1971 Crayford become the first NGRC track to operate with no resident trainers. Two of the four current trainers, Bill Westcott and Paddy Coughlan already have their own kennels. Terry O’Sullivan and Eric Parsons are both moving into new ranges in Kent. Meanwhile Henry Parsons, who joined the track in 1937 and for many years trained every dog at the stadium, will join the racing office team.
1981 Eight weeks after dividing the Coursing Derby, Knockash Rover wins the Bass Stakes at Dunmore in 24.19 for the 435 yards. The runner-up Noble Legion returns to the track later in the year to land the Irish National Sprint.
1990 Following the scrapping of ‘classic’ status, Gismop Pasha becomes the first winner of a Category One race when landing the Mirror/Life Grand National Final at Hall Green.
2005 Shelbourne Star is stripped of her 2003 St Leger title at an NGRC inquiry. She tested positive for the drug meloxicam. Trainer Brian Clemenson was fined £750. The race was awarded to runner-up Bite The Bullet, trained by Wayne Brunt.
1933 Wimbledon become the first track in Britain to introduce pre-race weighing of greyhounds.
1986 After breaking the 490 metre track record at Wembley with 28.89 on the 11th, A Honeyfield’s Fearless Champ (Special Account-Sarahs Bunny, Mar 83), trained at Oxford by Geoff de Mulder, is a warm order to win outright the Blue Riband, which starts a week later. Going into the final on the 28th, he is unbeaten after three rounds, and is 8-11 to take the £8,000 first prize. This he does, but not before he gives his backers the jitters by starting moderately in fifth place. He soon makes up the ground with his brllliant early speed to catch the leader before half way, and then surges clear to win by 3 3/4 lengths in 29.04
2002 BS Group take over Reading with plans to close it within two and a half years and then re-open on a new site nearby. However, following their arrival, they are informed that in order to keep the stadium open within health and safety guidelines, they face an immediate six-figure bill.
1990 Trainer Tony Bullen is fined a third of the winner’s prize money after his £3,000 Bedfordshire Derby winner Seafield Skipper tests positive. The dog had returned at 40-1.
2018 Perry Barr’s Martin Seal reveals the track has a kennel strength of 430 greyhounds, supplied by 52 kennels spread over a wide area, from North and South Wales, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and East Anglia.
1947 Mr & Mrs H Sanderson arrange what is described in the racing press as “the most distinguished match since Mick The Miller served Greta Renee” when they decide to put their outstanding open race bitch Robeen Printer to their recently retired track star Duffys Arrival. The Sandersons are two of the industry’s most high profile owners. He is the owner of Coventry Stadium, she runs the Seldsden Park Hotel at Sanderstead in Surrey. The Sandersons paid a record price for a bitch sold at auction when buying the 1944 Irish Laurels winner Robeen Printer for 1,650 guineas (around £86,000 at current values). Unlucky in the Oaks, she was outstanding over longer distances and won the 1945 St Leger. Duffys Arrival is the national 525 yard record holder with a Wembley track record of 29.09. The pups are priceless, and as it would later turn out, virtually worthless.
1973 April The BBC Television Trophy is revived after a two year absence, and for the first time is in colour (for those who can receive it). But the BBC do not show the heats from Leeds on April 9, Bristol on the 11th and Brighton on the 12th. The final at Wimbledon on the 18th is won by Leading Pride (b wb Spectre-Conigar Goddess, Feb 71). Trained by George Curtis at Brighton, the 2-1 favourite wins by a length in 51.16 for the 880 yard race.
1955 A bookmaker who sued GRA for running a ‘closed shop’ in the big ring at Harringay Stadium wins his case. GRA had argued that there were insufficient punters for the number of bookmakers. They were fined £25 on two separate related charges.
1986 Archie Newhouse is unveiled as the next secretary of the NGRC. The 53 year old former greyhound editor of the Sporting Life and Greyhound Express will take over the top job when Fred Underhill retires in October 1988.
1994 Bob Taylor, the lease holder at Clonmel dies of a heart attack. Ballyskeagh opens for trials. Racing will start within a month. The first trial session is cancelled due to damage by vandals.
2001 Shawfield layer Freddie Williams lays Harry Findlay £100,000-£12,000 on Toblermorey Boy to win the Scottish Derby. The dog becomes third in the ante post lists behind Droopys Vieri (5-2), and Rapid Ranger (3-1). Sonic Flight is available at 6-1 before the first round though that is gone before he wins easily the fastest opening round heat by over 10 lengths from Droopys Honcho in 28.98. The biggest surprise of the night though was the disqualification for fighting of El Boss – he had 102 open races on his card and had won 42 including the Pall Mall, Scurry, Golden Sprint and Oxfordshire Gold Cup.
1971 Benbradagh Luck (Own Pride-Gentle Star, Nov 68) sets Dunmore alight when breaking the 435 yards track record in the Spring Cup Final. Later in the year the same dog won the Irish National Spring in 23.74.
1936 H Farrand’s Doumergue dies of a heart attack at Northaw kennels. He is the sire of the 1935 Derby winner Great Ranee, and during the early 30s he had a notable track career, which saw him win the Northern Midland flat championships. He was also beaten only a short head in a match race with Mick The Miller. He is to be buried at the cemetery at Northaw, which was laid out by racing director Colonel Cameron.
1982 The NGRC reform the license fee payments for BAGS tracks to £200 per meeting. They also introduce new security measures including the mandatory employment of a security officer and pre-race sampling.
1964 Chancellor Maudling is the toast of greyhound racing when slashing totalisator betting tax from 10% to 5%.
1955 April Italian film star, Lisa Gastoni, is taken to Wembley track by successful owner, Al Burnett, proprietor of the ‘Stork Room’ club. She asks Burnett to get her a greyhound from Galway Bay’ – as it is the only part of Ireland she knows. Burnett contacts Frank Conroy, whose kennels are six miles from Galway track. He comes up with an aptly named black and white bitch called, Enchantress (Ballybeg Surprise-Miss Alice, Aug 52) who goes on to win a string of races for Tom Reilly at Walthamstow.
1961 The first full ante post list for the 1961 English Derby is issued by Margolis & Ridley. Jovial Swank heads the list at 8-1 followed by Mad Era at 10-1. Both are due to race on the day the list is published and both are well beaten in their respective races. Within a week, Oregon Prince is the new 5-1 favourite. Eventual Derby winner Palms Printer is available at 100-1, early in the month. Following a large gamble he is cut to 40-1 and then 28-1.
1937 A documentary film about greyhound racing is on release in London cinemas. It is called Heads And Tails and the commentary is by Kent Stevenson.
1947 Shawfield racing manager Cecil Davie is so confident that Ballashill Still Heads is good enough to beat the best dogs in London that he sends the back-marker the 402 miles down the A1 to White City for the Wood Lane Stakes. Unrated by White City punters, she flew home in a preparatory race, but was withdrawn from the first round of the competition with a knocked-up toe. Her intended heat was won by 15 lengths by Dante II who duly went unbeaten through the event.
2014 Wimbledon receive 222 entries for the William Hill sponsored Greyhound Derby. Betting: 14-1 Kereight King, 16-1 Swift Keith, 18-1 Sidarian Blaze, 20-1 Ballymac Vic, 28-1 Sidaz Jack, 33-1 Pay Freeze, Holdem Spy, Roxholme Ted
1962 Buffalo Bill, second favourite for the 1962 English Derby breaks a hock and is retired.
1956 Cork Greyhound Stadium have installed an independent electric timing system. The device is located beside the press box, so the general pride can see the times recorded for themselves, rather than wait for official public address announcements. It is the first such system devised in Ireland or Britain.
1949 One of the most important post war greyhound books, The Modern Greyhound, by H Edwards Clarke, is published. The book, with a foreword from Wembley racing manager and Waterloo slipper Captain A E Brice is hailed as a masterpiece, with possibly only one line of discontent with Greyhound Express describing the opening chapter, The Appeal of the Greyhound’ as “offensively nostalgic” – quite ironic since the first meeting was only staged 23 years earlier. In the chapter ‘The Irish Invasion’ the author provides an interesting insight into the early growth of breeding, and the wartime years. It reads: – ‘. . .before long it was discovered that while companies could be easily promoted, capital readily obtained, stadia easily erected, it was discovered that there was one product that could not be easily mass produced, the greyhounds themselves.. . . .It was to this vast untapped reserve of greyhound stock (Ireland), that English tracks naturally and increasingly turned in 1929, to the mutual advantage of the new sport and the modest Irish breeder. It was from this humble initial trickle that there developed a steady flow of Eire’s canine bloodstock to the United Kingdom in the next ten years, a flow which in the second invasion of 1939-46 became a flood that the value of greyhounds exported directly from the 26 counties in 1944 was no less than £434,685. If, in addition to such sales, we take into account those made to Northern Ireland, it is a safe conclusion that the value of Eire greyhound exports in 1944 was not less than £600,000 a figure far exceeding a figure which was once regarded as her major export – fat cattle.’ (Index linked £600,000 would equate to a 2014 value of £26m). . . . No greyhound breeder in this country need be reminded of the conditions following the outbreak of war and especially after the dark days of Dunkirk. Greyhound breeding came practically to a standstill. There was an acute feeding shortage – meat offal and bones were wanted for things more vital for national survival than the finest longtail. Labour was required for more urgent tasks than the management of greyhounds. To the eternal credit of the sport, it accepted these facts and proceeded to swallow the bitter pill. Within my knowledge, kennels that had normally housed up to a dozen brood bitches were reduced to one, and that was just to keep the strain alive. The rest were given away or put down.’
