The Sunday Afternoon Finish On

The COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the news agenda for months and it was a heartless Queensland Government which brought the nation's attention last week to the plight of one of greyhound racing's icons in Gary Ralph.

Gary is battling terminal brain cancer and underwent radical surgery conducted by Professor Charlie Teo and while successful in removing tumors, Teo's work has only bought time.

Requiring six weeks of chemotherapy and radiation, Gary was, initially, told by Queensland Health that on returning from the Prince of Wales Hospital at Randwick, he must quarantine at a Brisbane hotel and complicate his post-op treatment.

Despite Dr Teo's plea for home quarantine (for recovery and his mental health) there was stern refusal and lack of any compassion/empathy for a man just struggling to stay alive.

Fortunately, 2GB's Ray Hadley and A Current Affair championed the Ralph's cause and a much-needed backflip came their way.

It was galling to watch a man struggle when he's been so active. His 71 years have been filled with adventure.

He'd travelled the world and worked closely with best mate Mike Abbott building greyhound tracks in China and he never lost interest in the code.

Gary and Wendy Ralph were based at Tambourine Mountain for many years on a sprawling greyhound property but, in recent times, they've called Windaroo, near Beenleigh, home were both partake in their life's passion – golf.

Gary trained super sprinter Gold Spring to win two Ladies Bracelets at Harold Park in the late 70's and the owner/breeder of 1997 Melbourne Cup winner Roanokee (trained by Roger Green) and 1996 Wentworth Park Gold Cup winner Groovy Dancer which was prepared by Ray King.

Classy Marcy, named after his late wife, was another quality performer and from his state of the art facility he produced countless city winners.

While his time might be limited, the deeds of Gold Spring, Roanokee etc. are indelibly etched in the memory of the many thousands of greyhound racing fans from a not-quite bygone era.

This COVID-19 pandemic has touched all yet there is no louder or stronger message of heartlessness than what Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Queensland Chief Health Dr Jeannette Young delivered to one of greyhound racing's own in Gary Ralph.

Just when did Dr Young last read the Hippocratic oath?

THE WORLD COMES TOGETHER           

The ABC's 4 Corners program Making A Killing in 2015 brought about an immediate end to the export of greyhounds to anywhere but New Zealand, the USA, Ireland or the UK.

Welfare was the underlying rationale yet the 4 Corners vision, which included galling vision from Vietnam, manufactured for shock and awe and the Vietnamese Government acted quickly to prosecute vet Dr Pham Tien Ngo for his part in the horrific act.

Greyhound racing in Australia was tarnished by the claim that exports from this country to Vietnam were current, yet no dog had left these shores for more than 20 years.

Fortunately, there has been a significant shift behind the scenes with the World Greyhound Organisation (WGO) now formed to give all countries and their greyhounds a ‘voice'.

The WGO seeks to unite all countries under one umbrella in order to encourage development and understanding.

It is hoped that the established countries already supporting welfare and racing will join and help us promote excellence and best practice in the sport and retirement throughout the world.

Only cruelty gets media attention, with no kudos to those who care so generously for their hounds. The World Greyhound Organisation will give these people as well as their greyhounds a voice and at the same time try to educate and improve welfare outcomes.

The WGO has set firm standards of practice and introduced a knowledge and education template.

An important first step is to establish and maintain an accurate stud book in conjunction with Greyhound-Data for those countries that do not have one.

Registration of owners and trainers of all WGO stud book entries, ensuring accountability for the whole of life of all greyhounds of all WGO Stud book entries is another tenet as the promotion of excellence and best practice throughout the sport and retirement.

The creation of a stud book will enable the WGO to begin to accurately record greyhounds and follow their lives from birth with a view to one day being able to account for greyhounds on a global scale.

Greyhound-Data supports adoption groups and racing throughout the world. The adoption groups supported by Greyhound-Data.com have homed over 100,000 greyhounds.

Greyhound-Data.com has 220,000 members and on average 20,000 users log on daily across 65 countries.
There are over 2,000,000 greyhounds entered into the greyhound-data.com database, over 4,500,000 race results, 92,000 Videos and 372,000 photos. All detail can be found at www.worldgreyhoundorganisation.com

GREEN LIGHT AT RICHMOND

The dust has settled on the 2020 Richmond Riches series and, this week, the Club has announced the continuation, with added prizemoney, for the 2020 auction.

Pups born from October 1, 2019 to June 30 this year will be eligible for the November 29 event. A $50,000 to the winner race series (reliant on minimum numbers) over 535m is attached to the auction and will be conducted in May 2022.

"The auction is an important part of the promotion of greyhound racing to new participants," Richmond General Manager Richard Griffiths said.

"We want to return to the focus of the first Richmond Riches auction day when an expo-like situation had vendors offering products and services to participants.

"Everything from nutrients, starting boxes, rugs, bedding, racing equipment and fabricators (of van fit outs) are in focus."

The opportunity for newcomers to enter greyhound racing at the grass roots level is critical and Richmond, with the assistance of GRNSW, is focused on making their auctions the best in the land.

Nominations for the November 29 auction are still open – just call Amy at Richmond on (02) 4578 2136 to get involved.

COVID VICTIM

Bendigo's successful Ready 2 Race series has been forced to delay  and will not be conducted in November due to the COVID-19 pandemic's restrictive travel and attendee component.

"We'd have loved to conduct the series but it was just not practical at this time," Bendigo General Manager Troy Harley said.

"What it has given rise to is two R2R series next year which has been our ideal model since day one.

"We will, hopefully, have a series in March and another at this time later in the year. It gives all breeders and prospective newcomers to greyhound racing an opportunity for engagement."

In its six years, the R2R was restricted to Victorian-bred dogs only but, since 2018 under Harley's direction, all comers have been eligible and the series has gone from strength-to-strength.

The March 2021 series' eligibility (in terms of age) is under review and that detail will be disclosed in coming weeks.

MISSED OPPORTUNITY?

As the TAB Million Dollar Chase comes to an exciting conclusion, one small piece of the puzzle was missing this week.

Confusion surrounded how GRNSW would draw/grade the MDC semi finals. There was no change to the usual random draw with trainers having multiple entries guarded against being drawn against each other. Simple.

What would have provided clarity last Monday was a live feed of the draw being conducted – dog by dog.

It would have erased any semblance mistrust in what was a straightforward process and provided a further promotional vehicle.

UPSIDE/DOWNSIDE

Upside: Channel 9's coverage of the TAB Million Dollar Chase. It will be a showcase worth its weight in gold.

Downside: The lure failure at Bathurst (again) on Friday. Just when is this going to be sorted out?