Mitchell, I notice that dogs from the Wheeler/Borda/etc camps now get spread around amongst a much wider variety of trainers than was the case a few years ago. They also put much more effort and cash into breeding. Without that the industry would be in lots of strife as short fields are now common everywhere. Those folk also get a helluva lot of losers to go with the winners and they will almost certainly have to put up with shorter prices than justified - therefore making prize money a much more important factor now, compared with 10 or so years ago. The other side of the coin is that all those odds-on favourites are far too short - meaning that other runners from small kennels are at "overs". Another guide is look at breeding outcomes (see lists in Newscorps' Greyhound Reorder) where progeny from Fernando Bale and Barcia Bale are doing no better than several other sires - ie at or below the 20% mark for their proportion of winners to pups starting out. Then there are the many trainers who are over-racing their dogs and being queried by stewards - these would mostly be medium to small trainers - and not doing much good for anyone, least of all the dogs themselves. My guess is that the big guys would be better financed and better equipped than the hobby people - therefore in theory able to obtain better dogs and look after them well. That's also true of horse racing. Yes, I often wonder about a race where the Daillys have 5, 6 or 7 runners but, as I said, that also means (a) they have a lot of losers and (b) why have others not nominated their dogs in the first place. This is a competition. You have to be good to win it. If you are concerned about abuses then why not dob them in?
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