Proposed Rule Changes

Monday 4 March 2024.

 

These proposed changes can be viewed through this link and concern the following areas of greyhound racing:

 

1) The default vacant box(es) for fields of seven or less

 

2) Unqualified greyhounds being charged with marring and failing to pursue

 

3) Various prohibited substance modifications approved by Greyhounds Australasia

 

4) Improved wording for some grading guidelines

 

 

 

Injury data for seven dog fields from the last four years shows that those races with Vacant Box1 (ie an 8 dog field with #1 scratched) have a significantly lower rate of injuries than with any other Box Vacant.

 

The proposed change is for Rule 85, that governs box draws, to move to the Grading Guidelines and be modified to allow the configuration of Vacant Boxes in fields of seven or less to be "as GRNZ from time to time directs".

 

The intention is for seven dog fields to have Vacant Box 1, and six dog fields to have Vacant Box 1 and Vacant Box 2.

 

 

 

Since the adoption of the GA Rules in February 2023, a qualifying trial has been included within the definition of an Event.  This has seen unqualified greyhounds become subject to sanctions for marring and failing to pursue.

 

Previously, such inexperienced greyhounds would simply have failed to qualify due to conduct, and a return to this structure is being achieved by defining that marring and failing to pursue sanctions only apply to "qualified greyhounds".

 

Also the restriction that a satisfactory trial cannot be a qualifying trial is removed.

 

 

Greyhounds Australasia (GA) has approved the introduction of threshold levels for prednisolone, ketoprofen and procaine in order to eliminate irrelevant positives.

 

GA have also recognised various legitimate treatments for pannus and allergic/atopic dermatitis, as well as correcting a reference to FG-4592 that is written as GF-4592 in the current Rule 139 (1) (n).

 

 

When the GA Rules were adopted in February 2023,  the various rules dealing with New Zealand Grading matters were transferred to the Grading Guidelines.

 

The current wording in Guideline 14.1 covering a Disqualified Greyhound states that the Greyhound should be considered to have "not competed" in the event it was disqualified from.

 

Clearly such greyhounds did compete, had their official weight recorded and had the race count towards the number of races within 28 days.

 

The current wording for Reserves gaining a start in PBD races does not cover extreme cases such as all eight starters being Railers.  In such cases if #7 scratched a Wide runner would not be allowed to start from #7, the proposed addition to Guideline 26 provides additional options in such cases.