Victoria’s Ready 2 Race Greyhound Sales is being thrown open to national and international breeders for the first time in 2018.

The unique series will once again be held at Lords Raceway in November and Bendigo Greyhound Racing Association Manager, Troy Harley says breeders and owners of greyhounds in the eligible age bracket (1 July, 2016 and 30 June, 2017) should consider taking advantage of the platform.

We put some questions to Troy ahead of the 2018 nomination period, which will run from 1-12 October.

Q. Why should breeders/owners nominate their pups for the 2018 Ready 2 Race series?

The R2R has proven to be great for sellers since its inception now more than ever owners, groups and syndicates are looking for dogs ready to go on with. They have confidence in the fact they are seeing what they are buying and not having to take the long road and gamble on pups. Buyers are getting smarter, too, and they know when they see a dog capable of winning races and that is worth buying.

Q. What would be holding breeders/owners back from nominating their pups?

There should be nothing holding breeders back. There are buyers out there for most types of dogs and with the ability to buy back the greyhound if they do not reach the owners desired price means there is no risk.

Q. For breeders who are unfamiliar with the Ready 2 Race initiative, what can they expect from the event in 2018?

Heat day is pretty straight forward. The greyhounds are kennelled as per race day and heats are conducted in fields of four with generally groups of four heats heading to the boxes together.

Finals day is a bigger event with the six dog finals to be conducted in the morning followed by a break to give dogs an empty and drink before the auction commences just after lunch. Greyhounds are auctioned inside Chasers (main patron building) and usually have a crowd of 200 – 250 people.

Q. Will there be any notable differences between the 2018 Ready 2 Race series compared to previous years?

This year the eligibility has been opened up to include greyhounds born in all states of Australia and New Zealand, as opposed to just being for Victorian-bred greyhounds in the past.