Among the 21 senior track maintenance staff attending last week’s first of 18 modules of a Certificate III in Racing Services course at Sandown Park in Victoria were Tim Manterfield of the Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club and Aaron Blake of Bendigo.

And the pair, looking resplendent in their bright red Sandown Park caps which came with the course, caught up again at last Sunday’s Tara Raceway meeting in Mount Gambier.

Manterfield was driving the lure for the 12-race program while Blake, assistant curator for more than seven years at the Bendigo Greyhound Racing Club, also trains greyhounds and had My Girl Nahlah, Tenten, Black Jester and My Girl Kellie engaged.

The first of the modules covered the handling of greyhounds and first aid procedures. The next module will concentrate on communication. All told, four forums will be conducted in Victoria over the next 12 months.

Other topics to be covered in the modules include operation of specialised machinery and equipment, tractor operation, maintaining track surfaces for racing, relating animal welfare to track and environmental conditions, providing emergency animal assistance and workplace safety.

Manterfield said the course attendees, who are from all over Australia, also spend an hour a week online working through course booklets.

“This is the second year of the course and it’s covering all aspects of greyhound racing,” he said. “I believe this is a really good concept and by the time the course has been completed we will have a much broader knowledge of greyhound racing.”