Friday, October 4, 2019
Once Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing and Coursing Club Inc. members had voted overwhelmingly to allocate the majority of its funds – $75,000 – to supplement the Greyhound Racing SA kennel house project at Tara Raceway it didn’t take long for the wheels to be set in motion.
With Tara Raceway race track manager Tim Manterfield assuming control as the kennel house project supervisor, a large marquee was soon erected and the new stainless steel kennels positioned under the “big top”.
The marquee would act as the temporary kennel house for greyhounds racing on Thursdays and Sundays from August 22 through to September 29, ensuring no meetings were lost while the kennel house upgrade was taking place.
Throughout the whole process, Manterfield said only one trial morning had been lost and that had been on Tuesday, August 20.
“That was the day the demolishing of the concrete kennels, which had served the track so well since 1997, commenced. And from then on it was all systems go,” he said.
“The next month or so saw outside concreting, internal kennel house carpentry, vinyl on the walls, epoxy flooring, internal cladding and the internal fencing erected to separate each race.”
With the marquee required elsewhere, the kennel house needed to be available for yesterday’s time-graded race meeting. At 7 o’clock on the Wednesday night, Manterfield declared the $250,000 kennel house “ready for racing”.
Matt Corby, CEO of GRSA, said the development of a new kennel house at Mount Gambier demonstrated the commitment GRSA had to supporting greyhound racing in its key regional areas.
“Mount Gambier’s greyhound racing industry is very strong with excellent participation numbers,” he said.
“The investment in the new kennel house reflects the commitment that we have to continuing to improve our regional TAB racing venues.
“GRSA continues to invest in priority infrastructure works on the back of the newly-constructed Murray Bridge facility in the past year at a cost of $8.6 million.”
Manterfield, enjoying a can after the last race yesterday, pulled out his phone. “I’ve just received an email from Matt Corby.”
It read: “Thumbs up. A highly successful project overall. Great credit to all involved.”