It’s Time For GRNSW To Lock Them In

The Greyhound Racing Club has been innovative with its puppy auctions and the racing series that stems from that auction and it's a shame that an incident occurred prior to the $10000 Final last Thursday night. The Amy Bennett trained Little Elsie escaped from its kennel prior to the race and was free within the kennel bay. Innovation isn't required to stop this happening again in the future.

This might seem like a relatively minor incident, but it isn't. There are many problems that can arise from this. I was speaking to a trainer that frequents the Dapto track and has had this occur to one of his dogs in the past. He asked to be left out of this article and not be identified. His response to me in regards to his dog escaping on a prior occasion, and Amy's dog escaping on the night in question was, “You've got your story all wrong the kennel bays are padlocked and sealed. Amy's dog and mine only got out of the holding kennels. No damage done. They can't lock every kennel as it would take forever to unlock and get all the kennels.”

Flabbergasted.

No other word can describe it.

How can a trainer think that a dog escaping its holding kennel isn't a serious situation? I would love to see trainer reactions if two dogs escaped in the one race. Can I buy tickets to be a fly on that wall?

What I'm suggesting isn't a kennel rebuild, nothing of the sort. How hard can it possibly be to padlock each individual kennel? It's surely a situation that is in need of fixing, and now. Victoria manages to run a smooth ship on raceday with each kennel being secured with a padlock, why can't something so simple be adopted in NSW. The dogs are what makes the industry, it's imperative that all measures are taken to keep them safe and secure.

If the purchase of padlocks is a prohibitive cost due to the fact that there is so many tracks in NSW, then they could always be secured using the method in SA. We approached CEO , who advised that in SA individual kennels are secured, “Yes, we use what we call a padlock security seal on each individual holding kennel. It has to be removed with wire cutters to release the greyhound at the appropriate time.”

We approached the for comment and they replied to us with the following in a professional and speedy manner,

“GRNSW is aware of the incident where a greyhound managed to get out of its kennel. The incident can clearly be observed from one of the four security cameras strategically located throughout the kennel block. In the incident, the greyhound remained confined to the kennel bay. It has not been conclusively proven that the kennel condition is the reason for the greyhound exiting its allotted kennel. GRNSW has not been advised previously of such an issue at Dapto and refutes your claim that the kennels are substandard. Notwithstanding this, we have advised the to review the security of each kennel found at the club.”

I have a question in relation to this statement. The GRNSW comments that the incident could be observed on a strategically located security camera. However when the trainer of Little Elsie, Amy Bennett, approached the in the stewards room after race five and was informed that there was no actual footage of a direct kennel bay. So which one is it?

One of the terms used frequently for the betting public by Bruce Teague is “the customers”. I think this is a situation where the customers have been neglected in an astonishing way. If a horse is vetted at the barrier, everyone is alerted. If a horse is vetted in the mounting yard, everyone is alerted. How this was kept from the customers I will never understand. Surely there must have been some announcement so that the punters weren't kept in the dark.

Another thing of note is that the incident didn't even manage to make its way into the stewards report. Interesting. The dog was jumping at the door and was obviously disadvantaged by the incident. The trainer wasn't happy with what had taken place, and I can't blame her. But it didn't seem worthy of a mention. Not even the other trainers on the night knew it had occurred.

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