Upgrades being competed at Dubbo's Dawson Park track

A raft of improvements at the Dawson Park track, headlined by a new racecaller's tower, are almost completed while all racing is building towards the $125,000-to-the-winner Country Classic (615m) on March 19.

A meeting was run at the track on Wednesday night and while some quality racing took place, it was more a warm-up and test of the new facilities ahead of a busy few weeks.

"It went off pretty much without a hitch. There's still a lot of work to be done ... but everything race and track-wise went perfectly," Dubbo club president Shayne Stiff said.

"There's new power to all the boxes, there's new lights, it's a new power board. All the electronics to the track are all new."

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Stiff said he was proud to be involved with the club at this time, given the improvements at Dawson Park, the higher quality of racing, and the sheer amount of people getting involved in the sport.

Leading local trainer Charmaine Roberts, who won with Abby Keeping on Wednesday, has recently syndicated some of her dogs and there's big numbers involved while Stiff said he expects the track to be packed for the big races in coming weeks.

The heats of the Country Classic will begin at Bathurst on Monday before the 32 qualifiers head to Dubbo for the semi-finals on March 12.

The two fastest in each semi-final will then contest the Group 1 final at Dawson Park a week later.

"It's a $125,000, Group 1 final at Dubbo. Who would have thought that five or six years ago?" Stiff said.

"But greyhound racing is just going from strength to strength, especially in Dubbo.

"The best middle-distance dogs in Australia will be here for it (Country Classic). We'll have the local champ, Jungle Deuce going for (Forbes') Jack Smith.

"But there will be dogs like Zipping Kyrgios from Sydney and some from Melbourne and Brisbane.

"The heats are everywhere from Bathurst to Grafton and Temora and then it heads to Dubbo. It will be great."

Stiff added a big thank had to go to those who had worked at the track recently, especially the Everingham Electrical team.

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