remembered is that the other races listed are, on average, about ten times more than that. I don't think things are going too badly here when owners/trainers can't be bothered nominating dogs for a "measly" $75K to the winner race. The biggest difference, as I see it, between greyhound racing here in NSW (and it's fairly similar in other states) is that corporate bookmakers/TAB have to contribute for having access to greyhound racing information and their associated usage fees. Last financial year this amounted to over $96 million in revenue for Greyhound Racing New South Wales (GRNSW) and, on top of this, "Sponsorship and Rights" added a further $12.5 million. Out of this, GRNSW paid out over $55 million in prize money and still made a profit of over $6 million - despite paying participants $60 travel subsidy for every dog raced at any meeting. I don't wish to sound like an apologist for GRNSW, because I'm certainly not as, according to it's Annual Report, it spent an inexplicable $12.3 million on "Finance, Legal and Corporate" and has not, seemingly, bothered to collect $6.5 million that has been owed to GRNSW by the Wentworth Park landlord for decades - this is in spite of the fact that the landlord will not renew the lease to race at Wentworth Park past 2027 and charges us $30,000 per week to race there. Despite this, I think it's fairly obvious that racing participants (horses and dogs) in the U.K. have been screwed over big-time, since day one, as a consequence of your successive governments not regulating bookmakers to ensure they contribute funds back to the industries upon which they make their money. All the best, Neil.
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