Bad luck for punters in the final of the Victorian Distance Championship at The Meadows, when hot favourite Xylia Allen finished fourth, well beaten by Mepunga Tiara. Yes, she had an early check but it was not a big one, and it was her own fault. The winner got a Read full article

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GreyhoundRacingNews/~3/7lC6vu-RuC4/53562

Category: Greyhound Racing News, Albion Park, Do That, Rapid Journey, Wentworth Park

The post Too Much, Too Often appeared first on Greyhounds Online.

You For Real has taken out the 2014 Westchase final at just her fifth career start, paying an incredible $52.30 to win the feature. Trainer Ben Abercrombie produced a quinella at Cannington in the 530 metre feature event with litter-brother Full Of Beans finishing second.

Favouritism for the $13,500 to-the-winner Read full article

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GreyhoundRacingNews/~3/QdQv6FhHQw4/53553

Category: West Australian Racing, Collision

The post Shock Result In The 2014 Westchase Final appeared first on Greyhounds Online.

If pre-race comments are any way to measure the happiness of a trainer after an event, then Anakie mentor Jeff Britton will be as happy as the proverbial pig in mud.

When speaking about his bitch Mepunga Tiara to ARG through the week, Britton said “I’ll be happy if she can Read full article

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GreyhoundRacingNews/~3/Fhn7-W8MeWA/53551

Category: Group & Listed Greyhound Racing, Jeff Britton, Premier Fantasy, Stewards

The post Mepunga Tiara Crowned The 2014 Group Two Victorian Distance Champion appeared first on Greyhounds Online.

Jeff Britton has capped off a remarkable night of racing for his team of greyhounds by taking out the Group One Maturity at The Meadows with Mepunga Hayley. Earlier in the night , Britton and Mepunga Tiara secured the Group Two Victorian Distance Championship final.

Britton told ARG earlier in the Read full article

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GreyhoundRacingNews/~3/iKI4h3AP02w/53541

Category: Group & Listed Greyhound Racing, Andrea Dailly

The post Mepunga Hayley Deserved Winner Of 2014 Group One Maturity appeared first on Greyhounds Online.

The $500,000 TAB Melbourne Cup for 2013

The Sandown Greyhound Racing Club will host he most exciting greyhounds in Australia are aiming to secure their spot in Melbourne Cup glory.

Experience the Melbourne Cup at Sandown Park

A large crowd is anticipated for this year’s Melbourne Cup, which will be run at Sandown Park on Thursday night 21 November.

Entry into the Melbourne Cup is FREE.

There is also a exclusive promotion – for $60 you can gain access to ‘The Doghouse. Celebrities attending will  include Jack Riewoldt, Jaimee Rogers, James Pattinson, Bianca Chatfield, Archie Thompson and Alex Fevola.

The 2013 Greyhound Melbourne Cup field

The box draw for the Group 1 Melbourne Cup was held at Sandown Park on Friday 15 November at 12:00pm.
TAB installed Jason Thompson’s Black Magic Opal a $1.65 favourite.

The post The TAB Greyhound Melbourne Cup 2013 appeared first on Greyhounds Online.

In a decision cloaked in secrecy, Racing Queensland has made a development application to the Brisbane City Council to replace the demolished Russ Hinze Stand with a facility certain to cost tens of millions.

As news of the proposal leaked, gallops officials were questioning whether the greyhounds would be part of the development; how harness racing could justify a grandstand of this magnitude when crowds are so bad for most of the year; and who is going to finance the project?

RQ has advised BCC that the proposed development is ‘essentially the same as the previous application’ made in 2010 and subsequently withdrawn in early 2011 when the then Board of Racing Queensland decided to change direction and sell Albion Park.

It has been well documented how the Bob Bentley Board wanted to close Deagon as a boutique gallops training facility to make way for a state-of-the-art joint harness and greyhound racing facility.

Politics were played and those pushing the Deagon barrow and concerned about their hefty property investments in the area deserted Bentley and the Labor Party and jumped ship to the LNP which looked certain to win Government.

Many galloping industry officials say that multi millionaire developer and powerful harness figure Kevin Seymour has used his influence with the new Government to ensure that Albion Park is redeveloped.

Seymour mounted a court action against RQ claiming the Bentley Board had reneged on a promise concerning the proposed sale of Albion Park when the Deagon plans for the minor codes were announced. That action was reportedly discontinued when Labor lost Government and a new RQ Board replaced that of Bentley.

The big questions being asked are:

Will the greyhound industry get a new facility of its own – as promised south of Brisbane – using the funds set aside after they were thrown out of Parklands on the Gold Coast or will they have to share Albion Park and continue to play second fiddle to a code that they return far more in TAB turnover than?

Where will the funding come from for the new Albion Park grandstand and restaurant, which will cost tens of millions and how could the Government possibly justify this amount of money when apart from Inter-dominions and a select number of big nights, it will be largely empty?

If the greyhounds are to be given their own facility on how many nights will Albion Park be used or, more to the point, sit idle costing the industry and taxpayers of Queensland millions of dollars as a virtual white elephant? Some say it’s shades of the Russ Hinze days in racing.

What guarantees have been given that the new grandstand – at least the ground level and perhaps the next level up (of three) – will not be inundated if Brisbane has another flood and the river bursts its banks? Albion Park is built on a flood-plain and has been under water virtually every time there has been a big flood in Brisbane, especially worsened by high tides.

In their application to Council, RQ says:

ALBION Park Raceway is to become a revitalized, high quality establishment.

The new grandstand and landscape will not only provide great new facilities for the racing communities, but also a vibrant, welcoming and inviting place for groups and individuals to visit.

The landscape aims to help create this high quality, family and function friendly atmosphere through the creative use of open space and planting.

The following design principles will be the core ideas of the landscape concept.

PERMEABILITY – Assuring ease of use and free flowing movement by providing clear connections between all areas of the site, including vehicular and pedestrian movement.

VARIETY – Facilitating a diversity of activities, by providing flexible facilities that can be adapted to suit many different groups and individuals.

LEGIBILITY – Making people feel welcome by providing spaces which are inviting and easy to use.

COMFORT – Ensuring physical comfort in our sub-tropical climate, by providing ample shade and seating throughout.

EXCITEMENT – Creating a vibrant and exciting atmosphere to all guests by providing interesting visual appeal through landscape detail and by providing site lines and views through to the action on the track.

SAFETY – Providing a safe environment for all users by incorporating CPTED principles, including good visibility, clear site lines for cars and vehicles, and the promotion of casual surveillance.

A glimpse of the designs, which have been sent to Council in the past couple of weeks, shows a grandstand complex that will be the equal of anything in the state and arguably better than any that the major gallops tracks have to offer.

What has many in the gallops industry up in arms is the lack of information provided by RQ on the project. An official of one major TAB club questioned: ‘Why the secrecy. Is RQ scared to tell anyone because they know it will create controversy with harness racing performing so badly?

“The crazy part is they didn’t want anything to do with the merger that Bentley put in place and were quick to separate the three codes but when it comes to harness racing RQ, obviously inspired by political friends of Kevin Seymour, don’t mind spending whole of industry money on the worst performing code.”

In the revised strategy statement released by Racing Minister Stephen Dickson, this was stated about Albion Park:

‘THE harness industry has suffered dramatic decrease in the venues and facilities available to operate the highest quality harness racing.

With the pending removal of the Parklands site for use by the Commonwealth Games this will become more acute.

As the sole remaining metro quality venue, Albion Park must also undergo systematic upgrade. This is intended to be done in concert with the harness and greyhound industries, to release any value of development revenue opportunities, and to develop infrastructure appropriate to the needs of the industry recognizing the role it plays as a wagering producer.

In addition, a strategy needs to be developed as part of this initiative that will address the viability and needs of retaining or removing the greyhound racing role of Albion Park.’

IN relation to Intercode Considerations this is what was said about the Industry Infrastructure Fund and how it could best be distributed to satisfy all three:

The current IIS made no consideration of the balancing of infrastructure requirements across the three codes of racing.

With the pending reintroduction of three separate code specific boards, RQL believes that an agreeable way forward is required so that each code can address its own infrastructure requirements and so equality across the codes can be established.

Of major contention between the greyhound and the harness codes is the equity ownership of Albion Park. When the codes where merged, ownership of Albion Park moved to RQL. Theoretically, RQL can now do as it will with the facility without regard to the historical ownership of 50/50 joint venture between the greyhound and harness industries.

It is RQL’s view though that this is not in the spirit of the LNP platform and is not appropriate.

Each code believes the unlocking of the value of Albion Park is paramount to the establishment of appropriate facilities within each code. However, given that it is RQL’s view that this will remain substantially a harness venue, then no tangible value will be realized in the short-term.

As such, RQL believes that the 50/50 equity expectation should be retained, and any realization of the land value distributed between the two codes when/if realized.

That is, should any part of the land be sold, the proceeds should be distributed 50/50. If the land is developed without being sold, the owner of that development should pay a commercial rent for the portion of land being used, again distributed 50/50. These arrangements would be subject to commercial independent valuation at that time.

However, this still leaves the issue of developing code facilities under the IIS.

It has previously been suggested that the $110 million be allocated as per the prizemoney distribution. RQL sees no validity to this argument, as this is backward looking.

Instead, RQL suggests, after consideration of the strategies and industry segment viability, that the most equitable arrangement would appear to be:

(a) The allocation of the $10 million of funding provided by the Parkland resumption to the infrastructure needs of the greyhound industry.

(b) Recognition of the current state of code contribution to industry revenue, as well as future growth potential, as the determining factor for IIS funds allocation. In approximate terms, this would result in the remaining $100 million being allocated to the thoroughbred, harness and greyhounds industries, 80%, 10% and 10% respectively.

(c) However, considering that RQL has, in the last few years, spent a considerable amount of cross industry funds on thoroughbred only facilities, once these are considered, RQL believes a more appropriate intercode allocation, to take into account this spending, would be thoroughbred $70 million, greyhound $15 million and harness $15 million.

This would increase the greyhound allocation to $25 million, including the $10 million Parkland compensation.

(d) The resultant IIS allocation will therefore be:

Thoroughbred

$70 million

Harness

$15 million

Greyhound

$25 million

Total

$110 million

THE question remains: If harness racing is to get only $15 million (and Albion Park got the lot), would that cover the cost of this major grandstand development? Not likely.

Therefore, without any information being provided to the industry, one of three scenarios looks likely:

The LNP is going to help out harness racing and kick money in (that is hardly likely to happen considering the parlous financial state confronting the Government).

The other two codes are going to have to help finance the Albion Park redevelopment project (which wouldn’t sit too well with the gallops where there is a desperate need for facility improvements and more prizemoney).

Or perhaps, the most likely, some of the unused Albion Park land is going to be sold for development purposes and the proceeds used to fund the tens of millions needed for a grandstand that many will feel is far too big for the crowds likely to be attracted to harness racing in Brisbane.

Some gallops officials are questioning whether the Albion Park redevelopment should be fast-tracked by an interim RQ Board and should the entire industry not be consulted or at least briefed rather than the appearance that everything is happening in a shroud of secrecy.

[Source: Article from www.letsgohorseracing.com.au]

The post Racing Queensland to spend millions on new Albion Park Grandstand appeared first on Greyhounds Online.

GREYHOUND officials are considering a push into Pimpama, which would see the dogs return to the Gold Coast after a five-year hiatus.

Queensland Greyhound Breeders, Owners and Trainers Association have met with the State Government in relation to two potential sites at Pimpama.

The Gold Coast Greyhound Racing Club’s Parklands facility was closed by the Bligh government in 2008 to make way for the Gold Coast University Hospital.

Since then club officials have been considering relocating to Logan, but it is understood the cost of doing so, about $24 million, has been a stumbling block.

The club had been promised $10 million in compensation from the State Government to help set up a new track.

Queensland Greyhound Breeders, Owners and Trainers Association vice-president Tony Zammit said the Greyhound Club was now eyeing off two sites owned by the State Government at Pimpama.

One was adjacent to the Gainsborough Greens golf course and the other at the old Pacific Springs golf course near exit 49 on the M1.

Mr Zammit said the Gold Coast Harness Racing Club was also looking for a new home as they were also being forced out of Parklands as of July to make way for the Commonwealth Games athletes’ village.

He said a dual-racing complex could be the solution.

“We’re hoping now the Government might look at utilising one of the sites to build another Parklands-style complex for two,” he said.

“They really owe the two codes some kind of compensation to keep them in the Gold Coast region.

“We’ve put forward the idea, it’s up to them now to make the decision.”

Gold Coast Harness Racing Club president Barry Grimsey said a site at Pimpama for both codes seemed logical.

He said he was meeting with Commonwealth Games Minister Jann Stuckey early next month about the clubs’ future at Parklands.

A spokesman for Racing Minister Steve Dickson said the department was investigating a new site for greyhound racing, but could not confirm if it would be on the Coast.

“Racing Queensland Limited is investigating the viability of the Logan site together with other alternatives,” he said.

“Given the urgent need to progress planning for future greyhound racing facilities in southeast Queensland, an interim committee made up of representatives of the greyhound industry, as well as state and local government, will be established to start planning appropriate solutions.

“As far back as 2008 the previous Labor governments made a commitment to develop a greyhound facility at Logan, but never properly costed, budgeted or planned for it.”

Northern Gold Coast councillor Donna Gates, who assisted the greyhound racing groups to find the parcels of land at Pimpama, said the council was keen to keep racing on the Coast.

“We would love to encourage them to find a place within our city,” she said.

“I hope the council and State Government can work together to assist them.”

Written By Matthew Killoran & originally posted on Goldcoast.com.au

The post Gold Coast greyhound racing at Pimpama appeared first on Greyhounds Online.

Jason Thompson has qualified an impressive three finalists for the big race; Got A Moment, Don’t Knocka Him and Proven Nitro. Graeme Bate lines up yet another contender in Desalle Bale, while Tony Brett has the fancied Glen Gallon from the inside box.

Here is the final starting eight and their times from each of the TAB Melbourne Cup heats:

Heat 1 – Got A Moment (29.56)
Heat 2 – Linden Magpie (29.62)
Heat 3 – Glen Gallon (29.23)
Heat 4 – General Destini (29.39)
Heat 5 – Don’t Knocka Him (29.31)
Heat 6 – Proven Nitro (29.78)
Heat 7 – Desalle Bale (29.45)
Heat 8 – Hurunui Hitman (29.32)

View the  TAB Melbourne Cup Heats on our Greyhounds Online Video player.

The official box draw and trainer for each starter:

View the  TAB Melbourne Cup Final on our Greyhounds Online Video player.

Results

1st – 2 – GOT A MOMENT
2nd – 1 – GLEN GALLON
3rd – 7 – HURUNUI HITMAN
4th – 6 – GENERAL DESTINI

The post TAB Greyhound Melbourne Cup Final appeared first on Greyhounds Online.

The Ipswich Greyhound Racing Club 2012 Puppy Auction took place on Saturday 27th October 2012. The event was sponsored by the Rosewood & District Community Bank. The auction commenced just after 6.00pm where most of the lots went under the hammer.

Here is some information about the auction:

• Pups whelped between 1st October 2011—1st June 2012
• Early Bird Bonus $55 per nomination closes 29th June 2012
• Early Bird Bonus $66 per nomination closes 27th July 2012
• Final Nomination $77 closes 31st August 2012
• 5 or more Nominations from each Nominator $55 per pup

• Non Catalogued Pups $450
• 5 or more from same Nominator $350
• $250 must accompany the nomination form.
• Balance to be paid before 28th September 2012

81 Warwick Rd
Ipswich QLD 4305
(Located Inside Ipswich Show Ground)

PH 07 3202 2977
FAX 07 3202 2510
Email: admin@ipswichgreyhounds.com

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Here is a list comprised by Greyhounds Australasia outlining these principles:

1. The name has been granted to a greyhound during the 15 years previous to receipt of the allocation.
2. The name has previously been granted to a greyhound recorded as a sire or dam in the ANZGA database.
3. The name has previously been granted to a greyhound recorded as a classic winner in the ANZGA database.
4. Close similarity in the pronunciation of names, i.e. Mr. Yew, Mister You.
5. Names savouring of a political or religious connotation.
6. Names which present difficulty in pronunciation.
7. Names which tend to be derogatory or down-grading to the sport.
8. Names which tend to be obscene or vulgar.
9. Names of a foreign language, the meaning of which is not readily available.
10. Names with more than sixteen characters inclusive of spaces, apostrophes, etc.
11. Names with more than three words.
12. Names which imitate race track phrases or terms i.e. “Vacant Box”, “Late Scratching”, “Number Four”, “Red Rug”, “Blue Box”, etc.
13. Names which indicate opposite to actual sex of the subject greyhound.
14. The use of pronouns, prefixes and affixes, i.e. “The” Architect.
15. Trade names unless written approval by registrar of the name is supplied.
16. Names of prominent racing events without the permission of the appropriate authority.
17. Full names of prominent persons.
18. The use of initials.
19. The excessive use of apostrophe.
20. The use of numerals
21. A name already registered as a Prefix/Suffix to some other applicant.
22. Names of prominent Greyhounds or Greyhounds of Note.

[Source http://www.galtd.org.au/GreyhoundsAustralasia/index.php?q=node/37]

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