2013 Trainer Chris Allsopp announces plans to open a ‘satellite’ kennel in Ireland.

2013 Trainer Paul Young provides the £63 tricast when Jaytee Lightning leads home Jaytee Jules and Bubbly Soviet in the Olympic at Hove.

2007 Top Honcho, the most successful track sire seen in Britain or Ireland, dies at Michael Dunne’s kennel aged 14. Bought by Geoff Parnaby after breaking a hock in a trial for the Silver Chief Classic, the son of Head Honcho left quarantine in January 1998. The dog would have to overcome fertility problems, resulting in him eventually having a fertility rate of roughly double the average for a greyhound sire. He was also involved in a near fatal kennel fight with Thorgil Tex. But virtually as soon as his first pups hit the tracks, Honcho was an instant success. One of those very first litters would include Droopys Woods, Droopys Honcho, plus the dog who would prove to be him heir, and a champion sire in his own right – Droopys Vieri. By the time he died, Top Honcho had finished leading Irish sire of a record six Honcho’s offspring included English (Droopys Scholes) and Irish (He Said So) Derby winners, plus the likes of Top Savings, Tyrur Ted, Micks Best Hero, Horseshoe Ping, Blue Majestic, Greenacre Lin, Loyal Honcho, Taltothehand, Big Freeze and Mineola Farloe to name but a dozen. Following his death, stud keeper Michael Dunne told the Star: “He was a perfect dog in every way. He was not quite such a ‘soft dog’ as Frightful Flash but he had almost human qualities.He was incredibly loyal, more than any dog I’ve ever seen, and I’m sure that on the night that he died, he was waiting for me to be with him before he finally passed away. He never refused to cover a bitch, which is nearly impossible to imagine for a dog who was so busy. Though it was quite funny that he had short spells when he fancied some more than others. At one stage, he liked the fawns. At another stage he was keen on the older bitches, and the worst state they were in, the better. How will I remember him? I remember Geoff telling me that when he took the dog off his original owner, the guy said: ‘Look after him. Top Honcho has been good to anybody that has ever come into contact with him.’ How right he was. We had a guy in here only the other day who had used him at stud and he reckoned Top Honcho had put his kids through college. There are lots of similar stories. He changed many lives for the better.

2013 Irish Derby and St Leger winning trainer Eddie Wade dies following a long illness.

1999 Linda Jones has her first graded runners at Walthamstow having switched from Romford. She has eight runners and wins with her first runner Bangor Adam.

2004 With Jeff Stelling giving up his greyhound gig, SKY announce that veteran broadcaster Gary Newbon has been signed up to present the last four greyhound programmes of 2004.

2007 Trainer Pat Rosney gives up his Monmore contract and switches to Nottingham for ‘a lifestyle change’.

1973 NGRC track Wakefield closes shortly after celebrating its 40th anniversary. Built, owned and run by the MacKrell family, the former independent joined the NGRC in 1967. The final decision to close was brought about by a Government ban on floodlights due to the energy crisis. It reduced the number of NGRC tracks to 43. Meanwhile independent Luton shuts a week earlier after 42 years of trading. The site, sold for development, had been bought by a subsidiary of Ladbrokes.

2004 Swindon becomes the first track to host a 24Dogs live virtual action – where an image of the six runners is displayed on a computer screen to coincide with their positions in real time in a race.

1973 Following the recent closures of Reading and the impending closure of Clapton, Stan Gudgin will move to Harringay and Adam Jackson will join White City. They will replace private attached trainers Noreen Collin (White City), Betty Godwin (Clapton) and Dave Pett (Harringay) who are all sacked.

1975 Hurdler It Blackie adds the White City Chase track record to his 500mH best for the course. His time for jumping six hurdles was 42 spots slower than his five-hurdle best time of 30.24.

1973 Laurdella Fun, owned by Mrs Marion Fenwick and trained by Norman Oliver completes a big puppy hat-trick by winning the Manchester Puppy Cup. The blue had previously won the Midland and North Of England Puppy Derbys. He also reached the Wimbledon (last) and Yorkshire Puppy Derby (3rd) finals. Fun is from the first litter sired by Supreme Fun. The litter will include the Shelbourne 750 yard track record breaker Waverley Supreme.

1973 30 year old Bob Rowe is appointed the new racing manager at White City. A son of a former Bristol trainer, Rowe had racing office experience at Wandsworth, Leicester and West Ham, prior to his appointment as grader at Hall Green. He will take over from Charlie Birch who is to run the GRA’s kennel complex at Northaw. The Hall Green position goes to ‘Jeff’ Jeffcoate.

1997 Oxford are in shock when trainer Mick Mercer dies of a heart attack aged 55.

2000 Ex-racer Zak, owned by Lord Lipsey is the Westminster Dog of the Year.

1999 Well known Waterford owner and breeder Ann Power dies suddenly. Among Mrs Power’s best known runners were Fly Cruiser and Fly Smasher.

1997 With six weeks of the year remaining, trainer Ernie Gaskin equals John McGee’s record for most open race victories in a year – 222.

1995 Derek Knight and Linda Mullins jointly head the open race table with 128 runners apiece.