1991 A 58 year old accountant received a three year jail sentence for driving through the main gates at Catford at an estimated 80mph and killing two people. The driver was over the drink drive limit.
1950 One of Ireland’s best stud dogs has died, Mountain Emperor (Talon-Wicklow Heather, Jul 42) had a coursing record of 24 outings, one defeat. He achieved greatness by being the first to win the Puppy Derby and Irish Cup in successive seasons. He only defeat came in the semi final of the 1944 Cork Cup.
2006 Mark Wallis lands the Trainers Championship meeting at Wimbledon after winning four races with Roswell Spaceman, Star Of Dromin, January Tiger and Blackmagic Guy
1971 Come On Wonder joins Paddy McEllistrim to pursue a hurdles career after being disqualified on the flat for fighting. As a pup, the Surrey born dog broke the 550 record at West Ham and was rated even faster than this improving litter sister and Puppy Oaks winner Dolores Rocket. Wonder will eventually be sent to Australia for stud duties.
1992 Poor Sue, one of the leading fancies for the TV Trophy fails the pre-race chromo and is withdrawn from the heats. Trainer Stan Kennett is fined £500 by the NGRC.
1933 Results of a six dog trial at Caford: 1st Midland Mountain (unchallenged), 2nd Miss Areil (fought), 3rd Hopeful Helen (interfered with – DNF), 4th Sixty-Nine (fought DNF), 5th Ha (interfered with – DNF), 6th Soldier Slap (fought DNF).
1995 A protest against the Peterborough open race policy sees Mount Royal Fox returned at 1-50fav.
2005 Droopys Marco heads the ante post betting for the Totesport Scottish Derby. The sponsors bet: 4-1 Droopys Marco, 5-1 Robbie De Niro, 8-1 Ballymac Niloc, Bell Devotion, 12-1 Farloe Verdict, 14-1 Ancient Title, Barefoot Maestro, Ballymac Kewell.
1961 A gang of angry punters besiege the Catford racing office after seeing only one joint favourite win. They claim the track has been watered to cause upsets in form. They are taken onto the track by director John Sutton to see that no water had been applied. They left the stadium soon afterwards.
2015 Derby winning trainer Bruno Berwick leaves the sport after losing an appeal for a cocaine positive test on a runner at Perry Barr. Berwick maintains throughout that the result was due to accidental contamination from workmen at the kennel using the drug for recreational use. During the same week, a court finds against a bus company who sacked a driver when he tested positive. The court determined that no account had been taken of the possibility of accidental contamination on bank notes handed to the driver.
1971 Lord Stoneham’s Betting Gaming & Lotteries (Ammendment) Bill receives its second reading in the Commons. If will allow tracks to race another 26 times per year (they are currently restricted to 104) and will allow them to choose their own race days.
1985 Peter Robinson (23) is the new racing manager at Derby.
2002 The racing offices at Harlow and Henlow take some stick from punters when advertising open races for Good Friday – one of only two days in the year when betting is illegal.
1988 March 12 The Racing Post Arc De Triomphe final at Walthamstow has drawn together six of the best middle distance runners in training. Including three from the local kennels, Poor Me (T4), trained by John Coleman and in traps three and six are the Linzell pair Double Check and Foretop. The field is completed by Four Chimes (T1), Westmead Gold (T2) and Matthew Rock (T5). The punters got it right when they made the three local greyhounds 7-4, 7-2 and 9-2 with the others at 11-2, 13-2 and 10-1. At the off Poor Me flew the boxes (4.84 for the 70 metre split time) followed by Foretop (4.88) and Double Check (4.90). The others were over a length further back. At the first bend Foretop swung wide and Double Check took the lead from Poor Me. Approaching the third bend Double Check had doubled his lead but turning the last bend and the home straight he started to fade. Poor Me, took closer order, then Foretop with a renewed challenge joined the front two runners, unleashing a very strong finish some 20 metres before the line, to take the £3,000 prize plus trophy by a heck and 3/4 of a length from Poor Me and Double Check in 28.98. The 7-4 favourite Foretop (Blue Train-Green Slieve, Nov 85) is owned by Brian and Ray Turner.
1930 The Wembley Spring Cup is won by Mick The Miller, and on March 23 the following year, he wins it again.
2003 Shades Of Johnny, from Swansea wins the £1,000 first prize in a straight race run as part of the Cheltenham National Hunt meeting.
1985 Oxford racing manager Mick Wheble confidently predicted a whitewash when his team took on Coventry in an intertrack. His opposing manager Gary Woodward was so outraged that he promised to strip naked to make the presentation if Wheble’s prediction came true – providing Wheble would reciprocate, should the opposite occur. The Oxford man turned pale after seeing the first three legs go to Coventry runners. However his modesty was spared when Little Weston (not Little Hampton!) landed the final leg for the Cowley visitors.
1950 The four tracks in Liverpool Breck Park, Seaforth, Stanley and White City have all left the NGRC blaming costs as the reason. With fees well in excess of £1,000 per year they felt that they could manage better outside the code. Other tracks that have left the NGRC recently are Doncaster, Exeter Marsh Barton, Long Eaton and Glasgow Firhill.
2003 Gary Burridge, husband of Poole trainer Jo, dies suddenly.
1993 Walthamstow stage their first ever BAGS meeting. Approximately 700 attend.
1971 Sheffield have introduced pre-race chromatography following a series of doping incidents. On February 5th, and following a successful gamble on Kilmore Pride (from 4-1 to 2-1), it was discovered that three of the five runners had been nobbled. The winner produced her usual time though the other runners ran way below their usual form. Ten days later the dopers tried again, though this time the management had been alerted when samples sent to neighbouring track at Leeds had tested positive. The race was not run and another three runners were also withdrawn from later races due to failed tests. A further attempt took place the following night when three runners in the last race tested positive. The introduction of the testing unit, which costs £1,500 per year to rent, has come as a big relief to local layers who lost over £4,000 on Kilmore Pride’s race alone.
1961 The NGRC alter their rules to allow Irish trained greyhounds to compete in British opens for the first time, but only under strict conditions 1) The race must be worth in excess of £200. 2) The greyhound must have trialled over the course and distance on which it is to race within 14 days 3) The handler must be an ICC licensed trainer and the identity book must be available, 4) The greyhound must be housed in NGRC licensed kennels unless it is coming direct from Ireland by aeroplane or ferry 5) The greyhound must be fully inoculated 6) The handler must conform “in ever aspect” to NGRC rules. The first entry under the new scheme, Glideaway Solar, trials within a week of the new rule being introduced.
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.
The follow story is a first hand account of that time given by a former great friend of Greyhound Star, the absolute legend who was Paddy Sweeney. In quite an emotional interview with Star Editor Floyd Amphlett, the Donegal vet describes the unfolding event:
“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 setlled 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.”
