1951 Catford’s newest trainer is former British lightweight boxing champion Matt Wells who won a Lonsdale Belt outright.
1987 Following a successful trial in January, Monmore announce they are to expand their eight-dog race schedule on BAGS.
1969 Greyhound correspondent Peter Piper is delighted when the NGRC accept the name for his new pup – Pickled Pepper.
1947 Coventry acknowledge the growth in the number of private trainers – there are 82 registered for the new year – by staging an open race competition just for them. The 18 runner event fills easily.
1975 Manchester White City boss Sid Wood is widely condemned for cancelling an invitation race after four of the best pups in training had all committed to take part. Wood justified his decision on the basis that two of the runners were pre-booked to run elsewhere three days earlier and “one or both dogs could have been injured. . .I have my company and racegoers to consider.” The quartet were Myrtown, Cowpark Yank, Squash and Greek Sort.
1987 A stunned silence descends on Powerstown Park on the first day of the coursing festival when the sudden death of Jack Mullan is announced. The Newry trainer and stud keeper had won no less than four Coursing Derbys.
1969 The Springbok Final goes to Phil Rees’ Happy Harry, though it plays a supporting role to a race on the undercard, the eagerly anticipated home heat of the national inter-track, the Mackesons Match. Host track White City wheel out the big guns in Derby winner Camira Flash, but they are thwarted by visitors Walthamstow. The East Londoners prevail by 16-11 after a fine performance from the Barker trained Barrack Street (Honey Pears-Barrack Street There, Feb 67).
1959 In an episode of radio comedy The Glums, Pa Glum reluctantly agrees to announce the engagement of daughter Eth to fiancée by placing an advert in the press. Being a betting man, he naturally chooses the Greyhound Express.
1982 The NGRC ban nine greyhounds including Bourkes Champion (who had just beaten Greyhound of the Year Decoy Boom in a TV Trophy Trialstake) after discovering that one of the joint owners Mrs L Grace (maiden name), is married to a man who was jailed in 1966 for conspiring to dope greyhounds. Peter Hubbard was never banned by the NGRC due to an administrative oversight.
1991 Former Derby winning trainer Barbara Tompkins is gaining some experience in the Nottingham racing office before taking her planned job as racing manager at Stainforth.
1958 One of the most eagerly awaited matches in years sees Pigalle Wonder taking on the Leslie McNair owned, Stan Martin trained Knock Hill Chieftain over White City’s 550 yards (£100 per side, £100 and trophy added by GRA). Wonder had landed a recent four runner invitation over 525 yards with Chieftain in his wake but the latter was seen to be running on strongly. The bookies went 2-5 Pigalle Wonder but Chieftain (2-1) trapped in front and was never headed winning by two and a half lengths in 30.48.
1985 The London race wrecking gang, who caused a string of races to be made void during the previous year, strike at Wembley. With heavily backed Gizzajob apparently struggling behind Decoy Lassie, a tarpaulin is thrown onto the track which distracts the winner causes a no-race. The perpetrators escape.
1979 Bord na gCon announce a 40% increase in the prize money grant. The minimum winner’s prize will now be 30 punts.
2004 Rye House re-opens after losing three months of racing due to a damaged sewerage system.
1985 Rikasso Mick, the 485 metre track record holder at Leicester is sold and will soon join Autralian stud keeper Derek Winter.
1959 Greyhound Express’s dog tipsters are put in the shade by horse tipster ‘The Groom’ who goes through the card at Newbury returning a seven-timer of 2,574-1.
1947 In protest against the possible infiltration of Irish pups in the Two Year Old Produce Stakes at Eastville, Winterbourne breeder H H Mountford withdraws his 30 entries from the event. The Produce Stakes is intended to be restricted to “greyhounds whelped in the 13 West Country counties”
1951 Cork General Manager Bill O’Brien collapses and dies on the coursing field at Powerstown Park in Clonmel. He was attending to his runner Vedette who was favourite for the Derby.
1975 Irish owners are on strike (again). The IGOF have called the action when Bord na gCon refuse permission for the organisation to stage sweepstakes restricted to their own member’s dogs.
1959 Varra Black Nose, the ante post favourite for the 1959 English Derby, is “enjoying himself” on a farm during the winter, announces trainer Dennis Hannafin. As to the location, Hannafin tight-lipped.
2010 Figures from the IGB reveal that attendances at Irish tracks in 2009 were down by 21 percent. Tote turnover was down 15 percent.
1947 With dozens of attempts being made to forge tote tickets, a tote manager at a London track was highly suspicious of a punter who knocked at his door and demanded to be paid out around £200 (index linked to around £6,500) on a T3-T4 winning forecast. The stadium employee minutely examined each ticket but was unable to find any alteration and duly paid out the punter. It was some minutes after the punter had left that the soon-to-be demoted employee discovered the result of the race was actually T4-T3.
1988 A month after staging a juvenile race for the upwardly mobile, the Yuppie Puppy Stakes, Norton Canes promoter John Preece is looking for six marathon dogs @ £100 entry fee for the Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is Stakes.
1976 Raider stole £20,000 from Walthamstow’s strong room within 45 minutes of the last race. The gang had previously cut through the security bars but used sticky tape to cover up the damage. When police arrived the gang had recently escaped leaving behind axes, a container of ammonia and a shotgun cartridge.
1987 Bert Meadows re-opens the derelict schooling track in Chalfont St Giles in Buckinghamshire.
1952 The new owners of Long Eaton Greyhound Stadium, five Beattie brothers, give away the track owned dogs to local owners. The 40 dogs are valued at between £10 and £50 each.
1970 The NGRC licence 46 ‘full’ private trainers, who pay £35 for their licences and are able to train for other owners. 15 of the handlers are based in either Hertfordshire or Essex.
1947 London White City are currently testing the new McKee hare. While most of the other London tracks have long dispensed with their original (‘spark spewing’) trolley hares, the two GRA London tracks had not updated.
1975 The NGRC issue 68 ‘full professional’ licences. Of those, two are still licensed 37 years later: Graham Sharp and Jenni March (and Jenni still is!).
1989 A bill to allow betting on a Sunday fails to get its second reading in the House of Commons. It is proposed by MP Andrew Mackay but opposed by a Keep Sunday Special campaign.
2010 Sittingbourne trainer Gary Sallis is to relinquish his licence for financial reasons. He will work for his brother Paul.
1988 NGRC stewards take no action against trainer John Honeysett after one of his trialists vomits 1.5kg of food following a morning trial. However they fine Reading trainer Bill Black and racing manager Martyn Dore a combined £750 when it is discovered that some dogs in the kennel are not actually owned by Black or his family as they should be under the terms of an owner-trainers licence. Three months earlier the same stewards had fined a Yarmouth permit trainer £250 when her dog had vomited half a kilo of food after trialling.
1950 An owner successfully sues a rest kennel in the High Court after two of his dogs kill each other in a kennel fight. However the judge valued the two dogs at a combined £70 (£1,820 – today’s value), less than half the valuation claimed the owner.
1989 Middlesbrough’s management believe they are the victims of a vendetta by an unknown person. Having only recently recovered from an arson attack, track staff have discovered power cables having been cut in several places, traps sabotaged and small items of important equipment have been stolen.
1977 Bookmakers Margolis & Ridley have four 16-1 joint favourites for the Engllish Derby. They are Mutts Silver, Tain Mor, Glen Rock and Balliniska Band.
1987 Several members of the GRA board visit Milton Keynes with a view to making a bid for the track following the imminent closure of Slough.
1951 The four major titles won by the famous ringer Red Wind are expunged from the race records by the NGRC and replaced by the runners-up. Behattan Marquis is promoted to ‘winner’ of the 1950 Anglo-Irish and Wood Lane Stakes. Ballygurren Garratt is now the winner of the 1949 Wimbledon Puppy Derby; Richmond Tanist gets the Midlands equivalent. The 28.57 White City 525 yard track record is also ditched and the previous clock of 28.65 held by Priceless Border is reinstated.
1984 Ger McKenna lands his first Waterloo Cup with Tubbertelly Queen. The 9-1 ante post favourite became the first bitch to land the event since 1929.
