DC

I dont speak for anyone but myself. I believe in keeping decorum and having constructive debate, something that has been sorely lacking from certain quarters. I cant comment on the situation, I wasnt there, were you? In saying that, we have had an incredible amount of personal abuse thrust upon us by many different angles, and in saying that, have tried to keep the debate to the simple facts but emotions have been high and abuse is certainly not one sided. No further comment to you because you cant even front up.

What a facetious remark Murray. My days are consumed with training dogs, I am involved with every aspect of training. Good on you for putting in many hours with the Club, without people like you Clubs would struggle but unfortunately I dont agree that should guarantee you a start. The boycott comes after many many months of trying to get the policy rescinded by the use of the usual channels. Talks, telephone calls, emails and finally a petition signed by most of the boycotting trainers. To no avail, we even rang the Clubs before the boycott to see if it could be handled without the boycott. Interestingly the Southland President made the decision on the phone without consulting his committee while Otago waited and had a committee meeting. We dont want all hell to break loose, we have tried to remedy the situation without going to these lengths. I dont see anything childish in the democratic process of protest, I do think damaging property is childish though. The major problem we have at the moment is that the largest base of greyhounds and trainers in NZ is unrepresented on our board. The so called S.I rep should be renamed the Southern rep as he has no interest in serving the majority of those he is supposed to be representing.

Murray, there is no freaking hidden agenda! Nobody wants the tracks shut down, we want them up and running asap.This isnt bloody blackmail, its a protest as a last resort after over a year of exhausting every other avenue. You are the ones blackmailing us with your selective policy. The MAJORITY of trainers that race at your tracks AGREED to this action, why should the minority dictate an unjust policy. This is a professional sport, time your club acted in the best interests of the sport as a whole so we can all move forward. If you had enough backbone you would realise the users of your product are unhappy and be willing to rectify the matter, simple business sense. Diana

of Canterbury Owners/Trainers, at the Yaldie Hotel 7pm tomorrow wed 12th, to discuss the Otago/Southland selection policy. Also a follow up to last weeks discussion, AC

Of course it is ridiculous for him to have a memorial when he has never met the dog. His intention is to inflame the situation, I read somewhere , his own comment, that he had to use extreme and provocative language or no one would pick up the story. I have been enraged by him but now Im past that and Im not going to let him take up too much of my time because I feel fine about how the dogs in my care are treated. However he is a man on a mission and will do what he can to damage the sport. Craig was guarded talking to the reporter who has printed stories from Aaron Cross' point of view before and the story was slanted.Im sure Janet Hall would have been devastated at losing her dog and the story made it seem very ho-hum. I see too much sensationalism in the media and it wouldnt surprise me if close-up picked up the story cos they like to spin a few pork pies. Diana

when one person thinks they are more important than the group. I note that neither Mcinerney or Tippy were at the meeting so they dont know the extent to which we discussed the future of racing in the South Island. The boycott wasnt just because of the horrific demise of Badja but that was the final straw. This isnt a push to get the club shutdown, it is a push to get it up to acceptable standard. Yes we all agree other tracks have issues as well and obviously we also want a second track in Canterbury, that has been on the table for some time and that doesnt necessitate the close of Southland. This was the first step. Solidarity is a powerful thing, without it, its just the same shit different day. The meeting was inspiring in that we were all prepared to work together for the common good. It gave me hope for Greyhound racing something that I havent had for some years. The trainers that actually provide the racing should have some control over how racing progresses and at present we dont. If this isnt resolved then Ive had enough. Diana Roberts, public trainer for 21yrs.

I am very dissapointed as im sure a lot of others will be that you would nom for that meeting at Southland! Hopefully you will be noming for Otago anyway. But you say you are entrusting to the Assn to act on your behalf yet this was the 7th or 8th malfunction since Feb.So you must be happy with the way the Assn had dealt with this all year???? Your dog cant have been affected too badly by that race as it lined up 2 days later!!! AC

On Wednesday night went extremely well. It was a positive meeting and almost everyone was united and prepared to fight for our cause. It was unanimous that we dont race at Southland until we are happy.We are asking that the meetings be held at Otago until then. A mission statement was signed by everyone there accept 1 person. In my opinion it would have been the best meeting ive been to and I hope others that were there would think the same. It is time for change and as a united group we can forge ahead and implement the changes that are needed. A big thanks to all those that attended and to Allan Williams for helping to organise it. AC

I would like to see a Safety Certificate(for dog safety) issued to every track in NZ that gives that track a safety rating and a standard that the track must adhere to, to keep operating. Some safety measures should be manadatory like safety fences right around and lure specifications and if money is an issue for the club the Assn should have money available to lend/give that track. Racing CANNOT continue at the rate its going. Clubs cannot continue to administer on these issues it must come from an industry driven standard that must be raised from what it is presently. Ideas welcome. Attend the meeting tonight to discuss where we go from here. Diana Roberts

Any Canterbury licence holders that wish to attend to discuss future of greyhound racing in Canterbury. Tonight Wednesday 5th September at the Yaldhurst Hotel at 7pm. AC Roberts

greyhounds and am happy to say so! I actively participate in all 3 codes and cant understand why there are still knockers out there! I currently have a wee share in a galloper called Dcashman and have dabbled in a couple of standardbreds and are good friends with a lot of harness and galloping people. Come on folks its the racing game we all love and there just happens to be 3 codes involved! Great game of football on Sunday too against the harness boys. AC

Lee to be quite rational and to have a reasonable train of thought. I have to agree with him on some issues. The side of the industry that has always left a bad taste is of course the putting down of dogs. It has never been properly addressed and everyone deals with it in their own way. One of the main problems is that the assn just puts it in the too-hard basket and creates a token gesture in GAP. There are no statistics to refute the extremist claims of these fanatics so we are at a disadvantage straight away. We all know mud sticks, so anything they throw at us that we cant prove to be incorrect will just make us look guilty of their accusations. This must be addressed, it will not go away no matter how ridiculous the claims are. And maybe our injury/ death rates on tracks are too high. We had 3 broken legs in 2weeks recently. One was at trials so was unreported. One bitch was saved for breeding, one saved for a home and one put down due to a hideously smashed shoulder. Is this acceptable? We shouldnt just accept that we are right, that is just as arrogant as them. We should look to see what improvements can be made. We cant address their claims by saying there are worse sports or treatment of animals, being defensive about the status quo will not get us anywhere. We need to show that we are willing to address any areas that need it. People are far more emotive over animal issues than people issues. It wont take much to snowball and become a real pain. Diana

No such thing as little or big trainers in greyhound racing. Every aspect of our industry is just as important. Our sport needs each and every one of us and more new people. May 2012/2013 season be more sucessfull than the last season for everyone. Well done Garrick!Huge result for ya mate! You will have to go again with Flo now! AC

You have to have won the Silver Collar to get a mention? Not 100% sure but think most of those did. I am biased but poor old Gatlin Bale has missed out.He didnt win a Collar but went 11 months undefeated over 600m and beyond which I think would be fairly impressive.Won about $89k and a couple of 2 group 1s and a heap of other group and feature events.was a very clever dog over the staying events. But as I say maybe im being biased. AC

This is exactly the reason I was against microchipping in the first place. Who wants to put a foreign object into their racing greyhound no matter how small it is, there is the potential for anything to happen. Also microchips can be altered for corrupt purposes and this was shown to be the case in Oz in pre-microchipping experiments. These are points I made to the then Minister of Racing at the time of the petition. To no avail, our assn is hell bent on following the lead of Oz. We now have microchipped dogs with bigger earbrands, ridiculous. Microchipping will never stand on its own, there are too many variables. Computerisation will only occur when some kind of DNA testing is available at kenneling. So needless to say it is a waste of time and money and our assn should have had the guts to at least look into it rather than ignoring the issue. Im still pissed off about it! Diana