1980 Eric Pateman, the former head lad to John Coleman, has joined the Wimbledon training strength. His head lad will be former Wimbledon legend Phil Rees.
1961 Wembley trainers Bob Burls and Leslie Reynolds are asked to give their opinion on the American style racing muzzle compared to the traditional NGRC racing muzzle. They both conclude, that for racing on sand, the American muzzle is vastly superior. Burls, had trialled dogs in America using the box-style muzzle. He says: “It proved to me that the box muzzle was necessary for racing on sand.” He also thinks the American muzzle should be introduced for racing on peat in winter.
1974 Locally owned Quote Me (The Grand Silver-Gruelling Point) just got up to win the £2,000 Clonmel Produce Stakes by a short head from Mountleader Omar. The winner is owned by Moira O’Callaghan, whose family owned the track before it was acquired by Bord na gCon.
1933 The first Gold Collar final is run at Catford, worth £1,000 to the winner. S Johnson’s Wild Woolley (Hautley-Wild Witch, Apr 30) is the 1-3 favourite. However after taking a massive bump at the first bend, one bookmaker shouts odds of 50-1 about the Jimmy Rimmer trained brindle. Nobody takes him and the Manchester raider duly wins the 440 yard race by a length in 26.63.
2000 The NGRC issue their first ‘warning off’ notices against two owners for breach of rule 18. Belle Vue owners Pamela Bellard and Steven Woolrich are banned for ‘failure to make suitable provision for retired greyhounds’.
1979 Irish Laurels winner Ashleigh Honour is the latest import to join Assie stud keeper Barrie Ward. He joins Shamrock Point, Cheers For Akii, Leaders Champion, Agry and Weston Pete.
1983 Following a string of complaints from British owners, Bord na gCon make a rare banning order against an agent forbidding him from attending any race or coursing meetings or greyhound sales. Nor will he be allowed to register any greyhounds. He is the Rev. JB Richford from Manse in Tralee.
1948 May 6, 1948 Many tracks in England and Wales choose May for the first meetings, and in Ireland four tracks opened. Ballina hold their first meeting before a crowd of 1,500 for a seven-race meeting. The first race over 525 yards is won by D F Courell’s Red Snyder (Juadza-Dancing Top) from trap 5. The 2-1 joint favourite wins by a length in 32.40.
2008 Sheffield’s director of racing Dave Baldwin quits to become general manager at Nottingham. Meanwhile Doncaster’s racing manager Stephen Gray up sticks to join the Paddy Power organisation and Shawfield’s Willie Reid announces he is to leave the track.
2009 Three people are warned off and fined a total of £7,000 by GBGB stewards following the outcome of a criminal case involving Tiptree based trainer John Freeman, his wife Francis and son Robert. All three are found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to 30 greyhounds. Robert Freeman was handed a sentence of 90 days in a young offenders institute. Freeman senior was given a suspended prison sentence.
1964 A betting coup was successfully landed at Park Royal though the perpetrators were left sweating over its success. The gamble took place on the first race at the afternoon meeting and followed a large amount of money bet on five runners in the race – all bets to be returned to tote odds. By lunchtime the bookies smelt a rat and declined all further bets. Then things took an interesting turn. The only dog who had not been backed was withdrawn ‘overweight’. The management then ordered that a reserve should take his place. Around £400 was placed on the reserve on the track tote. That runner soon accounted for around 4,000 of the 5,000 tote tickets on the race. The race was duly staged and was won by a 9-2 chance, though thanks to the tote manipulation, the off-course layers were forced to pay out at 22-1. The dog who could have destroyed the whole scheme had he won, the reserve, finished fourth. It is unknown how much the gang netted.
1979 The English Derby received a record number of entries with 209 entries including 13 from Ireland.
1984 Westmead Milos goes two spots quicker than Rhincrew Moth’s track record when clocking 27.51 for Wimbledon’s 460 metres. However, the mood of the kennel is tempered by broken hock suffered by litter brother Westmead Sound. He was injured in the Blue Riband semis at Wembley having clocked the fastest time of the competition – 29.07 for the 490 metres – in the second round. The final was eventually won by Living Trail in 29.69.
1989 Bord na gCon decide to change the trap colours of four (red/white stripes), five (black) and six (orange) to the same as those in Britain.
1977 Greenfield Fox (Burgess Heather-Skipping Chick) completes a Pall Mall/Laurels double for trainer Ted Dickson. The new Wimbledon record holder (27.20) leads home kennelmate Linacre in 27.26, having finished in front of another kennel mate, Black Legend, in the Harringay decider.
1974 Laurdella Fun, one of the top pups in 1973, is to go on the bench at the forthcoming Wolver-hampton sales. Bidding reaches 3,500 guineas but he is led off the bench unsold. A week later, the Wanny Fenwick owned blue took his place in a qualifying trial for the English Derby and broke a hock.
