1981 Manchester White City bookmakers ask general manager John Kennedy if they can burn the BAGS banner at the track on the day of its closure (October 30). There is great resentment towards the bookmaking organisation who effectively sealed the fate of the city’s second track when allocating its BAGS fixtures to Bristol. Rita Isaac is the only handler to be offered a job at Belle Vue. The other four handlers, Harry Saunders, Geoff Barnett, Ron Humphreys and Eddie Moore are to be made redundant.
1927 Four days after the opening of the Leeds Fullerton Park track, GRA’s Greenfield Greyhound Track (Bradford) becomes Britain’s eighth greyhound track. Among the winners on the seven race card is Charlie Cranston, winner of the first ever race at London White City four months earlier.
1973 At Limerick, the final of the St Leger has a superb line-up, with four classic winners in the field. In Trap 1 its Oaks winner Romping To Work, Trap 2 Nankies Pet, Trap 3 Cesarewitch winner Ritas Choice, Trap 4 China Sea, Trap 5 Laurels winner Kilbracken Style, Trap 6 Derby winner Bashful Man. Bashful Man, the 6-4 favourite, is well away and leads round the first bend with Romping To Work (Swanky Pa-Go To Work), who with a strong finish out-stays him to win the 550 yard classic by 1 1/2 lengths, with Ritas Choice, at 5-2, finishing fast to take runner-up spot three-quarters of a length ahead of Bashful Man in 31.04. Kilbracken Style (7-1), China Sea (18-1) and Yankies Pet (20-1) bring up the rear.
1956 Sandown track opens in Melbourne with a new type of lure with an elastic attachment that appears to ‘jump’ the hurdles. For many years, Melbourne races used a pace dog instead of a lure.
1990 A new NGRC track opens at Perry Barr under the direction of Maurice Buckland. It replaces the previous stadium, half a mile away, which closed in 1984.
1983 Duke of Abbey wins a £1,000 coursing stake in Ireland, weighing 110 pounds.
1935 Miss Marie Yate, who purchased seven Jeffcote-bred saplings on her introduction to greyhound racing has seen three of them win trialstakes for the Puppy Derby. One, Flying Joule, went on to win the event. Another, Fine Jubilee went on to win the 1936 English Derby.
1946 Wembley ban the stadium trainers from handling any dogs owned by bookmakers.
1960 Three offspring of exported English Derby winner Endless Gossip reached the American Derby Final at Taunton. Big Gossip finished the best of them in second place with Velvet Sis fourth and Mardy Girl seventh. Interestingly, the winner of the $15,000 race, Serape was a son of Black Magic II, who was based with Jim Hookway at Sheffield and won the Orient Cup, finished second in the St Leger and reached a string of top staying finals.
1990 Hall Green becomes the first track to have its own motel as the new 51 room building opens adjacent to the track.
1972 Time Up Please becomes the first Irish St Leger winner to successfully defend his title when leading home Clashing in the Limerick 550 final.
1866 Master McGrath (Dervock-Lady Sarah) is whelped. Two years later he wins the first of his three Waterloo Cups.
1966 West Ham grader Cardiff Rose had a busy if uneventful four days. During that time she failed by half a length to reach the final of the Test, finished fifth in an open at Southend and was beaten a short head in a graded race at West Ham. Total distance raced 1,950yds. Total prize money collected, £13.
1994 Wimbledon racing manager Simon Harris opts on the side of leniency when Crafty Fontana and Moaning Lad do not have their cards marked after appearing to fight in the semi finals of the Laurels. The video of the run-in was strenuously scrutinised by the stewards where Fontana cut across Lad who appeared to retaliate. Both careers continued with no further blemishes and Lad raced for another eight months going on to win the ’95 English Derby.
2002 After several times being refused even a kennel hand’s license (apparently because he came from a flapping background) Pat Rosney is granted a trainer’s license and has his first runners at Belle Vue. Rosney thanks Belle Vue boss John Gilburn for his assistance in providing a character reference. Sadly, three weeks later, Pat McCombe, father of Rosney’s partner Julie, dies aged 66. When Rosney asks for permission to withdraw dogs from Milton Keynes opens three days later, on compassionate grounds, it is refused by NGRC chief executive Frank Melville. Among the most vociferous criticisms of the NGRC comes from actor Vinnie Jones who describes the decision as “disgusting.”
1950 Frank Baldwin, former headman to his father at Perry Barr, is to take over the kennel of Coventry trainer Denis Hannafin.
1946 Ballyhennessy Seal and Ballynennan Moon, both standing at Burhill Kennels, are Britain’s most expensive stud dogs. They are £100 per service which equates to roughly £5,100 at current prices.
1981 Watford based permit trainer Tony Fisher declares himself bankrupt after losing a High Court appeal in his case against the NGRC. The Henlow permit holder had argued that the club’s rule 174i amounted to a restrictive practise in that it precluded NGRC owners and trainers to race at independent tracks. The total legal bill came to more than £20,000.
2010 World renowned vet Jim Gannon dies aged 80. Among his awards were an Order of Australia medal and an Australian Sports Medal, presented by Prime Minister John Howard.
1963 Wembley handler Jim Rimmer is at Thurles to see his three runners, Trojan Van, Husky King and Veneer King finish first, second and fourth in the Irish Grand National. The trio had been handled for the race by Dick Kerwick.
1933 West Ham bookmakers incurred the wrath of punters when taking a considerable time to pay out of a three dog dead heat. It was the first ever recorded at the stadium and the layers weren’t sure how much they were due to pay out.
2012 A change in rules in Ireland will prevent the re-introduction of eliminated dogs into later rounds of competitions as reserves – providing the event is worth more than €5,000 to the winner. Smaller events will be unaffected.
1995 The Henley Centre produces a report on the current state of greyhound racing. It calculated than on average, 37% of track profits came from catering, 27% from tote deductions, 10% from BAGS, 9% from admissions, with 3% from the BGRF and a similar amount from on-course bookies. The average expenditure was £1.6m, of which prize money and trainers was the highest contributor at £740,000 (46%), followed by wages (34%) and catering (17%). The study calculated that the 36 tracks earned around £6.4m from greyhound racing. The Government earned £13.6m. Greyhound racing comprised around 25% of bookmaker turnover, but it paid back, including BAGS, around 0.5% of its turnover. The study prophesied that if the Government reduced off course betting tax by two percent, and returned none of it to the greyhound industry, the number of tracks would fall from 36 to 26. If one percent went to punters and one percent was statutorily paid back to the greyhound industry, the number of tracks would rise to 45.
1973 A new rule will require the handlers of all Irish runners entered in NGRC events must provide proof of inoculation.
2001 Norwich owner Sally Button wins a pup in a competition on SKY. The youngster, by Vintage Cleaner and Grayslands Noir joins Kim Marlow. Named Skys The Limit, the pup goes on to win a sprint open at Romford before spending the rest of his career running graded at Mildenhall.
1952 Following their presentation of the Cesarewitch winner, West Ham stage a parade of 50 different breeds of dog. The biggest cheer goes to the cheerful mutt bringing up the rear – a mongrel.
1948 Private trainer James J Boswell represented Britain in the first four national international competition ever staged. It was held in the Metropolitan Stadium in Madrid. Boswell had the only UK owned entry in the 24-runner competition which was staged between October 12 and 17. There were 14 Spanish entries plus five from France and four from Italy. The formalities took place at the grand home of Spanish coursing, the Military Club, 20 miles outside the city and a service of Mass was held by the Bishop of Madrid prior to the meeting getting underway. The British entry Goodwins Best finished fourth in the final which was won by Humming Boy (Fish Hill-Rio Czarina), which also trained by Boswell on behalf of Spanish owners. Boswell, who was based in Goffs Lane, Waltham Cross, gave a very favourable impression of Spanish coursing. Very similar in many aspects to its Irish and UK equivalent, Boswell noted a few differences. Firstly, most of the spectators were on horse back. There were also a couple of additional rules “which have much to commend them.” Firstly, the slipper was not allowed to slip the greyhounds until notified to do so by a whistle blown by the judge. There was also an official stop watch to time the course. Any buckle that lasted less than 50 seconds was declared ‘no-course’.
1983 October 28 John Power Oaks final has a fine supporting programme at Harringay, including The Classic Select Stakes over 475 metres and worth £1,000 and trophy to the winner. The Select sees George Curtis’s Brighton-trained Yankee Express (pictured), fly round in a new track record of 28.22, which will never be bettered. The Oaks Final two races later is won by J Chard and R Niblett’s Major Grove, trained by Eric Pateman at Wimbledon, who wins the £7,000 final in 28.59.
