1966 GRA up the kennel fees at their Northaw Kennels by seven shillings a week to two pounds two and six (£2.12 1/2p). That would equate to £37.78 today.
2006 Irish stud keeper Richie O’regan is announced as the new chairman of Curraheen Park.
1987 Reading trainer Phil Potter died after a race meeting. Based at Church Crookham in Hampshire, for many years Potter was one of Aldershot’s most successful trainers and won a number of Aldershot Derbies.
1994 Lassa Java is retired to stud after breaking his hock in the Derby third round. He had reached the final the previous year.
1960 Owner Mick Burke decides to retire Springvalley Grand to stud after the dog completed the Irish Produce Stakes/Easter Cup double. The ‘most popular dog in Irish racing’ attracted the biggest crowd ever seen at Clonmel track. Interestingly, the dog was originally sold, at six weeks old, to Paddy Dunphy (of ‘The Grand’ prefix) but Dunphy changed his mind and took a litter brother instead when he was told that Springvalley was blind in one eye.
2005 Harlow is sold to brothers Dean and Dave Barclay. The builders promise that the stadium will remain open for greyhound racing. Within days, armed robbers had stolen £25,000 and Dave Barclay had been hit by a sawn-off shotgun.
1990 Olivers Move, from one of the greater litters of the decade that included Olivers Wish, Westmead Wish and Westmead Move, receives his second and final disqualification for fighting.
1933 At a trial at Clapton, By Pass does exactly as his name says, bypassing his handler as he is being loaded into the traps. He races back round the bend, finds the hare and rips it to pieces causing the rest of the session to be cancelled.
1970 Jemmy John (Prairie Flash-Fawn Deer) sets the Irish national and Celtic Park 525 yard track records. Running in the Ulster Derby Final, the early paced fawn beats Moordyke Champion by four lengths in an incredible 28.61.
1992 Mildenhall closes nine months after opening when promoter Dick Partridge announces that he cannot make it pay citing crowds of between 100-200 per meeting. Within a week, Dennis Diffley takes over and re-opens the track, though his reign will eventually end in scandal.
2006 Open racer Bubbly Jason breaks both back legs in an open race at Monmore. Fortunately, he was able to be saved by the track vet and becomes a pet.
1984 June 12, Smokey Pete (Smokey Flame-Smokey Cotton, Jan 83) has his first race in public at Thurles. The evens favourite wins the 525 yard event by four lengths. Little does anyone know that a year later on June 22, he will be the 8/11 on favourite in the first running of the English Derby at Wimbledon, where he finishes 5th on a rain-soaked track.
