1963 A major fire sees Monmore Stadium virtually burnt to the ground. The fire, which appears to have started in the kitchens, destroys the main grandstand, tote room and the Midland Greyhound Racing Company offices which contain all the identity cards for the Monmore and Willenhall dogs. Thankfully the 200 dogs, whose kennels are less than 100 yards away, are unharmed.
1951 Wimbledon become the first track to experiment with six runner hurdle races. Since 1934, everyone has raced with five.
1982 Manchester Evening News correspondent John Forbes found himself deleted from the Belle Vue Christmas card list when writing “Over the last two years the standards have dropped so low at the track that limbo dancers would have difficulty getting below them – the number of coups are completely destroying whatever confidence the public has left in the track.”
1937 The first round of the Laurels at Wimbledon and all six hats are won by the favourites. Heat 1 Wise Carey 2-5. Heat 2 Fine Jubilee 2-7, Heat 3 Bealtine evens, Heat 4 Wiley Captain 8-13, Heat 5 Lone Keel 11-10, Heat 6 Wattle Bark evens. In heat 5 the 1936 winner Top Of The Carlow Road is eliminated, but goes onto win the Chelsea Cup at Stamford Bridge and the Silver Salver at Southend.
1970 Ger McKenna’s Own Pride is retired after failing to land his second Irish Derby Final. He becomes a successful sire with offspring including Flip Your Top, Cairnville Jet, Kilmac Chieftain and Empty Pride, though he is best remembered for his daughters which included Moss Drain, Clonad Fancy and the great Maythorn Pride.
1953 Welsh breeder George Wright has concerns about the last litter ever sired by the brilliant Mad Tanist. Wright complains that so many of his pups have been infected by distemper. He says: “Nearly every greyhound I have reared before has had distemper and although I have never lost a dog through the disease, I am not convinced that the dogs have been as good as they should”
1936 The Spanish Civil War brings a temporary end to dog racing in Spain. Worse still, one of the racing managers at one of Barcelona’s four tracks is arrested, another is shot by firing squad.
1977 August 27 The final of the Edinburgh Cup, sponsored by ICI, over 465 metres at Powderhall and worth £5,000 and trophy to the winner, is a triumph for Slough trainer Ted Dickson when his Linacre (fd Lively Band-Certral) wins the final easily by two lengths in 28.10. The 11-10 favourite owned by Mrs E Boddy, goes unbeaten through the three rounds of the competition, beating into second place English Derby runner-up El Cavalier, and Instant Gambler, who figured prominently in both English and Irish Derbies that summer.
1963 All is not well at Clapton. Trainer John Bassett resigns days before an NGRC inquiry for time finding in which the local stewards had asked for Bassett to be reprimanded. Within days Phil Rees also hands in his resignation at the London circuit.
1971 The last remaining NGRC track in Norfolk, Norwich City has closed down. Run by Denis Pine, the track had finished bottom of the previous year’s tote returns though the closure came as a surprise. The track’s five trainers only discovered the track had closed when its advanced card read ‘Cancelled’. It is nine years since neighbouring Boundary Park raced for the last time. The biggest track in the county is now independent Yarmouth though promoter Len Franklin has no ambition to join the NGRC associated scheme. He says: “For a start I don’t agree with the pre-race kennelling system. Another point is that all my trainers would have to pay £15 a year for their NGRC licence. That would be asking too much of a chap with just one dog.” Meanwhile, the Caister Road venue, which within the previous two years has spent £25,000 on an upgrade, has recently completed its transition to a sand racing surface.
1951 Top greyhound paper Greyhound Express returns to its base in Fleet Lane, some two and a half years after the Fleet House building was gutted by fire.
1993 A Sporting Life review shows that since the change in law in December 1991, which will allow tracks to increase their tote deductions up from 17% to a maximum of 29%, only three tracks have failed to increase the rate: Peterborough, Rye House and Yarmouth. Canterbury take the biggest deductions at 25% across the board (win, place, forecast). GRA tracks are largely 20% though Wimbledon still only charge 17.5% on win/place.
1948 The entire Wembley racing surface is re-turfed with 25,000 turves following the digging up of the human athletics course on which the Olympic Games athletics were staged. The first meeting after a seven week closure, will include the heats of a brand new competition sponsored by the NGRC, the Stewards Cup.
1971 Paddy Sweeney, founder of the Greyhound Council of Great Britain, hands in his trainer’s licence.
1988 Ramsgate stewards decide to void a four runner graded race when three of the runners become involved in a first bend collision and the fourth wins by a distance. The stewards decide that the early trouble was caused by the appearance of a stray cat.
1993 Wimbledon trainers: Patsy Byrne, Tom Foster, Mary Harding, Arthur Hitch, Dave Kinchett, Nora McEllistrim, Phillip Rees, Sam Sykes.
2003 Peterborough introduce a new track maintenance policy after a string of career ending injuries.
1927 The fourth greyhound track racing under NGRC rules but the second in the city opens for racing at Stanley in Liverpool on Wednesday August 17. This is how the local newspaper, The Daily Courier, recalled the night’s events. Under the headline ‘New Electric Course’, the story reads ‘Liverpool’s second greyhound racing track was opened at the Stanley Track, Prescot-road last night, before a gate of 8,000 by the Greyhound Racing Association (Liverpool) Ltd., when a varied and exciting programme, with at least one unexpected thrill was provided.
The course is one of the most up to date in the country. The control tower is situated at the top of the main grandstand, giving the controller of the electric hare an uninterrupted view of the dogs all the way round the track.
There are 50 floodlights, so arranged that they do not cast a shadow, and last night’s meeting demonstrated that this arrangement of lighting is the best device that has yet been tried.
Two new innovations deserve special attention. One is the new device for stopping dogs after they have passed the winning post. This is a drop ‘scene’, for all the world like one in a theatre, depicting a country lane. After the dogs have passed under the rolled-up scene, it is dropped down, completely shutting the track. Attendants standing ready seize the dogs as soon as they reach this spot, when the hare has disappeared.
There was a large proportion of women present last night. Tick-tack men were busy and the bookmakers did a brisk business.
The second innovation was the hand-slipping of the dogs in the first four events by Mr E. Rimmer, the Waterloo Cup slipper. In the first four races of the Association Stakes, the slipper in a scarlet coat, stood behind a canvas screen, as he does at Altcar, and slipped the dogs from a double leash a few seconds after the hare had passed.
The most thrilling an unexpected event of the night occurred in the third race between Modest Mutt and Lad From Devlin. Lad From Devlin took an easy lead all the way and Modest Mutt, when three quarters of the way round, fell out limping badly, while Lad From Devlin passed the post with a walk-over. Modest Mutt proved to be a craft dog however, and he flattened himself out in the grass like a cat when he saw the electric hare passing under the drop scene and come around careering around the track a second time. When the hare was almost abreast of him, Modest Mutt sprang exactly like a cat and pounced on the helpless hare savaging it as it ran. The crowd became more excited than at any horse race and cheered wildly until the attendants pulled the dog off. The spectators detected a wicked gleam in his eye as if he was saying ‘Well, I am not such a mutt as you thought.’ Stanley closed in 1961.
1993 Plans for a £40,000 Stainforth Derby was rejected by the NGRC rules committee who state that the only events allowed to extend beyond two weeks will remain the English Derby, Cesarewitch, TV Trophy and Produce Stakes.
1957 The London Greyhound Tracks committee meet to determine an all-embracing rule to cover events when greyhound fight. Some tracks void the race (rule 45), others apply the first past the post rule, and while disqualifying a fighter, would not forfeit his prize money (45a). The new rule, which will apply to all tracks, allows, in the case of a fighter, the ‘first past the post’ rule to apply on all betting matters, but disqualify the winner in terms of trophies and prize money.
2011 The Irish Derby quarter finals prove a bad night for Tyrur brothers McGuigan and Big Mike. Both are eliminated with McGuigan breaking two metatarsals and Big Mike spraining a hock. Owner P J Fahy announces the retirement of both dogs though Big Mike is back on the track within three months and wins a Shelbourne 525 race in 28.38 the fastest time of his career.
1961 The Grand Canal fails in the first leg of a yet unforeseen double when beaten in the Irish Derby Final at Harolds Cross. The Paddy Dunphy trained fawn goes unbeaten to the final of the event but draws four in the decider and finishes third. (He will go on to win the ’62 English Derby). The Dublin race goes to the Ballymena entry Chieftains Guest who has not won a qualifier, though he was contesting the Ulster St. Leger at the same time.
1935 After being badly injured in a crash at Jew Cross, Tommy Farndon, the British Individual Speedway Champion, died on the 30th. The West Ham ace owned many greyhounds that raced on London tracks, including Maglass Cross, Cavalcade, Winters Maine, Poralwadra Savage, Silver Plaid and Jeans Regret.
2012 After escaping the red pen by not fighting until after the winning line in the finals of the East Anglian and Scottish Derbys, Taylors Cruise, finally errs during a race. He is disqualified and retired in the semi finals of the Monmore Gold Cup.
1930 August 9th At Cardiff White City, Mick The Miller becomes the first greyhound to win three Derbies in three different countries, when he easily wins the Welsh Derby Final worth £115 10s. and silver cup. He takes the final by 10 lengths in 29.55 for 525 yards
2004 The BGRB announce the identities of its two new independent directors. They are Michael Bailey, with a background in accountancy in the pharmaceutical industry and vet Barry Johnson, a former president of the RCVS.
1982 The Irish National Sprint final bears an uncanny resemblance to the 1981 final where Noble Legion got home by half a length. They meet again and this time Otago (Mortar Light-Dually Queen) got home by a neck in a new sand track record of 23.56.
