Greta trainer James Porter will look to twin chances in the two free-for-alls at The Gardens on Friday night to offer some respite in tough times.
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Porter has Hard Left (box one) and Bowls And Holes (four) in race three and Rip Start (one) and General George (four) in the sixth. Each pair are from the same litter and all four are from brood bitch, Playful Elly.
"Bowls And Holes is the better bitch, but Hard Left is in better form," Porter said.
"But the last three times Hard Left drawn the one box, he's walked out of the lids.
"Bowls And Holes should place. She's had 23 wins and 54 placings in 133 starts, so she's really consistent.
"They are both just really good bread and butter dogs.
"It's the same in the other race.
"General George is the form dog, he's kept racing, he's had no injuries and he's put it all together, but Rip Start is probably the better dog by four to six lengths if they were let go on their own.
"But since he's dropped a chest muscle, he's been missing the start a little bit, which has cost him, but they are both coming off wins last weekend."
Porter said Greyhound Racing NSW's new grading policy, which started last month, "is killing us".
"Bowls And Holes probably rightly deserves to be there, but she's pushing four years old and the grading system crucifies her. She's a first-grade dog on all tracks now," she said.
"GRNSW brought in the new grading system to supposedly make it fairer and I don't know one person in the state that likes it.
"Luchador, which won the other day, won five races and got jammed straight into a free-for-all. Rip Start's won five in an injury-riddled career and he's one win out of fifth grade and straight into free-for-alls. He's a fourth-grade dog but he doesn't get a chance to go through the grades."
He said the canine coronavirus, which affected many kennels but not his, then the human coronavirus in recent weeks had made life hard for many trainers. To help the code continue through the pandemic, GRNSW introduced a regionalisation policy restricting trainers to race only in their own area.
"It's hard. For every 100 dogs that are racing, there are 200 missing out," he said.
"I've got some friends out there really struggling because their dogs can't get a start, and they are ones who would get a start every day of the week."
Porter said some of his dogs were not racing because the tight Gardens track was the only one in operation. Many courses were closed and racing centralised to 10 tracks as part of coronavirus restrictions.
That situation improved on Thursday with the GRNSW announcement that Maitland had been included in the Hunter regional zone. It will resume racing on Monday and host meetings the following two Mondays.
GRNSW said the change was to help cater for greyhounds not suited to the tighter Gardens track. It said the system and schedule will continue to be monitored and changes will be made where possible.