1768 Captain Cook sets sail for Australia with two thoroughbred greyhounds on board. It is not known whether they were still alive when he discovered Australia in April 1770.
1988 Ian Hillis is the new racing manager at Bolton.
2015 Harlow racing manager Mark Schallenberg reveals that his kennel strength is only 85 dogs from which he has to grade two meetings. 15 of the total are trained by Anne Kirby who only enters runners for the Saturday card. Her remaining runners race at Mildenhall. Things are only slightly better at Wimbledon with 160 dogs (though that includes 12 races on BAGS). They had plummeted to 120 earlier in the year.
1999 Romford trainers: Linda Jones, Ken Linzell, Kim Marlow, David Mullins, Peter Payne, Peter Rich, Ernie Wiley.
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.
1993 RGT national organiser is infuriated with East Enders when an episode of the TV series depicts a scene whereby a slow greyhound is to be killed with a shotgun. The storyline, which is filmed at Henlow, eventually turns out to be positive when the luckless Freda (in reality a former Mildenhall grader) becomes a retired pet in the series.
2000 Feeder track Harlow are again struggling to fill their racecards when during a month they lose Jean Carter to Crayford, Wayne Wilson to Catford and Kay Wyatt to Sittingbourne.
2015 Nine months after opening as a greyhound track, Towcester’s GM Kevin Ackerman reveals his biggest surprise: “He says: “I would say the biggest surprise has been how small the core greyhound audience really is. With horse racing, you are guaranteed a solid base of probably 1,500 enthusiasts who will always turn out. That doesn’t happen with the greyhound people.
1974 The Paddy McEvoy trained Daemonic Gambol (Don’t Gambol-Dusk Gambol) wins the last Produce Stakes to be held at Wimbledon. He then heads to Bristol and wins the Two Year Old Produce Stakes by 11 lengths at 1-5f.
1998 The racing jacket won by Toms The Best when he completed his unique Irish/English Derby victories is mounted in London’s Sports Café.
Powderhall
1927 August 3 GRA’s Powderhall rack in Edinburgh stages its first meeting in front of an estimated crowd of 10,000 people. Eager Hands wins the first of the night’s six races (five flat and one hurdle). According to writer WJC Reed in the GRA’s 1958 annual, “not many people known that the first dog racing took place as far back as August 3 1878. This was held at the Old Powderhall which was replaced in 1889 by the present enclosure. The original mansion house of Power Hawll was built by Thomas Myle in 1742 on part of the Estate of Pilrig. The name is derived from the fact that the original Laird of Pilrig manufactured gunpowder near the site of the house. In 1869 a small syndicate bought the site and the ground was opened in 1870 when the legendary Dan Wright of Jedburgh , at the age of 19, won the first ‘New Year Handicaps’ Athletics, both professional and amateur, were the main attractions in those early days, but the ground was also the home of the Heart Of Midlothian and Hibernian Football Clubs and also a little later on, the St.Bernards. When W M Lapsey took over the ground in 1883 he continued to hold meetings there until the Corporation took over the site and the present enclosure was built in 1889. Lapsey was in control until his death in 1903 when he was succeeded by F A Lumley. Whippet racing was popular at the time and meetings were held regularly in the ground. The story of the grounds until 1927 is mainly one of running ”
1993 Wimbledon trainers: Patsy Byrne, Tom Foster, Mary Harding, Arthur Hitch, Dave Kinchett, Nora McEllistrim, Phillip Rees, Sam Sykes.
2010 Sheffield trainer Malcolm Daniels is sacked following an alleged £50-£70,000 gamble on A4 BAGS runner Spiritina (4-1 to 4-7f). The 30.53 (+30) winner had recorded a calculated 30.69 just three runs earlier. The black is transferred to Pelaw Grange where she wins just three of her next 16 races and retires from A8 company.
2000 With only three weeks until the Irish Derby Final, the IGB notice that the event is clashing with a Holland v Ireland World Cup qualifier. They hastily re-arrange the Derby final to be delayed until 10.18pm.
1970 Top five leading prize money winners: John Silver (£10,522), Sole Aim (£2,626), Little County (£2,512), Kasama Lad (£1,32), Cameo Lawrence (£1,695).
1998 Swindon trainer Daryl Porter is re-united with runners Feale Spark and Lightfoot Lucy six weeks after they were stolen from his kennel. Thieves broke into the kennel while Porter was at a BAGS meeting and stole the two racers and two pups. The adult racers were picked up by a dog warden in Newbury. The two pups were found near a gypsy encampment within days of the burglary.
1961 GRA employees are seen to be mingling in with the crowds at the three Liverpool tracks, Stanley, White City and Seaforth. However after making initial enquiries, they decide not to bid for the trio who are all owned by the same company.
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.
2000 Open race star Jaspers Boy is retired after breaking a hock in a solo trial at Peterborough. Boy won the Puppy Classic, two Select Stakes and reached a Derby final for David Pruhs who describes the brindle as “the best I have trained.”
Pic Steve Nash
