Dear reader,

As you may have noticed, updates to Australia Greyhound Racing have been sparse the past 4 months or so. Unfortunately, we have to say that the financial investment in time, tech and hosting costs keeping this site up and running were simply becoming too much of a burden to bear, to keep the regular updates flowing.

Despite the appearances – what with online betting advertising on the site, etc – this site has failed to recoup any of the money invested since its inception. Not a single cent past a one-time, very small advertising promotion that hardly put a dent in that month’s costs, never mind the year costs to date.
Put simply… we invested a lot here, but unfortunately earned nothing in return. And while I want to make clear that this was never about making money, it got to the point where I needed to take a step back, in order to concentrate on giving the best to my normal day-job to keep our heads above water… which obviously meant that this site needed to take a back seat.

Now, I don’t mean this to sound all doom and gloom, it’s just the way the cookie crumbles. But I wanted to take a second to see how many of the readers to this site actually wanted to see it up and running again? We have over 700 fans on our Facebook page, so obviously this site was doing something right… so would you like to see us doing it again?

If you do, please let me know in the comments below. Really, I just want to gauge whether it’s worth my time to kickstart the whole thing again.

As a second part to this: considering there’s simply no way this site will ever recoup the investments in time and hosting costs etc, I wanted to see if there were any dogs writers out there that would be interested in contributing coverage to the site?
Obviously, as seen from this post, there wouldn’t be any possible monetary rewards, but you could get promotion for your own organisations on this site, and any other requests you would have would be met amicably.

I don’t want to let this community established on this site waste away… but I need your support to keep it going.

Cindeen Shelby, winner of three Group 1 races and once at the Group 2 last year was crowned 2009 Australian greyhound of the year Friday night at Cannington. The following release is from Peter Davis over at the SMH.

The daughter of Bombastic Shiraz came up against 2008 greyhound of the year El Galo and The Meadows 725m record holder Amity Bale but, after a stellar year of competition against the best in the land, her anointment came as no surprise.

The fawn bitch’s win continues the domination of the award by Victorian-trained greyhounds.

The inaugural Australian greyhound of the year, in 2002, was Boomeroo. He was followed by now champion sire Bombastic Shiraz, Whisky Assassin, Pure Octane, Betty’s Angel and Flashing Floods, while El Galo dominated the 2008 group racing calendar. Four of the eight winners have been bred interstate but each has had its racing career plotted south of the Murray River.

Original release can be found here.

Greyhound Racing South Australia (GRSA) has released the following press release today. Great news for SA greyhound racing.

Peter Ali, Chief Executive Officer for Greyhound Racing SA (GRSA) announced today that Greyhound Racing SA is performing well financially and as a result will pay bigger dividends, increasing the Prize Money pool for Greyhound Racing in this state.

Following a Board Meeting held at Angle Park on Thursday 4th of February, the GRSA Board agreed to pass on the positive financial returns in extra Prize Money that will in fact be back dated to the 1st of January this year.

Therefore owners/trainers will receive the extra windfall that will be paid retrospectively for their winning Greyhounds performance!

A total of $500,000 has been allocated, $250,000 into this financial year, taking 09/10 Prize money levels to $4,250,000, which is in fact 21.4% over 08/09 prize money allocation. The balance will be allocated to the 10/11 financial year which demonstrates the Boards ongoing commitment to further increase prize money levels, which ultimately flow through to industry participants.

For further clarification, detailed below is an explanation of where prize money increase will be allocated:

Angle Park additional $103,000 to $2.69 million
• Thursday Grade 5 up $200 to $2,200 with all grades increased
• Monday/Tuesday (APM) Grade 5 up $100 to $1,250 with all grades increased
• Wednesday all races up $100 to $800
• Lower Grade features up by $500 to $4,000
• Non-Group feature events increased to $7,000 (up from 6,250) or $14,000 (12,500) plus increases to Breeders Futurity

Gawler additional $48,000 to $610,000
• Tuesday/Monday Grade 5 up $150 to $1,150 with all grades increased
• Sunday all races increased by $100 to $800 or $850
• Increases to feature races of between $250 to $500

Country additional $33,000 to $603,000
• TAB meetings all races increased by $100 (Grade 5 level $800)
• Non-TAB Meetings all races increased by $50 (Grade 5 level $650)

SA Bred Bonuses additional $24,000 to $216,000
• Monthly bonus pool increased by $4,000 to $18,000

Travel Rebates additional $33,500 to $135,000
• Increase to $20 per trainer from $15 (over 5 or more starters $40)
• Wednesday mornings included, so that all Angle Park and Gawler meetings to have Travel Rebates

GRSA’s market share as at 30th June 2009 was 15.61% and indications show that Greyhound Racing will experience further growth again this year.

The Management Team and GRSA Board are committed to implementing further strategies to grow their market share over our competitors, by providing the optimum racing product for the industry and the racing public.

They are also committed to providing Prize Money increases and are extremely pleased that the business is in a healthy financial state to do so.

Great news for Queensland greyhound racing, thanks to a government injection worth $80 million to the three racing codes over 4 years! We’ve placed all the details from the official release below. The following article is sourced from the Greyhounds Queensland site, and can be viewed at its original printing here.

GREYHOUND racing will be a big winner from the proposed State Government injection of $80 million to the three racing codes over four years.
The State Government on Saturday announced it would “usher in a new era” for the racing industry with the funding package to redevelop key facilities across the state.

Treasurer Andrew Fraser said the funding package, sourced from the redirection of half of the revenue gained from wagering taxes, will help revitalise an industry that has been estimated to directly and indirectly employ 43,000 people across the state.
The State Government announcement comes in line with the move to amalgamate the three racing codes under one governing body. Legislation to facilitate this proposal will need to go before Parliament which is expected to be early this year.

Greyhounds Queensland Ltd chair Kerry Watson said today she was happy the State Government had recognised the urgent need for a new greyhound facility at Logan, which is a “key priority” of the funds allocation.
“GQL has been asked by the State Government to proceed with the original plans for a multi-story grandstand complex, and two racetracks, at Logan,” said Ms Watson.
“But greyhound racing has landed another big winner. The $10 million compensation for the closure of the Gold Coast track in 2008 will be ‘topped up’ by the State Government to complete the Logan complex as we initially planned.”
GQL is now in the process of talking to its engineers and architects to amend the development application that is soon due to go to Logan City Council.

This is great news, not only for Queensland greyhound lovers, but for lovers of the sport countrywide.

Spurred on by a question asked by a member of our Facebook community, we have discovered that it is being reported that Queen Lauryn - one of Queensland’s greyhound greats, and recently retired – will be put to mate with well known Where’s Pedro, although this is still to be confirmed. We will follow up this post with confirmation once we have received it. Greyhounds Queensland in the meantime has posted the following:

Queen Lauryn will live out her days in Queensland and be mated to an as yet undecided sire. “Obviously there are a few hard choices to be made and it will need to be in the next couple of days – we have narrowed down the options,” Hawkins said.
“In conclusion we want to say a big thank you to those that assisted in Queen Lauryn’s career including Peter Gleeson who picked her out as a puppy, Gary Geary that took care of her early on, Tony and Jane Apap for rearing her and Ron Hood and Marg Long for giving her the ideal base in Melbourne when racing in Victoria.”

Queen Lauryn will undoubtedly go down as one of the swiftest bitches to ever race on Queensland tracks, and retires with a record that will be remembered by many: 28 wins from 48 starts with a further 11 placings and $277 185 in total career prizemoney.

Queen Lauryn looked to be ramping up for some fantastic Group 1 races in the near future, but the Tony Brett trained bitch has come on for her fourth season in her career and a decision was made by her owners, the HH Syndicate, to end her career. As Steve Hawkins, manager of the HH Syndicate has said:

“I think coming on season before three Group Ones where she was a genuine chance of winning were tough pills to swallow but I suppose that’s racing. Racing against Mantra Lad was a real thrill but not ever meeting Amity Bale in a race will be a result we will never know”

Sad news to report today, in that Greyhounds Queensland Chairman Of Stewards Danny Ryan has passed away early this morning. Greyhounds Queensland, through Chair Kerry Watson, has put out a brief official release that we have reproduced below:

It is with great sadness that I advise the greyhound industry of the passing of Chairman of Stewards Mr Danny Ryan this morning.

Danny was a valued member and participant of the greyhound industry for some 30 years.

His involvement included being an owner and trainer, racecaller, club administrator and for the past 15 years in the integral role of Chairman of Stewards.

On behalf of Greyhounds Queensland we wish to pass on our deepest condolences to his wife Bernice and his immediate family at this difficult time.

A further release will be made once service arrangements have been confirmed.

Ms. Kerry Watson
Chair
15 December 2009

This is very sad news for the Australian greyhound racing community given Danny’s lifelong involvement in the sport, especially in the last 15 years in his position as Queensland Chairman of Stewards.
Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time.

Thanks to Bob Watkins for alerting us to this sad news. We will update the post if and when more information becomes available.

Following on from last week’s poor news for Graeme Bate with both Velocette and Amity Bale being forced into retirement, another blow has been struck this week, as GRSA Stewards have found Graeme Bate guilty of a positive swab taken from this year’s Group 3 SA Derby winner Dyna Forte.

As a result of the finding Bate has lost not only the $21 500 prizemoney originally awarded for Dyna Forte’s win, but he has also been fined $3000 for the incident.

Runner up for the race, Beer Time, has now been recognised as the official winner and awarded the $21 500.