Four Corners Tonight: Live Greyhound Blooding

[Nothing]

They couldve set up tiny, hidden but still high resolution cameras at practice tracks 40 years ago?

They would never have suspected it.

 

[TheJanuaryMan]

PREDICTION -

In a weeks time the Bali 9 guys have probably been executed and no-one will be talking about greyhound live-baiting anymore. Sounds harsh, but the media move on pretty quickly and therefore so does everyones minds and discussion points.

generally that is right, but don't think so in this case. the ramifications for this case are massive and there is plenty more to come in terms of sponsors bailing etc. think this is going to hit the sport much harder than many may think. betting turnover will be one to monitor, I reckon there will a lot of families lost to the casual visit and while that may not seem much, its the next generation.

 

[OhhhhhCyril]

Just watched this episode online, as others have said just disgusting, makes me feel sick.

 

[Angus Young]

It wouldn't bother be one bit if they were fixing races or using gear or whatever but I am disgusted seeing that cruelty. I don't understand how a human being can do that to an animal or let others do it.

Seriously If you are going to be cruel to animals like that in this day and age u should do a stint in prison.

Disgusting.

 

[True__Believer]

It wouldn't bother be one bit if they were fixing races or using gear or whatever but I am disgusted seeing that cruelty. I don't understand how a human being can do that to an animal or let others do it.

Seriously If you are going to be cruel to animals like that in this day and age u should do a stint in prison.

Disgusting.

12 months in QLD, 5 years in NSW and 3 years in Vic are the maximum penalties. Will be interesting to see if anyone goes to gaol, but i really can't see it. If anyone does, it will be the guys who were running the training tracks. The trainers will be handed fines and suspensions. I have heard the QLD trainers have 7 days to show cause or face a life ban.

 

[rideclutch]

Someone earlier mentioned that greyhound trainers were not very sharp, maybe the same goes for trotting trainers lol.

Without a shadow of doubt.

 

[Munich]

Good work by the big guy.

He would have been advised by his management, anyone involved with the industry knew this was happening.

 

[yaco55]

They couldve set up tiny, hidden but still high resolution cameras at practice tracks 40 years ago?

Cameras have only been around for 100 years.

 

[yaco55]

It's qualty journalism -uncovering and broadcasting unchecked criminal behaviour.

Why wasn't this story done 10,20,30 or 40 years ago - That's the unanswered question ! Could it be another sector of the racing industry ?

 

[yaco55]

Two days on and I'm still just as disgusted. I'm not a Greyhound punter but would go a couple of times a year socially. I'd be hard pressed to attend another meeting. It has left a horrible taste.

By the way, there were stories/documentaries on this in the 80s and 90s. I guess people just assumed it had cleaned up.

I'm staggered that what we saw on Monday night goes on in 2015. Clearly the industry has done a great job at keeping it 'in-house'. Shameful.

This is the point that I addressed in my initial post - Why has it caused a fuss in 2015 ? Strange that in 1965 or 1975 or 1985 or 1995 or 2005 the issue didn't raise a ripple.

 

[yaco55]

Needed. A new ambassador for greyhound racing.
Jonathon Brown just resigned.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport...promotional-role/story-fnii0njy-1227224099931

I always wonder about this type of action - Brown is a born and bred Warrambool person which has a strong racing and greyhound industry - I find it impossible to believe that Brown didn't know about live baiting before he took on his ambassadorial role - Impossible.

 

[western royboy]

Slightly off topic but going back some time, maybe 15 years or so, the Gleeson camp in NSW were the number 1 trainers in the country. They had a stable which was turning over 2-3 million dollars per year but threw it all away for the sake of a $60k superfecta jackpot. Thse who are not familiar with the story, they had a long odds on favourite in the race and intentionally cut the gear so the horse would have to retire from the race. One of the Gleesons (the older brother of Chris i believe) went to a TAB to put the bet on....a superfecta which boxed the field minus the favourite. Stupidly he went to a TAB where he was known and soon people put 2 and 2 together and realised what really happened.

Chris was the trainer/driver, Matt placed the bet at the MONA Vale TAB. I was there on the night it happened, because it was a low grade Tuesday night meeting, no one suspected anything was up at all.

 

[western royboy]

I always wonder about this type of action - Brown is a born and bred Warrambool person which has a strong racing and greyhound industry - I find it impossible to believe that Brown didn't know about live baiting before he took on his ambassadorial role - Impossible.

Yes he would have known about live baiting, but most people believed it had ceased and I'm pretty confident Jono would have been in that camp. Jono's mother, uncles and grandfather have all been greyhound trainers with many, many good dogs. I'm equally as confident in saying live baiting is not part of there training regime. Be careful where you head with some of these type of statements.

 

[western royboy]

Also stupidly they cut the gear with a knife, so when inspected it was obvious it hadnt frayed

Not entirely correct, the hopeless were cut, but it was only when closely inspected by an expert that they detected that they had been cut. It was a fluke that they got caught in all honesty. The horse in question was a moderately performed horse in Victoria when trained by Lou Austin an Inter Dominion winning trainer himself who magically thrived when transferred to the beach regime of CJ Gleeson on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. From memory Coloresque was first up from a spell in a 7 horse race where you needed to get the first six in order to land the now defunct Superfecta.

The started in the back straight, Coloresque mad a move around the field to the death but was pulled out of the race by CJ when his offside hopple broke at the bottom of the home straight. It's not totally uncommon for hopeless to break every now and again. Usually the gear is inspected, found to be of good quality and Yasa, yada, yada - that's it. The gear in this case was impounded because the Superfecta went off which was a surprise because Coloresque was about 1/2 in the market. When the MONA Vale TAB agent alerted the stewards who placed and cashed the winning superfecta ticket, that's when everything was examined a bit more closely.

 

[Bloods]

This is the point that I addressed in my initial post - Why has it caused a fuss in 2015 ? Strange that in 1965 or 1975 or 1985 or 1995 or 2005 the issue didn't raise a ripple.

It did. Perhaps not as recently as 2005 but certainly prior to that.

 

[western royboy]

This is the point that I addressed in my initial post - Why has it caused a fuss in 2015 ? Strange that in 1965 or 1975 or 1985 or 1995 or 2005 the issue didn't raise a ripple.

Two main reasons.

1. Society has changed and what was once potentially believed to be acceptable is no longer the case.

2. The practice of live baiting way back when was more akin to coursing in when you would allegedly get a rabbit or a hare set him off and let the dogs go after him. Same outcome as what was portrayed on the vision on Monday night, but possibly less confronting than what was shown.

There is no way you can justify what was done on the vision on Monday night. as a follow up the 7.30 Report last night interviewed Tom Noble who basically said the majority of all dogs are broken in with firms of live baiting. They then followed up with a member of parliament from the Liberal Democrats who is apparently a vet who offered his thoughts that Dogs that were live baited were better chasers.

In a nutshell, those two just added fuel to a fire and legitimacy for potentially shutting the industry down which would have massive consequences for thousands of people.

 

[Partridge]

I heard rumours a few years ago of current drivers and a recently retired driver that had a punters club. They liked the exotics, trifectas and first 4s. It's one of the reasons we moved one particular horse up to Sydney. Whether those rumours were true or not, I like to back my horses and had no confidence whatsoever in backing them in the end.

I used to work at, and then run TAB outlets. I grew up in a family that on one side absolutely loved to punt. A great aunty was a SP bookie. So growing up around racetracks and dogtracks was just part of childhood. I would get annoyed at the Spring Carnival because racing fans who knew the horses (and I was absolutely one of them) were outnumbered by dressed up idiots who wouldn't know a furlong from a furball.

But as others have said, society has changed. I've changed. Watching losers keep throwing money away on Wednesday nights on the Dapto greyhounds was, let's just say, educational. I've got to the point where not only do I not watch any racing, or care to, I really wouldn't be bothered if all horse racing and greyhound racing was banned completely. And before anyone says 'think of the jobs lost', you could have used the same argument for bear-baiting or fox hunting. In Spain you still could for bullfighting. You're either moral or you're not.

Horse racing may survive, at least for a few years (although I doubt it). I can't see how greyhound racing will.

 

[Partridge]

I've never been one for pets or taken too much notice of animal issues, but * me what would drive men to rip a baby piglet away from its mother and kill it in front of its distraught tied up mother by shoving its head in the sand??!! Then laughing about it.

Also a possum being flung around a track 26 times until its left hanging by its spinal cord!!

There has to be something seriously missing.

Unfortunately, all you need to do is attend a greyhound meeting and take a sober look at the audience. I'm not sure animal welfare is high on the list of issues they're concerned about.

 

[TheJanuaryMan]

Not entirely correct, the hopeless were cut, but it was only when closely inspected by an expert that they detected that they had been cut. It was a fluke that they got caught in all honesty. The horse in question was a moderately performed horse in Victoria when trained by Lou Austin an Inter Dominion winning trainer himself who magically thrived when transferred to the beach regime of CJ Gleeson on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. From memory Coloresque was first up from a spell in a 7 horse race where you needed to get the first six in order to land the now defunct Superfecta.

The started in the back straight, Coloresque mad a move around the field to the death but was pulled out of the race by CJ when his offside hopple broke at the bottom of the home straight. It's not totally uncommon for hopeless to break every now and again. Usually the gear is inspected, found to be of good quality and Yasa, yada, yada - that's it. The gear in this case was impounded because the Superfecta went off which was a surprise because Coloresque was about 1/2 in the market. When the MONA Vale TAB agent alerted the stewards who placed and cashed the winning superfecta ticket, that's when everything was examined a bit more closely.

The Gleesons were dumb for the way they executed it - very dumb to try it on a lower grade night as they did with such a dominant favorite - and more so to use their local agency where matt was known by sight. The whole thing made Fine Cotton look like a masterplan.

 

[True__Believer]

Not entirely correct, the hopeless were cut, but it was only when closely inspected by an expert that they detected that they had been cut. It was a fluke that they got caught in all honesty. The horse in question was a moderately performed horse in Victoria when trained by Lou Austin an Inter Dominion winning trainer himself who magically thrived when transferred to the beach regime of CJ Gleeson on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. From memory Coloresque was first up from a spell in a 7 horse race where you needed to get the first six in order to land the now defunct Superfecta.

The started in the back straight, Coloresque mad a move around the field to the death but was pulled out of the race by CJ when his offside hopple broke at the bottom of the home straight. It's not totally uncommon for hopeless to break every now and again. Usually the gear is inspected, found to be of good quality and Yasa, yada, yada - that's it. The gear in this case was impounded because the Superfecta went off which was a surprise because Coloresque was about 1/2 in the market. When the MONA Vale TAB agent alerted the stewards who placed and cashed the winning superfecta ticket, that's when everything was examined a bit more closely.

Answered my question, i was going to ask if someone at the TAB reported it or it was word of mouth. It would be much easier to get away with it today, with online betting at all. At the time there was no other option.

 

[True__Believer]

The question as to why it has taken so long for this to get reported, like i mentioned earlier this group of animal activists are only a small group with limited capability....they would be looking at a whole range of different types of animal cruelty. Obviously someone came to them who was concerned and they decided to take this means of action.

On a side note, the board at GRNSW have been dismissed. This is just the beginning i imagine.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-19/entire-board-of-nsw-greyhound-racing-dismissed/6144352

 

[western royboy]

The question as to why it has taken so long for this to get reported, like i mentioned earlier this group of animal activists are only a small group with limited capability....they would be looking at a whole range of different types of animal cruelty. Obviously someone came to them who was concerned and they decided to take this means of action.

On a side note, the board at GRNSW have been dismissed. This is just the beginning i imagine.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-19/entire-board-of-nsw-greyhound-racing-dismissed/6144352

My view is twofold, one is a massive shortfall in the amount of resources required to adequately police the code and this applies to the Trots as well, less so to the gallops. Secondly, the industry is so "inbred" pardon the pun, that you have stewards and officials who are related to participants and in some instances people have swapped between roles. There are suggestions that in some instances, participants are given advanced warning of inspections.

You need to be wary of what people do on their own properties without prying eyes. Some of the security on these places has to be seen to be believed.

Every code has a fairly significant integrity issue hanging over it at the moment. It will be interesting to see how it all unfolds.

 

[jaguaress]

Greyhound Industry loosing major sponsorships left right & centre GOOD

 

[True__Believer]

My view is twofold, one is a massive shortfall in the amount of resources required to adequately police the code and this applies to the Trots as well, less so to the gallops. Secondly, the industry is so "inbred" pardon the pun, that you have stewards and officials who are related to participants and in some instances people have swapped between roles. There are suggestions that in some instances, participants are given advanced warning of inspections.

You need to be wary of what people do on their own properties without prying eyes. Some of the security on these places has to be seen to be believed.

Every code has a fairly significant integrity issue hanging over it at the moment. It will be interesting to see how it all unfolds.

The authorities need to realise that self regulation may not be the best option. While it seems that the QLD and NSW authorities are being proactive, GRV are doing what they do the best, and trying to downplay the issue. Over there we have seen the 'family shuffle' with Darren Macdonald's dogs now being trained and raced in his wifes name. Absolute disgrace. Word is that there is going to be a part 2 which is to be aired on Four Corners either Sunday or Monday night.

 

[Whit3y]

The authorities need to realise that self regulation may not be the best option. While it seems that the QLD and NSW authorities are being proactive, GRV are doing what they do the best, and trying to downplay the issue. Over there we have seen the 'family shuffle' with Darren Macdonald's dogs now being trained and raced in his wifes name. Absolute disgrace. Word is that there is going to be a part 2 which is to be aired on Four Corners either Sunday or Monday night.

same goes for linda britton and graham bate, they transfer there dogs to the partners name or relative, but you just know there the "unoffical" trainer