1947 Two dozen leading breeders and veterinarians attend an emergency summit in London to discuss the latest disease sweeping the country. Dozens of entire litters have been wiped out.
Paddy Sweeney recalls: “As a final year student in the Dublin college in ‘44 I had my first experience of this highly contagious disease in dogs and ferrets.
“The characteristic symptoms were fever, inflammation of eyes throat and nostrils, inappetence, cough, sneezing and diarrhoea. We had no serum or antibiotics and we could do little other than keep them warm.
“Those who were thin, young, undernourished and weak usually died from pneumonia.
“When I was with a track vet in Liverpool in ‘47 I experienced a more virulent form of the disease causing meningitis and nervous symptoms – fits and chorea.- which nearly always proved fatal.
“When I went back to Dubin in 49 for two years these serious symptoms were common in greyhounds there.
“I had kennels in Clondalkin and within a few months my own few saplings and others that I had in for treatment became infected and five or six died harrowing deaths. I well remember a good looking brindled bitch about 10 months old by Bill Quinn’s Quare Times that I had bought for more than we could afford.
“We sat up on alternate nights to nurse her for a fortnight until she developed repeated convulsions. When I had to put an end to her suffering my poor wife was distraught.
“Some of those cases with nervous symptoms showed hardening of the pads of their feet. This gave rise to the name Hard Pad Disease.
“When we moved back to Britain and settled near Rugby at the beginning of 51 our new kennels soon became infected. There was still no effective vaccine.
I became friendly with research workers at the Wellcome Foundation in Langley Court near Beckenham and those at the Animal HealthTrust at Kennett near Newmarket.
Over a period of three years I made three or four journeys to both laboratories with saplings that I had little hope of saving.
“I just hoped that examination of blood and tissues might expedite the discovery of a serum that would cure or a vaccine that would prevent.
“One poor creature died before I reached Beckenham.
“I was pleased however when another survived in Kennett despite a lasting twitch of nerves in a hind leg. He was a red fawn by my own stud dog Big Ruby.
“He was a great favourite with John Hodgman and the other vets and kennel staff. He gave many blood samples which contributed to the knowledge of the virus until he died at the age of ten.
“I‘m glad to say I have not seen a dog with Distemper since 1973. So I wonder where there is need for regular vaccination nowadays.”
2008 Blue Murlen, one of the fastest British breds of recent years is put to sleep aged 14. During a sensational career the Norfolk bred son of Murlens Abbey won the Stylefield Law Puppy Stake, the East Anglian Derby, Arc and Blue Riband.
2010 Former Coventry racing manager Russ Watkin was fined £5,000 and severely reprimanded for allowing 67 races to be staged prior to their official ‘off time’. The offenses occurred between September and October the previous year. The enquiry found no evidence of a connection between the track and a Sheffield based employee from the off-course betting industry who had placed numerous successful winning bets on the affected races. In a separate enquiry trainer Mark McManus is found guilty of fraudulently obtaining money from the Trainers Assistance Fund via a grant for traveling cages in a vehicle.
1974 With the Government imposing power restrictions, Northern Irish track Derry are finding afternoon racing unsustainable and warn they may have to close.
1947 Captain R O W Walpole, the track vet at Wolverhampton and Willenhall tracks, publishes a survey of injuries found during a five year period. Near-fore: 223, off-fore:162, near-hind-64, off-hind 104. In the fore legs, the majority of the injuries are to toes (199), with the near fore sustaining twice as many as the off-fore. There were also more tendon injuries to the near fore. There were marginally more shoulder (59-52) and knee injuries (31-23) to the off-fore. There were more toe injuries to the near-hind than off-hind (23-17) and track legs (20-1). However the off-hind fared much worse for hock injuries (31-1), and muscle problems (56-22).
1950 Wimbledon are to remember the stadium’s owner/ builder, the late William John Cearns, with an annual open race named after him. The first event will be staged in 1951.
1981 Hove punters see one of the most exciting Regency Finals off all time. The 11-10 favourite is the locally trained previous year’s St Leger winner Fair Reward. However, it is another Hove runner, the 25-1 chance Fluffylugs (Glin Bridge-Some Laugh) who gets home by a neck with the favourite dead-heating for second place with the winner’s litter sister Laugh Lines.
1971 The trophy won by the first English Derby winner Entry Badge is stolen in a burglary from a house at Sarre near Ramsgate. The trophy is valued at £950, though the total value of the theft, which included the trophy awarded to Waterloo Cup winner Constable, is in excess of £8,000.
2009 Belle Vue is the latest track to cancel its ‘early week’ meeting with Tuesdays being canned. Sister track Perry Barr lost a fixture the previous month.
1958 Greyhound followers are left perplexed following a newspaper article in which GRA managing director and Member of Parliament, Laddie Lucas, urges the Government to extend the tax on greyhound racing to include all betting. He claims it would raise £38m. The racing press are dismayed, claiming Lucas should have been asking the Government to eradicate all betting taxes. In the words of one journalist “Would it be any relief for a man suffering the agonies of toothache for his friend to be similarly afflicted?”
1970 There is a battle of the sales in London. After a four year stay, Anglo-Irish Sales announce their plan to leave Hackney and set-up at nearby Walthamstow. The Hackney management respond that they will stage their own sales and will continue to stage them on the last Wednesday of the month – the same day as Walthamstow.
1984 March 17 Trainer Derek Knight enjoys a day to remember when sending out Amazing Man (Glen Rock-Orchard Robin) to win the £3,500 Ladbrokes Golden Jacket for owner Victor Chandler. Later on the same card, World Of Sport viewers see kennelmate Scarcely Unknown (Hunday Dook-Speech Mistress) land the £1,000 Daily Mirror Hurdles Final and set a new Harringay 475 metre track record over jumps of 28.90.
1949 The NGRC announce that from June 1, only one of the existing four types of racing muzzle will be allowed. With just one small ammendment, it is the ‘new wire muzzle’ design (pattern 4) that remained virtually unchanged since.
