1978 Derby winner Lacca Champion produces one of the greatest runs ever seen at Wembley when he pulverises the 490m record. It had been held since 1974 by Knockrour Bank with a 29.01 run. But Pat Mullins’ brindle won an open by just under nine lengths in 28.87. A grass record that was never beaten.
1958 Heavy rains storms cause the cancellation of the entire card at West Ham and most of the meeting at Wimbledon. Indeed Plough Lane is so flooded that patrons are unable to leave the grandstand. Meanwhile Crayford lose two meetings with the entire circuit under three feet of water as the river Cray bursts its banks.
1968 Racing is abandoned at Wimbledon following such heavy flooding from the river Wandle that traps are submerged and salvage work is carried out from from rowing boats. The situation is even worse at Crayford where kennel staff had to wade waist deep to rescue dogs from the kennel opposite the stadium. Six greyhounds are reported missing.
2011 A man appears before Swindon magistrates accused on impersonating a veterinary surgeon at the local track. The true name of the vet practising as Shaun Kehoe was revealed to be South African, Peter Keniry.
1993 Greyhound Owner, the weekly greyhound publication closes after 47 years of publishing. They reported weekly sales of 2,000 when requiring a break even figure of 3,000.
1960 Derby winner Duleek Dandy is retired after breaking a hock in a trial at White City. Owned by Vicky and Bill Dash, he won the Trafalgar Cup but picked up an injury and had to qualify from trialstakes to make the 48 qualifiers. Although a 25-1 shot on the night, he won on merit coming from behind Clonalvy Romance to win by two lengths.
1983 Puppy litter sisters Kerogue Nell and Kerogue Sarah (Sand Man-Kerogue Rita) finished first and second, separated by half a length, in the Irish TV Trophy at Shelbourne.
1964 The NGRC announce that from October 1, racing managers will be able to allocate traps in graded races rather than draw for them. Many RMs are unhappy as the move will put them under ‘unenviable pressure.’
1997 Dog racing gets its first regular slot on cable slot with the launch of L!VE TV
1948 Sir Herbert Dunnico, the former Deputy Speaker at the House of Commons, gives an outspoken attack on gambling laws after administering fines in his roles as a magistrate passing sentence on street bookmakers. In administering two £10 fines for men with no previous convictions and three £20 fines for offenders with previous convictions, he says: “The Bench have to administer this law and do our best to impose penalties of varying degrees for successive sentences, but the betting laws of this country are wicked. I can sit here and fine a man £20 or more for taking a few slips and a few shillings in the street, and I can then go upstairs in this very court, pick up the telephone and put £50 on a horse. The whole thing is wicked and unfair.”
1967 While Tric Trac, Spectre and Forward Flash are all retired to stud with injuries, litter brother Forward King sets a new Wolverhampton 700 yard track record when winning the Stewards Cup. King was of course the last member of the litter to reach the track having spent several months living wild on the Yorkshire moors before his eventual recapture.
1993 Greyhounds in muzzles were a feature of the new Irish coursing season.
2006 Kinsley hold an inquiry after irregularities in the SP returns for a graded race. The winner, originally returned as the 5-2fav is amended to return at 7-2.
1933 Bookmakers at Harringay and White City decide not to take strike action despite their irritation at the track management for introducing ‘human tote machines’ – employees wandering among the punters selling tote tickets
1982 Jim Woods is the new racing manager at Perry Barr. Originally an assistant to Charlie Boulton at Harringay, he later became RM at Nottingham and Leeds.
2002 Alice Swaffield, who bred an Irish Derby 1-2 with littermates Batties Rocket and Batties Spirit at her nursing home near York, finally loses a long battle with cancer. Alice is pictured with Batties Spirit (left) and dam Lady Arrancourt
1959 Paddy McEllistrim looks a pretty good bet to win the second race at Wimbledon, he trains all six runners. In fact, one of them, Barbed Wire is scratched (!!!). Jerrys Image is made the 11-10f but is beaten four lengths by Mad Ricky (5-2).
2008 Larkhill Bird is retired from racing after failing in her bid to win three Yorkshire St Legers. The Michael Walsh trained daughter of Stately Bird and Elles Amy was bought for £500 from Pat and Johnjo Whelan and went on to win 27 of her 58 races and £24,920 in prize money.
1979 The Irish National Sprint final at Dunmore is won by La Cosa Nostra. However, as the presentations are being made, the track receive a bomb warning and the meeting is abandoned.
1946 Shannon Shore is retired to stud after contesting the Golden Crest Final at Eastville. During his racing career Shore won the ’44 Wimbledon Puppy Derby followed by the ’45 Pall Mall and Golden Crest. He also reached the Derby Final. Shore, who is a litter brother to double Irish Derby finalist Celtic Chief, will return to Ireland.
1965 GRA announce that they are to stage a series of ‘seller’ races at their regional tracks.
2003 US officials indict Wembley Chief executive Nigel Potter on the charge of improperly attempting to influence public officials. The charges relate to alleged fraudulent practice at the track’s Lincoln Greyhound Park.
1936 September 11: The St Leger trophy is stolen from a glass-fronted case at Wembley in front of security guards and members of the public. Nobody sees a thing, so on the final night of September 14, C C Keen, whose Ataxy, trained by Lesley Reynolds wins the final, is present with a deputy trophy by Mrs A J Elvin, wife of the managing director of Wembley. It is the first trophy presented to Burletta, who won the event in 1928.
1999 Charlie Lister has a particularly bad night in the heats of the Grand Prix. His highly rated Farloe Bonus sprains a hock, while the event’s defending champion Dans Sport is disqualified for fighting.
2002 Nottingham begin work on a new high-tech kennel complex, complete with airflow system. It will increase the capacity from 94 to 118 kennels.
1971 September 28 The GRA close Charlton as part of their policy of rationalisation. A flapping track, it came under NGRC rules in the mid 30s. The last race, the Farewell Stakes over 600 yards, goes to A Curtis’s Asked Out (w bk d Deneholme Hunter-Hi Cilla, Nov 69). From trap 6 the 7-4 favourite trained by J Horsfall wins easily by 4 1/4 lengths in 35.16.
1948 The Southend managing director W J Cearns offers a reward of £250 for information leading to the conviction of the person who doped 16 greyhounds in the stadium kennels. Within days, the recently strengthened security staff at the Wandsworth kennels detain a main attempting to escape after breaking in. The injured man is caught after he fractures a kneecap. Two accomplices escape though police expect to make further arrests.
1980 September 18, the 24th East Anglian Derby at Yarmouth is won for the third year in a row by Mrs N Simmons when her Killrickle Star lands the £2,500 first prize. Our Rufus won for her in 1978 and 1979.
1992 John Old, the former Clacton promoter dies of cancer aged 60.
2013 Former Derby winning trainer and successful owner and breeder Patsy Byrne dies suddenly in Ireland. He was 64.
1958 Dail Airann introduce The Greyhound Act, a statutory instrument for controlling greyhound racing in Ireland. Until now, racing has been run by the Irish Coursing Club. The act deems that greyhound racing comes under the portfolio of the Minister Of Agriculture who invites six people to become the inaugural Bord na gCon. The first chairman is a former Royal Navy surgeon and retired Dail member Dr P J Maguire. His board of six includes three private citizens and three members of the Irish Coursing Club including Captain John Ross, who was representing the interests of Northern Irish coursing. The new organisation is widely welcomed in Britain amid tales of fraudulent form and doubts about identities of greyhounds.
2000 The NGRC announce a trial at Oxford. Portsmouth and Sheffield that will allow bitches to race whilst in-season – from the third week until they come into milk, at around nine weeks. Many leading trainers are incredulous and warn that bitches’ form will become erratic. The experiment is later deemed a failure when it emerges that the form of bitches racing in season is found to be too inconsistent!
1971 Irish Derby winner Sole Aim (Monalee Champion-Yurituni) is retired to stud after finishing lame in the Laurels. Owned by Frances Chandler at Walthamstow, Sole Aim had won the previous year’s Laurels.
1997 After 70 years of racing behind the inside hare, Henlow switches to the ‘Swaffham’ amid a major re-shaping of the track including the inevitable loss of the ‘chute’ start for the 318 metre sprint. The 484 metre track record, never beaten was the 29.08 held by Cannongrand.
2005 Lord Justice Baker overturns Tom Flaherty’s High Court victory over the NGRC in the Court of Appeal. In part of a lengthy decision the judge decided: “It is not in the best interest of sport or anybody else for the courts to seek to double guess regulating bodies in charge of domestic arrangements.” Although the case cost Flaherty in the region of £600K, apparently a major factor in his decision not to fight on in the House of Lords, the original decision arguably played a major part in the resignations of the senior steward John Nicholson and chief executive Frank Melville and the formation of an appeals procedure.
1960 Castle Bromwich based owner trained Harry Tasker lands the 28th Greyhound St Leger with ante post favourite Jungle Man. It was a fine training feat as the Stamford Bridge record holder had been nursed through the event after picking up a shoulder injury in the first round. The black had been beaten by Mrs Mickey Chandler’s 66-1 chance Merry Man in the semis and was opposed in the betting by Jim Syder’s Long Story in the final. Led up by Bill Wescott’s First Offender, the former winner of coursing’s McAlevy Gold Cup and Dunmore’s Spring Cup ran on strongly to get home by half a length in 39.93.
2011 Shelbourne puppy Phoenix Banty is wiped from the bookies’ boards with no SP returned before winning a puppy race at Shelbourne Park. The 30.65 qualifier romps up by six lengths in 28.70. The April puppy is bought for £20,000 by the Bubbly Club and renamed Bubbly Phoenix. He then wins again in 28.34 over the same c & d.
1996 Cork greyhound track on Westerb Road, sitting on 5.5 acres of prime land including 250 metres of main road frontage goes on the market.
