2006 Clash Harmonica’s record breaking win in the Napoleons Casino Invitation, keeps Charlie Lister ahead in the Trainers Championship table. Lister is 39 points ahead of Nick Savva whose Westmead Joe was the beaten favourite in the four-runner invitation.
1966 Following the introduction of payroll tax, Wimbledon increase their weekly kennel charges by seven shillings per week to 56 shillings. That is inflation linked to £54.60 today.
2013 Former Derby winning trainer and successful owner and breeder Patsy Byrne dies suddenly in Ireland. He was 64.
2014 The brilliant veteran Skate On sets a third sprint record of her career when clocking 16.18 at Yarmouth. In the previous three months she had broken the sprint records at Nottingham and Wimbledon.
1975 Yarmouth attract a crowd of 2,500 for their first East Anglian Derby final staged under NGRC rules. The race, which is switched to a Saturday night, goes to the Bletchley trained runner Another Gear (Cricket Bunny-Clipalong).
2013 With three months of the year to go, Chris Allsopp (4-6f) has a 33 point lead over Mark Wallis in the Trainers Championship. The Monmore trainer is then challenged by Paul Young (7-4) with Wallis (8-1) in third spot.
2014 Towcester is planning for its switch to greyhound racing by selling a number of its prime fixtures to ARC.
1985 Veteran Rathkenny Lassie makes a third attempt to win the Gold Collar having finished fourth in the previous two deciders. Marjorie Coleman’s brindle duly makes her third final – and finishes fourth.
1977 September 7 The Cesarewitch at Navan, worth £1,800 to the winner, goes to Mrs P O’Malley’s First Debenture (wfd Monalee Champion-Bank Loan, Aug 75) who wins the 600 yards classic in 33.70.
1999 Belle Vue complete major track works involving the re-alignment of the bends, the resurfacing with 600 tons of sand and the installation of a Swaffham hare. They only lose one meeting.
2009 Lenson Joker is described as “the best I have trained” by trainer Tony Collett following the dog’s retirement. The Sittingbourne handler rates the dog’s victory in the 2008 Champion Stakes as the best of his career. The 2008 Greyhound of the Year also won the Sunderland Grand Prix, the Racing Post Festival Stayers and the Cesarewitch. He was runner-up in a second Grand Prix final and the ’07 St. Leger. Less than a week later, the 2008 Sprinter of the Year Boherbradda Mac makes a surprise return from racing following an apparent career ending graclilis injury sustained five months earlier. Harry Williams’ dog goes on to contest another 23 opens, winning 13, including his final outing at Pelaw Grange, some 13 months later.
1962 Francis Gentle CBE, one of the four original pioneers of greyhound racing in Britain, dies aged 68. Gentle retired as GRA chairman in 1957.
2014 Tom Kelly announces his retirement as chairman and chief executive of BAGS. He will soon reappear – unfortunately – as the new chairman of GBGB.
1950 Eastville are blaming taxation as the reason for not paying a dividend to shareholders. In 1949 they paid a 30% dividend on profits of £8,366 (equivalent to £299K today).
1965 GRA announce that they are to stage a series of ‘seller’ races at their regional tracks.
2013 Sidaz Scotty appears to have made a dramatic return to fitness, five months after falling and hurting his spine in the Gymcrack Final (4-6f). The Dean Childs runner wins his first two sprint opens at Hove before going lame next time out. He is kept off for a further six months but then breaks down for the final time in a race at Monmore.
1975 Catford optimistically advertise the 1,050m Sutton Memorial (the longest event in the calendar) for ‘six or eight runners’.
1966 An owners group who flew from Newcastle, and bought 21 lots, contributed to the most successful Shelbourne Park sale in some considerable time which raised more than £12,000 – index linked to £234,000.
2006 Nine weeks after the Seaham story hit the newspapers – where a local builder had destroyed pet animals with a captive bolt pistol – the NGRC warn off trainer Sid Fenwick, his daughter Gillian Young and her husband, Graeme, who was the assistant racing manager at Pelaw Grange. Fenwick has trained two of the greyhounds identified in the story.
2012 Crayford trainer Ian Stevens’ kennel is placed into a five day quarantine following the unexpected death of grader Fitz Peggy. An autopsy reveals the bitch died of Canine Haemorrhagic Pneumonia.
1974 Westmead Valley (Carry On Oregon-Cricket Dance, Jul 71) completes a unique Slough double litter by landing the Scurry Gold Cup, just weeks after brother Delroney Leader had won the track’s major six-bend final, the Buckinghamshire Cup. In an advert in Greyhound Magazine, in September 1971, both dogs could have been bought for £100. Other eight week old pups being offered included the future champion brood Westmead Damson (dam of Westmead Power) – a snip at £70.
2014 GBGB are investing a surge into positive samples for the substance 5-HTP
1977 Coronation Stakes winner and Derby semi finalist Elteen Queen (Crefogue Flash-Bozos Pride) is purchased for £4,500 by Gordon Hodson for export to Australia.
2000 20-1 ante post chance Fervant Flash (Frightful Flash-Murtys Fancy) wins the Ladbrokes Midland Gold Cup for trainer Tony Meek. Owner Steve Stones reveals that after buying the dog at eight weeks old, he placed a £100 bet at 500-1 with William Hill that the Flash would win a category one event.
1950 Ballymac Ball is retired to stud at a fee of £50 (equivalent to £1,785 today). He will stand with trainer Stan Martin at Burhill for whom he won the English Derby, two Laurels, an International, a White City Stakes and a Spring Cup. The brindle won over £5,000 in prize money and also set track records for 500yds at Wimbledon and 525yds at White City.
