1971 In a special preview to the national press, Belle Vue in Manchester unveil their new electronic tote board. Designed and built by GRA engineers, it is awesome in size with no other like it in the world. Capable of handling eight dog racing, the structure is 110 feet long by 21 feet high, and has some 8200 lamps, showing every piece of information for the punters.
1993 I’m Slippy (right) passed away on New Years Day aged 11. The 1983 English Derby winner & Irish National Sprint 
winner had covered a bitch half an earlier and sustained a heart attack. Amazingly he had secured his first sire’s championship just a few hours earlier. He would also be the 1993 & 1994 champion sire.
2004 GRA release 40 of the Perry Barr non-contract trainers that it inherited when it bought the track from Maurice Buckland. Meanwhile Belle Vue dispense with the services of Yvonne ‘Thornfield’ Morris. At Wimbledon, Tom Foster hands in his contract to reduce his 68 runner graded strength to 20 open racers.
1989 After some track alterations at Swindon at the second and third bends, they find their distances need to be re-measured. The 275 is now 280 metres, the 480 standard becomes 476 metres, the 510 is now 509 metres and the marathon 943 is reduced to 932 metres.
1967 New tote figures show White City turned over £5,710,047 (equivalent to around £62.7m today) on the previous year’s tote. Harringay was second highest with £3,769,431, followed by Wimbledon £3,577,943 and Walthamstow £3,029,331. There are 17 London stadia from a total of 57 NGRC tracks.
1993 Chancellor Kenneth Clarke ignored the pleas of greyhound racing and announces the Government is to allow betting shops to operate in the evening upto 10pm.
2000 Bord na gCon announce that they will give the three Northern Irish tracks a £35,000 prize money grant. It is refused by the Ulster Greyhound Board.
1972 January 21 An eighteen month old pup trained by Adam Jackson wins his first NGRC open at Rayleigh. 
Drawn four he starts at 8-1 and wins by just under five lengths in 29.07 for the 510 yards. He is, future double English Derby and Triple Crown winner – Patricia’s Hope (left).
1997 Waterford become the first Irish track to have the Swaffham hare installed.
2000 Bernie Doyle is sacked by Oxford after an alleged ‘coup’. His BAGS runner Carloway Don won by a length, found 30 spots and opened and closed at 5-1. Bookmakers whinged that the dog had been backed in Gibraltar.
1934 January Greyhound punters have never had it so good in Glasgow. There is racing at Carntyne, Albion, Shawfield, White City, Clydebank, Olympic, Capplelow, Firhill, Carfin and Wishaw, nearly all operating matinee and evening meetings.
1973 Brighton’s new track lighting system was given its first public try-out and was voted a success said chairman Gerard Kealy. Designed and constructed by the stadium’s own staff, the lighting standards have been extended to throw more light over the track and in addition an extra lamp lower down the pole, illuminates the greyhounds from the inside, so the patrons can see them more clearly along the straights.
2011 A memorial to Mick The Miller is unveiled in his home village of Killeigh, Co Offally by Irish Taoisceach 
Brian Cowan. The statue was cast by Elizabeth O’Kane and commissioned by the Mick The Miller Commemoration Committee head by Brendan Berry (right)
2000 Crayford open racer Shes Broken is recovered from the Tunbridge Wells dog warden after thieves broke into trainer Paul Tompsett’s kennel two days earlier. She was found running loose and was handed over to a dog warden in nearby Tunbridge Wells. She eventually goes on to win more open races.
2002 Thieves break into Paul Garland’s kennel and snatch brood Sumi Girl who had been nursing a nine week old litter of pups. She is eventually recovered five months later, with several other greyhounds, tied to a tree in a forest in Dover. Travellers are suspected.
1999 John Gammon has his first runners at Hove. He has taken over the trainer’s contract from Bob Young. The track also has a new general manager, Stuart Walton who takes over from Walter Bebbington.
1980 Lakenheath based owner/trainer /breeder Joe Cobbold takes the first two major events of the year. Decoy Duke (Westmead County-Rip Madam) wins the Guys And Dolls at Harringay, and Aglish Boss (Here Sonny-Aglish Pilgrim) takes the Winter Stayers Stakes at Hackney.
2003 The BGRB launches its New Deal charter – a ten point plan based on the assumption that the greyhound industry holds the copyright to its runners and form. Within two weeks of its launch, the William Hill owned Sunderland announce that they are to up their minimum win prize money to £100. Ladbrokes announce an immediate 33% increase in prize money at their two tracks and then Corals unveil an extra £210,000 to be split between Hove and Romford. It also emerges that all new BAGS contracts will have a 20% cash increase. The big layers (excluding Victor Chandler) also refuse to take any bets on evening racing apart from those on their own tracks. The eventual failure of New Deal would ultimately lead to many industry changes including the departure of BGRB chief executive Geoffrey Thomas.
