1947 There are complaints that taxi drivers are frequenting greyhound tracks on race nights. A reported 500 cabs were reported on the White City car park.
1947 Plans are announced to rebuild the stadium at Brandon, Coventry, which was substantially damaged in the Blitz. Another track is planned at Tamworth (Drayton Manor), though proposals for tracks at Sutton (Surrey), Feltham and Eastleigh have all been rejected by the planners.
1988 Local favourite Wendys Dream (Tamarac-Uptown Girl) completes a remarkable treble when adding the Sporting Life Juvenile title and Byrne International to her victory in the Puppy Oaks. Tom Foster’s bitch clocked 27.77 in the Juvenile and 28.03 in the International for Wimbledon’s 460 metres.
1947 Stamford Bridge grader Snap Deal was so reminded of his comfy bed by the recently laid new straw on the track that he pulled up at the back of the fields, lay on his back with his feet in the air and attempted to go to sleep.
1947 Tote turnover at British tracks in 1946 is revealed as £200m (equates to £6.7bn today) of which the tracks retained £12m (£407m) with the remainder going back to punters. Tax is not yet being charged. Interestingly, the Churches Committee on Gambling are urging Chancellor Hugh Dalton NOT to introduce a betting tax. They argue a tax “would give official recognition of a bookmaker and place him in a privileged position to exploit the weakness of the people for his own enrichment.”
1988 A match between Shawfield and Powderhall’s top stayers ends a dead heat at Powderhall. The return leg at Shawfield sees the local champion Aglish Mandy (Sand Man-Aglish Tulip, Oct 85) beat Foggy Boy by nearly five lengths.
1951 Greyhound Express produce glossary of racing terms for readers. Most would be recognised by modern punters though terms such as ‘clumsy’ and ‘nt kn’ (not keen) seem to have disappeared from use. Perhaps the greatest change was the move away from comments relating to the track. Prior to the introduction of time assessed going allowances (+10, -40 etc) punters would be faced with eight potential terms: peat, straw, chaff, good, light peat, heavy peat, heavy, fair.
2007 The Irish Greyhound Board’s former head of IT, Adrian Neilan, is unveiled as the new CEO.
1969 Billy Mahon presents the year’s first ante post Derby list. Yellow Printer leads the betting at 8-1, followed by Flaming King and Winter Hope at 16s. (The favourite had occupied a similar position in the market a year earlier) Not among the 130 names is the eventual winner Sand Star.
2009 Hall Green deny that the traps opened early for the final of the Prestige Stakes won by Hawks Dilemma.
2010 Hall Green’s stewards are criticized for allowing a race to stand on a televised meeting when the traps open late. Carly Philpott, trainer of eventual winner Barnfield Rocky admits she was so convinced that the traps had failed that she was about to run back to them when they finally opened.
1947 Jack Harvey, Wembley’s leading trainer for 1946 is interviewed by Pathe News and is asked “How do you get on betting your dogs?”. An outraged Harvey replies: “Don’t be silly. I train greyhounds, not bet on them.”
1985 Mike Middle, former racing manager at Middlesbrough and Brough Park is the new racing manager at Peterborough.
1959 Wimbledon announce plans to maintain their graded race mix of one stayers race for every one run over the standard distance. Neighbours Wandsworth announce they will introduce 600 yard hurdle races in addition to graded races over the 776 yard trip.
2011 Boher Paddy is a best priced 16-1 Derby favourite. They then bet: 20-1 Droopys Oscar, 25-1 Tyrur Big Mike, 33-1 Blue Artisan, and, 33-1 the only dog destined to make the final, Razldazl George. Not mentioned on any list is a puppy without a single line of British form, Taylors Sky.
2010 BBC ‘The Men Go To Ireland’ series feature Griff Rhys Jones, Dara O’Briain and Rory Bremner features a night out at Mullingar dog track.
1949 The head of the Bookmakers Protection Association tells members that in the four months since the Government introduced betting duty on greyhound tracks, not horse racing, the number of on-course bookies has halved.
1950 M Gomersall who resigned as Catford racing manager earlier in the week is announced as the new owner of Doncaster Greyhound Stadium. The stadium was sold for a figure between £30-40,000.
1992 Former independent star Springwood Mickey is retired to stud at Pam Heasman’s kennel. During his career, Fair Boot (Aragon Mill-Fon Taine, Jan 88), to give him his official name, broke an estimated 25 track records and earned around £30,000.
