Preferred traps

Most greyhounds are reared in such a way that they learn a running style and stick to it for their entire career. One aspect of this style is their preference for which traps they like to start from. Around a third of dogs prefer running from the inside – these are not marked on the card. A further third are wide runners, who prefer the outside traps – these are marked with a w on the racecard. The final third don’t really have any preference, and again nothing is noted.

It is worth noting that the shorter the course, the stronger the trap bias will be. Whereas a 800m race for humans would see the competitors staggered slightly at the start, to ensure the effect of running the shorter distance on the inside is negated, greyhound traps are normally set out straight across the course. This gives the inside runners a slight distance advantage – the shorter the race, the bigger this advantage becomes, since the dogs in the outside traps have less time to recover.

You should also weight the importance of the trap slightly more heavily in lower grade races, as many of the dogs are too inexperienced or lacking in some other department, so won’t be able to make up the disadvantage.

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