Gunnedah Greyhound Racing Club president Geoff Rose has expressed bewilderment on the amount of greyhound racing scheduled in the North West this weekend.
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Along with Gunnedah’s TAB meeting on Sunday, non-TAB meetings will be held on Saturday in Tamworth and Coonabarabran.
“It’s ridiculous to have three clubs racing on the one weekend,” Rose said.
“Tamworth’s only 45 minutes away and Coonabarabran’s an hour and 10.
“You’re asking for 10 races each. 30 races times eight, that’s 240 dogs you're asking for for one weekend.”
Greyhound Racing NSW (GRNSW) schedule the meetings and outlined the reasons for the conflicts in a statement to Fairfax Media.
“Greyhound Racing NSW acknowledges that while the scheduling of three race meetings at Gunnedah, Tamworth and Coonabarabran over the weekend is not ideal, it must be noted that the introduction of TAB racing at Gunnedah is partly responsible for this issue,” the statement read.
GRNSW said they were required by Tabcorp to finalise the dates for all non-TAB meetings earlier this year but at that time the expressions of interest process for TAB racing in the New England area had not been finalised.
“As a result when Gunnedah was awarded the 13 TAB meetings, these had to be scheduled in addition to the Non-TAB meetings, while ensuring that no non-TAB club lost any of its allocated meetings,” the statement read.
“This has resulted in some TAB meetings at Gunnedah occurring on the same weekend as other tracks in the New England.”
Tamworth Greyhound Racing Club president Robert Munn agreed that the clash wasn’t the best outcome.
However, he was pleasantly surprised by the amount of nominations his club received for the Saturday meeting. Tamworth had about 60 nominations while Coonabrabran had about the same and Gunnedah had over 80.
“It’s just a one-off thing, I tried to get it fixed but it’s just bad luck,” Munn said of the clash.
“It’s not great but we’ve got eight races. They are sort of small fields but all in all, I’m pretty happy with what we’ve got.
“You’d expect some people to go to Gunnedah for the extra prizemoney but people that support us have stuck by us.”
Rose said he wanted to sit down with all parties involved so clubs weren’t stepping on each others toes.
GRNSW was in the process of doing just that.
GRNSW said they were planning to engage all registered clubs to conduct a review in December to remove any unnecessary scheduling clashes in the second half of the 2017-18 period.
Full statement from Greyhound Racing NSW
Greyhound Racing NSW acknowledges that while the scheduling of three race meetings at Gunnedah, Tamworth and Coonabarabran over the weekend is not ideal, it must be noted that the introduction of TAB racing at Gunnedah is partly responsible for this issue.
As way of background, each Non-TAB club is assigned a set number of Non-TAB meetings by Greyhound Racing NSW for each financial year. This is to ensure participants in each region have adequate racing opportunities.
The allocations are as follows:
Gunnedah: 15
Armidale: 9
Moree: 12
Tamworth: 16
As a rule, Non-TAB meetings at Gunnedah, Armidale, Moree and Tamworth are not scheduled on the same weekend, due to a similar participant base competing at these tracks. Coonabarabran is not in this grouping, as it attracts a lot of trainers from the Central West and would simply not be able to stage its allocated meetings if it was grouped with the four other tracks.
Greyhound Racing NSW was required by Tabcorp to finalise the dates for all Non-TAB meetings staged in 2017/18, earlier this year. Unfortunately, at the time of that finalisation, the expression of interest process for TAB racing in the New England had not been finalised.
As a result when Gunnedah was awarded the 13 TAB meetings these had to be scheduled in addition to the Non-TAB meetings, while ensuring that no Non-TAB club lost any of its allocated meetings. This has resulted in some TAB meetings at Gunnedah occurring on the same weekend as other tracks in the New England.
Given the impacts that this issue is causing for greyhound participants and nomination flows at some Non-TAB meetings, GRNSW is planning to engage all registered clubs in December and conduct a review of all scheduled meetings for the second half of the 2017/18 period with a view to remove any unnecessary scheduling clashes between tracks in close proximity to one another.
It is intended that this review will be finalised before the end of the year to ensure clashes like the one this weekend do not occur again.