1964 New owner Bernard Shannon writes his first letter to the Greyhound Express describing the “cancer” of large numbers of greyhounds are put to sleep at the end of their racing careers. Mr Shannon suggests the building of kennels in a remote area with owners required to pay £1 per week towards the costs of keeping the dogs with 10% of all prize money also deducted to maintain the venture. As good as his word, he and wife Ann devote their lives to their cause, and are honoured many years later for having re-homed 10,000 greyhounds.
1991 100-1 shot Evening Mail (Coley-Excuse Me) wins the Waterloo Cup for his retiring handler Charlie Howard. He beats favourite Cant Clean Ash in the final.
1951 The 1949 English Laurels winner Good Worker has extended his racing career in Australia. The English bred five year old was beaten favourite in the final of the Hobart 1000.
1990 Cradley Heath are considering breaking with tradition and staging six runner fields, instead of five. The stumbling block could be the £6,000 cost of two new sets of starting traps.
1977 The Newspaper Press Fund Gala Charity Meeting at London White City sees a good turn out of greyhound stars. The race of the night is the Daily Express Invitation Trophy over 500 metres and worth £400 to the winner. It goes to Mrs P M Carter’s Sean Na Gaisce (Supreme Fun-Miss Hi Land, May 74) trained by John Colman at Wembley. He beats last year’s Derby finalist Xmas Holiday, and two future Derby finalists, Ballybeg Grand and Balliniska Band.
2002 It’s a busy month at Mullingar with the new stadium opened by Mrs Mary Rourke TD accompanied by IGB Chairman Paschal Taggart. The Midlands track narrowly beats the revamped Waterford, Dundalk and Lifford who are all due to re-open.
1959 Greyhound Just Jake is becoming something of a celebrity as the pet of the Deputy Sheriff of Nottingham in the TV series Robin Hood. The ex-racer is actually owned by the actor playing the role, John Arnatt.
1966 The Sporting Press inform potential advertisers that they will no longer accept advertisements for rearing unless they are accompanied by references from a coursing owner or official
1967 In an attempt to boost crowds, GRA tell ITV that they will not be allowed to broadcast this year’s English Derby Final.
1985 Peter Robinson (23) is the new racing manager at Derby.
1947 The Irish Coursing Club have taken possession of their newly built headquarters in Davis Road, Clonmel.
1990 Ultra Sense becomes the first winner of a new Australian competition, the $120,000 Golden Easter Egg. The fawn clocks 30.39 for the 520 metres with her sire Acacia Park responsible for first, second and fourth in the decider.
1959 The Wimbledon management announce plans to rebuild Burhill Kennels at a cost of around £60,000 – roughly £1.4m at current rates. Quite a figure, even at the time given there were only 200 dogs kennelled there. In addition to replacing the six ranges of kennels, plans for the 34 acre site include a schooling track with identical dimension to the Plough Lane circuit.
1985 NGRC figures reveal that there are now more than 1,000 permit trainers in Britain , 248 owner trainers and 338 professionals.
1987 Shawfield is sold by GRA to a group of Scottish businessmen headed by soft drinks manufacturer Christopher Dunn. Meanwhile GRA is planning to buy Powderhall.
1990 A raffle at Belle Vue raises £1,400 (index links to around £2,900) in the first month. The prize is an anonymously donated racing dog with trainer Pat McCombe agreeing to keep the dog for free for one year. All money raised in the sale of raffle tickets will go to local charities.
