1965 Celbridge stud keeper Paddy Kelly reports that Hi There, one of the most important post war sires, has died aged 13. His sons included Prairie Flash, Crazy Parachute, Dromin Glory, Lucky Hi There, Buffalo Bill, Printers Prince and Low Pressure.
1983 18 year old Peter Miller becomes the youngest NGRC racing manager ever when taking over at Oxford.
1983 A year after resigning from his position at Perry Bar, Frank Baldwin takes over as a trainer at White City. He will replace Randy Singleton who is retiring.
1991 John Bassett. Who won the English Derby with Lucky Boy Boy and the Irish Derby with Yellow Printer dies aged 81.
2010 Greyhound racing’s best know on-course bookies Tony Morris dies following a battle with leukaemia, aged 73.
2011 Trainer Kim Marlow is disqualified for 12 months following a positive test by one of her runners at Harlow.
1979 Trainer Pat Mullins lands a great race double within 12 hours. At lunchtime the 7-4f Sampson Pal (Blessington Boy-Jaquelines Pal) lands the National Sprint at Hackney. Later the same day kennelmate How Much (Miles Apart-Wheatfield Crow) lifted the Greenwich Cup at Catford.
1983 A new publication, Greyhound Star goes on sale for the first time. Created by four journalists/Henlow regulars, the new paper is fortnightly and costs 50 pence for 16 pages. The first front page reveals that car company Lada are in discussions to promote the Greyhound Derby. (In the second issue Lada have changed their minding stating “It costs us £60K to sponsor live snooker on TV for which we get 23 hours coverage. The Derby would cost us £40K for which we would get 15 minutes of TV coverage). Other features in the new paper include a column written by GRA vet Bruce Prole. There is even an astrology column – honestly!
2009 Former NGRC senior steward Alan Fearn dies aged 84.
1967 Wimbledon stewards are unimpressed when White City stewards withdraw two fancied Plough Lane runners from the Springbok semis claiming they had failed the chromo and deemed unfit to race by the White City vet. Wimbledon racing manager Con Stevens orders the dogs to trial at his track the next morning and they both record fast times.
1994 Arfur Daley, the best hurdler of his generation is retired from racing due to an accumulation of injuries. Trained by Bert Meadows, the British bred son of Pond Mirage won the 1993 Springbok and Grand National. His 27.80 for Wimbledon’s 460m hurdle course has never been bettered.
1983 Independent Cleethorpes are building new racing kennels with a plan to introduce NGRC permit racing. Meanwhile the promoters at Henlow, the Smith family, are in discussion with the directors of Dunstable FC about introducing greyhound racing. Meanwhile Peterborough are the latest track to join the permit scheme.
1959 Wimbledon stage their first graded hurdle race in a year. They blame a prejudice against putting dogs over jumps for the lack of hurdlers.
1975 At a graded meeting at Galway, the last four winners on the card are all sisters from a litter by Ivy Hall Flash out of Nana.
1968 Five greyhounds are killed when a trailer, taking runners to St Petersberg, track catches fire. Although a woman with the dogs managed to free two or them, they were then hit by a car. The other three were overcome by heat and fumes.
1990 Businessman Norrie Ryan is attempting to buy back Powderhall 18 months after selling it to Coral. He tells the Star: “I didn’t want to sell Powderhall when I originally bought it, but wasn’t in a position to go ahead with my plans. I am now much better placed. The site is guaranteed to stay for leisure use. The GRA virtually guaranteed that with a clause in the deal when they sold the place. If anyone develops the site, the GRA would have a right to the lion’s share of it.”
1990 Barney Mooney rejects a top bid of 9,750 guineas for the fastest trialist at Wimbledon sales. Tramps Ball had a 10,000 guinea reserve after clocking 28.16 for the 460 metres.
1950 The is an outburst of trouble at Wandsworth when the hare came off the carriage without the steward’s, or the dogs apparently noticing. It was three minutes after the cleanly run race, with most punters having thrown away losing tickets, that the stewards signalled the red light for ‘no race’.
2008 – The 2002 Derby winner Allen Gift dies suddenly at owner Sean Gresham’s Devon kennel.
ALLEN GIFT and Claude Gardiner after their Derby success – photo Steve Nash
