The Drake Inquiry Report into greyhound racing in NSW will likely heavily criticise the industry and recommend dramatic reforms. Given this, perhaps it’s unsurprising that GRNSW held a “Future Summit” in May 2025, two months before the Drake Report was due.
The inquiry hearings hammered GRNSW on greyhound welfare particularly around rehoming and track safety. In response, GRNSW launched an “Industry Future Blueprint” at the Summit designed to pre-empt the widespread condemnation they know is coming.
According to Steve Griffin, CEO GRNSW, the blueprint set out strategies to “make our sport great in New South Wales.”
Steve Griffin was CEO of regulator GWIC when they established the inquiry. He joined GRNSW as CEO in April 2025. Racing Minister David Harris said the appointment “risked creating a conflict of interest”.
Griffin told racers that he had been “working alongside the industry” for years and “I‘ve got a fair bit of insight into how it operates. Anticipating the report, Griffin has arrogantly said the Inquiry “will come out with some recommendations, but at the end of the day, the industry knows best what it needs to do.”
The blueprint was among several announcements churned out by the GRNSW propaganda machine in anticipation of the Drake Report. They all reveal an unsustainable industry that can’t meet community expectations.
Behind the smoke and mirrors lies a future path that will kill more dogs.
The Drake Report was handed to the NSW Racing Minister David Harris on 31 July 2025. If you live in NSW, click here to call for it to be made public immediately.
“Racing Footprint Optimisation”
In other words, the number of tracks. For years the industry has known its had too many tracks, but dogs kept dying because it didn’t want to close them down. The declining popularity of animal racing will see a shrinking in the number of tracks, but probably larger venues with straight and turn tracks. Deloitte’s plans will be lobbied to politicians: Deloitte takes blood money while greyhounds die
Disturbingly, Griffin wants to replicate the $86m The Q in Queensland, which has already killed 12 greyhounds since April: “we’re going to be looking to do something similar in New South Wales”. A venue open 24-7, with pokies. That kills greyhounds.
“Pet Placement Matching” and “Private Pet Placement Providers”
Rehoming was a major focus of the Drake Inquiry because the industry rejects a breeding cap and GRNSW and GWIC have failed to address the problem. GRNSW’s solution was to send dogs to North America.
The blueprint continues to obscure the issue with misleading language (“pet placement”?), and seems keen to outsource the problem to private enterprise. With the customary lack of reporting and accountability.
“Greyhound Super (Welfare) Scheme”
The GRNSW PR spin boasted that a new Greyhound Welfare Scheme will “allow us to build a sustainable model for funding all welfare programs”, but the real reason was disclosed: the scheme would “subsequently lead to increases in prizemoney.”
Analysis from a NSW vet revealed the reality: funding cuts to the Homing Assistance Scheme. This includes vaccinations, heartworm testing and heartworm prevention. This means that arguably thousands of greyhounds will be at more risk from infectious diseases and potentially fatal heartworm disease.
“Public Syndication”
In their desperate quest to make money, Griffin says that “public syndications is one of the big key elements of the blueprint”. Finances are so bad, “prize money just can’t increase sufficiently enough every year to support the trainers and the industry.”
Griffin also hopes that syndicate members who have invested in the greyhound as a gambling product will be interested in “adopting their greyhound or ensuring it is placed as a pet”. Another effort to out-source the rehoming problem and gain a PR headline.
A gambling expert describes the syndication proposal as a “pipe dream”. For one thing, racing is being raised as a major concern in the wagering sector. Sportsbet’s quarterly report showed revenue was down 18% year on year; they blamed “the racing industry’s structural issues“. Pointsbet recently rejected an acquisition from Betr because Betr was too heavily reliant on racing customers.
Let’s give the last word to former premier of Tasmania, David Bartlett, who in July 2025 said: “I was naively in an office greyhound syndicate then (and) I have now done my research…(I am) deeply opposed to greyhound racing and regret this prior involvement.”
“10 dog straight track racing”
GRNSW describes this plan as a “point of difference in the highly competitive wagering market”, while Racing Queensland thinks it will “put more confidence in exotic pools in particular and drive liquidity”.
Racing participants have a more realistic view: “10 dog fields sounds crazy to me”, “We had 10 dog racing on the old Richmond Straight Track in the 60’s, It was done away with because there was too much interference, To go back to those days would be disastrous”.
Furthermore, GRNSW says that 10-dog racing will “further maximise racing opportunities for greyhounds.” Translate that to mean very young dogs and very old ones.
The new straight track at the $86m The Q in Queensland is built for 10-dog racing, and trainers are furious at its operations.