Of interest is

Attendance was not stated in either of two media releases.
Favourites won half the races, bolters won a couple.
Rodney Mcdonalds Dana Ali won brilliantly in 15.89, although not favourite. (Brings back memories of his Easter Egg triumph).
Other winners times varied from ordinary to poor, despite their short course backgrounds in the bush.
In 10 of the last 12 distance races at Wenty, they ran faster times to the post than all but one of the Neds events. Stayers easily outpointed the sprinters.
8 of the 10 Neds winners led all the way, the other two nearly did (as predicted, 280m races are just jumping contests).
Usefully, first section times of 5.xx sec were posted for all runners. Why are these not used for normal 720m races?
NSW Win tote pools averaged around $8k for the first six races (5.50pm to 7.24pm), dropping to around $5k after that when more serious competition was present. Neither figure offers any help for punters and half of it would not be visible anyway in time to bet. As usual, corporates figures are not published.
Prize money ($635) was in keeping with the standard of most runners poor.
Winners dividends on Ozchase - fell down from some strange betting house in the sky they bear little relation to tote or Fixed Odds prices. This is normal GBOTA guesswork.

On the whole, it was a fair enough way to showcase greyhound racing to new fans, if that is who they were. What a pity it involved crappy racing. Still, there was always the bull riding.

Simply put they slowed the track down so there was no injuries. They are trying to improve greyhound racings image in the eye of the public and were never going to allow dogs to break down on a night designed at advertising.

Dana Ali takes a couple of strides to get going and has had some bad luck in racing but she's a rocketship that would've broke the record most nights. To say most stayers are quicker than the short coursers that went around last night is just being doom and gloom

"They" were apparently missing on Wednesday when three dogs at the cheap meeting broke 30 sec and two others nearly did. I wonder what will happen tonight?

Last night all reports were that they slowed the track down for safety reasons (why they don't run it on the safe side all the time makes no sense)

maybe bigger promotions in country racing would be better for the industry as a whole ?

give it a go people, sick of the negative whinging by rusted on dinosaurs

On the plus side, I offered that Neds280 was a "welcome change" and "a fair enough way to showcase greyhound racing". Some consider I should have been even more enthusiastic. I don't.

Otherwise, I remain convinced that (1) 280m racing is for the birds - in fact my view is that all 300m racing should be banned except, perhaps, at some non-TAB country meetings - and (2) whatever time and money was invested in Neds280 could have been better placed elsewhere.

As for promotion and advertising, I would much prefer to see GRNSW invest in programs to explain to people why the greyhound is such a fine and ancient version of the canine athlete. In that way, any product advertising will then fall on fertile ground.

Incidentally, the good times run at Wenty on Wednesday and Saturday offer no evidence that the track was deliberately slowed down for the Neds meeting on Friday. None at all.

It now won't race for 4-6 weeks

you still dont get it do you bruce you keep harping on about banning 300m races
if they stopped the short races there would be a lot more dogs on the gap waiting list or worse
today and into the future all dogs must have the opportunity to race
no matter how good the breeders are there will still be short sprinters if there wasnt such a large number racing at the moment
we would be in a much worse position
surely one or two races a meeting is of no harm
it shows the versatility of the breed how they can run over such varying distances

It's a question of balance and long term trends.

Others here have advanced the thought that trainers should try harder to strengthen their dogs. I can't comment on that.

We are talking about the state's flagship and a full meeting for mostly low quality dogs where the major quality displayed is the ability to jump.

The continuous trend in Oz is for trainers to enter more and more dogs for races of 400m or less (now over 60%).

Simultaneously, 700m fields are getting weaker and backing up within 7 days is often a problem.

Many clubs do not run 300m events at all. Others do. Why is that? Who is right or wrong?

Our money has been spent on advertising squibs. Is that the best use of funds?

So far, publicity pictures have shown scattered groups of no more than a dozen at Wenty and no attendance figures have been mentioned. Why not?

GAP and rehoming is an important but completely different subject and should be addressed separately to industry promotion. Two wrongs do not make a right.

Generally speaking, fans prefer to see challenging races, including the spectacle of back markers roaring home in the straight. Equally, trainers with slow beginners want that same opportunity. Nobody in their right mind would pay good money for a dog which runs out of puff after 300m. OK, sometimes you are stuck with that, in which case you go to the bush or retire it.

Whether dog, horse or footballer, there must be standards to meet. Otherwise, why bother?

No, it would be rubbish racing