1995 Midway through the six month trial of the new innovation of ‘middle seeding’ held at Wimbledon, racing manager Simon Harris is sceptical about its impact. He believes trainers are avoiding middle seeding due to the imbalance of railers and wides. For example in a race of five railers, the middle seed would automatically be given trap six. He states: “It is not the ‘be all and end all’ that everyone thought it would be.” Wimbledon announce that there will be no middle seeding in the forthcoming Oaks.
1995 Batties Whisper, bred in Wheldrake, Yorkshire, by Alice Swaffield wins the Irish St Leger for owner and breeder Alice Swaffield.
2013 “He’s not getting any youngers and the Night Of Stars will definitely be his last race” says Liam Dowling of Ballymac Vic. Wrong! The super veteran is still to win the biggest race of his career, the 2014 Champion Stakes, as well as reaching another Irish Derby Final. One dog who does bow out on the big night is Droopys Jet.
1963 Welsh Derby Fairys Chum wins the Gymcrack for trainer Bob Burles. Second is Geoff De Mulder’s Pall Mall winner Cahara Rover with English Derby winner Lucky Boy Boy and Scottish Derby winner We’ll See well down the field.
2004 Armed me take two bitches from breeder Ian Greaves and demand a ransom for their return. The bitches were eventually found roaming in Dublin.
2013 There are two withdrawals from the Puppy Derby semis. Swift Keith is lame, Kendles King is ineligible, and should not have contested the first round, after coming into the hands of an unlicensed person when moving from trainer Terry Hunter to Simon Cull. There is further disappointment when Sidarian Teejay is withdrawn lame on the morning of the final.
1977 Romford announce minimum appearance money of £6 (equivalent of £44).
2007 Trainer Charlie Lister tells reporters he “feels like packing it in” after serious injuries to Farloe Premier and Fear Haribo in the Eclipse semis. He says: “We all have dogs that get injuries at one time or another, but I have never known anything like the spate mine have suffered in the past couple of months. I’m not exaggerating to say that over half the dogs in my kennel are lame at the moment, and most have suffered serious injuries.” (Farloe Premier (wrist) never races again but after six months of TLC, Haribo (gracilis) returns to racing and wins another seven opens before his eventual retirement, a further six months later.
1966 Having already won the Irish Oaks and National Sprint, Vincent Toner’s Hairdresser (Glen Abbey-Billium, Jan 65) is still young enough to contest, and easily win, the Dunmore Puppy Cup
1997 Wild Scuffle is top lot at the NGA’s Fall Meet in Abilene, Kansas at $27,000. A total of 772 greyhounds were entered in the three day sales and auctions.
2002 Delays earlier in the meeting sees the last race in the Racing Post Festival go to traps at a quarter to midnight.
1970 Silver Plassey wins the Dunmore Puppy Cup just three months after being sold for 350gns at Shelbourne Park sales.
1952 Eastville (Bristol) win the National Intertrack Championship after beating Bradford by 19-11. The final race was won by Careless Hands who went on to win The Key at Wimbledon.
1979 Ipswich owner trainer Ken Linzell wins his biggest race to date when Ask Era land the Suffolk St Leger.
1946 The owner of Stratford flapping track in London reports fantastic betting in the recent £1,000 to winner competition (that’s roughly £44K index linked). “One of the first bets laid was £1,000-£80 on a dog that did not start favourite in its heat but won its heat.” Other bets included a £700-£200 and £900-£100. The final resulted in a dead heat between two runners originally chalked up at ante post prices of 20-1 and 33-1.
1971 The NGRC announce the introduction of ‘group racing’ and the scrapping of ‘classics’ for open race competitions.
1966 Walthamstow try a new experiment of replacing the turf on three of the four bends with a sand and topsoil mix.
2002 Fast Appeal, a fawn dog, trained by Alison Waggott is withdrawn from a Sunderland BAGS card, ‘in season’.
1951 Moreton Ann (Grand Hussar-Moreton Lily, 49) is the year’s outstanding puppy. Second in the greyhound class at Crufts when only 11 months old, she won the British National Produce Stakes at Stamford Bridge. She then beat future Derby winner Endless Gossip in the Puppy Derby at Wimbledon, before becoming only the second bitch to win to complete the Puppy Derby/Oaks double. Interestingly, all six in the latter final were British bred.
2013 Following a technical error which showed a £27,000 carry-over pool, punters lumped on the Romford jackpot. The single winning punter collected almost £47,000 which the tote operators agreed to honour.
1973 GRA’s open race schedule for 1974 plays havoc with long established time slots. The Oaks is moved from May to November, the Pall Mall goes from November to April, the Laurels will be moved from late in the year to May and the Gold Collar switches from May to September.
1933 The Longfellow II adds the 600 yard hurdle ‘world record’ at West Ham. He already holds the world’s best time for 550 yard hurdles.
1956 Loop Line, the Greyhound Express reporters for Crayford, selects all eight winners on a Saturday night card. They came in at odds of 4-1, 2-1, 2-1f, 7-4, 5-4f, 11-8f, 7-4f, 5-2jf for a 6,593-1. He also picked four winning forecasts.
1976 Shawfield narrowly failed to hold onto their first leg lead when beaten in the National Intertrack Championship by Brighton. The Sussex track, who are the reigning champions, called on open race stars Reddans Walk and Bonzo for their home tie and got home with a couple of points to spare.
2007 Within days of the announcement of the 2008 SKY fixtures, Shawfield announce that they do not want the Scottish Derby televised.
1981 An unusual event takes places in Australia. Ten greyhounds are given solo trials between races and the fastest of them collects the winner’s prize.
1951 Double Grand National winner Blossom Of Annagura adds the Irish National to his CV. The five year old is trained by Jim Barry at Ramsgate.
1970 Burglars have stolen 50 silver trophies from the Wembley home of former trainer Jack Harvey. They include the English Derby trophies won by Davesland and Mile Bush Pride.
1953 Eccentric greyhound owner and benefactor Rupert V Cobb (Cobb Marathon), studies the stars to predict Glenbrook and Summer Rain to finish in that order in the final of the Northern Handicap. Neither dog makes the first three.
2004 The Essex Vase gets underway at Romford. Eventual winner Loughteen Flyer is available at 50-1 ante post with sponsors Coral.
1966 The NGRS protest to the Minister of Agriculture when they issue a new order that all meat unfit for human consumption, which is currently being stained, will, in future, be sterilised. It is the second time in six years that they have tried to force through the change. Some trainers insist of adding raw meat to biscuit. The cost is around two shillings (10p) per pound.
2003 The closure of Catford sees Tony Taylor and John Simpson join Wimbledon. Meanwhile its racing manager Simon Harris is serving out his notice before heading off to Coventry. He will be replaced by ‘joint racing managers’ Derek Hope and Graeme Henigan.
1973 Irish star Itschampion is retired to stud after breaking down in the Guinness 600 – an event he won by 10 lengths the previous year. The Ger McKenna trained black had been suffering with a long term toe injury. Itsachampion’s other wins include the McAlevey Gold Cup and Irish Cesarewitch. The son of Monalee Champion and Cranog Bet will prove a huge success at stud throwing English Derby winner Laccca Champion and his Irish equivalent Bold Work, plus the likes of Ivy Hall Solo, Its Ballyhenry, Instant Gambler, Astrosyn Doll etc etc
1999 Dilemmas Lad emulates dam Kens Dilemma by winning the St.Leger at Wimbledon. Kens had won the ’95 final at Wembley. Beaten favourite Palace Issue has his revenge two weeks later when beating Lad by nine lengths in the final of the Racing Post Stayers.
2013 Following a mystery illness which has claimed the life of two of his runners, Alan Hutton’s kennel is quarantined.
2007 Two runners are withdrawn from an open at Walthamstow. The reserves Barnfield Joe (9-2) and Ronnies Hotstuff (5-1) finish first and second.
1999 One Thursday evening meeting featured 61 open races. The following night, there are just four.
2013 In a speech at a House Of Commons function, RGT chief executive Peter Laurie states that there is a retired greyhound at one in every 580 households. If that number could be increased to one in 480 – there would be no retired greyhound issue.
1952 Irish Puppy Derby winner Ollys Pal (Bellas Prince-Quare Fire) is sold to Highgate businessman Mr C Billling for £3,000 (equivalent to £95,000 today). The dog makes his debut in a White City 550 yard open and sets a new track record of 29.98.
1973 A bizarre timing coincidence sees four of the last five Walthamstow 525 yard opens won in 29.29 and two of them were recorded by the same dog, Gay Steve.
