THERE is a sense of loss at the Muswellbrook Greyhound Racing Club.
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The club has been in existence for more than 105 years.
And, on Wednesday morning, the group discovered they would have to finish racing within a year.
Company secretary Dennis Bamback said he received an email at 4.27am telling him the NSW Government had passed the Greyhound Racing Prohibition Bill 2016.
Following the news, Muswellbrook Greyhound Racing Club had a directors’ meeting at 2pm.
“The response is very hard to explain,” Mr Bamback said.
“The club has never been, nor will ever be, in charge of the owners or trainers.”
Mr Bamback said the club had no alternative but to act according to the government’s decision.
“We’re going to continue to support the NSW Greyhound Racing Industry Alliance,” he said.
“The club is going to contribute some money to the fighting fund.”
The Muswellbrook club has been cleared to race on September 4 and 18.
But, Mr Bamback said Greyhound Racing NSW fixed dates from month-to-month.
At this stage, they are taking each day as it comes.
“We’re going to continue to support the local owners and trainers,” Mr Bamback said.
“After that we don’t know – it’s all up to Greyhound Racing NSW.
“Other than that it’s business as usual.
“We're just a normal small business, in the overall Muswellbrook scene.
“But, even so, it will have some impact on everybody.
“We’ve got 15 to 20 people at race meetings out of a job, and we support 15 to 20 local businesses at varying capacity – that will be all gone.”
Mr Bamback said the directors appreciated the support they had received from the Muswellbrook community.
“There’s been no negativity at all,” he said.
“We hope people generally support our cause.”