furrrvola wrote:Wheeler is a businessman, and took advantage of the generous appearance money on offer. Instead of keeping the best to win the good races, he just named anything with 4 legs and a pulse, and palmed them out to anyone that could capitalise on his plan.
You can't blame Wheeler for finding a way to make money in the greyhound game...after all Sangster did it with the thoroughbreds.
The problem in SA was, and this is why the unrest started, and that was the training (for want of a better word) tactics of those with the Bale dogs. These dogs would be nominated for every meeting available, running 3-4 times a week, being multiple nominated. So what was happening, these low class dogs, with a placing to their name, were getting starts, and in most cases, most of the fields were filled with Wheeler's dogs.
The punters did not want to bet on them. Small breeders stopped breeding, and basically, the industry in SA started to close down. People with grade 5 dogs couldn't get a start, and when you can't race, you can't win money. No money means the local suppliers aren't selling meat and products. Local breeders cant sell their pups, and generally, the whole system was crashing.
No, you can't blame Wheeler. He's a genius. But typical of smart business men...they don't give a f*** who they tread on. He only came up with the plan, it's the way it was implemented that hurt SA.
Do you really think Collins started training cos he's good at it? He got into the system cos there was money to be made. And how many times did you see his groupies running round laying big bets on the roughie..and it got up.
And you wonder why people spat at the Bale dogs.
Some of the country tracks are too old and far away to be worth injecting more money into. It's all very well to say the locals need them, but if you can't make money on the tracks, they have to close. Well maybe not completely, but relegated to limited meetings, and if the locals want to keep going on their own backs for trials etc, good on them, let them do that.
The only way money can go back into the races is by TAB turnover, and pokies.
Forget the restaurant bullshlt, and gate takings. It's what betting goes on, and no one wants to bet on a Wheeler race, or a bunch of non chasing cats on some country track.
Boost the prizemoney at Angle Park, and keep the good dogs there, and encourage more good dogs to race there. Betting will improve, turnover will increase, return will benefit the trainers.
Vicgirl, always nice to see you back home.
the best post on the topic