1996 New Catford trainer Atkins has a ‘mixed’ first meeting. Of his first four runners, one wins, one is KO’d, another finishes lame, and the fourth wins – but has his card marked!
1975 All kennels is an open race final at Rochester will receive 100lbs of dog meat from the sponsors who are meat wholesalers.
1997 The three females in the line-up take the tricast places in the Easter Cup Final: Park Jewel leads home Borna Mist and Aries Rose.
1935 April one of the best hurdlers in training at Clapton is the aptly named Greyhound Express, a son of Mussolini (yes honestly) out of Knockbeg. The dog has a 33% win record.
1977 The GRA Stakes final, worth £2,000 and a trophy to the winner, has a high class line up. victory goes to Miss J Yates’s Montreen (Moordyke Spot-Avondale, May 74). The 7-4 second favourite, trained at Belle Vue by Bammy Bamford, wins easily by 3 1/2 lengths in 44.68 for the 730 metre trip. The 11-10 favourite Sindy’s Flame (Monalee Champion-Dolores Rocket, May 74), badly hampered throughout, finishes in fifth place.
1997 Derby winning owner and trainer John Quinn (I’m Slippy) joins the training strength at Romford. He is based at Ellis Barn Farm, near Ashford, now home of Liz and Rab McNair.
1984 Champion trainer George Curtis won the Trainers Championship meeting at White City by nine points thanks to wins by Jondy, Spiral Ponyash and Copper Beeches. Jerry Fisher was runner-up followed by Adam Jackson, Ken Linzell, Joe Cobbold and Linda Mullins.
1956 Who says maidens are a new invention. Romford stage one on April 14 1956, though all six runners had open race form.
1968 Yellow Printer is 10-1 ante post favourite for the English Derby. Camira Flash is 14-1 second favourite. When he wins the final eight weeks later he will return at 100-8.
2007 Sittingbourne promoter Roger Cearns launches a stinging attack on the NGRC when the club deem that the Kent Derby will be opposed in the open schedule by the Peterborough Derby, the Northern Flat and the Ladbrokes Gold Cup.
2011 Michel Tabor announces plans for a £10,000 race to be staged in honour of the his old friend and fellow layer Tony Morris.
1985 GRA tell Harrringay trainers that they must vacate their kennels at Northaw. Ray Peacock plans to move to the Catford range at Keston. Mick Puzey is heading to Walthamstow to replace Barney O’Connor who is retiring. The other trainers which include John Padian, Richard Griffin and Terry Keith are said to be looking for kennels, but aware that they may not have a track to race them on with Harringay sold the previous month.
2004 Sheffield owner Steve Hill is cautioned as to his future behaviour following a drunken outburst, live on SKY, after his Desert Tonic had landed the Harry Holmes Memorial.
1962 Corsican Reward, bred by the GRA at their Irish kennels in Naas and trained by Gordon Hodson at White City is a lucky winning favourite of the Grand National. Some five lengths adrift going into the backstraight, he went to the front when the early leader Stanbrook Rob fell and badly hampered his two closest challengers.
1983 The Midland Oaks final goes to Geoff De Mulder’s 3-1 chance Ballyard Britt in 29.08 for the 474 metres. The 11-8f Westmead Tania broke a hock and failed to finish.
1960 Figures released by the NGRC for 1959 show: registrations 6,921, new owners 1,774, races staged 53,120 (opens 1,388), racecourse trainers 243, private trainers 86.
1968 29 year old recently elected TD Jerry Collins presents a motion to the Dail asking why greyhound racing and coursing cannot be staged on Sundays. Horse racing is permitted yet the longtails are barred from competing by the 1953 Greyhound Act.
1970 Quarantine restrictions on dogs going to Ireland are affecting the import of dogs for sales. The recently introduced quarantine of 12 months for British dogs going travelling to Ireland, is putting Irish owners off sending them in case they are not sold. William Poultney, who runs Hackney Sales is being forced to “guarantee a sale or buy them myself.”
1966 A change in NGRC rules will allow private trainers to trial their runners during the registration period. Until now, this facility was only offered to track trainers.
1995 Bristol complete a £500,000 re-fit following a major fire some 14 months earlier.
1958 GRA announce that for the benefit of the greyhounds, all lures will now be brown, instead of white. However, in an attempt to aid the hare driver, the hare will have a white stripe along its side
2009 Punters slammed into Charlie Lister’s Ninja Jamie (2-1 to 5-4f) in the Scottish Derby third round. He finished third, beaten by litter/kennel mate Farloe Reason (7-2) who clocked the fastest time of the night – 28.71.
2009 After 72 years of Monday night fixtures, Crayford drop the night in favour of Fridays.
1993 The evening opening of betting shops – beyond 6.30pm – gets under way. The NGRC will collect an extra £80,000 in special licence fees. They earn around £400,000 (£114 per race) from the daytime meetings. The first two tracks on the service are Brough Park and Monmore with racing finishing a few minutes before 8pm.
1969 Ace Of Trumps breaks the Romford 460 yard track record in a graded race. The form is soon validated when the John Coleman trained dog lands the Scurry Gold Cup.
1996 At the racing manager’s conference Wimbledon grader Simon Harris responds to a question about the difficulty of commuting from his home in Birmingham, even though GRA cover his petrol bills. Does the journey get him down? Harris replies: “Yes, but the petrol bonus points are good. Now they phone me to ask what I want putting in the catalogue.”
