With greyhound racing about to re-launch following the Covid-19 lock-down, one individual with a global perspective on greyhound racing, believes it represents a golden opportunity for the sport.
Professional gambler, former greyhound owner, promoter and lifelong greyhound fanatic Harry Findlay, believes the GBGB should look to Australia for inspiration.
In particular they may be well advised to check out how their Australian counterparts coped with the global pandemic during recent weeks.
He said: “They haven’t lost a single days racing down to the virus. The Aussies have made greyhound welfare and security the top issues in recent years and are reaping the benefits.
“The Australians have always been ahead of the game. There are so many examples. Just think about the structure of their racing kennels where all eight runners in each race are isolated. It is common sense and security is far stronger than we see in Britain.
“Almost immediately after the crisis started they closed down the city centre tracks like Wentworth in Sydney and they restricted all dogs to run in their home states only.
“I was watching the Aussie dogs most mornings before the lockdown and certainly every day since. fasttrack.grv.org.au covers all the Victorian racing and thedogs.com.au covers the rest of Australia.
Both are brilliant and give punters the chance to watch every race. All the dogs have all their form available on video. It is something we should have had up and running in the UK 10 years ago.”
Given the choice Harry would always prefer six dog races to eight dogs. If he could make one change to the Australian greyhound system “it would be to introduce rails or mid/wide seeding primarily because with regards to welfare, its a complete no-brainer.”
Findlay believes that UK racegoers should be open minded following recent talk of there being no on-course bookmakers and industry priced returns when racing does finally return.
He said: “This plays massively into the bookmakers favour and takes away most of their risk. So accordingly, I expect them to lower their profit margins significantly.
“Greyhound racing has and always will be the greatest betting sport in the world and now the bookies can really make it a genuine gaming option for punters by not taking the piss with the size of their takeout.”
We reported Findlay’s views at the start of the Cofid-19 outbreak, how he believed it represented a tremendous opportunity for greyhound racing to raise its betting profile, and he is expanding on that.
He said: The sport should do all it can to still try and hold the Greyhound Derby at Nottingham this year. It may now need the Irish Derby coming forward by a couple of weeks and running it after that as a 48 dog invite competition; like it used to be many years ago.
“But greyhound racing will be one of the first sports to start up again and just imagine how much coverage and exposure a late summer Nottingham Derby would generate. Or you could then push back the Irish Derby instead!
“The horse race planners committee have done a fine job lining up a programme for the restart; hopefully this month. Their number one goal all along has been to try and save the classics.
“Everybody involved in greyhound racing knows there is only one real greyhound classic and that is the Derby. That is why I nearly killed myself trying to get it to Coventry!”
