1962 An Oxford punter landed the biggest ever forecast dividend ever on a British track when a 4-1 chance beat a 100-8 shot and paid £142/8/6 for a 4 shilling unit – odds of 711-1. Or the equivalent today of £3,775.
1947 A five pound pike is caught on the flooded Ipswich dog track.
1973 Mrs Peggy Van Geens’s Adamstown Valley (Spectre-Arklow Fire, Oct 67) is retired. He was unlucky to have been whelped in the same era as those two other great hurlders, Sherrys Prince and Derry Palm, or he would have won many more races. He was in the three Grand National finals 1970-71-72, all won by Sherrys Prince. But he did manage to beat Sherrys Prince 12 times, although finishing behind him 31 times.
1932 There are currently six London tracks racing during March. Wimbledon are one of four tracks racing on Wednesdays – though they are well spread out around the Capital at Wembley in the west, Harringay in the north and West Ham in the east of the city. The Plough Lane track also race every Friday and Saturday. Each Wimbledon card is for seven races, quite often to include two four-runner hurdle events. A top heat hurdle event pays £15 to the winner – equivalent at today’s values of £1,200.
1961 White City take possession of two 30 feet long luxury dog transporters. Each of the six cylinder Bedford lorries can carry 50 dogs and 10 kennel staff and costs £3,000.
1950 March USA champion Beach Comber nearly 5 years old has broken the American 550 yard track record, when he records 30.50 at West Flager, Miami. It was his 92nd career win. Previous best time was Lucky Pilot’s 30.80 at Wonderland, Massachusetts. Best British time for the 440 yards is 30.27 by Ballymac Ball.
1971 Walthamstow boss Charles Chandler remains committed to re-investing in his track and the latest addition will be the new 500 seat restaurant ‘The Stoway’ built at a cost of £175,000 (roughly£3.2m today) .
1936 March The De Haviland Royal Air Liner “Mercury” starts daily flights to Ireland, with supplies of the Greyhound Express.
1983 Ireland’s Owners and Breeders Association table an objection to Bord na gCon over the requirement that they must pay £2 to a coursing club before they will be allowed to register a dog for racing.
1970 Bookmakers Margolis & Ridley publish the most open ante post Derby betting seen in years. Kilbelin Style and Moordyke Spot are 20-1 joint favourites. 120 dogs are listed but eventual ’70 Derby winner John Silver is not among them, nor are the Derby second and third, Little County and Coral Romeo.
1975 GRA announce an increase in compensation to owners whose dogs are seriously injured whilst racing at their tracks. The figure rises from £100 to £150 (equivalent to £1,860 today). Any dog representing a GRA track in an inter-track will also be paid up if injured in an ‘away match’.
1994 Leading Irish stud dog Greenpark Fox is put to sleep aged seven and a half suffering from lung cancer. In the same week, breeders are talking about one of his outstanding young offspring, the 28.64 Kasco Unraced winner Come On Ranger.
2002 Telentedmrripley (Greys Statesman-Oneco Malee) is voted Captain of the 2001 All American Team (the USA equivalent of Greyhound of the Year) for the first time. He will win it again in 2002. He also wins the Rural Rube and Flashy Sir titles awarded to the best sprinter and stayer.
1947 March 15 A government fuel ban is lifted after 29 days but 160 meetings are lost in London alone. However the tracks can only race one day per week.
2001 Hove stage one of the best Trainers Championship meetings ever. The highlight is the 515 metre clash between Droopys Vieri and Rapid Ranger (7-4jf). The ’00 Derby winner, making his first appearance before attempting to defend his crown, leads to the third bend but is eventually beaten by Vieri in 29.99. Vieri’s brother Droopys Honcho lands division 2 of the stake from Toblermorey Boy. The night though belongs to Charlie Lister who finishes with 54 points from Paul Young with 41. Lister’s winners include Parliament Act, True Honcho and Derbay Pride.
1983 Romford are to erect a 15 foot high fence following the latest incident of race wrecking. In fact, the track were tipped off by an East London betting shop that an attempt to stop a race would occur if the striped jacketed Deputy Devine was not leading. Although they posted security staff around the track, they could not prevent a number of orange rugby balls being thrown onto the track from the adjacent railway line. Although the leader was unaffected, the second placed dog was distracted by the balls and the race was declared void.
2012 Former champion trainer Clemenson announces that he is to leave Hove at the end of March. He blames financial pressures for his decision. Wimbledon’s Norah McEllistrim is to take his place. Michael Peterson, with 120 greyhounds split between Oxford and Hall Green, announces he will close his kennel at the end of May.
1973 Western Australia finally allows the licensing of greyhound tracks – though they have no tracks
1993 An American greyhound kennel owner receives an eight month prison sentence for maltreatment of more than 100 greyhounds
1947 Captain R O W Walpole, the track vet at Wolverhampton and Willenhall tracks, publishes a survey of injuries found during a five year period. Near-fore: 223, off-fore:162, near-hind-64, off-hind 104. In the fore legs, the majority of the injuries are to toes (199), with the near fore sustaining twice as many as the off-fore. There were also more tendon injuries to the near fore. There were marginally more shoulder (59-52) and knee injuries (31-23) to the off-fore. There were more toe injuries to the near-hind than off-hind (23-17) and track legs (20-1). However the off-hind fared much worse for hock injuries (31-1), and muscle problems (56-22).
2001 In his budget speech, Chancellor Gordon Brown announces that off-course betting tax is to be abolished from January 2002 and replaced with a 15 per cent gross profit tax.
1971 Among the lots at Shelbourne’s March 3 sale is 500 guinea lot Letesia, who is sold by Micky ‘Gilly’ Ryan and bought by Donald Smith from Dun Laoghaire. The black and white daughter of Bauhus will eventually make her name in the breeding paddocks as the dam of Waterloo Cup winners Minnesota Miller and Minnesota Yank.
1975 Pat Dalton’s Cant Decide (Monalee Champion-Doon Road Fly) wins the $30,000 Hollywood World Classic.
1985 Bookmakers John Power make Ballyregan Bob the 14-1 Derby ante post favourite ‘with a run’. He doesn’t.
1993 Leading trainers Geoff De Mulder and John McGee are fined for positive tests in major races. De Mulder’s Ballyard Curtis tested positive for Millophylline after his win in the Birmingham Cup. De Mulder admitted giving the dog cough tablets. John McGee was fined £1,500 after Winsor Vic tested positive for the anti-inflammatory drug Flunixin. The dog was tested after winning the Midland Flat Final. McGee was also found to have given Finadine to Winsor Abbey when he ran in the 1993 Grand Prix Final.
1950 Fred Davis has his renewal application for a trainer’s licence refused by the NGRC with no explanation given. Described as having “the greatest team of privately trained greyhounds ever assembled”, the estimates of the value of the Davis string exceed £100,000 – roughly £4.2m at today’s rates. Private trainer Fred ‘Trevs’ Trevellion agrees to take the Davis string which includes the outstanding puppy Red Wind. However, hours before the ante post Derby favourite is due to contest his first race of the year, the NGRC order the Walthamstow stewards to withdraw the dog. Thousands of disappointed punters and the racing press are mystified. Within a year, the case of the most famous ringer of all time will make national headlines
1983 18 year old Peter Miller becomes the youngest NGRC racing manager ever when taking over at Oxford.
1984 March 17 Trainer Derek Knight enjoys a day to remember when sending out Amazing Man (Glen Rock-Orchard Robin) to win the £3,500 Ladbrokes Golden Jacket for owner Victor Chandler. Later on the same card, World Of Sport viewers see kennelmate Scarcely Unknown ((Hunday Dook-Speech Mistress) land the £1,000 Daily Mirror Hurdles Final and set a new Harringay 475 metre track record over jumps of 28.90.
