Greyhound Racing Victoria hone in on 1000 adopted greyhounds in 2024

Greyhound Racing Victoria are on track for a major rehoming milestone ahead of The Phoenix, the world’s richest greyhound race, at The Meadows on Saturday night.

Greyhound Racing Victoria are on the verge of rehoming 1000 greyhounds in 2024

Greyhound Racing Victoria’s quest to rehome more than 1000 greyhounds this calendar year via its Greyhound Adoption Program (GAP) will come down to demand for greyhounds as pets over the Christmas period.

Close to 980 greyhounds have been rehomed through GAP over the past 11-and-a-half months, and GAP’s adoption facility at Tullamarine is set to stay open in the week following Christmas to ensure at least 20 more greyhounds find their forever homes before the New Year.

It comes as GRV gears up for the biggest party in greyhound racing, the world’s richest race – The Phoenix – at The Meadows this Saturday night.

Over 1500 people are tipped to attend the fourth running of the $1.65 million race, which has captured the imagination of punters and helped greyhound racing engage with a new audience.

Victorian greyhound racing has enjoyed bumper crowds during its Dream Chasers Festival, including a packed Sandown Park for last month’s Melbourne Cup.

Explicit wins the 2024 Group 1 Melbourne Cup Picture: Clint Anderson

And wagering figures have also turned a corner, with last month’s Melbourne Cup producing Victorian greyhound racing’s third highest turnover race of all time.

More than $1.6m was wagered on the race alone, eclipsing every race ever run in Victoria barring the 2020 and 2021 editions of the Melbourne Cup.

Total turnover for the meeting exceeded $9 million, up more than 30 per cent on the $6.9 million wagered in 2023, and only 5.2 per cent shy of the Cup night record of $9.5m set in 2022.

“To record the third highest turnover race of all time and the sixth highest Victorian turnover meeting of all time is a positive sign that interest and engagement in Victorian greyhound racing is high,” GRV’s chief executive officer Stuart Laing said.

“The positive mainstream media attention greyhound racing has been receiving, along with the ability to showcase the best of Victorian greyhound racing live on Racing.com, is part of the reason why engagement on the sport continues to grow.

“The crowd and atmosphere at the Melbourne Cup was one of the best in years and follows another good attendance at The Meadows for the Topgun.

“On the track, we’ve had some star-studded fields, underlined by the quality of the eight Cup heats and the depth and evenness of the Cup final field.

“All our attention now goes towards making sure the fourth edition of The Phoenix, both on course and as part of the free-to-air broadcast, is the best edition yet.”

Last year’s winner Schillaci is gunning for back-to-back triumphs in the race for Jihad Talgi, who has recently sold his Carrum Downs pizza shop to put his efforts into training full-time.

Jihad Talgi with his star sprinter Schillaci

Schillaci will jump from box one in The Phoenix as second favourite, behind only Melbourne Cup winner Explicit.

Melbourne Storm are among the eight slot holders for the race, to be represented by the Gippsland-trained Lakeview Emily.

General admission to The Meadows is free on Saturday night.

Be on track for your chance to win up to $10,000 in the Lift the Lids promotion or catch a sky-high ball from Australian cricket star Aaron Finch to win prizes. The race meeting will be broadcast live on free-to-air station Racing.com.

To adopt or foster a greyhound, find out more at gap.grv.org.au.