Preferred Box Draws To Be Introduced In NSW

RACING with preferred box draws and the double arm lure is set to be trialled under race conditions in NSW in August.

Greyhound Racing NSW (GRNSW) and the Greyhound Welfare and Integrity Commission (GWIC) announced on Friday that a trial of the initiatives, aimed at safer racing, will kick off next month.

"When GRNSW and GWIC hosted the Racing Injury Reduction Summit back in February, we developed a Race Injury Reduction Action Plan to be implemented across the sport for the benefit of racing greyhounds," GRNSW CEO Rob Macaulay said.

"Prominent on the list of key actions was the trial of both the double-arm lure and preferred box draws, with the latter having been proven to be successful in New Zealand in reducing interference and injuries.

"As we continually say, the welfare of our animals is paramount, and while we have been working on making all of our tracks even safer, we will continue look at all avenues to make racing safer for our greyhounds."

The double arm lure has been trialled at Dapto and Ladbrokes Gardens since June and those track will be used when racing trials of the lure commence in August.

The preferred box draw concept with be trialled in two 520m 5th grade races at Wednesday night meetings at Wentworth Park and a 280m non-graded event, depending on nominations, and two 5th grade races over 297m at Dapto.

The Dapto trial starts on August 3 while the first of the preferred box draw races at Wentworth Park will he held on August 16.

"We are resolute in our commitment to seeing a significant reduction in serious racing injuries in greyhound racing," GWIC Chief Commissioner Alby Taylor said.

"These are just two of the race injury reduction strategies agreed to at the summit in February, but we expect they will have a major impact based on the experience in racing overseas.

"The key purpose of these trials is to determine if double-arm lures can provide multiple focal points for greyhound engagement to encourage straight running, whilst in the case of preferred box draw, we hope the dogs will ‘stay in their lanes' resulting in a significant reduction in racetrack collisions."

GRNSW will release more details around the preferred dox draw (PBD) events in the coming weeks.