Greyhound Racing Victoria and Greyhound Clubs Victoria today announced new on-track health checks for all participants, GRV personnel and club staff attending race meetings.

GRV CEO Alan Clayton said the new checks, which will only take a couple of minutes, would commence on Monday 6 April and be provided by Event Aid. We will also have GRV officials monitoring adherence with social distancing and call for your ongoing assistance with this.

“GRV, GCV and our clubs are taking advice from the Chief Health Officer and doing everything in our powers to ensure we are allowed to race on,” Mr Clayton said.

“These simple and quick health checks are about ensuring that all those coming to the track are healthy and we all play an important part in slowing the spread of COVID-19.”

GCV CEO Brett Jones said the health checks would be a minor inconvenience and minimise the health risk of COVID-19 to those on-track.

“Our clubs, and I’m sure our staff and participants, support any measure which protects our health and allows us to continue to race our dogs.”

Mr Clayton said GRV was continuing to take advice from the Chief Health Officer and work with key stakeholders to navigate the challenges presented by COVID-19, protect our communities, our participants and to care for our dogs.

Ultimately though, the message from the Federal Government is clear, if you are not well – stay at home! In the event that you are denied entry on the basis of this health screen, your greyhounds will be withdrawn in the best interests of greyhound racing.

“I want to thank our participants and staff for complying with the protocols we have introduced to give us the best chance to keep racing,” Mr Clayton said.

“I’m sure all will continue to play their part as we work through this challenging period.”