Traralgon J-Curve Track Ready For Take Off

A quality card of racing will greet punters when racing makes its long awaited return to Traralgon on Saturday night.

More than 1000 trials have been conducted on the world first ‘J-curve' layout, and following a successful picnic meeting last Monday, club CEO Steve Clarke said he was delighted with the quality of nominations for their first meeting.

"The nominations were unbelievable. I've been here for five years and it's certainly the strongest fields I've seen in Traralgon in that time," he said.

"I know our Cup is coming up but the quality is outstanding really. For a club that in its recent history has not attracted the highest quality greyhounds, this shows there's a confidence within the industry that the track design and development is going to attract a better class of dog.

FIELDS AND FORM TRARALGON SATURDAY NIGHT

"We're grateful for that support and we hope that when they get here they're not disappointed but I don't think they will be."

Among the greyhounds making their debut on Saturday night are group performers Ferdinand Boy and Fernando Mick for David Geall, Paua Of Oscar for Steve White, and Mr. Fix It for Jeff Britton.

According to Clarke, early speed will be an advantage over all distances as greyhounds find their place on a long run to the first turn.

"If you've got early pace it'll be an advantage,” Clark said.

“Dogs will still have the ability to come from behind but the picnic meeting would indicate that those dogs that lead to the turn will have an advantage, so I'd be looking for an early pace dog if I was having a punt.

"The boxes are set up similar to Shepparton so they're right next to the rail. There didn't seem to be a lot of interference at the first turn at the picnic meeting, they got around safely."

Races will initially be run over 395m and 500m with two additional starts over 350m and 450m to be added in March after Covid restrictions delayed key infrastructure.

Early trials show race times will be lower than first anticipated, indicating an easier run than suggested.

"We've had a number of dogs trialling in preparation for the Cup and the mark seems to be around 22 seconds,” Clark said.

There's only been about five or six greyhounds have broken 22 seconds, with the elite dogs are running between 21.80 and 22 seconds and the graded dogs running about 22.40.

"Over 500m, 27.80 to 28.20 is what you're looking at, which indicates that it's not as hard a run as first thought."

The first of 12 races will be run at 6.07pm on Saturday night. The group 2 Traralgon Cup, to be run over 393m, will be run on Wednesday 26 January.