1946 The racing press are critical of Britain’s tracks. Months after changing the rules to allow racing managers to seed wide runners in graded races, only Eastville and Wimbledon, both managed by Con Stevens, are seeding runners.
1952 The racing press choose the best six dogs in training for the Select Stakes. They opt for: Endless Gossip, Ballylanigan Tanist, Magourna Reject, Funny Worker, Drumman Rambler and Minorcas Hope. The selections are made just five days before the St Leger Final which, in front of 30,000 spectators, goes to the Bob Burles trained Funny Worker. Favourite Magourna Reject finishes lame and is replaced in the £200 invitation by Mad Miller, giving local handler Lesley Reynolds the inside three runners. He duly wins the 525 yard event with his second string, the 1951 Derby winner Ballylanigan Tanist. Favourite Endless Gossip (52 Derby) is third.
1960 Pigalle Wonder, who has raced and been standing at stud in Britain, will accompany trainer Jim Syder when he moves home to County Wicklow.
1929 Levator destroys his field by 12 lengths to run away with the Grand National Final at White City. It is the 13th win of his 29 race career and his last. Soon afterwards he is killed in a kennel fight.
1964 A potential £1,000 match race between Leger winner Lucky Hi There and beaten favourite Failte Mal is scuppered when Fred Barrett, the owner of ‘Lucky’, says he will not participate for less than £5,000 per side.
1958 Hackney grader Customers Charm is the source of great interest in the press– The young racer was born without a tongue but has adapted by sucking his food down his throat. At the end of the meal, his trainer wipes his mouth with a towel.
1961 A powerful Irish team defeat the Brits in the Anglo-Irish International at White City. While the English team was depleted by the late withdrawals of Palms Printer, Clonalvy Pride and Careless Look, the Irish arrived with three fine hounds. They included the recent Irish Derby winner Chieftain’s Guest and the Irish Leger winner Jerry’s Clipper. Bu the 10-1 winner would be the dog who most judges rated as desperately unlucky in the final, Paddy Dunphy’s The Grand Canal who had to leap and dog and still finished third. Canal went to traps as a 10-1 shot but made those odds look a joke with an impressive 29.02 victory. He was followed home by compatriot Jerry Clipper (13-8f) with English Derby consolation winner Trojan Van, the best of the Brits in third.
* The Grand Canal’s next race was in Ireland, a heat of the McCalmont Cup at Kilkenny. Four runners were withdrawn and the future English Derby winner just held onto a rapidly shortening two lengths in 30.60 for 525 yards. The two year old Canal will return to White City in 1962 and become the first Irish trained winner of the English Derby)
1936 Ataxy (Inler-Gosha Bead), track record holder for White City’s 550 yards but beaten in a string of finals, finally makes full use of his ability to win the St. Leger at Wembley. Trained by Lesley Reynolds, at that stage a White City handler, the brindle was opposed in the betting by owner C C Keen’s other runner Shove Halfpenny, but beat that opponent by three lengths in a track record that would remain intact for the next decade – 40.39 for the 700 yards.
1970 Over 200 people attended the launch of the Greyhound Council at Great Britain at Rugby Town Hall. The new body is the brainchild of Paddy Sweeney and among those attending were White City racing manager Percy Brown, the ICC’s Joe Fitzpatrick, and numerous promoters including those from Sheffield, Rayleigh, Oxford, Wakefield, Perry Barr and Bristol. Charles Chandler represented GRA. However, despite two invitations to each, there was no representation from either the NGRC or the National Greyhound Society.
1964 Brighton racing manager Tom King resigns. His position is taken by Peter Shotton.
1997 A Hull businessman is taking legal action after buying a bitch for £2,000 through the Racing Post classified section. The problem started when the bitch was sold by her breeder at Shelbourne Sales for £1,600 to a ‘burly Welshman’ who paid in counterfeit cash. When her breeder eventually discovered he had been swindled, he cancelled her registration.
2003 Perry Barr introduce new ‘Swaffham style’ traps resulting in a general improvement in racing times of around .30 seconds.
1951 Greyhound racing is outraged when Arsenal play Hapoel Tel Aviv in an experimental floodlit football match in which 45,000 turned out at Highbury. Wimbledon reported that it affected their attendance on the same night. Wimbledon’s publicity chief Tom Cushing announced: “Evening football matches, of any description, whether floodlit or not, definitely affect greyhound meeting attendances. While greyhound meetings have no adverse affect on football, as the vast majority of greyhound meetings are held in the evenings, the converse must hold good as far as we are concerned. If the Arsenal experiment grows in popularity – as well it might – some consideration must be given to greyhound racing, and in fairness to our sport, these evening matches should be banned.” However, an unnamed official at GRA was not concerned. He said: “We staged rugby football in 1933-34 under flood-lighting, and while it was successful early in the winter, as soon as the fogs appeared, the game was spoilt by bad vision when the ball was kicked high and after some time the experiment was discontinued. We feel that floodlit football would be faced with the same problems and do not think that greyhound racing has much to fear from this source of competition.”
1948 After hearing concerns from the NGRC over the identity of some imported greyhounds, the ICC agree to consider a scheme to tattoo all greyhounds.
1987 Owner Larry Gresham was fined £500 and was disqualified for six months after admitting running greyhound Kerry Move On in a race at independent Wisbech.
1934 September: After breaking a hock in a match race at Manchester White City, Wild Woolley is retired to stud. The Jan 30 brindle (Hautley-Wild Witch) won the 1932 English Derby and ran in the 1933 and 1934 finals, thus equalling Mick The Miller’s record of three consecutive Derby Final appearances. He also won two other classics, the Laurels and the Gold Collar, as well as the Northern Flat Championship.
1973 Selection of dogs at stud in Britain: Bawnogue Tom (£35), Carry On Oregon (£50), Cash For Dan (£30), Dramatic Ace (£30), Faithful Hope (50gns), Forward King (£50), John Silver (£50), Little County (£40), Westmead County (£60), Westmead Lane (£40).
1993 When trainers of two runners with runners in heat two or the Irish Derby explain that they will find it difficult to attend the Friday evening meeting, the Shelbourne Park management agree to swap in with heat nine and stage the race the following night.
1946 The ICC Calendar Issue a long correction stating that the breeding previously published for the English Laurels runner-up Tan Gent, should in fact have referred to Tangent. The Calendar then gives the correct breeding of the Tangent. Only problem – they were actually right first time. The British press have some sympathy having previously found Gala Flash and Gala Flashy on the same card, and Change Your Luck and Chance Your Luck at the same meeting.
1982 Ladbrokes announce that their track at Gosforth will switch to permit racing.
2004 Four years after choosing to ignore a £30,000 report about how to revitalise the greyhound industry, the BGRB appoint the same management consultants to produce another report.
1975 New tote deductions come into operation from the first of the month. The Government will allow a maximum of a 2.5% increase in deductions from tote forecast pools. That means the maximum possible deduction is 19% which includes the 4% repayable to the Exchequer. Only two tracks will take their maximum 15% – Sheffield and Perry Barr. Most tracks will only increace their take by 1.5%. However Greyhound Totalisator Holdings, the owner of Crayford, Gosforth, Brough Park, Leeds, Wolverhampton and Willenhall decide to reduce their deductions from 12.5% to to 11%. Most tracks continue to only reduce 10% from their win and place pools.
2006 Tote and attendance figures for 2005 are released by the BGRB. Walthamstow, as expected finish top with a return of £10,257,795 from their 259 meetings. They also finish top on an meeting/average table with £39,605. They are followed by Belle Vue (£30K), Wimbledon (£28K), Peterborough (£24K), Romford (£21K), Hove and Hall Green (£20K) and Sheffield (£17K).
2014 Towcester is planning for its switch to greyhound racing by selling a number of its prime fixtures to ARC.
1993 James John, who had been sold out of A3 for £1,000 just six weeks earlier, lands the £7,500 Edinburgh Cup for trainer Davy Neil. The brindle, who was available at 100-1 at the start of the event, is also the subject of a £40,000 ante post gamble.
1967 Coursing Derby winner Mullaghroe Hiker lands the Irish National Sprint at Dunmore but the 435 yard track record is broken in a graded race 15 minutes later by 23.54 winner Shauns Ticket
1982 The Stranger becomes the first dog to break 29.00 for Cork’s 525 yards when clocking 28.95 in the final of the Irish Laurels.
1952 Chelsea manager Ted Drake presents the trophy to connections of Chelsea Cup winner Ballylanigan Tanist.
2015 Following his recent appointment at Towcester, after six years away from the industry, ex-Walthamstow RM Chris Page describes the biggest surprise since his return. The massive decline in wide runners. He says: “I have no idea as to why it has happened. Is it something to do with pups being more intensively schooled? To memory, there were a lot more totally green pups trialled at the Stow, and they were liable to run anywhere.”
1997 Owner Danny Dhamnia refuses a string of stud offers for his retiring open race team which includes Druids Elprado (Masters) Druids Elprado (Guinness 600) and Lacken Prince (Easter Cup). Instead he pays Waterford breeder Michael Brennan to keep the dogs as pets.
1946 The following article was drawn from an article in the Canadian newspaper, ‘The Standard’. Suppose after a race meeting was finished, you were to see the track staff roll up the fencing, walk off with the tracks, the hare equipment and even the totalisator, and bundle them all into lorries, you would start to wonder what it was all about. In some parts of Canada racegoers are used to that sort of thing. Their racing is provided in this Barnum style by a former baseball and football favourite Maurice Williams. Maurice has some 120 greyhounds at his kennels at Wagtail Park, Regina. He has a portable track that he transports with the greyhounds to cities all over Western Canada, and so popular has the venture been that he cannot meet the demands for all the promotion of his meetings. Maurice Williams first makes a fixture at an open space near a big town, then sets out from his kennels in the style of a travelling circus. With five assistants, fencing is laid out for the track, the hare installed and huts set up for the officials and tote, if buildings or stands are not already available. Race meetings have been held at most important cities and at a big exhibition at Brandon, Prince Albert, and will continue to be held until Maurice decides to take his dogs to Florida USA where there is racing throughout our winter months. Maurice does not own all the greyhounds. Some of them belong to private owners living great distances from his kennels but most are owned by Sackatchewan sportsmen. Many of the dogs were bought at the National Coursing Association’s centre at Abilene where dogs are sold following the big park coursing meetings. Abilene is being rapidly developed into an important centre of greyhound sport by the Association and breeders, owners and trainers from all parts of the United States and Canada journey there for the sport and trade. Prompted by the sport flourishing in Britain and the USA, Maurice Williams first conceived of his idea of greyhound racing last year and the success of his portable track, and the support of owners is encouraging his considerable promotion on a bigger scale.
2006 Two days after winning the Irish Derby Final, Razldazl Billy has a toe pin-fired.
1932 September 10 Brixton hold their first meeting. At 344 Brixton Road SW9, opposite Villa Road, the small compact stadium has the House Full sign up 20 minutes before the meeting starts at 8pm. The Racing Manager is J J Compton, ex-Reading and Arms Park, and three of the trainers are: R Gray, ex-Harringay, W Graham ex-Wembley and C Habin, ex-Arms Park. A crowd of 4,000 pay 1/2d and 2/4d and see Ballinadrimna from trap 2 win the first race over 400- yards in a time of 27.90.
2014 GBGB are investing a surge into positive samples for the substance 5-HTP
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).
1982 The three Brits in the Anglo-Irish team agreed to share their prize money ahead of the race at Shelbourne Park. It was duly won by Wembley raider Duke Of Hazard with connections passing £1,166 to the owners of both Copper Beeches and Go Winston.
2018 The sport sees the retirement of its most successful ever trainer Charlie Lister OBE. Four times Champion Trainer, the Roll of Honour of dozens of victories includes seven English Derbys, seven Scottish Derbys, five Laurels, three St.Legers and of course, the event he ‘owns’, the 12 East Anglian Derbys. Assistant trainer Chris Akers is to take over the kennel. Full list of honours on http://greyhoundstar.co.uk/retirement-fit-training-legend/
