2010 Eye Onthe Storm is cut to 7-1 Derby favourite after breaking his own 480 metre track record in Hall Green’s Blue Riband Final. Mark Wallis’ dog beats Ballymac Ace by three and a half lengths in 28.02.
1997 BS Spokesman Stephen Rea announces that the company will build a grandstand “that would much resemble Hall Green’s” if they are able to reach agreement to introduce greyhound racing at Dewsbury RLFC.
1969 Former marathon stars Boothroyden Larry and Boothroyden Flash are sold as stud dogs at a rare Sapling Sale at Hackney. They make 140gns and 150gns respectively. Top lot among the saplings were two Prince Of Roses pups who each made 100gns (index linked to £1,840).
1982 Scottish independent Blantyre closes to make way for a council redevelopment scheme.
1996 New Catford trainer Terry Atkins has a ‘mixed’ first meeting. Of his first four runners, one wins, one is KO’d, another finishes lame, and the fourth wins – but has his card marked!
1975 All kennels is an open race final at Rochester will receive 100lbs of dog meat from the sponsors who are meat wholesalers.
1997 The three females in the line-up take the tricast places in the Easter Cup Final: Park Jewel leads home Borna Mist and Aries Rose.
1935 April one of the best hurdlers in training at Clapton is the aptly named Greyhound Express, a son of Mussolini (yes honestly) out of Knockbeg. The dog has a 33% win record.
1996 A Greyhound Star study into NGRC inquiries over the course of a full year, concludes that penalties are ‘generally’ consistent – if severe. The most severe fine was the £2,500 penalty imposed on Stainforth for failing to pay prize money on time. The highest fines for drug offences were £1,000, though one trainer was warned-off. Drug offences outnumbered ‘time finding’ enquiries by a proportion of 7:1. There were 30 different drugs detected (though no amphetamine or cocaine positives). Only two of the seven time-finding enquiries resulted in fines (£300, £150), though one permit trainer had his licence withdrawn. Including the Stainforth fine there were eight inquiries for track managements ranging from ‘running three unqualified dogs over a longer trip’ for which Henlow were severely reprimanded and fined £750, to the death of a dog of heat exhaustion in the Romford kennels for which there was a reprimand but no fine.
1977 The GRA Stakes final, worth £2,000 and a trophy to the winner, has a high class line up. victory goes to Miss J Yates’s Montreen (Moordyke Spot-Avondale, May 74). The 7-4 second favourite, trained at Belle Vue by Bammy Bamford, wins easily by 3 1/2 lengths in 44.68 for the 730 metre trip. The 11-10 favourite Sindy’s Flame (Monalee Champion-Dolores Rocket, May 74), badly hampered throughout, finishes in fifth place.
1997 Derby winning handler John Quinn joins the training strength at Romford.
1984 Champion trainer George Curtis won the Trainers Championship meeting at White City by nine points thanks to wins by Jondy, Spiral Ponyash and Copper Beeches. Jerry Fisher was runner-up followed by Adam Jackson, Ken Linzell, Joe Cobbold and Linda Mullins.
1956 Who says maidens are a new invention? Romford stage one on April 14 1956, though all six runners had open race form.
1968 Yellow Printer is 10-1 ante post favourite for the English Derby. Camira Flash is 14-1 second favourite. When he wins the final eight weeks later he will return at 100-8.
2007 Sittingbourne promoter Roger Cearns launches a stinging attack on the NGRC when the club deem that the Kent Derby will be opposed in the open schedule by the Peterborough Derby, the Northern Flat and the Ladbrokes Gold Cup.
2011 Michel Tabor announces plans for a £10,000 race to be staged in honour of the his old friend and fellow layer Tony Morris.
2004 Sheffield owner Steve Hill is cautioned as to his future behaviour following a drunken outburst, live on SKY, after his Desert Tonic had landed the Harry Holmes Memorial.
1962 Corsican Reward, bred by the GRA at their Irish kennels in Naas and trained by Gordon Hodson at White City is a lucky winning favourite of the Grand National. Some five lengths adrift going into the backstraight, he went to the front when the early leader Stanbrook Rob fell and badly hampered his two closest challengers.
