Greyhound club gamble on date

The Wairarapa Greyhound Racing Club is testing the waters with their TAB meeting at Solway Showgrounds next Monday.
It is the first time they have raced on a Monday and president Gary Caffell concedes it is a risk as far as on-course wagering is concerned.
"We have no idea what effect it will have on on-course figures because Monday is not a day on which greyhounds usually race," Caffell said. "We are basically the guinea pigs to that extent so it will be interesting to see what develops."
Caffell is optimistic, however, that a quality programme will attract locals to the meeting in good numbers, with the feature event being the running of the $6000 Wairarapa Cup.
Normally that event would be held on one of the club's four January dates, but with several other major races for the highest-graded dogs being held around the country at that time of the year, the decision was made to card it at the October meeting.
"There are only so many class five dogs around, so it made sense to plan our race at a time when their opportunities were more limited," Caffell said.
The Cup field won't be confirmed until tomorrow, but with interest being expressed from trainers from Canterbury in the south to Auckland in the north it should draw a classy line-up.
As it happens, however, the favourite may well be a locally-trained bitch in Isa Dusty from the kennels of Paddy and Barry Norris. She has been in wonderful form over the past three to four months and her front running tactics could make her hard to catch at Solway.
The Wairarapa GRC is famed for its strong support of hurdle racing and Caffell said one, and possibly even two, hurdle races would feature on Monday's programme.
Palmerston North trainer Mike Boyd is sure to have his usual powerful hand there, but with a number of hurdlers having been qualified recently at Solway by other trainers, Caffell predicts he might not have it all his own way on this occasion.
"Solway would be the number one hurdle track in the country by far, and after a bit of a lull the popularity of hurdling has increased quite markedly," he said.
Caffell anticipates the off-course betting figures for Monday's meeting reaching in excess of $350,000, as it is being held in conjunction with the Kaikoura Trotting Club's Cup meeting, which is the lead-in to the New Zealand Cup carnival at Addington early next month.
"Kaikoura is a huge meeting for the harness fraternity and we should be advantaged by racing alongside them because their turnover is always very high," Caffell said.
"If we get even a small percentage of support from their punters then we should do very well."