1949 Journalist Leo C Wilson produces an interesting article on ‘colour prejudice’. He accepts that dislike of white dogs for ‘lacking courage’ is still a popular, if unfair, branding. He believes that the overall shortage of white dogs was due to their being more visible to hare on the coursing field. The exception is, bizarrely, in Cornwall since Cornishmen and women ‘have bred with an eye for the show-ring where flashy colours are an advantage’. He notes that in the early days of coursing, the breed was dominated by blacks though interestingly, there is evidence to suggest that due to an extreme prejudice against brindles, many brindles were incorrectly registered as black. Indeed it had been proven that Major, a litter brother to one of the most famous coursers of all time, Snowball, was indeed brindle, despite his being registered as black. Wilson notes “The position is now almost entirely reversed for brindles now vie with reds and red-fawns in being our most popular colour, and blacks form only a small proportion of the total number of greyhounds in training.” Wilson does not believe coat colour is relevant quoting the famous maxim, ‘a good greyhound, like a good horse, cannot be a bad colour.’
1980 Bord na gCon announce a 25% increase in prize money, just a year after a 60% increase. It should mean that the minimum win money rises to £40.
1971 Flaming King (Market Green-Maglin Lady) has been sold to Jack Mullan to stand at stud in Newry. Early in his career, the Pauline Wallace owned brindle broke the 525 yard track records at Limerick and Tralee and won the Irish Laurels. He also raced in England, Spain, and the USA where he won eight straight races at Flagler. With the exception of Backdeed Man he threw little of note but did sire two important brood bitches in Glenroe Angel and Noble Lynn.
2014 Mark Wallis sends out the 1-2-3-4 in the Coral Essex Vase as Reel Trickyone leads home Jazz Tilly, Hometown Honey and Aayamzamodel in that order. There was only 10 spots between the quartet and the race was completed by Farloe Smurfette and Tambourine Man. Asked which one he fancied before the decider, Wallis conceded “Aayamzamodel”.
1983 NGRC figures reveal that the number of open races advertised in the Calendar increased by 15% in 1982 to 2,607. There are 370 professional trainers, 271 owner trainers and 1,032 permit trainers. The number of new owners fell by 10% to 2,634. There were 7,841 new greyhounds registered for racing on Britain’s 44 NGRC tracks. The average attendance at Irish tracks was 403, in Britain it was 793. Another interesting figure –30 greyhounds received their second and final warning for fighting during the year, out of an estimated 20,000 dogs in training. Interestingly, male fighters outnumbered feisty females by 5:1 and the 30 included two five-year-olds.
2004 Lord David Lipsey of Tooting Bec is the new chairman of the British Greyhound Racing Board. Lipsey has a background in politics and journalism having been a policy advisor at 10 Downing Street in the late 70s, and later becoming associate editor of The Times newspaper.
2009 Kilkenny shuts down while directors seek a rescue package.
2014 Perry Barr are to eight race cards on Friday and Saturday meetings due to a runner shortage.
1998 Ground Zero wins what will prove to be the last Sporting Life Juvenile. He clocks 27.95 when beating a field that includes Glengariffe Hare, Knockeevan Dan, Lenson Hero and Ballyard Recruit in 27.95. He is installed as 20-1 joint third favourite for the English Derby. Larkhill Jo heads the betting at 16-1. Zero is cut to 16-1 when he adds the Byrne International a week later but comes off the track with a career ending wrist injury. He is subsequently sent to Australia where he stands at stud under the name of Ground Hero.
1951 The Dublin Greyhound Racing Company Chepelizod is fined £750 for allowing builder Peter J Gilmartin to build new kennels, turnstiles and offices without an appropriate licence.
1990 John McGee joins the Hackney training strength after being suspended by the local stewards for time finding. He replaces Doreen Boyce who was recently sacked by Hackney. . . for time finding.
1982 Bob Rowe is appointed head of racing for GRA. The White City racing manager’s job goes to John Collins. Rowe’s last meeting coincided with the retirement of trainer Joe Pickering.
2004 Romford have a great night at the BGRB annual awards when the locally trained Tims Crow is 2003 Greyhound of the Year and the Essex track is voted Racecourse of the Year.
1938 Dee Rock is attracting plenty of coursing dams to Harold Wright’s kennel at Preston Brook near Warrington. The 1935 Waterloo Cup winner who stands at a fee of 25 guineas, will throw the 1940, 1941 and 1942 Waterloo winners thanks to Dee Flight and Swinging Light (twice).
1990 Results of a random drugs testing experiment carried out at Shelbourne Park and Harolds Cross reveal that one runner in every six failed the test.
1992 John Davis, owner of top Irish star Farloe Melody (pictured) has £40,000-£1,000 on his dog to win the 1992 English Derby. He places the bet with Tony Morris after William Hill would only take £100 at those odds before clipping the dog to 25-1. Melody duly lands the gamble.
