Greyhound Racing NSW cuts race footage after greyhound breaks leg and is killed at Sydney's Wentworth Park
The life of a veteran 5 year old greyhound came to a sad end after winning his owners $31,565 in prize money in 85 races. The response from NSW’s greyhound racing regulator was to hide the footage of him breaking his leg
Trainers at Wentworth Park, Sydney. [Wentworth Park via Facbook]
A greyhound was killed at Sydney’s Wentworth Park racetrack last week after breaking his leg while racing.
The dog’s death is the first death at Wentworth Park this year and the fourth death so far on New South Wales tracks.
According to the steward’s report published by Greyhound Racing NSW, the greyhound ‘Bide Your Time’ broke his leg after colliding with another dog during the eleventh and final race at a night meet in Sydney on Friday, February 18.
Race footage shows Bide Your Time rearing up in pain and continuing his attempts to sprint at high speed as he falls behind the pack during the race, before falling out of the camera sight line.
Later footage shows Bide Your Time limping while running to the finish line, having completed his run around the track on a broken leg without assistance from racing officials.
According to Greyhound Racing NSW, the on-track race veterinarian found the dog to have sustained a broken left hindleg. The decision was then made by the trainer or owner of Bide Your Time to have him euthanised at the track.
Bide Your Time was owned by Brian Drummond, who regularly has racing greyhounds trained by Alan Tutt. Tutt is a greyhound trainer in Canberra who ran for public office in 2020 with the tactful slogan ‘Keep the Bastards Honest’, partly in a bid to reintroduce greyhound racing in the ACT after it was banned in 2016 following the exposure of systemic animal cruelty, international greyhound exports and mass culling of greyhounds within the industry.
Tutt apparently found time to train and care for Bide Your Time while trying to start his career as a politician, having taken on the greyhound in September 2019, and regularly put the dog through long-distance trips to race at tracks at Goulbourn, Richmond, Temora, Nowra and Wentworth Park in Sydney, racing records show.
Bide Your Time had endured being shifted between three trainers and three states during his short lifetime, having started his young life being raced by Gary Johnson in Devonport, before being shipped to Victoria to be raced by trainer David Graham, before being moved yet again to Alan Tutt.
Bide Your Time was a veteran greyhound at the time of his death, at 5 years old. He had suffered numerous falls and injuries in the races preceding his death, including a lower back injury, hindleg abrasions, abrasions to his stopper pad and hind toes and an injured back muscle.
At the time of his death, Bide Your Time was running his 85th race and had won his owners $31,565 in prize money.
The race in which he sustained his broken leg was sponsored by Ladbrokes, one of the gambling corporations that profit from greyhound racing.
Seven greyhounds have now been killed at Wentworth Park over the last two years, with dogs suffering more than 500 injuries at the track.
Trainers on the track at Wentworth Park. [Wentworth Park via Facebook]
Greyhound welfare advocates say Bide Your Time’s death yet again highlights that dog racing doesn’t belong in inner city Sydney.
“Greyhound racing is inherently dangerous and kills or injures thousands of dogs every year,” said Kylie Field, a director with the Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds (CPG).
“Sydney is a dog-loving city and the ageing Wentworth Park track has no place in the inner-city area. The lease expires in 2027 and hopefully this will end the abuse of these beautiful dogs,” she said.
“Bide Your Time was forced to run 85 times and suffered numerous falls and injuries,” Field continued. “The NSW welfare regulator pays for track euthanasia so his death was cheap and easy. This is a heartbreaking end for a veteran greyhound.”
Sydney mayor Clover Moore has previously stated that the Wentworth Park space “should be in the hands of the community” and Alex Greenwich MP, the Independent Member for Sydney has described greyhound racing as an “archaic industry”.
Greyhound Racing NSW censored the footage of Bide Your Time breaking his leg, cutting the video off at the 15 second mark in an attempt to hide the brutal reality of greyhound racing from both the public and gamblers.
The Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds condemned the removal of the footage by Greyhound Racing NSW. “The fact that Greyhound Racing NSW censors its race videos shows they know the public has turned against this cruel and brutal industry,” Field said.
The original footage showing Bide Your Time’s injury and limp to the finish line can be viewed below.
Footage of Bide Your Time’s final race is the last clip in the video, following two clips showing the race injuries and incidents he endured preceding his death, including a horrific high-speed fall.