Choosing an Exotic Pet - Care of Exotic Pets

The British Greyhound Racing Board is determined to prevent the sport from going to the dogs by taking steps to ensure that off-course bookmakers pay a proper price.

The BGRB is seeking to put right the underfunding it says it has endured during the last 30 years. Up to now greyhound racing has been denied a mandatory levy by government, despite the fact that horseracing, which is used in exactly the same way by bookmakers in betting shops, receives 1.3% of all betting turnover by law.


Greyhound racing has received a "voluntary contribution" of just 0.4% from off course bookmakers. However, with no directive in law to make that payment, more than 40% of off course bookmakers have chosen to pay the greyhound racing industry nothing.

The BGRB's New Deal campaign has the backing of many owners who have threatened to "rest" their dogs, while trainers have threatened to go on strike.

Geoffrey Thomas, chief executive of the BGRB, said: "Tracks are being forced to close, prize money has not increased in over a decade, our trainers are being forced out of business, and more and more retired dogs face an uncertain future at the end of their careers."

The BGRB say that bookmakers control of greyhound racing has been further entrenched by the purchase of greyhound tracks in order to weaken the ability of the industry to take any meaningful action against them.

Greyhound's ruling body says that ownership of the tracks - Ladbrokes and Coral both own two while Hill's have one - has allowed off-course bookmakers to have a say in the way the industry is run, allowing them to block any initiatives which might force them to pay more money for the use of greyhound racing in their betting shops.

Now the BGRB have fought back with the New Deal campaign, using as its platform a landmark legal judgment in a case between the British Horse Racing Board and William Hill, which concluded that ownership of the data in horse racing's form database belonged to the BHB.

The BGRB have imposed a similar requirement on off course bookmakers for use of the data in greyhound racing's National Form Database. The BGRB is asking for a further £34m a year, 50% of which it has pledged will go straight into prize money, with the rest to be spent on welfare and integrity.

To put this into context, the total money bet off course on greyhound racing last year was just short of £2bn. Ladbrokes alone made more than £132m from betting on greyhound racing last year, while William Hill made more than £99m.

Frost and snow caused the abandonment of Kelso yesterday, and today's jump cards at Hereford and Catterick are subject to inspections this morning. Temperatures are due to rise ahead of tomorrow's National Hunt cards at Sandown, Uttoxeter and Wetherby, but an additional all-weather meeting at Southwell will take place.