Following consultation with the NSW Government and in line with instructions from NSW Health, Greyhound Racing NSW (GRNSW) has formulated a plan for racing during the two weeks of the lockdown in the Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Wollongong and the Central Coast regions.
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From Sunday, June 27, until the end of the lockdown at 11.59pm on July 9, greyhound racing in NSW will be divided in two distinct zones, with participants only able to race in their designated zone.
Zone 1 consists only of people residing in the locked downed areas of Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Wollongong and the Central Coast.
Zone 2 is the remainder of the NSW State located outside of the locked down region.
From Monday's race meetings (June 28), participants will only be permitted to race at meetings inside their own designated zone.
Zone 1 racetrack venues are Dapto, Bulli, Richmond, Gosford and Wentworth Park. All NSW Health rules, restrictions and strict compliance requirements that are currently in place across Greater Sydney will apply at race meetings at these venues, including temperature testing, and the wearing of masks is mandatory at all venues.
Zone 2 consists of all other racetracks in the State. At these venues all COVID-19 precautions must be taken including the mandatory wearing of face masks, social distancing and abiding by the 1 x 4 square metre rule.
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This zoning will commence immediately and as such will have a significant impact on some of the race meetings which have already been drawn - on Monday at Bathurst, Grafton and Nowra and on Tuesday at Gosford, Bulli and Lismore.
The race meetings set for Nowra and Gosford, which, due to their close proximity to the Zone borders attract many participants from the alternate Zone, have been heavily impacted, and as a result, GRNSW has decided to abandon both race meetings.
GRNSW understands the impact of this announcement on participants, and have made the decision that in this instance, the total prizemoney for both Nowra and Gosford, will be divided between participants.
Also given the short notice in the abandonment of the Richmond meeting scheduled for today, GRNSW has also decided to split total prizemoney for this meeting.
To compensate participants who will be impacted by having to scratch their greyhounds from the other meetings already drawn due to zoning circumstances, GRNSW had decided to pay participants $250 for each greyhound which has had to be scratched.
"With the Grafton Carnival to begin tomorrow, we understand that already a number of participants had relocated to the region. If, pursuant to NSW Government recommendations, anyone from Zone 1 who has been in Grafton or outside of Zone 1 prior to Sunday, June 21, you will be permitted to stay and race. However, we strongly recommend that those in this situation take a precautionary COVID test," a statement from GRNSW released on June 27 said.
As a result of the new zoning, many participants will be unable to travel to Wentworth Park and race for city prizemoney. To offset this, GRNSW has decided to offer city stakes at a number of race meetings located in Zone 2.
Full city prizemoney (Saturday Wentworth Park stakes) will be offered for the race meeting at Ladbrokes Gardens on Friday, July 2, for races over 515m (excluding maidens).
For the meetings at Dubbo on Saturday, July 3, Nowra on Sunday, July 4, and Bathurst on Monday, July 5, Wednesday City prizemoney levels will be available for races over 500m (excluding maidens) and the same will be in place for the Goulburn meeting on Friday, July 2, for racing over 440m (excluding maidens).
All participants in the Greater Sydney region, the Blue Mountains, Wollongong and the Central Coast must only travel directly to their racing venue and return home immediately following the race meeting.
GRNSW had programmed the Group 1 Peter Mosman Opal and the Group 1 Vic Peters Classic at Wentworth Park on July 3 (heats) and July 10 (final). Both events have been postponed and an announcement about the races will be made in the near future.
"We urge everyone to continue to be vigilant when attending race meetings, and if anyone has any cold or flu symptoms, they need to get tested immediately and self-isolate until they have a negative result, and do not attend any track if you are unwell," GRNSW stated.
GRNSW also reiterates that these new zoning measures are for participants and essential workers only and have been established under the NSW Government's stay-at-home restriction rules for work travel. All tracks as mentioned in Zone 1 are not open to the public.
