Three greyhounds were killed in 12 days on NSW tracks in April 2026.
The deaths brought to 11 the number of dogs that died racing in NSW in the first four months of 2026 – four on tracks and seven dying post-race from serious injuries.
According to the Maitland 27 April 2026 stewards report, in Race 6 three-year-old Kawasaki Girl fell and suffered a comminuted (or shattered) foreleg fracture. She was euthanased at the track.
Another dog, Lagnicourt, suffered a foreleg compound fracture at the meet.
Aston Ringgit was killed at Nowra on 16 April (foreleg compound fracture) and It’s A Beast at Gunnedah on 18 April (foreleg compound fracture).
The Maitland track was targeted for closure in the Greyhound Racing NSW rationalisation plan, as it was ranked 17th in the Deloitte Report. However, Muswellbrook, ranked 5th, was closed instead.
The NSW Government promised a new operating licence for GRNSW in “early 2026”, stemming from the highly critical Drake Inquiry into greyhound racing.
Kawasaki Girl’s death comes as research from the Federal Parliamentary Library – requested by Greens MP Mehreen Faruqi – reveals the greyhound toll since the Baird Government’s greyhound racing ban was overturned in 2016.
There have been at least 589 racing deaths and 23,240 injuries since July 2017, when the ban would have been implemented.
The data was sourced from Greyhound Racing NSW and Greyhound Welfare and Integrity Commission documents.
The Library also calculated that the NSW Government has spent over $200 million in taxpayer money on greyhound racing in NSW since 2017.
A spokesperson for Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds, said:
“Kawasaki Girl is the 11th racing death on a NSW track this year. She was raced hard, racing seven times in April alone.
All these young greyhounds suffered agony before they died, mostly with foreleg fractures as they fell at more than 60kmh.
Maitland is touted as a safe track, but no NSW track meets minimum standards. The Drake Inquiry recommended that racing be suspended on 30 December 2025 unless the minimum standards were resolved, which they haven’t been.
Racing in the Hunter should have been stopped in December 2025.
Racing Minister David Harris appears to be sitting on the new GRNSW operating licence, like he sat on the Drake Report.”
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Stewards report:
Maitland stewards report – 27apr026