And Hastings River Greyhound Racing Club president Rex Nairn is non-plussed about any future meetings.

The Wauchope track – considered within the industry to be the best in NSW – was inspected last week with GRNSW’s track maintenance manager requesting two improvements.

That request saw the club construct an outside fence on the northern side of the track and place supergrass in front of the starting boxes.

“We completed both those requests and even forwarded photographic evidence of the work,” Mr Nairn said.

“Now we are being asked to contact the vet and the steward … and that was before we were informed that Saturday’s meeting was deleted.

“All this seems really funny because from June 11 back through our 45 year history at this track we have never had a problem.

“GRNSW is telling us they are trying to get us back racing … but the track is good enough to trial.”

The cancellation of Saturday’s event will put further pressure on the local industry already facing a four-week black-out since the last local racing meeting.

Mr Nairn said Kempsey’s meeting was the next in line while Grafton was likely to hold a non-TAB meeting shortly. Wauchope’s next scheduled meeting is August 20.

“It just feels like there is another hurdle in front of us all the time,” he added.

Meanwhile Premier Mike Baird’s decision to ban greyhound racing from 2017 has meet its first serious test.

The Greyhound Breeders, Owners and Trainers’ Associaiton executive director Brenton Scott says the industry wants proper engagement with the premier and government to set expectations and a timeframe for the industry to present its plan for the future of racing.

“We believe this approach will allow the industry to prove that it is, and can be, viable and sustainable whilst being centrally focused on the total life cycle management of greyhounds in alignment with community expectations,” Mr Scott said.

The rebuttal has been presented to the Premier and NSW Government by a united group of industry bodies called the NSW Greyhound Racing Industry Alliance which includes the NSW GBOTA, all independent clubs and industry participants.

“The rebuttal identifies serious flaws in both the facts in the report and the entire construction of the investigation,” said Mr Scott. “It indicates that the terms of reference were inappropriately narrow and biased.”

According to the rebuttal, the legality of basing a decision on the concept of ‘social licence’ – which is not defined and cannot be measured – is strongly challenged. 

“It appears the premier has based his decision on the industry’s supposed loss of ‘social licence’ and yet there is no legal application to the concept of a ‘social licence’,” said Mr Scott.

“Another key issue of the rebuttal relates to the multiple instances where members of the industry and the public have been denied procedural fairness.”