1994 Lacken Prince is top lot at Shelbourne Sales at 3,000gns. Within three months he has landed the Mistley Trojan Puppy Stakes at Walthamstow. He ran-up in the Midland Flat and later won an Easter Cup for John McGee. Second highest lot Dillrock Sonia (2,200gns) went on to win 25 opens including a Northern Oaks.
1973 Current top dog at London’s White City is Hairy Legs, owned by comedian Ernie Wise.
1960 The highly respected Lord Carisbrooke dies following a 10 year tenure as the NGRC senior steward. The son of Prince Henry of Battenburg, the marquess was the queen’s cousin and the last surviving grandchild of Queen Victoria.
1949 North Carolina is to have a second track following on from the success of Morhead City. With Colorado having recently become the eighth state to allow greyhound racing, there are currently 22 tracks in operation, less than a third of the number racing in Britain.
1981 Amercan track Hollywood have decided to replace their ‘rabbit style’ lure with one that looks like a greyhound.
1973 The NGRC launch an enquiry after the Sunday People claim to have uncovered a ‘million pound coup’. Five members of a gang claim to have landed a gamble at Hendon the previous summer and were in preparation for another at Catford – now foiled by the exposure. The coup certainly seemed far-fetched in that it involved setting up an open race where, according to the entry conditions, all the runners must have trialled over the distance in the three weeks prior to the event. The gang claimed that they switched six dogs after they had been identified and allocated kennel numbers by the Hendon paddock staff, but before for the trial session. They substituted fast dogs for slow ones and vice versa. The newspaper promised further sensational revelations. However, the alleged sponsors of the alleged crooked race, an Irish hotel booking agency, took the newspaper to court for libel. It then emerged that the source of the story was disgraced ex-NGRC trainer Sean Brennan, an Irishmen being sought by British police following the discovery of the bodies of five greyhounds. They had starved to death at his Bramble Hall kennels in Benfleet.
1982 The NGRC ban nine greyhounds including Bourkes Champion (who had just beaten Greyhound of the Year Decoy Boom in a TV Trophy Trialstake) after discovering that one of the joint owners Mrs L Grace (maiden name), is married to a man who was jailed in 1966 for conspiring to dope greyhounds. Peter Hubbard was never banned by the NGRC due to an administrative oversight.
1991 Belle Vue boss Colin Delaney announces the closure of the Chieftain Stand on the popular side. He admits: The cost of work to obtain a safety certificate is prohibitive.”
1961 The first ante post list for the 1962 English Derby shows Dunmore Puppy Cup winner Mad Era as the 10-1 favourite with bookmakers Thomas Stenning. Oregon Prince is next best at 12-1.
2011 Razldazl Joe is sold to the Bubbly Club for £40,000 and renamed Bubbly Razldazl. A winner first time out for his new owners, he reaches the Scottish Derby final in his sixth and final race before an injury enforced retirement.
1975 Figures released by the NGRC reveal that the average attendance at greyhound tracks rose by an average of just two customers per meeting in 1974. Some 6,083,334 people attended 5,429 meetings, an average of 1,120 people per meeting. It was the first rise in attendance in seven years.
1951 At Stamford Bridge there is a brindle bitch called Dorothys Choice. Meanwhile Catford have Dorotheas Choice while Monmore have just qualified Dorothys Choice II.
1981 A new book on dogs, ‘The British Dog. Its History From Earliest Times’ is published with a sizeable section on ‘Vertragus’ the ancient breed from which modern greyhounds are said to have evolved. The book relates the story of St Patrick, who supposedly owned several of this breed. There is also a reference to the Commons in 1389 where an MP complains that the ownership of greyhounds, previously only fit for gentlefolk, had spread to “craftsman, servants, labourers and grooms.”
1995 The Greyhound Writers announce their awards for the previous year. Westmead Chick (I’m Slippy-Westmead Move) is Greyhound of the Year, and British Bred Greyhound of the Year. Easy Bimbo is Dam of the Year. Chick’s 29 open race wins included the Racing Post Arc, the Olympic, the Brighton Belle, the Midland Flat and the Oaks. She was also runner-up in the Eclipse. Trevor Cobbold’s Easy Bimbo produced 68 open race winners in her litter by Slaneyside Hare. They included Decoy Cougar (Regency), Decoy Lion (Fines Trophy), and Decoy Lynx (Ernest Thornton-Smith Trophy).
1947 London White City are currently testing the new McKee hare. While most of the other London tracks have long dispensed with their original (‘spark spewing’) trolley hares, the two GRA London tracks had not updated.
1966 The NGRS refuse permission to the BBC’s Tomorrows World team who want show chromatography testing taking place. Instead the BBC show footage of an unknown laboratory with samples of urine apparently being tested. They also show some old race footage accompanied by a soundtrack which states: “It is believed that punters and bookmakers lose thousands of pounds each week on races in which greyhounds are doped”. In a separate commentary, the programme’s present states: “The dog that is discovered is only the tip of the iceberg. Only 14 of the big tracks have dope testing.”
1998 Walthamstow trainer Paul Young is sacked after Soda Gale finds 53 spots in a graded race after being backed from 6-1 to 9-4.
1974 Paddy McEllistrim and Stan Martin both retire as Wimbledon trainers. Paddy (82) arrived, with greyhounds to sell before the track even opened in 1928. His biggest winner was Spotted Rory in the St Leger. Martin was a former head lead to Joe Harmon who died in 1941. Martin won two English Derbys with Ballymac Ball and Ballyhennessy Seal. Ball also won two Laurels.
2012 Express Trend is installed as 7-2 ante post favourite for the Ladbrokes Golden Jacket. In fact, the first six over the line in the decider are Blue Bee (12-1), Blackrose Monach (40-1), Farley Zach (6-1), Lottes Girl (10-1), Wise Signal (12-1) and Springwood Bob (40-1).
1982 A $100,000 bid for Hollywood’s 770 yard champion Unruly is turned down but he goes on to become the ‘Captain of the All American’ team – effectively Greyhound of the Year. Interestingly, the dog is often remembered for his bad luck in major finals. For example, he went into the final of the Floridian at odds of 1-9f having won his previous 17 races over course and distance, but was still turned over
1934 1932 Derby winner Wild Woolley breaks the ‘550 world record’ when beating Bellas Brother in a match race at Clapton. The time was 27 spots quicker than Queen of the Suir’s previous best.
1947 Coventry acknowledge the growth in the number of private trainers – there are 82 registered for the new year – by staging an open race competition just for them. The 18 runner event fills easily.
1937 The GRA buys Battersea Stadium in Lombard Road, London SW11, for an undisclosed sum. The stadium opened in 1933 had been racing under independent rules, and the GRA are to convert it into an ice-skating rink for ice hockey and public skating.
2012 Wimbledon’s pre-Juvenile trial session is held up by a bomb scare at Plough Lane.
1995 A forged bank draft results in Santas Son, joint record holder at Dunmore, disappearing without trace to Pakistan.
1951 The four major titles won by the famous ringer Red Wind are expunged from the race records by the NGRC and replaced by the runners-up. Behattan Marquis is promoted to ‘winner’ of the 1950 Anglo-Irish and Wood Lane Stakes. Ballygurren Garratt is now the winner of the 1949 Wimbledon Puppy Derby; Richmond Tanist gets the Midlands equivalent. The 28.57 White City 525 yard track record is also ditched and the previous clock of 28.65 held by Priceless Border is reinstated.
1961 Jim Meritt, the head cellar man at Wembley Stadium, is invited by the management to bring along his family for an evening of wining and dining in the restaurant. Meritt admits to being excited by the prospect having never seen an entire race from start to finish in his 33 years at the track.
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.
1959 Around 500 guests attend a major fund raising dinner in aid of two major press charities in a Leeds ballroom. During the evening six greyhounds are paraded in front of the diners with bids being taken for ‘one night ownership’. At midnight the six runners contest a trial at Leeds stadium. The winner then returns to the ballroom with a trophy to present to the lucky owner. All monies raised go to the charities.
1966 Hare manufacturers Sumner announce they have landed the contract to supply the lure at the new Las Palmas track in the Canary Islands. Meanwhile a Japanese entrepreneur has exported the first 30 dogs from an intended batch of 300 for a new stadium in Tokyo.
1995 Britain’s newest track Harlow stages its first trial session.
2004 An attempt is made to steal sprinter Louisville. A bogus caller persuaded a trainer that he owned the dog and wanted it removed from John Mullins kennel. A suspicious kennel hand discovered the fraud when checking with Mullins.
1947 Romford runners Lotties Princess and Pennine Princess become the first greyhounds to void a race under the NGRC’s revised ‘first past the post’ rule (45a) – introduced the previous month. Neither bitch left the traps during the race.
