Sydney is set to host the world’s richest greyhound racing event in October, marking a huge boon for an industry that almost collapsed after media crybabies kicked up a stink about mass greyhound graves dotted around New South Wales and the animal cruelty which is fundamental to the noble sport.
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NSW Minister for Racing Paul Toole today announced the inaugural Million Dollar Chase, a racing series which will culminate in a $1 million prize for the dog that’s best at the Sisyphean task of chasing its (mostly!) mechanical prey around a track.
Well, that’s a technically a lie. The dog’s owner will receive the prize money. In all likelihood, the dog will be rightfully put in a cage, carted across the state, and made to race some more.
11 qualifying finals will be held at regional centres like Bathurst, Lismore, Wagga Wagga, and Dubbo. Newcastle will also host one of the qualifiers, which is fitting, considering the 2016 discovery of nearly 100 dead greyhounds buried near a Hunter Valley training track.
With any luck, the psychic heft of those deaths will help the pups run faster on the day.
$500,000 in taxpayer funding has been set aside to help prop up the event, which seems like a small amount given the general public’s enthusiasm to support an industry that already extracts unconscionable profits from gamblers.
In his statement, Toole said that all trainers will be required to re-home participating dogs at the end of their careers, lest they be forced to hand back their winnings.
Entry fees to the October 20 final at Wentworth Park will also include donations to the Greyhounds As Pets charity, an organisation which holds the absurd view that animals should not be wantonly destroyed once their earning potential has been exhausted.
The Million Dollar Chase will be held under the eye of the new Greyhound Welfare & Integrity Commission, the government body which emerged from the ashes of NSW’s original 2016 ban on the industry.
Thank goodness that heavy-handed measure was reversed, otherwise it’d be a lot harder for the industry to add to the estimated death toll of 48,000 and 68,000 dogs bred to race between 2004 and 2016.
Toole said the race demonstrates “the NSW Government’s commitment to securing the industry from the long term,” and we’re absolutely stoked.
