Greyhound Clubs Australia conducts the National Sprint and Distance Championships annually.
The events are marketed as “The Nationals” and feature finals over the distances in the vicinity of 500m and 700m. Heats and Finals are staged in each State with the Grand Final rotating from State to State each year. In 2018 the Grand Finals were held at Sandown Park, Melbourne, Victoria.
Both the National Sprint Championship and the National Distance Championship carry a first prize of $75,000 and both events are classified as Group 1 events.
Dates for the 2019 National Sprint and National Distance Championship will be around the last week of August. They are set to be held at Wentworth Park, Sydney, New South Wales, a major change for 2019 will be the inclusion of a finalist from New Zealand. It’s the first time in the event’s history and makes the finals a Trans Tasman event.
The 2019 Championships will now be held in Perth, Western Australia. Greyhounds WA stepped forward a year from 2020 after 2019 host New South Wales were unable to stage the events.
The Grand Finals will be held at Cannington on Saturday the 24th of August, they will be preceded by a Welcome Cocktail Party at Fraser’s Kings Park and a Greyhound Stakeholder Symposium on Thursday 22nd of August. Plus Meetings / Gap Conference and the Nationals Award Dinner on Friday the 23rd of August.
Race details in all States and New Zealand will be posted as they come to hand.
Please find below A speech made on the morning after the Melbourne launch by Television and Radio personality Craig Hutchison the CEO of Crocmedia.