Greyhound club in limbo over future

John Carlyle. Photo: ODT files
John Carlyle. Photo: ODT files
The Otago Greyhound Racing Club remains in the dark over whether it will be able to continue racing at Forbury Park next season.

The club owns two buildings on the Forbury Park complex and has five meetings left at the end of the current season.

It has a meeting scheduled for Thursday on the track at Forbury Park, which sits inside the trotting track.

But with the trotting club closing at the end of the season on July 31, and different options selected for the land, the greyhound club appears to have been left out altogether.

Club general manager John Carlyle said the future was uncertain and nothing had been decided.

Though the trotting track was going to close at the end of the season that did not mean the greyhound track would also have to be out of action.

A redevelopment of the land or different proposals would take time and in that time the club could continue racing on its track.

It had been given no new dates in next year’s racing calendar.

The restaurant which operates out of Forbury Park was staying in the meantime so why could the greyhound club not do the same thing, he asked.

Greyhound Racing New Zealand racing operations and welfare manager Michael Dore said as the winding up of Forbury Park was the first use of the "surplus venue" part of the new Racing Act, so everyone was learning the process.

He said the availability of the venue for greyhound racing after July 31 had looked forlorn but if the delays to development, as reported in the media, opened another door, GRNZ would be keen to pursue it.

As this stage it was just a case of negotiations continuing.

Under the Racing Act it would take a minimum of at least two years to dispose of the track.

The greyhound club was looking at options for a new track for the dogs but a move out to Taieri to build a track at Wingatui had been ruled out.

Frost conditions on the Taieri would make any greyhound track unfeasible.

Carlyle said with the bulk of owners and trainers coming from north of Dunedin, the plan was to look for a suitable area further north.

There was a proposal to look at building a track at the Oamaru racecourse and there was a suitable building to house dogs. But plenty of work still had to be done.

The club owns two buildings at Forbury Park - a clubrooms and a kennels room.

The land was leased. It used to be on a five-year lease but this was reduced to a one-year lease last year.

 

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