On the 31st March this year at 4.55pm it will be exactly fifty years to the day since the last race at Kings Heath Stadium took place – writes Simon Harris.
The race in question was won by Zanzy Token from Trap 1 and as such it brought to an end forty four years of racing at the south Birmingham track. As a twelve year old schoolboy at a nearby school I had managed to escape in time to see the last two races and as is usual in these situations the place was packed.
The story of Kings Heath is an interesting one and it was very much a pioneer in many things that we now take for granted, although sadly its closure when viewed with fifty years of hindsight was very much a warning of what would unfold over the next half century of racing in this country.
The track ran its first race on the 21st May 1927 and was the third greyhound track to be opened in the UK, putting it ahead of both Hall Green and Perry Barr, it was leased by British Greyhound Sports Club until 1936 who also opened stadiums in Sheffield, Bristol, Hull and Blackpool, when the lease was transferred to Leo Craven who eventually purchased the land in 1949 for Kings Heath Racecourse Ltd.
Sadly there were fires in 1933 which destroyed the south stand and then in 1939 which damaged the home kennels.
Kings Heath was often at the fore front of introducing modern technology such as photo finish equipment in 1947, along with an inside rail watering system, undersoil track heating, electronic totalisator, and chromotography, but most revolutionary at the time was the change from turf to sanded bends an idea of local owner Joe Haydon in the late 1960’s.
In 1967 Kings Heath was one of the four original tracks to sign up to join the new Bookmakers Afternoon Greyhound Service following changes in UK betting law.
1969 saw an attempt by a leading bookmaker to purchase the stadium but this offer was not allowed by the then ruling National Greyhound Racing Club.
The end was signaled by the purchasing of the site by the GRA (known at the time as Greyhound Property Trust Ltd) in late 1970. The cost to the GRA was £212,000 but surprisingly a bid of £225,00 from BAGS three days earlier was rejected, if this had succeeded maybe the track would still be operating today.
The track closed in March 1971 and the GRA sold on the site for housing almost immediately, a scenario which we are all too familiar with, who could have imagined at that time that fifty years on how many other tracks would follow a similar sad path.
1996 Brough Park’s new owner Eric Armstrong pledges free kennelling for the rest of their days for the 40 ex-racers currently on Gordon Rooks’ range. Rooks is less impressed saying “All the track have done is given us a shed rent free.”
2006 The BGRB launches its first training scheme for kennelstaff.
1968 The management at Derry threaten to close the track after their landlords, Derry FC threaten to raise the weekly rent from £12-6 to £20.
1986 Ballygroman Jim and Hot Sauce Yankee are 16-1 joint ante post favourites for the English Derby.
1995 GRA chairman Jarvis Astaire announces that the company will hand over the site as part of a deal to build a new stadium for greyhound racing and become the home of Wimbledon FC. The deal is brokered by Astaire and the Leader of Merton Council Tony Coleman. Astaire appears unconcerned that Wimbledon FC’s owner Sam Hamman wants nothing to do with the project. He states ”Sam is playing the role of the reluctant bride but I think we can coax him to the alter.”
1947 Belle Vue welcome a new member to its board of directors, holiday camp owner Billy Butlin.
2011 Richard Hayler, the GBGB’s Director of Policy, leaves his post to become MD of the betting adjudication service, Ibas.
1997 Trainer Barry McIntosh has his licence withdrawn by the NGRC for failing to pay a fine of £300. He was given the penalty after two unmuzzled greyhounds attacked and killed a Jack Russell Terrier. McIntosh argued that the greyhounds were not registered with the NGRC and were inmates of a separate boarding kennel licensed by Dover District Council.
1981 The NGRC publish details of their enquiries into false form being entered in the identity books of three Irish trained runners entered for the previous year’s Scottish Derby. The Shawfield executive were fined £750, the racing manager Billy McAllister was suspended and the trainer of the intended runners Rahan Ship, Oatfield Park and Killone Flyer, Johnny Haynes, was fined £100.
1959 Winning Card, just six, wins the £75 Veterans Championship at Wimbledon. He narrowly defeats the game Rochester entry Tudor Crest by a neck. Crest, just four months short of his seventh birthday in contesting his 328th race.
1998 Britain’s best known homefinder Florrie Tompsett loses 35 of her 43 ex-racers following a visit by the RSPCA and RGT. The 79 year old carer has suffered from recent health problems and the animal charity expressed concern over the condition of some of her dogs.
1959 Following demands from breeders, including a representation from greyhound racing, the Ministry of Agriculture agree to delay the implementation of new rules which would restrict the sale of ‘unfit’ meat from knacker yards.
2012 Former Hall Green trainer John Pearce dies following a battle with cancer.
1997 Stourbridge based Tom ‘Curly’ Chamberlain, who held an NGRC licence for over 50 years and won many major events including the Pall Mall, dies aged 85.
1964 The former Noble Show appears on the Coventry racecard under his new name of The Bearded Wonder. The owner is none other than the local football club’s manager – one Jimmy Hill.
2002 GTA chairman John Haynes is chuffed with the new specially commissioned Trainers Championship for which Brian Clemenson is favourite. “It’s a beauty, a really whopper” says Haynes, “if Brian wins it, I reckon he might even be able to climb into it.”
1965 Thieves break into the Thundersley kennel of Sean Brennan and steal two bitches worth around £650 but probably missed the one they were after. The star of the kennel What About This, due to contest the Spring Cup Final was in an adjourning kennel. All three bitches are fawn.
1997 Owners association NAGO put a figure on the amount the industry is subsidised by greyhound owners – it is £48m per year.
2013 BAGS new Easter competition, the Eggstravaganza takes place at Monmore. Victory goes to the visiting Sheffield team.
1995 Sacked Romford’s assistant racing manager Paul Nevett wins his compensation claim against his former employers. He was dismissed for failing to report “quickly enough” an open race trap draw alteration made by the dismissed racing manager Ray Spalding. Newett, who claims he was not aware of the alteration until he read it in the press, is awarded £4,500. He hopes to be given a job at ‘soon to open’ Sittingbourne.
2009 Reigning Sprinter of the Year Horseshoe Ping is retired after finishing lame in an open at Coventry.
1959 Romford introduce the Jackpot. It is nothing to do with tote betting, but a competition to encourage open race entries to the track. They begin by putting £100 into the pot and increasing it by £5 per week. Any owner is entitled to pay £5 nominating their dog to break the track record in any race and claim the Jackpot. The prize fund soon escalates.
2012 Sprinter of the Year Drumcove Lad makes an appearance on BBC’s Question Of Sport.
1995 Canterbury re-opens following a month’s closure due to a lack of a betting licence.
2012 Ricky Holloway proves he has something of the ‘Sir Mark Prescott’ about him in his handling of Airforce Spirit. In a move reminiscent of the Newmarket handler, whose skill at circumventing race conditions and restrictions is legendary, Holloway enters his runner in three maiden opens within five days – thus circumventing the “not have won an open race at the time of entry” and wins the lot.
1996 Natalie Savva is on the mat at Walthamstow when the Laurence Blunt owned I’m Richard (11-4f) finds 58 spots when winning a puppy race by thirteen and a half lengths. Wimbledon’s Terry Dartnall also faces an enquiry when Alleys Amber (4-1) finds 61 spots in an A6 event.
1997 June McCombe’s Tarn Bay Flash becomes the least experienced winner of the Grand National ever when landing the final in only the seventh hurdle race of his career. The home bred black was a 50-1 ante post chance and is quoted at similar odds to retain his title.
