1981 The NGRC call an inquiry into the owner of a greyhound who had struck a pup who failed to chase. The dog had failed to finish in a six bend race and had jumped off the track at the last bend and run back to the paddock. The dog repeated the stunt in a solo trial and his trainer requested another trial. On this occasion the owner was waiting in the paddock area and struck the dog with a broom handle. In his defence, the owner claimed that he was attempting to stop the greyhound running through a gap in the fence and onto the car-park. He was warned off sine die but the ruling was later overturned.
1983 American star Marathon Hound becomes the world prize money record holder when taking his earnings to $193,000.
1950 The foxhounds are out for their regular appearance on Cesarwitch Final night at West Ham. Nineteen pairs of hounds and two dozen horses gallop around the inside of the racing circuit prior to the big meeting.
1949 Jack Daly is to relinquish his training licence and become a cricket coach. The former Surrey player achieved considerable success in his second career most notably with Laurels/Produce Stakes/Champion Stakes winner, Good Worker.
1987 Seven greyhounds went on parade for a race at Hinckley. The confusion occurred after London connections mistakenly entered their dog as ‘Apache’, the name of an existing regular at the track. Grader Tommy Grant intervened and informed connections of the second Apache that they could not run. Meanwhile, one of the connections of the London runner, totally unaware that his dog had been withdrawn, lumped onto Apache and duly backed the winner.
1966 Advertisements in the racing dailies offer racegoers the chance to see the English dogs perform in the Spanish Derby. Air fare and two nights in a first class hotel, £27-10 shillings.
1993 Lloyds Lad, a prize in a Daily Mirror competition, has recently winning form in A1, S1 and E1 at Crayford.
1981 Sales bargain Greenwood Robic wins the £IR6,000 Burmah Castrol Puppy Derby at Harolds X. The Tom Lynch trained fawn, who beat a field including future Derby winner Cooladine Super, had been sold at Shelbourne’s July sale for 1,150 guineas.
1972 The NGRC are considering amending several rules of racing. The first is a slight relaxation on rule 174. Until now, no owner with NGRC registered dog, or any NGRC trainer, is allowed to attend an independent track. The amendment, tabled by Alan Fearn, would allow them to attend, though not have runners. Another recommendation by the liaison committee would see a redefinition of ‘puppy’ status to include all greyhounds up to the age of two years. Until now, a puppy lost that status at the end of the year following its birth. This meant that pups born between October and December were never eligible to contest puppy races.
1935 Joe Childs, the King’s jockey has applied to the NGRS for a licence to take over as a promoter at Portsmouth. His fellow directors are businessman Mr T Bradbury Pratt and Jack Parker, captain of the Harringay speedway team.
2010 A report in the Sunday Telegraph indicates that Risk Capital Partners, the owners of GRA, are due to repay their loan in November 2011 but are confident that they will be able to refinance the deal. The accounts of GRA show that an impairment charge had seen the value of the company fall by around £6m, mainly due to falling land prices.
1971 Born nag Con announce that Irish tracks will introduce dope testing for the first time. It will carry out some trials at Shelbourne Park.
1963 Walthamstow announce “the most comprehensive closed circuit television system to by found in any greyhound stadium in the world”. The four TV cameras will simultaneously provide footage of the tote board, betting ring, parade, and results board. Unfortunately, there is no coverage of live racing, or replays, on the stadium’s fourteen 23-inch black and white TV monitors.
1984 Grimsby owner-trainer Ken Turner is offering a £10,000 reward for information leading to the return of Bali Hai Chief (Killaclug Jet-Cleona, Dec 82). The youngster had recently won the Fengate collar while setting a new Peterborough 420 metre track record.
1946 The NGA announce that they will use a motor scooter to drive jack-rabbits through the escapes at the forthcoming coursing meeting at Abilene in Kansas. The huge operation will see over 700 dogs compete during the eight day festival.
1974 Shamrock Point (Monalee Champion-Gruelling Point, Jan 73) is the hottest pup in Irish racing after going unbeaten through the Irish Puppy Derby at Harolds Cross.
1950 Zurus, described at “Australia’s champion puppy” following his victory in the Australian Derby, arrives in Ireland to commence stud duties. He is a litter brother to top Aussie sire Just Andrew.
1963 A delegation of NGRS members meet with Treasury officials with a request for a reduction in the 10 per cent totalisator tax. Meanwhile the Irish Government announces that is it to introduce a 2.5% tax on all greyhound and horse bets on-course and off-course. This is in addition to the 10% tax on all off-course bets.
1995 A study in the Star found no evidence of over-racing of greyhound. In the study of 10 dogs at 20 tracks, just three had nine races in a month, they were at Hall Green, Belle Vue and Sunderland. Most dogs averaged between four and five runs per month. Commenting on the survey, former GRA vet Bruce Prole said: “Major Percy Brown was always of the opinion that three races per fortnight was ideal for most dogs. He was quite right though some dogs thrive on two races per week where others require less. I am certain that over-racing can lead to misleading opinion on racing surfaces.”
1987 The NGRC informs tracks that all meetings covered by SIS will be subject to a £300 licence charge, plus 10 per cent of the track’s fee from BAGS. Hackney immediately refuse, Ladbrokes are taking legal advice.
1969 New track record holder for the West Ham 600 yard trip, favourite Cals Pick (Any Harm-Flying Sherry, Jan 67) completed a six timer to land the £1,500 Cesarewitch final for trainer Jack Harvey and owner W Warren. However, the fastest time of the night went to Westmead Villa (Maryville Hi-Pincano, Jan 68) who equalled the 33.96 track record in a supporting open.
1984 A crowd of more than 5,000 spectators witnessed the final of the Grand Prix at Walthamstow. Over a million units were sold on the tote, the highest figure at any meeting since 1945.
1995 One of the oldest track records in Dublin is utterly demolished as Northern Irish raider Treacys Triumph (Greenpark Fox-No Way Jose) takes 14 spots off the Harolds Cross 580 yard track record. The half brother of Moral Standards outed Rail Ship who had owned the record since 1973.
1946 Clapton suspend the distribution of advanced racecards in trap order. They are normally sent to a handful of journalists, under strict embargo. This follows the discovery of the sale of ‘pirate’ racecards outside the stadium with all the runners in the correct traps, thus undercutting the stadium’s own racecards which sell for sixpence each.
1972 Greyhound ownership lost its most influential pioneer with the death of Gertrude Eyrton-Jarvis. In 1946 she created the British Greyhound Breeders & Owners Association, the leading organisation of its type for many years.
1964 Clifden Orbit (The Grand Princ-Pink View, Aug 62), bought at Shelbourne Sales for 325 guineas win the £1,000 Cesarewitch final at West Ham. Trained locally by Tom Johnston the Gold Collar runner-up led from trap to line in 33.08 with 8-3fav Failte Mal back in fourth.
1987 GRA Ltd is taken over by Wembley in a reverse takeover – basically, GRA keeps the company name with Wembley, under chairman Brian Wolfson, owning 51% of the shares. The GRA is valued at £68.5m.
1995 Retiring trainer John Horsfall was given a send-off to remember on his last day at Catford – a stripogram – courtesy of local bookmaker Ray Dean.
1949 Figures show that the three new sea-food bars at White City, opened 11 months earlier, are attracting more than 4,000 customers a night. There are no figures for the number of jellied eels served up, though they are by far the most popular dish with hungry punters. 14 part-time staff are required to shell 5,000 whelks, and serve 50,000 cockles, plus mussels, prawns and shrimps.
1984 ITV decide to axe greyhound racing as its emergency cover the televised horse meetings during the winter.
1990 Druids Johno (Whisper Wishes-Hotsauce Mistake), at one time the most famous greyhound in England, is retired to stud with a severe muscle injury. Owned by Patsy Byrne and HRH Prince Edward, the beaten odds-on favourite in the 1990 Greyhound Derby final never won a competition despite 13 wins in a brief career of 18 races. Johno pictured with Pa Fitzgerald
1949 Clapton announce the identity of its latest trainer. He is Sidney Clare Orton, son of Sidney Orton. He has spent the last three years at Coventry having spent six years in the Royal Artillery.
1958 Wimbledon boss Con Stevens applies to the NGRC for a change in the rules to allow racing managers to disqualify ungenuine dogs as well as fighters.
1995 The Oxford and Ramsgate managements are confident of the short term future of the their tracks which are currently in the hands of the receivers following the collapse of Northern Sports. Oxford boss John Blake reckons the £1.5m price tag will put off builders, given other issues such as the vicinity of the railway and doubts whether the council would allow two housing estates to be in such close proximity. Ramsgate boss Sheila Yanez believes the track could be sold for £1.2m but that it would take at least a year to resolve planning issues with the neighbouring garden centre.
