1971 Youghal becomes the fourth track owned by Bord na gCon when they buy 80% of the company shares for just over £15,000.
1958 Police are hunting a gang who are forging betting tickets. Their ploy is to pay unsuspecting ‘mugs’ to collect the money on their behalf and then threaten them if their identities are revealed.
1992 Dipmac, the 1984 Irish Derby winner for owners Noel Ryan and Paschal Taggart, dies aged 10. Not a great success at stud, his best British progeny were probably Fires of War and Saucy Pup.
1946 Hall Green takes a two month winter break from December 28. All racing dogs will be kept free of charge in the stadium kennels.
1932 Major finals in December: Wimbledon Puppy Derby, Winter Cup (West Ham), Christmas Cup (Wembley), Christmas Vase (Wimbledon hurdles), Cambridgeshire (West Ham), Orient Cup (Clapton).
1969 Aussie superstar Zoom Top is beaten in bizarre circumstances in a race at Goulburn. The joint favourite finished last after her unfortunately named owner/trainer Hec Watt had failed to remove a waterproof mac that she had paraded in. Watt was fined $100 by the stewards.
1980 Greyhound doper James Wells-Hunt (69) wins an appeal against having his vehicle forfeited but sees his fine for being in a yard for ‘unlawful purpose’ increase from £200 to £1,000. St Albans Crown Court head that Well-Hunt was apprehended by security staff at GRA’s Northaw Kennel. He later admitted to having been jailed for a total of three and a half years for committing similar offences in 1948 and 1973.
1957 Scoutbush, winner of the 1957 Cesarewitch is sold for $4,500 and will continue his career in the USA.
1981 Joe Cobbold finishes 69 points clear of George Curtis in the trainers championship. It was a remarkable effort by the Suffolk farmer since the majority of his points were scored by pups he had bred himself with the ‘Decoy’ prefix.
2001 Stainforth are ‘reminded of their responsibilities’ by the NGRC when it appears that the track has been running ‘unofficial’ trials.
1927 Wire muzzles are used for the first time at Wembley, replacing the cumbersome leather box muzzle used since racing started in 1926.
1981 Sample of track records: Walthamstow 475m Deel Joker (28.54), 640m Paradise Spactre (39.50), Todo Liza (51.58), Wembley 275m Travara Rock (16.21), 490m Decoy Ranger (28.99), 655m Black Earl (39.73), 710 Croshea Echo (52.88) White City 268m Travara Rock (15.67), 500m Parkdown Jet (29.09), 680m Brampton Badger (40.80), 730m Fair Reward (43.93) 962m Westown Adam and Portland Dusty (59.81) Wimbledon 252m Ballybeg Sport (5.04), 460m Upland Tiger (27.45), 660m Jingling Star (40.61), 868m Decoy Boom and Linkside Liquor (54.60).
1969 For the first time at Wembley Jack Kinsley is to become a trainer. Born in Cork he was head lad to Bob Burl for 17 years and it was fitting that the former pupil should beat his master with 159 winners to Burl’s 147.
1946 Mr W L Hartley, breeder of the first two in the Catford Produce Stakes, is the latest breeder to close his kennel due to difficulties obtaining food for his pups during rationing.
1995 Top open race bitch Dillrock Sonia is put to sleep after sever injuries sustained in the Oaks semi finals at Wimbledon.
1979 Walthamstow trainer Dave Geggus dies in Whipps Cross Hospital aged 66. In his 28 years at the Stow, Geggus’s best known runners were Laurels winner Sole Aim and Oaks winner Short Cake.
1960 A change in the rules will allow English and Irish trainers to race dogs in each other’s countries is to be introduced in January. The only proviso is that the events must be worth a minimum of £200. Within 18 months, Ireland has its first English Derby winner in The Grand Canal.
1927 Edna Best (Jamie-Beaded Nora) fetches top lot at Aldridge’s December 10 sale at 250 guineas (roughly £18,800 at current values). The litter sister to the first English Derby winner Entry Badge, is owned by Major Lynne-Dixon, one of the founders of GRA. As a brood, Edna will throw the 1931 Oaks winner Drizzle.
2013 The GBGB blames Betfair for a 7.5% reduction in BGRF income during the past year. A total of £7.4m will see cuts across most budgets except the RGT grant. Betfair’s annual net contribution until their decision to cease paying into the Fund was around £800,000.
1997 John Wileman has the heaviest dog on the open race scene in Action At Last. The white and blue “with yellow eyes” slimmed down from his early trial weight of 45 kilos to a streamline 43.8kg (97lbs).
2012 Paradise Madison sets a new national Irish record for 525 yards with a 27.67 run at Shelbourne Park in the semi finals of the ‘Comerford Cakes’. 4-7f to win the final, he is KO’d at the third bend.
1967 One of the greats of American racing, Miss Whirl (Eds Silver Putty-Meanwhile), is retired for breeding. Trained by Jerry Hughes raced for three years and five months and went to traps on 232 occasions for 115 wins, an American record that she took from Westy Whizzer. She is also the world’s leading prize money earner at $108,000 and held the Amercan 3/8ths record at 37.15. The three times All-American
2012 Two popular and successful owners die within days of each other. Roy ‘Frisby’ Brookes passes away in hospital aged 87. A greyhound owner for 65 years, his most successful runners were St Leger winner Frisby Folly and talented litters Frisby Full and Frisby Flashing. Meanwhile Derby winning owner John Davis dies from a suspected heart attack in Ireland. The 68 year old was best known through his association with Farloe Melody and Slippys Quest.
1950 Britain’s racing press have an answer to one of the most popular musical acts of the time, The Five Smith Brothers. Greyhound racing has four dog training Smith brothers: Gunner (private), Tom (Clapton), Bill (Dumpton Park) and Jack at Reading.
1960 Former jockey Guy Coleman Hart is jailed for two years for heading a doping gang and assaulting two police officers. Hart, a property developer from Hampsted and former jockey aboard the 1945 Cambridgeshire winner Esquire, was found guilty of conspiring to dope greyhounds at Wembley and White City. He did so with the assistance of kennel staff Jean Ivy May and ‘Miss X’ the White City kennelgirl who raised the alarm, plus Wilfred Ernest Whitehead who acted as a prosecution witness but also received an 18 month sentence. Both women were instructed to place chloretone tablets into sausage meat.
1992 Tony Stanton, one of the biggest owners and trainers at Wimbledon is killed in an “industrial accident”.
2002 William Hill announce their sponsorship of a substantial new event, The Futurity which will be staged at Hall Green and worth £8,000 to the winner.
1948 Wimbledon announce that 16 of the 18 entries for the Puppy Oaks are British bred.
1971 Leading sires for the year (open wins): 1 Newdown Heather (141), 2 Spectre (119), 3 Maryville H (90), 4 Movealong Santa (80), Faithful Hope (69)
Leading dams 1 Come On Dolores (52), 2 Nevasca (37), 3 Trojan Silver (30), 4 Arklow Fire (29), 5 No Mabel (25).
1931 Mick The Miller is the most expensive dog advertised at stud at 50 guineas (index linked to approx £4,270) roughly five times the cost of any other dog at stud. Although former trainer Sidney Orton handles the bookings, the dog actually stands with J R Masters, at Toftwood, Dereham in Norfolk.
2001 Greyhound racing is left reeling after the broadcasting of BBC TV’s Kenyon confronts It began with footage from independent Westhoughton showing a character called ‘Big A’ claiming to supply drugs for crooked trainers. The programme then switched to trainer Steve Davis’ kennel where it unearthed what appeared to be a mass grave of dead greyhounds. A pathologist examined one greyhound and said it appeared to have been shot. The programme then switched to trainer Len Knell’s kennel where it filmed undercover conversations with Knell and kennel hand Colin West. They claimed that dogs could be stopped in trials by feeding them. Even prior to the programme being aired, Davis had resigned from his contract at Oxford. He was found guilty by the NGRC of disposing of greyhounds without recourse to a vet. He was fined £1,000 and severely reprimanded. Knell was sacked by Catford and was later banned along with kennelhand West, Knell claimed that he had never stopped dogs but had only told Kenyon ‘what he wanted to hear.’
1957 Al Burnett, the night club owner who discovered new pop sensation Tommy Steele, believes his new pup Pigalle Wonder will become “the greatest greyhound this sport has ever seen.” Burnett paid £2,500 for the pup subject to a trial at Wembley. On his first look at the track, the brindle clocked 29.47 for the 525 yards. The charismatic Burnett first discovered greyhound racing while in Miami. He had run away from home in 1922 and survived washing dishes before returning home in 1935. Meanwhile Burnett’s youngster has made such a massive impression on racegoers, with two wins from his first three races, that after it was announced that he would contest the 18-runner Manchester Puppy Cup, Belle Vue received barely enough runners to stage a six-dog race. Burnett also reveals that he has turned down an offer of $30,000 for the dog.
