Coursing Season Underway
Coursing at Virginia plays an important part in the South Australian Greyhound Racing calendar, with the racing at Virginia providing an opportunity for dogs to race away from the TAB circuit, on a straight grass track. All dogs are welcome to compete in coursing, with the racing quite competitive, whilst providing many positives for the dogs competing. The morning runs very smoothly, with a variety of volunteers assisting in the running of the meetings. Club president, Neil Mann, plays a crucial role in facilitating the operations of the club, and provided some insight into how the coursing runs for the race meetings, which are held every second Sunday.
“We basically start at 7:30am. By time we get the club rooms open, set up the lure and clean the timing lenses etc, then we have the vetting between 8 and 8:30am. The dogs go over the table and the vet checks them, then the steward checks the earbrand. The first course starts at 9am, and at the moment we are doing four dog races, so each race consists of two heats of two dogs. We run the first round then have a lunch break, then complete the finals late morning.” - Neil Mann
The Coursing itself provides dogs with a chance to race at a new track and to go behind a drag lure, which provides positives in itself.
“It’s something different for them. Anyone that breaks dogs in, to get them chasing they chase something along the ground, so with coursing they go back to their grassroots and chase something along the ground. It seems to freshen the dogs up and they get to grab hold of the fluff when they get to the catching pen and get a reward for their run. Being a two dog race, it seems to give dogs some confidence which they can lack.”
The season has only just started, with the program leading into the feature races at the end of the coursing season in September. These races are the Oaks, Derby and Waterloo Cup, which all hold a high level of prestige.
“We’ve had two meetings but had to abandon the first one. The last meeting on Sunday went quite well.”
Whilst some dogs are not necessarily champions on the TAB circuit, there are certainly some which thrive at the course, and are able to make a name for themselves.
“Years ago there was a dog called Brute State and he was a phenomenal coursing and short distance dog, but was hopeless on a circle!
“When I first started in dogs, I will never forget. I had a first starter so I called Judi Hurley and said that I’ve got a maiden bitch, but the Oaks and Derby was the only meeting left. She said the only thing for the maidens would be the Oaks and Derby. Our little girl who was having her first start at coursing, won the Oaks! She won her first course but as the day went on she got stronger and stronger. She was only 23kg, a tiny thing.”
“You just don’t know until you give it a go.”
The next coursing meeting at Virginia will be held on the 22nd of May.
