2013 Blonde Reagan becomes the 17th consecutive failure as ante post favourite for the Ladbrokes Golden Jacket. The Mark Wallis trained brindle is eliminated in the first round.
1966 Brewers Mackeson launch their new inter-track competition with a sponsorship package of £7,000 (index linked to roughly £110K).
1993 Independent St Helens is closed down by the local council who plan to build an old people’s home on the site. Within days of the last meeting, the place is burnt down. The major beneficiaries are neighbouring Westhoughton where racing manager Peter O’Dowd reports trial sessions going on for more than three hours at a time.
2012 Following discussions which would have meant the Scottish Derby Final switching to ‘behind the red button’, Shawfield agree to stage the decider on a Friday evening.
1966 Sue Spring, a young bitch who escaped from Cardiff’s racing kennels soon after arriving from Ireland is still running wild, two years after her Houdini act. The kennel leave food near the perimeter fence and the nervous bitch has been chased many times but has thus far escaped capture.
2002 The GTA are struggling to fill the sixth place for the Trainers Championship meeting. The place would have gone to John McGee who is suspended. Next in line, Owen McKenna is ineligible having moved to Ireland and Nick Savva turns it down due to a lack of runners. Elaine Parker then agrees to field a team.
1965 Ireland exported 7,595 greyhounds to Britain in 1964 with a total value of £1,080,884. That equates to an average of £142.31 each – index linked to £2,911.
2000 Ken Bebbington’s Knappogue Oak wins the Golden Jacket by 11 lengths. Beaten odds on favourite for the second year is Palace Issue.
1981 Members of the Owlerton Owners Association decide not to lobby the NGRC over their hope that the track should race an open kennel system following alleged threats from racing manager Terry Meynell.
1967 Outcast Fairy becomes the tenth member of her litter to win a race at Manchester White City.
1949 The NGRC issue a new definition of ‘English bred’. (Not ‘British’ bred!). To qualify a pup must have been born in either England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland AND its dam having been registered in the Greyhound Stud Book.
1997 American breeder Nick De Salvo produces the most interesting litter of the year by Molotov out of Penske Elite – all 12 of the litter are female.
1966 1962 Waterloo Cup winner Best Champagne sires his second consecutive winner of the event when Just Better emulates his paternal half brother Nicelya Head.
2007 Sheffield celebrate 75 years of trading. Lord Lipsey ‘opens’ a £100,000 refit of the Paddock Bar.
1966 Hackney bookies feel under pressure when an eight-race graded card sees winners returned at 4-7f, 1-3f, 1-2f, 4-11f and 2-5f.
1958 Joe Childs, the former owner of Portsmouth stadium dies aged 73. Earlier in his life Childs was the retained jockey for King George V.
1968 Former hurdle star Bolshoi Prince returns to the flat to land the £100 Veterans Championship race at Wimbledon. It is the final outing for the Phil Rees trained fawn who is six years and four months old. The dog, who has won over £4,000 in prize money, is retired to the sofa of his dentist owner Harry Seed.
1959 The Sports Turf Research Centre announce that undersoil heating is now feasible for greyhound tracks. The running costs would be around £8 per meeting (roughly £189 at today’s values). Walthamstow had attempted their own version five years earlier but could not operate it during race meetings – used alongside the other equipment and lights, the power required exceeded the electricity board cap.
1967 Ernie Wood, director of a Manchester building renovation firm, has spent £2,000 re-equipping the Rochdale kennels he recently bought from Harry Bamford. Wood, who won £20K in bets when his Hack Up Chieftain, won the Derby, plans to turn the kennel into a major breeding establishment. The kennel is renamed ‘Boothroyden’.
1965 Embarrassed Romford officials are forced to withdraw two graded runners when noting that a printing error in the racecard has reversed their trap positions. To make matters worse, the two reserves finish first and second at 10-1 and 3-1 respectively.
1959 Among the 50 potential Springbok entries being schooled over hurdles is White City grader Pardee, future dam of Newdown Heather.
2012 Planning permission is granted for a new track at Towcester Racecourse. GOBATA Chairman Martin White is hopeful that the new stadium could be racing by August. General manager Kevin Ackerman predicts that the project will cost around 18 weeks to complete at a cost of £1.25m.
1994 Bill Maynard, otherwise known as Claude Greengrass in the TV programme, Heartbeat, presents the trophies at a meeting at his local track at Whitwood.
1967 The first three winners on the Belle Vue card were won by trainers Holland, England and France.
2012 The Dunham Devils, a team comprising runners from the Houfton, Hayton, Findlay, McNair and Collett teams were the winners of the Betdaq Premier League.
1998 Champion trainer Linda Mullins is on the warpath in her regular Sporting Life column. She writes “Finally, I was interested in Paul Millwards comments in the Racing Post yesterday. He said El Loco, trained by me, ‘may be suited by a smaller kennel set-up’. I would like to know what he means by that!”
1986 Cradley Heath trainer Peter Billingham switches to Monmore Green.
1967 Wimbledon increase the first prize for their Veteran Championship to £100 to the winner (index linked £1,880). The six oldest runners will automatically be accepted provided they have contested at least 100 races including a dozen within the past 12 months.
1979 British breeders are unhappy over the recently introduced earmarking of dogs. Sussex breeder Carol Rouse refuses to allow any more tattooing after two healthy pups die within days of the procedure.
2010 Barry Faulkner is unveiled as the new chief executive of the GBGB. The secretary of the ABB and general manager of BAGS is a keen industry enthusiast and former greyhound owner.
1994 The last race at Canterbury is void due to seven runners taking part. Pineham Choice, beaten in an earlier race, escaped from the carpark, cleared the outside fence and made a second attempt at victory.
1971 Supersire Newdown Heather (pictured) completed a double/double when Hack Up Chieftain and Tearaway Bess win the Coursing Derby and Oaks respectively. The previous year the same sire had been successful with Tender Heather and Tender Honey.
