GOM

Gary. looking back at this many years later you will be saying thank God I had a sore back

I think Gubes that dogs are not affected by the tracks as horses are. Most will run similar on whatever surface. In my experience with dogs though some don't like racing in the wet (rain) more than others but I have never been able to link that their sire.

There has been a lot of talk recently about trying six dog fields to see firstly if it reduces interference In races and secondly will it impact on turnover. What are peoples thoughts on this. My view is that it will reduce the amount of interference purely because of logistics but if you take that to it's logical conclusion match racing would be the ultimate like the boring amazing chase races. Oh hold on a minute there would still be some interference on the odd occasion when they didn't race in single file , so maybe the ultimate would be solo trials and go on times, now wouldn't that be exciting. Obviously there would be 24 dogs per meeting denied a start compared to now but maybe they could put on 3 extra races to compensate. I have watched 6 dog racing in Ireland and although I enjoyed it I still preferred our 8 dog fields.

What amazes me is if you look on Greyhound data the Aussies are en masse crying about the dog shortage over there and they are often running 5 or 6 dog fields. That defies logic when they are shipping them over here as quick as we will allow them. Surely being inundated with the Aussie flotsam is not positive for NZ for many reasons

It is hard to imagine he wouldn't leave some beauts Garrick. He'd be on my list if I was still breeding

both replies are valid, as Lad says some bad news and or supposed bad news and it will be all on again, Everton makes valid points that any comments on the futility of recent changes falls on deaf ears and people are fed up with the helplessness and lack of transparency. There are probably many other reason's but I think people get fed up with frenzy created with social media. A good exampl;e is the recent introduction of Bitofayarn. . Touted as an alternative where you can have your say without fear of being senscured. What amazes me is this has been translated as an invitation to abuse shit out of Racecafe and it's remaining participants. Doesnt hurt me one bit but show's the mentality of the average keyboard warrior. Whatever Poodle I will start another thread and see how we go.

Not surprising Pilli in fact quite predictable. Would you please work out the percentages in Harness racing on cup day Tuesday. It will be even more top heavy.

RFS, I hope you mean too much breeding greyhounds the reproduction rate of the participants seems about right

Whatever, there were just so many positives about the whole day everyone should be proud . Well done Harness racing

When you think about it most of the anti activity to greyhound racing world wide mainly comes from historic mostly almost ancient historic events. New Zealand does not have the same amount of history in the sport with betting on Dogs being a relatively relatively recent event. NZ was also quick to react to the call for regulations and transparency and as a result was well ahead of the field .

Get up mto speed Poodle this is a site for fast animals and thinkers

One of the only commentators to give Best Solution a real chance. Seem's the forgotten ingredient to me

The interesting thing for me was that 5 of the eight finalists were bitches

Wow

Bus stop it appears from the response maybe you should have asked does anyone care

All class

Good debate fella's and fellarettes, Good points for and against. Just to finish on my part I want to make clear that I have trouble with the system not the people. There are obviously many young trainers doing a great job with imports and good on them. My argument is they shouldn't have to Time for another sabbatical

1234 you make a good point with all the NZ dogs being shifted to other trainers because they are not up to speed (ha) That is frightening when you think about it. Probably over half of the dogs racing in NZ are other peoples castoffs. It's a ballroom, the $500 can be payment for the privilege of racing here or whatever as long as they go back. It should definitely be a charge to the importer or in some cases exporter from Aus. The $500 charge at present is a fraction of the actual cost of GAP. Think about it, cost to NZ industry and saving for Aus industry. Maybe Aus could also put another levy on all pups born there that is forwarded to NZ when the pup is exported here

Don't agree there, I can think of a lot that have abandoned the home grown for imports and what this thread was about was the amount of dogs that are not imported as much as sent in numbers from one syndicate which seems to have realized what an easy target we are. And we save them the trouble of retirement as well

Look Albert, if you take that to it's logical conclusion where did all the Aussie dogs come from Ireland and England or more recently America. The movement of animals between countries is as you say nothing new or bad. The exception to that in Greyhounds was frozen semen which quickly diluted the world gene pool. However the breeding side of it is different to the flood of imports into this country and many many trainers changing from rearing and racing to depending on imports. This stifles us ever having a robust sustainable industry. I tried your theory on Matanuska this morning and greeted him with how're you going Ocker . he turned his back on me in disgust and walked away. Mind you he is getting to be a bit of a crotchety old bugger in his old age. Bit like me.

Any more family members yet to comment?I doubt anyone will be surprised by your posts. It definitely isn't any of my business what happens to prizemoney your owners earn but it sort of is my business if it is at the detriment of our sport here. Both you and Junior lament the lack of facilities for breeding, rearing and breaking in, yet you are part of the cause of why it exists. We don't need the facilities here and anyone having a go will probably fail because the Aussies are doing it for us. How many registrations are there for Aussie dogs? Each one of those negates the need for NZ's even trying. You quote how you yourself changed tack from the bones of the industry to the fluffy bits bubbling at the top yet don't say why. Presumably too hard, easier and more certain money to take the shortcuts. Look at the others who have followed suit. Imagine if you will that a deadly virus was discovered either here or in Aus and all stock movement between the two counties was forbidden. Do you think NZ greyhound racing would stop? If you can answer yes to this then what we are doing here is very wrong. If you answer no then there is no reason to continue our dependence. (Mind you one of your owners seems to find a way around such restrictions) What will bring this sport to a close is not the activist's unfair attention or the supposed inability of the board to administrate correctly but the lack of new people coming into the sport. To achieve that not so long ago a young person on a modest income and a bit of common sense was able to get established and buy a local dog and they were away. Now unless you have enough to source an import or have a family member with the right contacts they are immediately kicking shit uphill.

See another 4 new ones on yesterdays registrations. Good on you Steve we have to make a living somehow but if you think this is good for greyhound racing in NZ you are looking through rose coloured glasses. I like the bit they do plenty of homework sorting dogs that will suit NZ racing. I guess the starting point is what ones are not suitable for Aus racing.

I know there is a restriction on the amount of dogs able to be imported to race in NZ each month and a further restriction on the naughty ones but are there any checks and balances on the dogs that are being SENT to NZ to race and not imported. Looking at registrations over several months I see a lot of non descript Aussie dogs being sent to NZ by a sydicate called punters HQ. These dogs appear to be being distributed to various trainers around NZ and the numbers made me wonder. On investigation it appears punters HQ is a LARGE Australian syndicate buying second third and fourth tier dogs to send to NZ for the easy pickings. Is this the next wave of an Aussie invasion . Under the rules that we operate under ther is nothing illegal in this but from a common sense angle someone should be able to see what a tsunami of dogs following this path will create here My bet would be that the majority will be short course dogs and most not suitable as breeding prospects so here we go making it even harder for the rank and file to survive , and ensuring NZ exists as the retirement option for the Aussie unwanted. Gap better get ready. I know we are part of a NZ/ Aus alliance but at this rate we may well be able to just remove the NZ bit and be a branch of the Aus system. all we seem capable of is following any moves made in Melbourne in recent times.

If Holden got rid of anyone who had more ghound knowledge than him there would have been no one left.

If you believe no one is making a profit you are dreaming