Greyhound Racing NSW (GRNSW) has acted immediately to help its participants combat the soaring fuel prices due to the Middle East conflict, by increasing travel subsidies to trainers by 66%.
These increases will take effect immediately, after the decision was supported and approved by the GRNSW Board at swiftly convened Board meeting this morning.
From today, March 27, travel subsidies for participants taking one greyhound to a race meeting will increase from $60 to $100. For those with multiple greyhounds, they will receive $60 per greyhound.
There will also be no minimum placed on distances which trainers commute to a racetrack.
"Every Australian is hurting with the escalation of fuel prices across the country, and our industry is one which spends an enormous amount of time on the road, with trainers sometimes travelling significant distances to race," GRNSW Chief Executive Officer Steve Griffin said.
"Because of the travel our industry does, this is why we have subsidies for our participants and we pay over $7 million a year through the scheme.
"But right now with the dramatic rise in petrol pricing, we had to do something immediately for our participants, and this is why we have taken the first step by a greyhound racing jurisdiction to increase our payments to trainers for travel.
"We have approval to put these increases in place from today until April 30, when we will reassess the situation and make any further decisions."
Leading NSW trainer Minnie Finn praised GRNSW for making the decision to help participants and the speediness in making the announcement.
"We have a big kennel and usually take multiple dogs to race meetings so it really doesn't impact us significantly, but it's the smaller trainer who is really feeling it right now and it's a good move by GRNSW to offer some help," she said.
"Our industry has a lot of trainers who only have one dog to take to a race meeting and seriously $60 does not go far in fuel these days. I think all participants will be grateful to GRNSW for this decision."
Caitlyn Brewer trains her team at Woodstock near Cowra and regularly only takes one greyhound to a race meeting. Like many she has been struggling with costs of fuel and was extremely pleased to hear that GRNSW were able to swiftly make a decision to help participants.
"This situation is obviously bigger than all of us, and out of the control of organisations like GRNSW, but this will definitely help us and particularly the people like us in the Central West where our nearest track is two hours away," Caitlyn said.
"Any help we can get is appreciated. We have been feeling the impact of the petrol crisis and we can't stop racing because that's our income. And while prizemoney increases are always appreciated this was more about the day to day of being able to just race.
"This is really good news in what has been a very tough time for a lot of people in our industry."
