Organisers were stunned when about 5,000 people packed the Dapto Showground to witness the end of a greyhound racing era.<\/p>\n
Live music, speeches and hours of back-to-back races made the final meeting at one of the nation’s most famed greyhound racing tracks an occasion to remember.<\/p>\n
For regulars at the track, which lies just south of Wollongong, life might never be quite the same.<\/p>\n
“Besides the dogs, we don’t have much else here,” Dapto resident Zac Dodec said.<\/p>\n
Crowds watch the final Dapto Dogs race meet on Thursday night. (ABC Illawarra: Sarah Moss)<\/p>\n
Ashley Peck and her three children travelled nearly 200 kilometres to attend the event.<\/p>\n
“The Dapto Dogs have been around for a long time, so for it to be closing down is really sad,” she said.<\/p>\n
Many in the crowd shared that sentiment and were bitter about the venue owner’s decision not to renew its lease with Greyhound Racing New South Wales (GRNSW).<\/p>\n
The industry’s peak body said while the existing lease did not expire for another nine months, the decision was made to bring the closure forward to coincide with one of the venue’s biggest annual meetings.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Spectators got to take home part of the iconic Dapto greyhound track. (ABC Illawarra: Brooke Chandler)<\/p>\n
Spectators poured onto the track after the final race, scooping up sand as a memento in small jars supplied by officials.<\/p>\n
“[I’m going to miss] the camaraderie, catching up with mates, placing a few bets and having a few drinks,” punter Tim Morgan said.<\/p>\n
Dapto Dogs in history books<\/p>\n
The track will be ripped up by the Dapto Agricultural and Horticultural Society as it re-purposes the showground for other community uses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dapto was one of the first tracks in NSW to transition to a specialised clay-and-sand surface. (Supplied: The Groundz)<\/p>\n
Lifelong Dapto resident Glenn Goodwin, who wears his love of greyhound racing on his sleeve in the form of a tattoo, said it was a sad end of an era.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The name Dapto is synonymous with greyhound racing,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It doesn’t matter where you go \u2014 if you say you come from Dapto, people say Dapto Dogs.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Glenn Goodwin’s tattoo shows his love for greyhound racing. (ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale)<\/p>\n
Greyhound meetings have been held at the venue since 1936, although there was a two-year hiatus during World War II as the Australian Army occupied Dapto Showground.<\/p>\n
Dapto made global headlines in 1991 for offering what was then the world’s largest greyhound purse of $100,000.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Greyhound racing resumed at Dapto in 1944 after a two-year hiatus during WWII. (Supplied: GRNSW)<\/p>\n
Local trainers devastated<\/p>\n
With more than four decades of industry experience, Mr Goodwin said the end of greyhound racing at Dapto would have a significant impact.<\/p>\n
He said about 100 local trainers used the track to trial their dogs each week.<\/p>\n
“I’ve got some young dogs, they needed to run [but] instead of being able to go to Dapto, which is two minutes’ drive, I had to drive to Nowra,” Mr Goodwin said.<\/p>\n
GRNSW owns a parcel of land at nearby Bong Bong Road, but said significant work was needed to determine if it would be suitable to host a straight track.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Glenn Goodwin supports the establishment of a straight track at Horsley.\u00a0 (ABC Illawarr: Justin Huntsdale)<\/p>\n
Animal rights advocates rejoice<\/p>\n
Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds director Kylie Field welcomed the closure, citing the animals injured or killed on the track.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“In the years 2020 to 2025, there’s been eight dogs killed on that track, 926 injuries and 227 of those were in the serious category,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“So good riddance, Dapto Dogs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“For every greyhound that has died or been injured on that track, we will literally fight in your name to close this industry across NSW.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The greyhound racing industry has been criticised for animal injuries and deaths. (Supplied: GRNSW)<\/p>\n
Last year, Honourable Lea Drake was commissioned by Racing Minister David Harris to examine complaints about industry governance, track safety and animal welfare issues.<\/p>\n
The findings were due to be handed down in July, with their whereabouts questioned in budget estimates last month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
David Harris was asked when the Drake Report would be made public. (Supplied: Youtube)<\/p>\n
Ms Field called on Mr Harris to provide the results.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“When a minister sits on a report, what are they sitting on and why?” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“There are findings in that report that are significant to the safety and wellbeing of dogs across this state.”<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Mr Harris said in a statement the government would determine the appropriate next steps, having received 1,600 submissions to the inquiry, more than 80,000 documents and 31 hearing days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Organisers were stunned when about 5,000 people packed the Dapto Showground to witness the end of a greyhound…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,94228,94230,49817,94229,94231,85,94232,36988],"class_list":["post-136985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dapto-dogs","tag-glenn-goodwin","tag-greyhound-racing","tag-grnsw","tag-kylie-field","tag-sports","tag-steve-griffin","tag-trainer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}