Races are won and lost in hundredths of a second. Equally as important though, is when those final few spots can be squeezed from a performance – for a bet, a trophy, or maybe a kennel sweepstake final.
Our in-house trials, whilst being statistically too small to be scientifically valid, have satisfied us that on average, dogs fed on normal greyhound feeds can be improved by typically two to four lengths. Occasionally more.
This can happen in as little as two weeks depending on the dog’s existing condition, fitness and feeding regime, plus the trainer’s ability in being able to make best use in the advantages offered by Australian Formula
We believe that this is possible due to the interaction of two separate factors:
1) Many existing feeds can actually hamper the performance of apparently fit dogs. Principally the use of poor quality fats causes inflammatory reactions and poor calcium availability contributes to cramping.
2) The excellent balanced nutritional performance enhancers in Australian Formula start to play their part quickly – bringing out the dogs best performance.
Imagine how much improvement can be found if you can offset cramp by as little as three or four seconds in a race!
Recent controversy regarding illegal performance enhancers for greyhounds have made the legal methods to improve performance employed by Australian Formula all the more relevant and important.
Australian Formula contains many features that are legal performance enhancers. Here is a list of some of these ingredients together with a brief description of how they work.
Please note; there is no other food currently available that combines all the following ergogenic aids.
ANTIOXIDANTS
The vitamins beta-carotene, Vitamin C, Vitamin E and the mineral Selenium are examples of antioxidants provided by Australian Formula.
Strenuous exercise increases the production of oxygen free radicals both during exercise and during the recovery period. To help counteract the damaging peroxidation effects of free radicals on lipid cell membranes and other cell structures, the greyhound’s body naturally produces several antioxidant enzymes. The antioxidants in Australian Formula help boost these natural defences and reduce muscle and tissue damage during strenuous training and racing. In theory this allows a greater amount of training and a faster recovery from racing. Hard training increases the bloods ability to carry and deliver oxygen. Blood doping also aims to achieve this. Australian Formula helps dogs survive the exercise regime needed to achieve maximum performance. Remember dogs become fit by recovering from hard training not from the exercise itself.
CALCIUM
Calcium is an essential mineral known best for its role in the skeleton. Almost all (99%) of the calcium in a greyhound’s system is stored in the bones and the teeth. The remaining 1% in the tissues is very important for numerous metabolic functions. It is vital for the contraction of muscles and so a deficiency would impair performance.
CARNITINE
Carnitine is a vitamin like substance and is important as a co-factor for several enzymes in the muscle cell. It influences the metabolism of fatty acids and facilitates the transfer of certain fatty acids to the mitochondria for energy production. It also has a role, theoretically, in decreasing the accumulation of lactic acid and delaying the onset of cramp.
CREATINE
Creatine is a natural dietary constituent present in small amounts in the diet, but it may also be synthesised in the liver and kidney from several amino acids.
Creatine supplementation increases the whole body creatine pool, facilitating the generation of creatine phosphate. The performance enhancing effect may only last for seconds but it is enough to dramatically alter a greyhound’s performance. It is quite simply a very effective energy reservoir for the greyhounds initial burst of early pace. Creatine may also delay the effects of cramp by acting as an acid buffer.
GLUTAMINE
Glutamine is an amino acid, which can normally be manufactured within the dog’s body. In times of stress such as hard training the dog’s need for glutamine may not be met by normal synthesis.
Glutamine is the preferred fuel source for rapidly dividing cells such as those found in the intestines and the immune system.
Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in plasma and in skeletal muscle.
The greyhound’s body may react to prolonged training as a stressful event, which leads to a drop in blood glutamine levels. Greyhounds training off and losing performance may in many cases be due to this glutamine depletion.
IRON
Iron is an essential mineral. The correct supplementation of Iron, especially in the heme state, increases athletic performance. Iron is a component of haemoglobin in the red blood cells, myoglobin in the muscle cell and some of the oxidative enzymes within the mitochondria. Haemoglobin carries oxygen while the iron based oxidative enzymes are essential in the formation of ATP in the oxygen energy system. Iron supplementation is designed to maximise the function of the oxygen energy system and to improve performance. Veterinary analysis of greyhounds that lose performance very often points to Iron as a major factor.
MULTIVITAMIN / MINERAL SUPPLEMENTS
Vitamin and mineral supplements may be classified as nutritional sports performance enhancers. The theory is quite simple; vitamins and minerals are involved in almost all metabolic processes in the greyhound’s body, many being very important to athletic performance. Functioning as coenzymes or in other metabolic roles important to performance they are essential for the optimal functioning of energy systems. For the formation of red blood cells and for the formation of muscle protein. They are also required for the formation of various neurotransmitters. They are vital for antioxidant activity.
A dog food with a bargain basement multi vitamin and mineral component is putting your dogs at a big disadvantage.
OMEGA 3 FATTY ACIDS
Omega 3 fatty acids are a special class of polyunsaturated fatty acids found naturally in both plant and animal foods, primarily in fish oils. Omega 3 fatty acids work to boost performance in a number of ways. They are incorporated in the red blood cell membrane, making it less viscous and able to flow faster in the blood vessels. They induce a vasodilation effect, increasing the size of the blood vessels supplying the muscles, also getting oxygen to where it is needed faster. The other important effect is that of controlling inflammatory responses allowing faster recovery from the damage inflicted by hard exercise or racing.
Fat has received very unfair coverage in terms of human nutrition and is essentially perceived as ‘bad’. Australian Formula has helped greyhound trainers to realise that this attitude is very wrong when it comes to feeding greyhounds and fat is actually the preferred fuel source of the racing dog.
HIGH QUALITY PROTEINS
Protein is of course an essential nutrient for greyhounds. Protein is essential to growth, development and repair of all body tissues. It is also essential for the regulation of metabolism.
As a greyhound muscles up during training it is protein that is the building block for the muscular growth. As a dog recovers from micro tears in its musculature after exercise again it is protein that is the vital nutrient involved. Australian Formula contains a protein blend that totally satisfies these requirements.
SELENIUM
Selenium is an essential mineral found naturally in a variety of foods. Selenium is a potent antioxidant and works closely with Vitamin E, another antioxidant. Selenium works to prevent unwanted oxygen free radical peroxidation of lipids in red blood cell membranes and other muscle cell membranes and other muscle cell structures involved in the oxygen energy system.
ZINC
Zinc is an essential mineral. Animal foods such as meat and poultry contain zinc.
Zinc plays a role in the function of more than 100 enzymes in the body including those involved in protein synthesis. The enhancement of muscle protein synthesis helps to increase power and performance.
This group of performance enhancing ingredients of Australian Formula is not complete. There are many others such as joint conditioners, taurine, manganese, boron and B complex vitamins that we left out for reasons of space. Hopefully the complexity and range of ergogenic ingredients included will give encouragement to trainers attempting to coax every last 100th of a second out of their dogs whilst staying 100% within the rules of racing.
The key point to consider is that whilst the above features of Australian Formula help greyhounds to run faster – their absence or poorly applied presence in normal feeds makes greyhounds go slower.
It is not rocket science but fed correctly to a healthy dog and it can act as rocket fuel!
