1993 Well known Dublin trainer John Ruth dies of a heart attack aged 57. John is the father of Dolores and Frances (partner of Matt O’Donnell).
1970 Wimbledon lose second place in the totalisator table when the 1969 figures are revealed. White City are top with £6.2m. Harringay finish second on £3,791,781, around £38,000 more than the South London track. Walthamstow are fourth. Perry Barr finish above Hall Green in the Midlands region.
2008 Sheffield begin work on a £1.2m refurb to the track’s restaurant, corporate boxes and Sportsmans Tavern.
1963 A group of former owners at Charlton, headed by the man destined to build Beaverwood, Frank Sanderson, make an offer to buy the recently closed circuit from owners London Stadiums.
2012 Following a deal with SIS, Shelbourne Park announce that open race win prize money will be a minimum of €500.
1947 In a scheme to prevent off-course betting on their racing, Carntyne follow a scheme introduced at Coventry whereby trap draws are not conducted until 30 minutes before the start of a race.
1957 White City punters let the anger be known at a disastrous Saturday meeting. Their mood is not great when both favourites in the Longcross Cup heats are beaten, including the appropriately named The Big Row. Then, in a 725 yard open, the odds-on favourite is beaten 13 lengths into fourth place by his kennelmate. With booing already taking place and a stewards enquiry called, the favourite in the marathon is moving strongly into second place when a racegoer throws a cap onto the track and causes the event to be void. The press report “the booing was so bad, nobody could hear the announcement of the trap draw for the final.” Following the race, the Greyhound Express, without specifically mentioning the White City event carry a front page headline ‘Smash The Dope Rings’ – with the instruction ‘Get Moving NGRC’. The secretary of the NGRC Lt-Col. W T Forsdike OBE is indignant telling pressmen, the stewards have the right to void any race if they believe it is subject to “outside interference”.
1983 Yankee Express obliges with ease in the William Hill Super Trapper at Hackney. George Curtis’s dog heads the betting at 11-10 favourite and gets home by five and a half from Kylemore Champ in 29.52.
1947 England’s cricket team are guests at Hobart greyhound track and discover a race named in honour of one of their batsmen, the Norman Yardley Stakes.
2010 Harlow announce that they have secured a two year sponsorship deal with Aussie darts ace Simon Whitlock.
1968 Wimbledon has overtaken Harringay as the second highest track for turnover with income of £4.18m. White City is top with 6.4m. There are 56 tracks running under the rules of the National Greyhound Racing Society. London has 14 tracks of which only Wimbledon will be open in 44 years time. Gone are: Catford, Charlton, Clapton, Hackney, Harringay, Hendon, New Cross, Park Royal, Stamford Bridge, Walthamstow, Wembley, West Ham and White City.
1947 Mrs H Sanderson pays what is believed to be a record price for a bitch when purchasing Puppy Derby and Oaks winner Castledown Tiptoes for £3,000 – index linked to £126K.
1957 In an attempt to justify their policy of not having reserves for their races, Wimbledon’s track bulletin provides figures for 1956. They show that in the 103 meetings there were 5088 runners, of which 108 scratchings took place ‘roughly one a meeting’. Had they included reserves “approximately 700 greyhounds would have been taken to the stadium and not been raced, an average of five greyhounds at every meeting, prepared and transported to the track only to be left in the kennels at the stadium until the end of the meeting.”
1965 Southern Ireland is to gain a new track at the seaside resort of Ballybunion in Kerry. Bord na gCon refused to sanction the track, just 20 miles from Tralee but Matt Sullivan, owner of the Central Hotel in the town, took them to court and won. Sullivan, who is on the ICC’s standing committee, has 50 greyhounds of his own but does not intend to run them as ‘company owned’ dogs. The track will race on different days to Tralee between April and the final meeting at nearby Listowel races.
2009 Corals are without general managers at Hove and Romford. Paul Stuart-Tilling will be in charge of both tracks.
1993 Romford and Hove begin trials of handicap racing. Romford will only stage staggered events over 750 metres.Hove, who held their last handicap event in 1976 will only use the 695m trip.
1953 Irish Minister of State Heathcot Armory states that in 1952, 4,455 greyhounds were exported to Britain at an average cost of £98 (index linked to £2,840).
1949 The NGRS announce that in the first full year following the introduction of 10% tote betting tax, turnover for 1948 fell from over £99m to £46m. This was despite an increase in attendance. The Government took approximately £4.5m in tax during that period (index linked to roughly £138m) compared to the racecourse combined share of £2.7m. Much of the tote betting has switched to the track bookies who can now offer more competitive odds.
1973 Ann Heffernan’s Dark Treasure (Clomoney Jet-Foresight Lass, Feb 69), the winner of Waterford’s three biggest stakes the previous year – headed by the Waterford Glass Trophy – lands the 32-All Aged Walsh Memorial Cup at the North Kilkenny Coursing meeting. Some going for a near four year old who lost a whole year of his career due to a tendon injury.
1995 Flying Amy is unveiled as Queensland’s Greyhound of the Year. The daughter of Amerigo Man won 23 of her 27 starts including the Gold Coast Cup and State of Origin. Total prize money $121,290. Amy goes on to be a top class brood, her progeny include champion sire Just The Best.
1957 Coventry grader Leading Dandy was so traumatised after being knocked over that in his re-trial he refused to leave the traps. He was tried again but also refused to come out. Fortunately, his owner decider to give him a rest of several months. He duly returned to racing and won at 6-1 first time out.
2009 Lenson Joker who survived a ‘voting photo finish’ over Bubbly Totti to land the Stayer of the Year award, managed another ‘just up’ to beat Boherna Best (Top standard distance performer) for the Greyhound of the Year title.
1959 Romford announce plans to bring back an event not staged since 1949 – the Essex Vase.
1991 Analysis of meatballs found in the Henlow racing kennels on November 11 are found to contain a prohibited substance.
2012 More than 200 local residents and greyhound supporters attend a public meeting at Rush Croft School to discuss L&Q’s plans to build on the site of Walthamstow Stadium.
1949 Greyhound Express reports that the head of former open race star Honeyman’s Last has been preserved by a taxidermist and is surrounded by around trophies at the Auckland (NZ) home of his owner Dr George W Drewett. The former hurdler was known throughout the industry as “Old Growler” for his habit of snarling at any dog attempting to overtake him. A top class performer in his own right, he broke 10 track records and won 52 races.
