1969 Pat Dalton, who has taken many teams of greyhounds to the USA is taking over a team of 35 greyhounds to race permanently in New England and Florida. The 33 year old sets off on the £25,000 venture with former Shawfield racing manager Don Cuddy. He plans to keep his kennel at Golden in Tipperary as a breeding base.
1946 The greyhound press reports that a major outbreak of distemper is being hidden by kennel owners who are too embarrassed to admit that they have had the disease in their kennel. However a study of breeding figures provides a few clues. In 1941 there were 431 British litters registered of which roughly five per litter lived long enough to be named. The following year saw an increase in litters born, up to 561, though only 1793 pups survived to the naming stage – roughly one in three. The Irish mortality rates are virtually identical.
1958 Knock Hill Chieftain (Galtee Cleo-Coolkill Mistress), one of the unluckiest dogs of his era is retired to stud after a series of injury setbacks. Lesley McNair’s brindle was rated as one of Ireland’s top pups but toe injuries kept him out of both the Derby and Laurels. He raced at White City on 12 occasions, winning eight, and beat Pigalle Wonder in a two-dog match over 550 yards.
1962 The Irish Derby at Shelbourne Park is won by Shanes Legacy. The 5-1 chance is a fortunate winner after missing his break. Trouble at the first bend when Dark Baby, traps 2, is fast up on the inside, runs wide, badly baulking trap 1 Peculiar and the favourite Black July in trap 4, allows Shanes Legacy to nip through the melee. He goes on to win the 525 yard race by 1 1/2 lengths from the fast finishing Golden Cheers, trap 6, in 29.53. After the race J McCann sells Shanes Legacy to Bob Gough for £2,500. He is to be trained in England by Tony Dennis.
1976 Greyhound tracks are fearing for the worst following the introduction of the Drought Law which will prevent tracks from watering the racing circuit.
1928 August 17 The first Irish Derby final is held at Harolds Cross, with a first prize of £250 plus trophy worth £52 10s. The runner-up took £75 and the others £20. Owner-trainer W J Quinn’s Tipperady Hills, the youngest in the line-up, whelped Apr 27 by Melksham Tom-Na Boc E, is made even money favourite and in a thrilling race holds off 8-1 chance. Battle Island by a length in 30.56 for the 525 yards.
1980 Bookmakers refuse to chalk up a price about Keem Princess in the semi finals of the 874 metre Ernest Thornton Smith Trophy at Bristol. Ray Wilkes bitch wins easily and follows up with a 16 length track record breaking run in the final when returned at 2-9f.
1992 Romford call in specialists Instaprint after their chromatography equipment registers a series of false positives.
1983 The 15 year old Thurles 525 yard track record is broken by two runners in the same race. In the final of the Tipperary Cup, Pat Dalton’s brindle bitch Sailing Weather (Sail On II-Bleak Weather) beat Kilree Prince by a head in 29.20, five spots inside Flaming King’s previous best.
1948 The great Priceless Border runs a exhibition trial over 300 yards at White City to mark his retirement from racing. Owner Mr W P O’Kane is presented with a trophy to honour the dog’s record at that track where he was never beaten in 10 outings including the 1947 White City Stakes, plus the 1948 Derby and Wood Lane Stakes. He is also the current 525 yard track record holder with a time of 28.64.
1993 John Brindley, joint promoter at Stainforth is seriously injured in a car crash. His wife Nancy is killed.
2005 Belle Vue introduce a new standard distance of 470m after surveyors reveal that the old 465 was incorrect. The sprint (260m-from 237m) and six bend (670m from 647m) are changed due to re-locating the starting traps and a new 590m trip is introduced.
1979 Coral apply for permission to stage racing at Cardiff Arms Park. Meanwhile Jon Carter and Terry Meynell announce plans to build a greyhound track at Colwick Park in Nottingham.
1958 American racing is already facing welfare issues and it not helped by the ignorance of some of the ‘welfare’ organisations. In an incredible article in Argosy (an American 1950s equivalent of GQ), the head of the highly respected Humane Society of Florida, Mrs Charles W Pusey writes: “Actually a greyhound can be a fine pet but he would have to be brought up from birth as a pet. A racing dog, bred from a long blood line of racers can’t be adjusted to ordinary household standards. He’s strictly a kennel dog and can’t be anything else. Racing greyhounds are vicious and completely unmanageable away from their own environment. They kill smaller animals and bite everything in sight including people of all ages.” Mrs Pusey states that her organisation had been forced to destroy ‘thousands of greyhounds over the years, using a special ‘high altitude chamber in which they black out’
2003 Brough Park grader Coolanga Okee runs into the box used for protecting the hare and is killed outright.
1979 Permission was granted for the building of a greyhound track at Glastonbury in Somerset. Meanwhile, in the Midlands, Chesterton director Arthus Goodhead makes application to re-open Cobridge stadium in Burslem. The former NGRC track has been closed since 1954.
1993 The Greyhound, a glossy monthly magazine closes in its first year of trading.
1933 There is an attempt to abolish the 40% tax charged on all Irish dogs being imported into Britain.
2001 Ron Jeffrey, a trainer for 44 years, is convicted of suffering unnecessary suffering to an animal after a bitch in his kennel is bitten by two other dogs.
Jeffrey had treated the bitch, Bracken Lass, who had continued to eat. But four days later she went into shock and deteriorated badly. She was treated by a vet and survived though Jeffrey found himself subject of an RSPCA charge. Unable to afford a barrister, Jeffrey pleaded guilty but then found himself hounded by the media. A pressure group – who claim the RSPCA deliberately engineer cruelty cases to raise funds – decide to pursue the Jeffrey case.
2013 The 2011 champion trainer Chris Allsopp is 4-9f to win the Trainers Championship which he leads by 18 points from reigning champ Mark Wallis. The latter bemoans a bad run of injuries and has drifted to 8-1. What value that would have looked four months later!
1962 Beaverwood Kennels proprietor Frank Sanderson’s Tuturama completes his domination of the Laurels with an impressive win in the final. The 4-6f is seeking a six-timer in the £1,000 Wimbledon decider and is never headed in the decider.
1950 The NGRC stewards choose Brighton as the track to stage their annual event, the Stewards Cup. The event rotates to different venues each year. An 18 runner competition, it is worth £500 to the winner (equivalent today of £18,800)
1977 At Kilkenny, Joseph Phelan’s Pampered Rover (Bk d Time Up Please-Pampered Pegg, Jan 76) has his first race in the Offaly Stakes over 525 yards. From trap 4, he finishes third, beaten 1 1/2 and 1 1/2 lengths in 29.60. A year later he wins the Irish Derby.
1992 Nick Savva reluctantly agrees to stay on after his resignation from the NGRC Tracks Standards Committee is declined by chairman Frank Melville. Savva states that the committee could not even reach agreement on a collective approach.
1980 Knockrour Slave is acclaimed as one of the greatest ever hounds to have graced Cork’s Western Road track when winning his second Irish Laurels final by six lengths in a new 525 yard track record of 29.00.
1939 August 19th The All England Cup Final ran over 520 yards at Brough Park produced a shock result when Ballycurren Soldier owned by Scottish Greyhound Racing Co Ltd and trained by P McKinney at Carntyne, floored the 2-7 favourite, Mrs J P Cearns Wimbledon trained Ballydancer. The winner started at odds of 66-1, winning his connections £800 and trophy value £50 for his one length victory in 29.94.
2005 Bristol police seize around a dozen dogs when impounding the van of transporter Ben McBride following a minor traffic offence. The dogs are handed over to the RSPCA who transport some of the animal to as far away as Cornwall from where they have to be collected.
1965 GRA are vacating their head office in Berkeley Square. The building will be sold and the company’s admin will be transferred to White City.
1946 The NGRC are to investigate the actions of the Harringay stewards following a riot at the stadium. The uproar concerned the defeat of crowd favourite Rossbane Dasher who was leading on the run-in when he was attacked by the subsequently disqualified Bally Mac Border. Under their powers, the stewards awarded the race to Rossmire Biddy, who was in third place, some six lengths adrift of the leaders when the fight took place. Biddy clocked 30.78 for the 525 yards. One week later, and in apparent vindication of the crowd’s anger, Rossbane Dasher (2-1f) won in 30.39 with Rossmire Biddy back in fifth place.
1994 Greenane Squire, the track record holder for the English Derby trip dies en route to Ireland where he is to contest the Irish Derby. No cause is ever found though a dispute breaks out over the dog’s ownership when the husbands of owners Mesdames Wenman and Jefford claim that Sean Bourke had bought a half share in the dog but hadn’t paid it in full. This was strenuously disputed by Bourke who claimed he had merely paid a returnable deposit. Squire had actually sired one litter prior to his death and two of those progeny went on to win minor opens. In the same week as Squire’s demise, Henry Tasker’s Derby quarter finalist and potential brood Ballinderry Sue (I’m Slippy-Ballinderry Sand) breaks her neck after falling in a gallop.
2013 Racing Post reporter Jonathan Kay writes: “Promoters wield far too much influence at GBGB Towers, in a manner far different I am sure from what Lord Donoughue envisaged when drawing up the blueprint for the organisation.”
