The Greyhound Welfare & Integrity Commission’s (GWIC) recent race injury reporting shows a significant decline in serious racing injuries in NSW including an 87% reduction in on-track euthanasia since 2017-18, and rates 91% lower than the spring average for the previous five years.
GWIC’s latest report also showed the rate of serious injuries was lower than the previous five spring quarters, while the total number of injuries fell as a 12-month average.
Industry race injury statistics for the past 10 months have also revealed a significant reduction in injuries to hocks.
Since May 2025 to the end of February 2026, NSW racing has seen a decrease of 42 per cent in the number of tarsal fractures of the right hindlimb.
While these downward trends pleasingly show that the industry’s race injury reduction efforts are beginning to bear fruit, Greyhound Racing NSW (GRNSW) Chief Executive Officer Steve Griffin says the industry and his organisation have no intention to rest on these improved results, and GRNSW have launched a new Race Injury Reduction Strategy designed to see rates continue to fall.
"While we are naturally pleased to see that serious injury rates have reduced at a substantial rate over the past five years, we're not resting there with our new strategy that is designed to bring down serious injury rates even further," Mr Griffin said.
“We are continuing to look at all aspects of safety and welfare for our greyhounds, and the results we have seen over the past nine months show that we are making significant headway when it comes to these areas.
“These latest results demonstrate GRNSW’s commitment to welfare-focused racing, but with our new strategy we are making it very clear that we will not stop working on ways to lower injury rates.
“We are exploring a range of innovative strategies to bring serious racing injuries down even further.
“Since May last year, the industry in NSW has recognised serious injuries as a key consideration in track optimisation, strengthened its track surface monitoring, and improved the visibility and reporting of track injury performance.
“The industry has also built on the role of the Greyhound Care Scheme (GCS), placing greater emphasis on the rehabilitation and recovery of injured greyhounds.
“Our mantra of welfare being paramount and at the forefront of everything we do is not rhetoric and we will continue to work on making our sport in NSW a world leader in welfare and safety.”
GRNSW produced a report which analysed trends in Category D (28-90 day stand down period) injuries among racing greyhounds, focusing on injuries to the right hindlimb - particularly back muscle and tarsal (hock) injuries - between July 2023 and February 2026.
The right hindlimb accounts for 51% of all Category D injuries, with 37% involving the tarsus and 33% affecting the back muscles. Tarsal injuries are typically severe, carrying a stand-down period of 90 days, while back muscle injuries are less serious, usually requiring 28 or 42 days.
In the 10-month period between May 2025 and January 2026, the number of tarsal fractures decreased by 42% compared with the previous 10 months (July 2024 to April 2025).
Tarsal injuries vary across tracks, however most have shown clear reductions over the past 10 months. Wentworth Park recorded the strongest improvement with 19 fewer cases compared to the previous period (28 to 9), while Casino and Ladbrokes Gardens with comparable racing volumes reported similarly low counts of seven and 10 injuries respectively.
We thank GWIC for their accurate reporting, analysis and collaboration in achieving these results. We will continue to work with GWIC across all facets of our race injury reduction strategy.
