Emma Pritchard

The world’s richest short course race will entice some of the best trainers and sprinters to journey to the Clarence Valley later this month when the Grafton Greyhound Racing Club hosts The Thunderbolt for the third successive year.

Worth $75000 to the winner, the feature event was introduced by Greyhound Racing NSW in 2022.

Previous editions of the prized 350m sprint provided substantial economic boosts to the local region with close to 1000 people heading trackside to watch the race in 2022 and 2023 respectively.

The Grafton Greyhound Racing Club is amongst several regional venues set to host qualifying heats and semi-finals as part of The Thunderbolt series throughout the next two weeks with race meetings scheduled for June 9 and 16.

Winners of the Grafton heats will progress to the semi-finals where they will line up against the winners of other regional heats from Wagga Wagga, Gosford, Bulli, Taree, Richmond, Goulburn, and Dubbo, and race for the opportunity to secure a box in The Thunderbolt final to be run on June 22.