GRNSW Finally Acknowledges Its Growing Integrity Problems
It’s taken the best part of 6 months, but the statutory body that controls greyhound racing in New South Wales has finally formally acknowledged the worst kept secret in the industry – GRNSW has a massive positive swab issue.
Even the Newcastle Herald managed to put the point in print before GRNSW even hinted there was a growing dilemma. This is even more condemning when you consider that GRNSW are habitual “tweeters”, have a borderline addiction to sharing on Facebook; and employ a growing list of journalists/media and marketing types. The channels of communication for them are many and varied.
The silence from those bestowed with the integrity and governance of the industry surrounding the issue has been deafening. Jason Mackay had to publicly “give up” his colleagues to emphasise the fact that he isn’t the only leading trainer waiting on their regulatory body to drag itself up by the bootstraps and deal with the issue.
Even Mackay wasn’t sure of the numbers involved citing “maybe 30 or 40 trainers” waiting for authorities to get their integrity “house in order”. But those numbers, as devastating as they are; could be even larger given there is currently a national epidemic of positive swabs – (an issue we will deal with in another analysis).
A few months ago, when Australian Racing Greyhound ran the numbers across Greyhound Racing in New South Wales, there were over 42 outstanding swabs that had not been reported as clear in New South Wales alone- some of them went right back to late 2012. Some may have been administration or “clerical” errors, but it was safe to say that there was more going on than “the new girl” not knowing how to do her job.
In GRNSW’s defence, the only reason we were able to run that analysis was that GRNSW do report when swab results “clear”. Somewhat obliquely though, they fail to report a swab anomaly. It is left to the user to “assume” an unreported clear swab has an irregularity. Surely commonsense and good governance dictates that it would cause less innuendo and “betting ring gossip” to be upfront and report the issue? But this is the modern reality of greyhounds racing’s version of “transparency”.
As dark as this would appear to be for those in New South Wales, GRNSW are light years ahead of Greyhound Racing Victoria (GRV).
It should come as no surprise that the regulatory body that runs greyhound racing in Victoria don’t even report the swabs they take in a format anyone could digest. The same group who were the subject of an Racing Integrity Ombudsman inquiry
Great article Kevin – further disappointment in an industry lacking direction and leadership. Integrity and transparency – the fundamentals that Greyhound racing should be built upon, sadly we race in the Stone Age!
@JacobFlaherty Thats because if the truth were known about what really happened to greyhounds- the public wouldn’t wear it..
Just wondering,
Is there a legal loophole that exists that excludes trainers found guilty of positive swabs (and administering Class A drugs and prohibited substances ) from Police prosecution ?
I would have also thought that a visit from the Police and RSPCA for administering any substance to a dog would be warranted. These actions would certainly warrant a visit if Joe Pubic did it.
Great article Kevin – further disappointment in an industry lacking direction and leadership. Integrity and transparency – the fundamentals that Greyhound racing should be built upon, sadly we race in the Stone Age!
@JacobFlaherty Thats because if the truth were known about what really happened to greyhounds- the public wouldn’t wear it..
Just wondering,
Is there a legal loophole that exists that excludes trainers found guilty of positive swabs (and administering Class A drugs and prohibited substances ) from Police prosecution ?
I would have also thought that a visit from the Police and RSPCA for administering any substance to a dog would be warranted. These actions would certainly warrant a visit if Joe Public did it.