Racing will go ahead at Central Park on Sunday following a series of serious injuries – three on Thursday’s abandoned meeting and two on Friday. The track is being monitored by the Sports Turf Reseearch Institute (STRI). Statements from ARC Greyhound Operations Director Rachel Corden and Christian Spring are punlished below – writes Floyd Amphlett.
So what is the view of the local trainers? We asked the hugely experienced and respected local trainer Tony Collett for his view on the situation.
He said: “There is clearly a problem; that much is clear. Dogs are going lame with serious injuries and I have owners phoning me asking whether or not they should be running. What is also clear is that the track and ARC are doing everything that they can to resolve it. I’ve heard stuff said ‘that they don’t care’. That just isn’t true in my opinion.
“They are acting straight away, bringing in experts and doing their best. The problem is this: they thought they had the problem sorted on Friday. They bring people in and take their measurements which suggest everything is fine, and still there were more injuries.
“Personally I don’t know what is wrong, I can’t pinpoint i, though this is far from the first time it has happened. It seems to be every summer between the end of May and August.
“Two years ago, when Roger Cearns was running the place, I had 14 broken hocks in three months. George Andreas had 20 during the same period so he left and joined Hove. On one occasion, I had three broken hocks in the same five-dog race. I can remember Jonathan Kay phoning and asking me about it.
“All we can do is listen to the experts and hope that their preparation works and that their assessments are right. If that doesn’t work, I don’t know where we go with this. Maybe they have to do like they did at Newcastle, dig the place up and start again. What else can you do?
“But don’t kid yourself that this is the only track where it is happening. I was talking to someone at another track yesterday and they are having plenty of broken hocks too.
“This is also causing additional problems for re-homing dogs. The centres don’t want to take dogs who have been injured. I have a dog in my kennel who has been on a waiting list for eight months. With trainers owning so many of their own dogs, they can’t afford to have kennel spaces taken up by dogs waiting to be re-homed.”
Rachel Corden said: “Welfare is paramount and those that work with us, including our attached trainers, know that. If our teams are not happy with a racing surface we don’t race and if there were a disproportionate number of injuries we cease racing to allow time for further investigation. That’s exactly what we have done at Central Park this week. We had meetings with the GBGB Track Liaison Officer and STRI yesterday and Dr Christian Spring from STRI was in attendance at Central Park last night. The surface last night was prepared according to best known practice. All of our courses have the appropriate equipment and our teams have been trained to use it. We have also invested in penetrometers at our five stadia, which the teams use ahead of each meeting to ensure the surface conformity is within the appropriate parameters. We always strive to deliver the best surface. However even then there is unfortunately no immunity from an injury occurring, and injuries, whatever the contributary factors are also unfortunately more likely to manifest during a race/trial.
“Injuries are multi-faceted. Genetics, rearing, nutrition, training facilities and their preparation, track surfaces, grading and seeding all play a part. We all have to work together to ensure these different facets are delivered to best practice and standard. The new GBGB Welfare Strategy includes research and work in many of those areas and with appropriate bookmaker funding that research can hopefully be progressed.
“We have also recently started doing some pilot work with our trainers to provide access to STRI for advice regarding preparation of their gallop facilities and we will be progressing this across our stadia in due course. Minimizing injuries is the one thing all stakeholders – breeders, trainers, owners and promoters, are actually united on, and we all have a part to play.
“We will be continuing to prepare all our tracks to best practice and our Group Grounds Manager/Head of Racing will be at Central Park in the coming weeks should any owner or trainer wish to discuss how the racing surface is prepared”.
Christian Spring said: “The outcome of this independent assessment showed that the racing surface was of good quality, safe, consistent and in excellent condition for racing. The racing surface had been very well prepared and provided greyhounds with the optimum balance between cushioning and grip around the whole track. The racing surface was a good example of a high quality racing surface, comparable to best around the UK.”
