Record stakes will help boost greyhound club

Greyhounds Wairarapa are anticipating unprecedented interest, both from trainers and the general public, for their three-day carnival on December 29, January 4 and January 8.
Trainers from all over the country are expected to chase stakes monies which will reach record levels.
The December 29 meeting will see the beginning of heats for maiden and class one middle distance feature events which will culminate with the finals on January 8.
These finals will be for stakes of $2400 (maiden) and $3000 (class one), which is way above the norm paid for races open to greyhounds with those gradings.
Already the country's leading trainer, John McInerney of Homebush in Canterbury, has indicated that he will sending some of his more promising youngsters to contest those events as have Invercargill brothers Paul and Brett O'Connor.
The January 4 meeting will be something special. It will be part of a summer holiday racing programme being promoted by the New Zealand Racing Board and will have huge television and newspaper coverage as a consequence.
The emphasis at this meeting will be family participation and several novelty events are being organised for children, including treasure hunts which will have the lure of television sets and DVD's as prizes.
On the racing side there will no fewer than three feature events, all carrying a stake of $6000.
They are the Wairarapa Cup, the New Zealand Championship Hurdles and the Inter-Provincial Cup.
The Wairarapa Cup is for greyhounds assessed at the highest grade, class five, and, as such, could attract some of the country's very best middle distance performers.
The Championship Hurdles is the major hurdle event in the country and will be contested by all the top qualifiers from heats to be conducted at the December 29 meeting.
The Interprovincial Cup will see each greyhound region in the country represented in a middle distance event for greyhounds graded at class three or class two. Handlers of dogs in this race will wear the colours of their provincial rugby team.
Highlighting the January 8 meeting will be the finals of the maiden and class one middle distance features and another major hurdle race is also likely to be carded then.
The three-day carnival promises to be the continuation of what has already been a hugely successful season for Greyhounds Wairarapa with meetings in September and November attracting on and off-course betting returns far greater than anticipated.
In fact, the off-course betting for the November meeting was all of $90,000 above budget, an achievement almost unheard of in greyhound racing circles.