Harold Park Xmas Gift 1970
 

Just looking at an old race book and specifically Xmas Gift Heats, Harold Park 1970. Some observations are: 70 bookmakers, 50 in Paddock and 20 in Leger and maybe some of the usuals were on holidays; Prizemoney for lowest grade race was $1000 which is dividided by a low end of the scale wage then of $40 gross. The comes to 1/25. Being conservative, if you multiplied an equivalent wage today of say $600 by 25, it comes to $15,000. I acknowledge that this is not necessarily a valid comparison but it does make me think. Another observation is that on what was a big track suited to big greyhounds, I can identify only 5 bitches all night that weighed more than 27 kg. I looked at a 2007 racebook for Wentworth Park and there were 4 bitches over 27 kg in the first race alone. Finally Heat One of the Sprinters Xmas Gift 500 yds was great field, of Pied Rebel, Tivoli Chief (sire of Temlee), Size Seven, Slim Pickins, Shapely Escort, Chris Dandy, Bargain Day and Pacermatic. A couple of trainers' definitely still kicking around are P Cauchi Qld now and Bobby Thompson (Northern NSW). Alan Chauncy is also there re Pacematic but to be honest I am not sure of Alan's current circumstance. Also 4 of those dogs are by imported sires, and two others were by dogs that were by imported sires. I am surprised at this as I doubt that it is representative of the times. The imported blood back then I don't think was as good as what would follow e.g. Waverely Supreme.

Further to my above somewhat scrambled post above, I have now gone through the 2007 Wentworth Park race book and identified that there were 19 bithces over 27kg racing that night. I am not surprised because it is my own casual observation that greyhounds of today are significant bigger than in the 1960s, for example. In fact, around the time of 1970 there were more bigger type dogs around due to the imported sires, sires such as Ballymurn Chief and particularly, Knockrour Rambler, who did have some "biggens". Definitely not entirely for all the same reasons but I suppose it parallels how much young people are today compared to my genaration (which is a lot to do with food/protein intake).