2010 Sprinter supreme Jimmy Lollie lands the 50th open race of his career.
2004 Four years after choosing to ignore a £30,000 report about how to revitalise the greyhound industry, the BGRB appoint the same management consultants to produce another report.
1986 Joe Cleaver, one of the best known owners during the late 1930s and 1940s, is found murdered, along with his wife, son and daughter-in-law and two members of staff at their home at Brockenhurst in the New Forest. The retired publisher was best known for his ‘JC’ dogs including Grand National winner Juvenile Classic and Gold Collar winner Junior Classic. Two men, including a former employee, are given multiple life sentences, while a third gets 22 years for manslaughter.
1952 The racing press choose the best six dogs in training for the Select Stakes. They opt for: Endless Gossip, Ballylanigan Tanist, Magourna Reject, Funny Worker, Drumman Rambler and Minorcas Hope. The selections are made just five days before the St Leger Final which, in front of 30,000 spectators, goes to the Bob Burles trained Funny Worker. Favourite Magourna Reject finishes lame and is replaced in the £200 invitation by Mad Miller, giving local handler Lesley Reynolds the inside three runners. He duly wins the 525 yard event with his second string, the 1951 Derby winner Ballylanigan Tanist. Favourite Endless Gossip (52 Derby) is third.
1998 BS Group spokesman Bill Glass admits that a severe runner shortage at Poole means the track may need to buy and stock its own kennel.
2002 Alice Swaffield, who bred an Irish Derby 1-2 with Batties Rocket and Batties Spirit at her nursing home near York, finally loses a long battle with cancer.
1953 Patrick Logue from Malin in Donegal is given a ‘nine months with hard labour’ sentence by a Dublin judge for attempting to defraud bookies of a little over £22 by posting bets with incorrect postage dates on the envelopes.
2002 Brood bitch Oakdene Bluebird produced 19 live pups in a litter by Droopys Honcho though only 10 survived. In the same month Riordean Orchid produced 12 pups by Farloe Cobbler, and every one was blue.
1990 Victoryland grader Jamies Simoneyes may have contested his last race after picking up an injury. By American standards a career of 170 races is nothing exceptional, expect that Jamies has never won a race. However, with the first four being paid prize money, and the dog having raced 132 times in the money, including 60 seconds, he more than paid his way.
1951 Black Mire’s 10 length win in the St Leger is the highlight of a sad career. An unlucky runner-up in the English Derby final, he then broke a toe when leading the same year’s Welsh Derby Final. Following his Wembley win, trainer Jack Toseland was asked to take the dog to the USA to contest the American Derby. He set off from Gatwick airport in the transport aircraft and was heading over the Atlantic when a fire broke out. The plane returned to Shannon but because of quarantine restrictions, the dog had to stay on the plane for two days. He eventually arrived in Massachussetts on the Wednesday having set out on Sunday night. The qualifying trials were on Friday, Mire somehow managed to get through them but was then badly spiked in the first round and went out in the semis. The son of Darkies Gift and Kelton Flash remained in the USA for four years as both racer and stud dog but died on his journey home to Ireland.
1991 Pickets Loch draws a crowd of around 2,000 for its last Breeders Festival. Organiser Bob Gilling makes the decision to drop the Enfield venue when the cost of hiring the facility for one day reaches £800. Crayford boss Stephen Rea steps in to make his track available for “just the cost of staff wages”.
1986 September 1 The Mayor of Bexley and Ladbrokes Chairman Cyril Stein open the new Crayford track. It has been built in a little over a year at a cost of £2.5m, roughly three times the original estimate. It is small, with a capacity for only 1,500 spectators, but modern, with good facilities including an abundance of TV monitors. The racing manager is Derek Bowman and the general manager is Roger Lakey. The first two meetings are ‘ticket only’ affairs.
