A year on, Grafton does it again

The gates were closed with a capacity crowd attending, the action and entertainment on and off the track was something never before seen at Grafton, and the night was dubbed by president John Corrigan as the best in his 42 years at the club.

Yet, the 2024 edition has in many ways managed to surpass it according to the club's CEO Brennan Naidoo.

"With all the challenging conditions around budgets and economy and all of those things, I think we've probably had a more successful year this year than we had last year," he said.

"That is just a testament to our local community, and the fact that it supported the race. The other part is our strategic relationships were brought to the forefront, the ability to work within Grafton. 12 months on we've got some key relationships within that which allows us to maximize our return on investment, which has been good.

"And I think we've got the format right. It's a great location and it's shining a light on regional racing, and it's really tapping into a market where there's an appetite for it."

For the first time since the inception in 2022, the $75,000 first prize in the world's richest short-course greyhound event went to an interstate dog when South Australian visitor Cash On Delivery won. A Tasmanian dog now trained in Queensland, Hit The Switch was second and a Victorian-trained greyhound, Short And Stump, was third.

But not only does it say something about the growth of national interest in the event, but Naidoo also pointed out that the race is already creating some "heritage and history."

"That is great for the event that there was keen interest from around the country, and it's giving some prominence around the 350m racing," Naidoo said.

"I think the other thing was the fact that we ran the Vamoose At Stud feature race as a supporting event to the Thunderbolt.

"Vamoose won the race 12 months ago, and now while Vamoose is not racing any longer, there's a race that actually draws back to the heritage and history from the past.

"It shows everyone that a dog which has won this race, has the ability to become a stud dog as a result of winning races such as the Thunderbolt and I think that's something that we've really got to make sure we build on.

"It has been great working with a trainer and ownership group who see a lot of value in the history and the legacy of winning this race."

In FY 2024-25, Greyhound Racing NSW has had to reduce prize money around a number of feature races and the first prize money for the Thunderbolt has been cut to $40,000.

"The challenge for me as we go forward is the challenge budgetary wise," he said.

"The challenge for me as a CEO is to find that $30,000. To be honest, I know we're going to make it a $40,000 race, but as a club, we need to see if we can start generating on the back of this, and put that money away, and leave it as a $75,000 race. But that's got to come with us doing the right thing as a club and working with our sponsors and everything else.

"That will be the challenge, but we'll see how we go in the next six months to actually capture that."

This article was produced as part of an ACM partnership with Greyhound Racing NSW.