1973 Celtic Park re-opens after ten months closure due to terrorist bomb damage.
1991 Live Contender (I’m Slippy-Lanigans Ball) wins the Produce Stakes at Clonmel in 28.90. Super Hoffman was second and Ardfert Mick, fifth. A 4-5 chance Denny Lennon’s dog had been fastest in all but the third round and had been unbeaten throughout.
1981 Echo Spark (5-1), trained by Joe Cobbold beats Upland Tiger (4-9f) by a short head in the Laurels final at Wimbledon.
1989 May 12 At Park Vale Sports Complex, Mill Lane, Barrow hold their 200th meeting. The tiny track gave racegoers a superb view of the racing. The circuit, for safety reasons, is positioned below and one the outside of the stock car track. This was the second track in Barrow. The first around the rugby pitch at Craven Park in Hindpool Road only lasted a year back in 1932. (The Mill Lane track has also since closed).
1974 May 25 The Grand Prix final at Walthamstow, over 700 yards and worth £1,500 to winner, sees trainers George Curtis and Frank Melville both with two runners apiece. George has King David and Leading Pride; Frank has Rally Round and Chain Gang. But they all finish behind one of the two privately-trained runners D Law’s Ballyglass Hope (Faithful Hope-Deise Ivory, Aug 71). The 7-1 shot trained by Don Thornton wins in 40.58.
1927 May 23 The first track in Sheffield opens at Darnall. It is built around the Wellington cricket ground in Poole Road. Many city councillors are present to witness the new sport, which goes off without a hitch in front a crowd estimated at between five and six thousand spectators. The first race worth £10 to winner and £5 to the runner-up over 500 yards, goes to Mr J Smith’s Mission (Royal Dictator – Out Of Time) who wins by 2 lengths in a time of “28 and 2/3 seconds”.
2004 Walthamstow announce that they will deduct 50 pence from every graded runner’s prize money. The scheme will raise around £10,000 per year. In 2003 the local home finders scheme was £17,000 in the red.
1997 Nottingham is the first NGRC track to have its own website.
1943 In wartime when most of the classics are suspended, many others carry on unaffected. At Wembley the Gold Cup run over the St Leger distance of 700 yards, and always seen as a useful guide to the September classic, draws a class field including Mrs R Joseph’s Maidens Champion (Inler Iris – Maidens Beach) trained at Wimbledon by Paddy McEllistrim. He wins his heat from trap 4 at 4/5. He easily takes the final on the 29th as the 11-10 favourite.
1956 The 1955 English St Leger winner, Title Role (Celtic Chef – Cooklill Darkie) shows his liking for Wembley’s 700 yard course when he takes the Gold Cup at the track. Third favourite at 7-2, he leads rounding the third bend and stays on to win by 3/4 of a length in 40.62 for local trainer Jack Harvey and owner Noel Purvis.
1928 May 28 Plymouth hold their first meeting in front of a very large Whit Monday crowd. The GRA track put on a seven-race programme, which includes two hurdle races. The first race, over 525 yards and worth £8 to the winner and £4 to runner up, goes to Miss Wynter’s Tabiff (Fluse-Verona Lady, Aug 23), in 33.44.
1989 Scotland gets a new track when Hawick is opened by Hugh and Jim Robertson.
1995 Milton Keynes is bought by Bristol Stadiums for a figure round £3m.
1978 At the close of business on May 31, Olive Turner, Keeper of the Greyhound Stud Book, reports a bumper year for British breeding. Some 1,199 litters were registered, the highest total since 1949 when 1,398 litters were born.
1970 NGRC steward Ken Guy causes a major upheaval when arriving at independent Luton on the night of the Bedfordshire Derby first round. Guy’s presence wasn’t spotted until after the first race. Once news broke, there was a clamber to leave with many of those in the crowd being NGRC owners and trainers who feared being ‘warned off’ by the Club Several jumped the fence at the rear of the track before Guy was asked to leave by racing manager Norman Saunders.
1995 American racer JJ Doc Richard won his 37th consecutive race and took the world record from Pat C Rendezvous
1970 Top lot at Shelbourne’s May 12/13 greyhound sales is Pearly Path (350 gns). 12 lots further down the price list at a mere 200 guineas is the brindle bitch Leap And Run. A year on and trained by John Bassett, the Jan ’69 whelp runs third in the English Derby and second in the Oaks.
1985 Top independent star Blue Max (Knockrour Brandy – Miss Wish) is retired to stud. His race career shows 37 wins from 44 races and £27,000 in prize money.
1962 May 26 The Variety Club Of Great Britain stage their first charity meeting at London White City, with the first three races shown live on ITV. With many film and television stars present, the meeting is a huge success. Bruce Forsyth is in charge of proceedings and introduces Sid James, Hughie Green, Liz Frazer, Bud Flanagan, Eddie Calvert, Dickie Attenborough, Shirley Eaton, Stanley Baker, Morecambe and Wise and Kenneth More to name but a few to the large crowd. Some of the stars become owners for the night and they accompany the parade leaders around the track.
1963 May 1 In front of millions of television viewers, the final of the BBC TV Trophy at Wimbledon, is nearly ruined when a mackintosh is thrown on the hare as it rounds the last bend. Curraheen Bride 4-1 is leading Thonougu Princess 5-1, who checks, but the stewards decided the incident has not affected the result and Curraheen Bride wins by 31⁄2 lengths from Thonougu Princess in a new track record for the 880 yards 52.32. The would-be race wrecker runs across the track and jumps the inner fence, but is caught by track attendants and dragged away by the police.
1970 Bord na gCon announce a huge rise in the winner’s prize for the Irish Derby – up to £5,000 from £2,000. The English Derby is worth almost £10,000.
1993 Birol Nadir, the son of estranged tycoon Asil leaves Linda Mullins with a £10,000 kennel bill unpaid.
1987 May Mr V Crowe’s Cavan Town (Sail On II-Leafy Glade) becomes one of the select few to win the English and Scottish Grand Nationals in the same year. Having already triumphed at Hall Green in April Mal Cumner’s Maidstone trained runner starts odds on 8-13 to lift the Powderhall 465m decider and duly obliges in 28.68.
1995 The bodies of nine greyhounds are found in a quarry near Airdrie. The dogs which included former Catford and Shawfield runners had been strangled.
1981 May 1 Cambridge stage a Racing Festival. The big race of the night, the Pat Mullins Memorial Trophy, over 400 metres and worth £300 to the winner, goes to Mrs D Maude’s Decoy Villa (Broadford Boy – Tibbys Girl, Jul 79). The Joe Cobbold Ipswich trained runner clocked 26.25.
1993 197 runners are entered in the English Derby including 21 Irish entries. Heading the market at 14-1 were Nikitas Sand, Special Moment and Daleys Denis.
2000 Rusheen Picture and Wrenbury Rebel dead heat in a Derby qualifying round. They stage a run-off and Rebel goes through. Trainer John Quinn agrees to bring Picture along as a reserve for the next round. Rebel is withdrawn lame and plans are made for Picture to run in his place – until it is discovered that he is ineligible to run due to his defeat in the run-off. If he had lost in the alternative method of selection – a toss of a coin, he could have taken part in the next round!
1974 May 2 Miss L Walker and Joe de Mulder’s Jimsun (Monalee Champion-Lady Expert, May 72) wins his heat of the Midland Grand Prix at Leicester by 61⁄2 lengths in a new track record of 28.46 for the 525 yard course. Two days later in the final the 4-11 favourite storms home by 121⁄2 lengths to take the £500 final in a new track record of 28.44. He is made 7-1 favourite for the forthcoming English Derby.
1993 A fire at Milton Keynes guts the racing office causing £50,000 worth of damage.
