By RUSSELL BENNETT
The greyhound racing community throughout Melbourne’s south-east has painted a positive picture of the sport’s future in Victoria, despite state-wide bans in New South Wales and the ACT coming into effect from July 2017.
A special commission of inquiry in New South Wales found that the industry in that state was incapable of reforming over the short to medium term, with Premier Mike Baird saying his government would work towards shutting down the industry in the coming months.
But in a statement on the Greyhound Racing Victoria (GRV) website, its chairman Bernie Carolan said the decision by the New South Wales Government was based on circumstances that were “very different to Victoria”.
GRV chief executive officer Alan Clayton, in a statement the Dandenong Journal, added that the closure “will have a big impact nationally as NSW was the country’s biggest greyhound racing state” but that “all of our 13 greyhound racing clubs across the state will run as normal”.
Sandown Greyhound Racing Club racing and media manager Mick Floyd said the sport in Victoria is in “a much better place” than it was in New South Wales.
“When the live baiting issue broke it brought a few things to a head but in terms of reform and changing the industry, it’s already a fair way ahead of New South Wales,” he said, adding that the news of the sport’s closure in that state could lead to trainers relocating to Victoria.
“It’s certainly possible, and there’s been a lot of New South Wales trainers relocate to Victoria in the past 12 to 24 months, but trainers move all the time for lifestyle opportunities and a range of different reasons,” he said.
“The biggest issue in trainers coming to Victoria is the timeframe and the impact on their capital investments in New South Wales.
“If you’ve got a greyhound property that you’ve poured a lot of money into then that investment has pretty much been flushed down the toilet now.
“A lot of these guys are going to be behind the eight-ball with their finances.
“To come down and find a property in Victoria they’re basically going to have to start afresh.”
Floyd said Victorian greyhound racing had made a lot change – and improvements – since the Four Corners report on the industry Making a Killing first aired on the ABC in early 2015.
“The new GRV board and team of management has made some big changes and some very good changes,” he said.
“The focus of everything they do now is animal welfare and the wellbeing of the greyhound from the time it’s born to the time it moves on.
“That’s absolutely paramount and at the forefront of every decision that’s made, and it’s being enforced quite strongly.
“From the club’s point of view, we’re 100 per cent behind them and we’re investing heavily in a number of things at the club.”
Floyd said the local community benefited from a $100,000 fund for various local projects.
Melbourne’s November carnival is the highlight of the greyhound racing calendar in Australia, if not the world, with the $600,000 TAB Melbourne Cup at Sandown the world’s richest race.
“There are so many other things we do as well,” Floyd said.
“We’ve got a lot of club days on Sundays. They’re increasingly popular and we get a lot of local community groups in and give them the chance to raise some money on the day.
“We’ve got our mayor’s night coming up in September, which is a big charity event for men’s health.
“A lot of the events we run now are geared around that sort of area. We tip money back into the community and we help out wherever we can.”
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Sandown Greyhound Racing Club, with events planned to mark the milestone.
