Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow.

Happy 2013 to you all! Apologies for the lack of a posting, however with Christmas, New Year and all the rest of it, it's been a touch difficult to get time to write a decent posting.

So, the track championship ended up being rather the embarrassment for Team Swindon. Unfortunately the overall thing to come out of the day is that we were just outclassed by the opposition. Having watched the DVD back of the meeting, I thought we were actually very unlucky in a couple of the races. I don't think our points total really did us justice. Still, we'll be back fighting for (hopefully) the 2013 running of the competition.

Speaking of the BAGS competitions, it was great to see the announcement of the Eggstravaganza (I wonder how long the marketing department took to come up with that) to run over Easter. The idea of the competition (if I've got this right) is that Swindon will run 6 races to determine the representative to run at Monmore on Good Friday. The races that we've been given include 2 bitches races, 1x Dogs, 2x Stayers and a Sprint (I believe, please correct me if I'm wrong). So that's 6 representatives to run at Monmore, in what will be a 16 race bumper card.

First thought is blimey, 16 races! I feel for those racing office staff at Monmore! Secondly, whilst the prize money is superb, and the actual competition is a really good initiative for runners, it's not hard to forget about the vast numbers of lower grade dogs that are missing out on boosted prize money initiatives.

Admittedly yes, there are the Owner's Bonus Series (which has been renewed for 2013, yet more good news) and the odd BAGS/SIS 500, but apart from that there isn't alot. I'm all for the Eggstravaganza, but I feel that, as the main BAGS offering is racing of all grades, they should, if possible, try to invent some form of competition to include other grades from different tracks.

Even writing that hits home that it could be rather difficult to do that, however I do think it's something that should just be looked at, to allow for a much more inclusive competition.

Speaking about the OBS, it's brilliant to see that they been renewed for the start of this year. I believe 10 different dates have been put forward for January-June, so that means plenty of opportunity to earn some decent prize money.

Now then, this snow. Seriously, what a nightmare! One of the myths that seems to be existing amongst the greyhound racing contingent is about the safety of tracks in this weather. In actual fact, from my understanding, it seems that actually the tracks run very well in the weather.

Swindon, at the moment, has snow over the track, however it seems to be acting as a protective layer against the cold, meaning that the track underneath is actually very decent. The problem will be, by this theory, is that when the snow is cleared (by our top notch trackman) it is then open to the cold and ice, then proving to be problematic. Again, from my understanding of the track, salt in a track only really keeps the ice out up until about -5, so any colder (and colder isn't now forecast) can prove to be a bit of an issue.

Fingers crossed we can get back to normality in any case.