Moree Greyhound Club Fall Victim To More Cable Cutting
The Moree Greyhound Racing Club is reeling after a senseless act of vandalism caused last Saturday's meeting and this Saturday's meeting to be abandoned.
This second act of “cable-cutting” comes just a few weeks after Maitland Greyhound Club suffered the same fate on the eve of its big Future Star Maiden race.
The club was to stage a 10-race meeting including heats for the Greyhound Racing NSW Country Challenge Christmas Gift.
The races were forcibly abandoned after an unknown offender severed the greyhound lure cable.
The final of the Christmas Gift was to follow on Saturday, December 13 and had a first prize of $5000.
Another scheduled race that will now be rescheduled is the Doug Moore Memorial 5th grade over 421 metres.
A 90-year-old expert from Newcastle will travel to Moree to make the repairs and splice the cable to enable a return to racing.
The Moree Greyhound Racing Club will have to pay the man to travel and to splice almost 100 foot of cable, which may take in excess of eight hours to complete.
The club lost all of its income from the Saturday meeting and will have to outlay thousands to have the damage repaired.
“We're looking at nearly $3000,” Moree Greyhound Racing Club, club secretary Veronica Wilson said.
The club stands to lose between $3000 and $5000 in earnings from the cancellation of both December meetings.
The lost income arises not only from the races themselves being rescheduled, but also from the lost gate, bar and canteen proceeds.
The damage was not discovered until mid-morning, when a greyhound racing steward was inspecting the track and noticed that the normally tight cable was loose and sagging.
When the steward investigated the wire, he found it has been severed on the edge of the track close to the hare tower.
While announcements were immediately made over radio stations advising trainers to cancel their travel, some trainers did not hear the message and arrived at the track unaware of the cancellation.
The meeting was to include trainers from as far away as Sydney, Dubbo and Queensland.