Monday 26 July marks the end of an era for Greyhound racing in the south,
The Southland Greyhound Racing Club is holding its last ever meeting at its track at Ascot Park Racecourse.
The end is thanks to the coalition Government imposing a ban on Greyhound Racing effective from 31 July, just days away.
Racing Minister Winston Peters made the bombshell announcement just before Christmas 2024 that Greyhound racing would be banned.
The ban follows multiple reviews, which highlighted unacceptably high injury and death rates, and a suggested lack of significant improvement despite stricter regulations.
Southland Greyhound Racing president Bronwyn Eade told whatsoninvers that there is absolutely no hope of a final reprieve from Racing Minister Winston Peters. She says, "We keep getting quoted the 3 reviews that took place, with the last one in 2021, but nobody has taken any notice of the huge improvements in the industry".
Bronwyn Eade says "all trainers in Southland have now given up. No one can believe it has come to this, everyone is devastated."
11 staff will lose their jobs come next Monday.
On the subject of animal welfare, she added, "I can safely say that Greyhound Racing in NZ had the best welfare standards in the world but again, these have not been taken into consideration or the fact that the Greyhound Code injury statistics are far less than the horse racing codes." She says the greyhounds love to run and are extremely well looked after.
As for the club's assets Bronwyn Eade says assets that can be sold, will be sold, however the greyhound track, running rail, outside fencing, the starting boxes and kennels, will all be dismantled and scrapped.
Any money we have after paying all that is required of us, will go the Greyhound Racing New Zealand and then this money will be handed onto the Transition Agency once GRNZ close down. The Transition Agency will take control of the rehoming of the dogs after the closure on 31st July.
The Transition Agency was established to close the industry down.
Bronwyn Eade says the first communication that they've have had from the Transition Agency in regard to any support for our staff, was on Thursday night.
The Southland Greyhound Racing Club as we know it goes back to 1974. The Club first raced at Woodlands on a private property then moved to the Invercargill Showgrounds in 1976 with the first race meeting at the Showgrounds held on the 20th March, 1976. The Club moved to Ascot Park in 1991 on a shoestring budget of $68,000 which required a lot of volunteer labour from members to get the club established. The club's first race meeting at Ascot Park was on the 16th September 1991. Other reports indicate that greyhound racing in Southland goes as far back as 1876.
Bronwyn Eade says the original track was grass and was developed into a sand track in 2007 with Oreti Beach Sand being used. The Ascot Park greyhound track was the safest track in New Zealand. Ascot Park is the only tri-code facility in New Zealand with all three codes racing there. Bronwyn Eade says "obviously after Monday, this won't be the case any longer.
It's been reported that the club contributes a significant amount of money annually to the Ascot Park Consortium.
Today's final meeting (Mon) is a 12 race card starting just after midday.