The Wagga & District Greyhound Club will unveil its new track at its return meeting on Friday.
The $72,000 upgrade to the surface of the Wagga track was made possible through the NSW Government’s Country Racing Fund, which was established to assist regional tracks to undertake improvements to their infrastructure and facilities.
Member for Wagga Wagga Daryl Maguire will attend the first race meeting on the new surface tonight along with GRNSW Chief Executive Brent Hogan and the Wagga & District Greyhound Club Committee.
Mr Maguire said the upgrade under the Country Racing Fund underlined how important the Wagga greyhound track was to the local region.
“I am delighted that this project funded by the NSW Government from the Country Racing Fund is now complete with the upgrading of the surface of the track,” Mr Maguire said.
“Wagga Greyhound Racing plays an integral part of Wagga Wagga’s culture and history and I am pleased that this new work has been undertaken to ensure that greyhound racing will continue into the future.”
The Wagga track is one of 15 TAB greyhound tracks in NSW and stages 26 TAB meetings a year.
Mr Hogan said GRNSW stewards inspected the new track last week and approved it for racing.
“The stewards described the new track surface as outstanding and ready to race. Wagga is an integral racing facility in the Riverina so it is fitting that it now has a premier racing surface that participants in the region can take advantage of,” Mr Hogan said.
“The new surface also underlines GRNSW’s commitment to animal welfare by raising the bar in terms of improving race safety.”
Wagga & District Greyhound Club President Garry Anesbury said the club was thrilled with how well the upgrade went.
“The upgrade only took three weeks to complete and thankfully we will not lose any racing because the meetings scheduled during July have been transferred to November, which is great news for participants in the Riverina,” Mr Anesbury said.
“We would like to thank the NSW Government and GRNSW for making this track upgrade possible.”
