Participants in the State’s Central West will soon have the opportunity to trial their greyhounds at a newly renovated public trial track, following the support offered to the Sunnylodge Education Centre by Greyhound Racing NSW (GRNSW).
“At Greyhound Racing NSW we recognise that trialing is naturally a very important part of a greyhound’s upbringing and also racing preparation, and as such we want to give participants the best facilities to trial their greyhounds,” GRNSW’s Chief Executive Officer Tony Mestrov said.
“We have conducted work on the trial tracks at Thirlmere and Redhead and we felt the need to give the participants of another region - the Central West - the opportunity to publicly trial on a track which is the standard which we require.
“That is why our Tracks and Infrastructure team have been working with the team at Sunnylodge to bring that track up to the minimum standard for trial tracks, and that ongoing work will continue over the next 12 months.”
The GRNSW Track and Infrastructure team undertook an audit of the facility at Cudal to determine what work needed to be completed, with the first task being to scrape material from the track and lay down a new sand surface.
Around eight centimetres of old surface was removed and replaced with over 130 tonne of Hawkesbury Sand which aligns with racetrack surfaces.
Work already completed, and work which is scheduled, includes a set of starting boxes, timing system, mats in front of the boxes, a catching pen gate, rollers, wash bay, hoop arm, and the supply of a tractor.
Also included will be the installation of an automated track irrigation system. Sunnylodge had previously used a heavy truck and tanker system which was detrimental to the surface. The automatic water storage tank fed irrigation system will enable the facility to have water storage and irrigation of the entire track evenly.
“We felt this was a natural project to help with as providing a trial track venue up to our minimum standard, a safe track to trial on, is just another way in which we can maintain our strong focus on providing the best welfare for our greyhounds,” Mestrov said.
