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Q.
PREMIER LEAGUE INIATIVE
With this latest premier league initiative, where on earth is a plan for the good of greyhound racing in general? A premier league inspires the great but the majority are lower league where is the plan for them? They represent 80% of your membership so what are you doing for them? Please do not say that the GBGB will not speak to us. 

We need a greater debate and plan of action can we get one arranged?

A reply would be great. 

A.
The mission statement of GOBATA is as follows:

To give an effective voice to all greyhound practitioners, owners, breeders, trainers, and ancillary staff with the aim of assisting the GBGB to:

(A) Develop a commercial strategy for the greyhound industry that will halt its
continuing decline and be capable of sustaining the long term success of the sport
(B) Formulate policy on welfare and common issue interest

Point 1: With this latest premier league initiative, where on earth is a plan for the good of greyhound racing in general?

It is a known fact that greyhound racing is losing its popularity and facing many challenges, not least threats of track closures, lack of prize money and practitioners leaving the sport.

There is no magic wand which will make all of these problems disappear nor do we have any financial resource available to us to do so.
The association is run on a voluntary part time basis by a few dedicated individuals who give their time, energy and resource free gratis. We have no sectional or self-interest other than the passion we have for the sport of greyhound racing.

Nobody should expect free hand outs. Nothing in this life comes for free. That said it’s obvious that we must generate an income. How can we achieve anything if we have no finance.

We are not in a position to afford the luxury of waiting for something to happen. In so far as we have a plan of action then, like any business project we can and must take one step at a time. If change is required then we need to develop and implement initiatives that are achievable, and above all will be self-sustaining. It is our belief, after many hours and months of research and meetings with a lot of varied interested parties that this concept will be a success. The commercial committee working on this is made up of experienced business people with a record of achievement.

To read the rest of this answer, please click HERE.
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Q. 
OPEN RACE TRAP DRAWS
I would like to raise the possibility of looking at the way trainers seed their dogs in open races. The present system of rails, middle, wide is not working as it should, simply because trainers who know their dogs are better in box 3 or 4, are seeding rails as they don't want to end up in traps 5 or 6. The result is 5 dogs being seeded rails, when in reality only one dog actually wants the rails box. Could a better way not be thought up? My suggestion is along the lines of each trainer specifying 3 boxes in order of preference and a weighting given to their preferences. For example trainer A lists 3, 2, 4 and trainer B lists 1, 2, 3 then it is fairly simple to work out where to put each dog relative to the other entries. Thus producing a draw more conducive to a clean race and reducing the risk to the dogs themselves. I realise that this idea or something along such lines, is just in its infancy and would be needed to be very carefully thought through, but I think it could provide a basis for an improvement over the present system, which to me, fails on a regular basis.
A.
AN intriguing proposal but one which we feel would add more confusion to a trap draw system that already confounds some folk. We thank the correspondent for the thought gone into this but they pose a conundrum that could be difficult to get our heads around. Anything that reduces the risk of injury demands our closest attention.
Please keep your comments coming.
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Q. 
Please could you look into BAGS meetings off-times.They seem to be holding back greyhounds for the finish of horse races. Is it a deal struck because of the extra monies that have been given to BAGS racing? 
A. 
Are BAGS races held back for betting shop purposes?
The simple answer is yes they are, on occasions. Many is the time we have been at a BAGS meeting when the message comes over the tannoy, "SIS have asked us to delay the start of the next race for two minutes bla bla". What that message means is that a horse race is close to finishing so those waiting to have a bet on a BAGS race are given a couple of extra minutes deciding how to lose another few quid. But really we shouldn’t knock it, after all, the more money gambled on greyhound racing in the shops means money for the fast-diminishing greyhound levy assuming, of course, that those shops are owned by the decent bookmakers who do pay into the levy, and not those who welch!
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