ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT GREYHOUND RACING

The greyhound racing you read about in the national media is carried out under the control of the National Greyhound Racing Association at 31 tracks throughout the UK. For full details of these tracks, we suggest you visit the www.Trap6.com website. There also exists some unlicensed racing (known as "flapping"), which also takes place at many locations throughout the UK.

Greyhound racing started in the UK in the mid 1920s with the first meeting being held at Belle Vue. It has enjoyed considerable support and today is the second largest spectator sport in the UK.

Greyhound meetings take place very regularly. Most tracks hold meetings at least four times a week and never a day goes by without some greyhound racing taking place somewhere in the UK. The racing is held on sand and is, therefore, very rarely lost to poor weather.

Each meeting consists of between 8 and 14 races. Each race is normally competed for by six dogs and a reserve system ensures that there is almost always a full complement for each race.

The majority of greyhounds are in the hands of trainers, who are attached to a specific track. Centaur Fuzzums is trained by Mark Wallis at Walthamstow. The greyhound will be assessed and graded by the Track's Racing Manager, who effectively determines what level of race the dog runs in. The dog will spend most of his career running at this track.

There are basically two types of race, graded and open. The majority of greyhound racing consists of graded races. Here dogs compete against their own grade as determined by their track's Racing Manager (see previous paragraph). Each graded race performance is analysed and any dog can be raised or lowered by up to 2 grades after a specific performance. Grades range from 1 (the best) to 12 (the lowest). Not all tracks have a sufficient pool of greyhound resources to go to the lowest level.

Open racing is the upper tier of the sport and ranges from a minor maiden open for dogs without a win in this tier right up to the major competitions such as the English and Irish Derbies. Prize money ranges from £100 for a minor open to £100,000 for the Derby. Open races are held throughout the country and, as the name suggests are open to any dog that meets the race specifications. The few greyhound trainers, who are not attached to a track, must always place their dogs in open races.

Greyhound Racing is further subdivided by distance. There are effectively four types of greyhound race trip:

• Sprint or Dash (race type begins with a D)
• The standard distance. Normally the home straight plus on circuit of the track (four bends in all) - race type begins with an A
• The stayer's distance. Normally 6 bends would be covered. Race type begins with an S
• The marathon distance. This covers races of 8 bends and further. Race type begins with an S.

There are also hurdles races mainly over the standard distance. Race type begins with an H.

Therefore, as an example, if a dog was running in an A2 race, it would be running in a graded race over the standard four bend distance and would represent the second grade of dogs for that distance at that track. NB dogs can be graded differently for different distances eg a dog who is a very good stayer but only average over the standard distance could well be graded to run in S1s and A5s . It should also be noted that the distance of a type of race (ie D, A, S or M) varies according to the size of the track, at which it is held. For example an A type race at Hove is over 515 metre while the same type at Crayford would be over 380 metres.

BETTING ON GREYHOUND RACING

Betting on greyhound racing couldn't be easier. You have exactly the same options as you have on betting on horseracing, namely:

1. Betting with your local or telephone bookmaker.
For most races you will have to bet at starting price although there are healthy early and ante-post markets for all the major competitions and televised races. Please note for non-early/ante-post price races, it is possible that your bookmaker may restrict the amount of your stake.

2. Betting at the track through the Tote or on-course bookmakers.
Tote bets may also be placed through the www.24dogs.com website. Tote bets do not just include win, place and forecast betting, each track has some very imaginative jackpot bets, which you can also access at the track or via various websites.

3. Betting through betting exchanges.
Markets are set up by the major exchanges for many races. The trading tends to take place fairly shortly before the race for non-early/ante-post price races and is really exciting.