Dart Delighted About Return To Qld Racing

PREMIER trainer John Dart will burst back into Queensland greyhound racing come Sunday and he admits the past three months of restricted racing “have been a nightmare”.

“I will have five nominated for Albion Park on Sunday,” said Dart who, with his wife Glenda, has been one of the leading trainers on south-east Queensland tracks for decades.

“I even tried to start trialling this week, but was not allowed until the end of the border shutdown on July 10.”

Dart joked he has been “sick of racing for ribbons” the past three months on Northern Rivers tracks.

“The real scenario is that prizemoney on the Rivers is half what our kennel can win in Queensland,” he said. 

The Dart kennel has 21 dogs in training.

“I have a lot of young dogs coming through and they will need to go north to trial around Albion Park so that will take up a few weeks,” he said.

Dart realised more than a decade ago with the shutdown of the Parklands his kennel needed to be kept to dogs that could handle 520m racing.

While Dart is elated with being able to return into Queensland, he couldn't hide his criticism of the new NSW grading system.

“It's the worst grading system I've seen in 50 years in this industry,” he said.

“Dogs are being totally out-graded after winning a handful of races.

“I'll be going back to Queensland with all our kennel and not coming back to race in NSW. In the past, we would always switch between both states on a 70 percent, 30 percent basis.”

He pointed to the instance of a recent Lismore winner from the kennel.

“He won $900 for winning a maiden at Lismore,” said Dart.

“The dog is Queensland bred and if he had won a maiden at Ipswich or Albion Park, he would have earned $2750 for the owners and our kennel.”

Dart even admitted he shed a small tear when last Monday he heard the announcement that greyhound racing nominations in Queensland would open up to runners from other states.

“Yes, I'm still a sook,” he laughed.

“But, they were tears of joy. I just have to race in Queensland. And, I'm certain there will be plenty of Northern Rivers trainers following me up there as usual.”