The BGRB is close to completing its 2008 programme of track safety improvement projects. Thanks to funding provided from the board’s Welfare Budget, projects have been completed at 21 stadia across the country. Trainers, owners and punters should notice improved drainage at Crayford, Hove, Hull, Kinsley, Newcastle, Sheffield and Sunderland and new inner running rails installed at Crayford, Hall Green, Monmore, Nottingham, Perry Barr, Shawfield, Sittingbourne and Yarmouth. A number of tracks have had their cambers adjusted, including at Henlow, Hove, Sittingbourne and Swindon. Safety curtains have been installed at Monmore, Newcastle, Romford, Sunderland and Yarmouth, whilst Harlow, Henlow and Hull have all taken delivery of new track preparation equipment. The programme of installing bore holes at tracks that require them to allow year-round watering has now been completed, following drilling at Doncaster, Newcastle, Shawfield and Sunderland in 2008. The BGRB also oversaw and part-funded the relaying of the running surface at Sheffield. John Haynes, who chairs the BGRB Welfare Committee said: “By the end of the year we will have spent a quarter of a million pounds on improvement projects nationwide, and that follows a half a million pound investment in 2007. I really hope stakeholders are noticing the benefits; our aim is to reduce injuries and extend racing careers as best we can. “In 2009 we will be continuing with our work, and will be providing more training to ground staff to ensure all are well versed in preparation and maintenance best practice.” Meanwhile, the BGRB’s testing of Viscoride, a potential alternative surface material to sand, has recently reached its conclusion. Haynes added: “The Track Safety Committee has been conducting trials on the Viscoride surface laid on a schooling track in Brands Hatch, Kent, since March of this year. The trials themselves have actually gone quite well; we have collected a lot of data and the number of injuries recorded by vet Richard Payne (who has attended all trial sessions) has been low, including a complete absence of sand burns and split webs. “However, it has proved more difficult to maintain the track than expected and, despite a range of equipment being sourced and used, it has been very time consuming and labour intensive to prepare a consistent surface suitable for greyhound racing in all weathers. “In 2009 attention will therefore turn to the development of a hybrid material that is likely to combine the beneficial properties of sand and Viscoride that we have identified. Research to find any safer and more easily maintained alternative to wet sand that may exist has been a fundamental part of our welfare work and one that I am pleased that the GBGB is keen to continue.”