Greyhound body fuming over proposed cuts to prize money

THE Queensland Greyhound Breeders, Owners and Trainers Association is considering launching legal action against Racing Queensland and the State Government.

Greyhounds at Albion Park Brisbane. Marc ROBERTSON -

THE Queensland Greyhound Breeders, Owners and Trainers Association is considering launching legal action against Racing Queensland and the State Government for what it perceives as discrimination against the code.

QGBOTA President Brenton Wilson said proposed cuts to prizemoney, set to take effect from April 1, could not be justified based on his organisation’s assertion that turnover on greyhound racing has been on a strong upward spiral.

“We sat in a meeting last month with (RQ Head of Operations) Declan Martschinke and Ian Hall trying to come to some agreement on what the cuts will be. They can’t justify these cuts,” Wilson said.

“They have done it anyway and we are looking at something like a 28-30 per cent prizemoney reduction.

“We also have broader issues with how they treat the greyhound industry in comparison to the other two codes. It’s unfair and as far as the greyhound industry is concerned it’s the last straw.”

Wilson highlighted the yet to be fulfilled promise of a new greyhound racing venue in south-east Queensland as an example of the poor treatment dished out to the code.

In a statement last night, Racing Queensland said prizemoney levels across all three codes had been restructured as a result of the control body borrowing $17.5 million from the state government to meet its financial obligations.

“These prizemoney levels have been based on wagering projections, however, as stated throughout this process, there is flexibility within the Tracking Towards Sustainability framework that allows prizemoney levels to be adjusted after quarterly reviews of projections and wagering figures,” the statement said.

The Queensland Greyhounds Affiliation (QGA) has challenged Racing Queensland since September last year on its revenue projections for the industry, believing they have been grossly underestimated.

In a letter to outgoing Acting Chief Executive Ian Hall, the QGA said it had “provided data to RQ that showed (their) projections were so fundamentally wrong that no reasonable organisation would use those projections to make significant industry-wide decisions.”

“The process of developing the revenue projections was so fundamentally flawed, it is no wonder the actual v projected revenue varies so significantly,” the QGA said.

Greyhound owner and breeder Andrew Taylor said RQ had forced the industry into a position where participants felt they have no other option.

“We’ve had meeting after meeting but then they go and do what they want to do,” he said.

“I originally said we need to work as closely as we can with RQ to solve these problems, but they are doing the opposite. You would really think they are trying to close the industry down by stealth.”

Originally published as Greyhound body fuming over proposed cuts to prize money