Greyhound Racing NSW is today announcing that from 2023, the Dapto Megastar will move away from its former timeslot in December, and now be held in September.
Heats of the Megastar - the sole NSW Group 1 event raced outside of Sydney - will be held on August 31, with the $75,00 to the winner final held at Dapto on September 7.
The move will see the Megastar return to its previous slot in the calendar having been run in September until 2018. The event was then moved to December to avoid a clash with GRNSW’s new event the Million Dollar Chase.
“December was a good place in the calendar at the original time of the move, but circumstances have since changed,” GRNSW’s Chief Executive officer Rob Macaulay said.
“With Greyhound Racing Victoria now staging The Phoenix in mid-December and their Silver Chief now also being held in the opening two weeks of December, we decided at GRNSW that it wasn’t palatable to continue to conduct the Group 1 Megastar at Dapto during this period.
“Where we have moved the race to will not only now complement the lead-up to the Ladbrokes Million Dollar Chase, but it will have minimal impact on the Group Racing landscape across other State jurisdictions.”
In other alignments with changes to the Megastar GRNSW will be moving the Maitland Cup from March 7 and 15 in 2024, to a new slot of December 1 and 8, 2023. The Maitland Future Stars will also be aligned to this change, moving from October 19 and 26, 2023, to December 1 and 8, 2023.
The final significant feature race movement will be with the Black Top at Ladbrokes Gardens. The event will move from September 1 and 8, to now follow on from the Dapto Megastar with heats on September 15 and the final on September 22.
