The Original HALL GREEN: A Winning Line B Starting boxes (500yds) C Electric handicap boxes D Starting boxes (700yds) E Electric handicap boxes F Totalisator control room G Number board/tote dials H Racing kennels & paddock I Hare control box J Main stand
1946 The Harolds Cross management have decided to introduce a perpetual event to remember the track’s recently deceased vet, Mr Arthur Callanan.
1963 All eight favourites are beaten in the Laurels first round. 7-1 joint favourite and eventual winner Dalcassian Son scrapes through in third.
1934 The Laurels semi finals at Wimbledon are held on separate days. The first sees only three runners go to traps and is won by English Derby winner Davesland who starts at 4-11f and beats Brilliant Bob in a new Wimbledon 500 yard track record of 28.32. The re-run of the second semi goes to 28.68 winner Bellas Brother. The reason for the re-run was the sensational disqualification for fighting of the top Irish coursing star, Scurry Gold Cup winner and previous record holder Creamery Border. The final will eventually go to 7-1 chance Brilliant Bob.
1966 Trainer Gay McKenna sends out the forecast in the Irish Derby Final at Shelbourne Park. The winner is favourite Always Proud (Clonalvy Pride-Always A Rebel, Jan 64) who leads home Tiger Chief by a length and a half in 29.44 to win the biggest prize ever paid to a winner in Ireland, 2,000 punts.
1957 A man who threw a teddy bear onto the track at Clapton, but failed to void a race, was fined £2 and bound over for 12 months. He claimed he was losing £55 which was going towards his fare to travel to New Zealand. The magistrate stated that he “did not believe the story!” Meanwhile at White City an even more determined attempt was made to void a marathon open when “a toy poodle and two tennis balls” were thrown onto the track. The result was unaffected “but the miscreant escaped”.
1963 Romford stewards withdraw five runners belonging to trainer Ronnie Hughes midway through a Saturday night meeting. Hughes’ first two runners on the card had been beaten a distance. In the third race he had three runners. They finished fourth-sixth with the best of them beaten some 13 lengths by the third dog. His next runner finished last. In the fifth race he had another three runners who were all beaten a distance. The winner of the race was backed from 6-1 to 7-4f.
1990 Edwards Surpise, the most successful hurdler of the previous years dies of dehydration following a race.
2004 Walthamstow racing manager Chris Page plans to optimise the quality of the track’s competitions by reducing the fields. First up is the Grand Prix which will be cut to 36 runners from 48.
1965 The Shelbourne 600 yard track record, considered to be one of the strongest in Irish racing, was broken twice at the same meeting. Racegoers were stunned when Vals Prince lowered Cranog Bet’s seemingly invincible best of 33.60 by seven spots. However, within an hour, Westpark Quail had taken it to 33.49.
2010 Blue Artisan, favourite for the Select Stakes is a non-runner when a motorway closure causes his non-appearance. The race goes to the press’s sixth selection, chosen on a split vote, the Charlie Lister trained Jordansoilutions.
2011 BBC’s One Show ran a fantastic piece about County Durham born Eddie Chapman, otherwise known as Agent Zigzag, one of the most successful British double-agents in World War II. He was even given an Iron Cross and private yacht by senior Nazis. Chapman’s notoriety as far as greyhound racing concerned a doping scandal at White City. An accomplice had secreted himself in a small space at the rear of the White City paddock kennels and doped five of six runners in a race. Bald Truth, the rank outsider, romped up by 15 lengths. Top Scotland Yard detective Robert Fabian pieced together the details but given Chapman’s war record, the case never got to court.
2010 Australian supersire Brett Lee is put to sleep as the result of an injury sustained in a paddock at the home of owner Keith Pedrana.
