1947 January 20 Mr E Harper’s Jesmond Cutlet (Beef Cutlet-Lady Eleanor) dies aged 12 years. The winner of 30 open races, his best year was 1937 when he won the Wood Lane Stakes, the Cesarewitch, the Scottish Derby and the Edinburgh Cup; he was trained by D Hawkesley at West Ham and Catford.
1951 Racing is hit by major problems with fog. Dozens of meetings are cancelled and attendances plummet at those tracks who are able to race.
2011 Breeders Forum Treasurer Bob Gilling announces that the Produce Stakes will be discontinued following the staging of the 2012 race. Gilling blames a fall in income due to the sharp decline in British breeding. The Produce Stakes was first staged at Harringay in 1983.
2013 Ladbrokes produce their first ante post list for the forthcoming Golden Jacket. Aero Rebel and Blonde Reagan are 5-1 joint favourites, followed by 7-1 Bubbly Swallow and 10-1 Musical Gaga. Of the 18 dogs listed, only two make the final, Crinkill Jewel and Droopys Xavier who are both 20-1 shots. There is no quote for eventual winner White Soks Rocks.
1932 January 12 Owlerton Stadium Sheffield held their first meeting. In fine weather for a January, a crowd of more than 10,000 turned up including many celebrities, to give the stadium a good send-off. Seven races were run that night, and the hone of winning the first race, the Oxford Stakes over 525 yards, went to Cabrook Ted. The 3-1 second favourite beat Old King Cole the 7-4 favourite by two lengths in 33.63.
1979 A selection of Irish525 yard track records on January 1 1979. Celtic Park Jemmy John (28.61), Clonmel The Grand Fire (29.40), Cork Allemaine (29.05), Dunmore Blissful Pride/Ringfad Flash (28.88), Harolds X Romping To Work (28.86), Kilkenny Ballybeg Maid, Clomoney Grand, Nameless Star (29.00), Limerick Flaming King (29.15), Thurles Flaming King (29.25), Shelbourne Park Tantallons Gift (28.73).
2015 Crayford face criticism from trainers when announcing that the three rounds of the Ladbrokes Golden jacket will take place over 10 days: Saturday/Saturday/Tuesday.
1973 Commutering, now four years old and having once been retired to stud, returns to racing to win the Longcross Cup for trainer Frank Melville.
1963 Dromin Glory is voted 1962 Dog of the Year by a panel of racing journalists. Bitch of the Year is Dainty Spark. The best British bred dog is Any Harm. The best British bred bitch is Ballinasloe Blondie. Dam of the best British bred litter is Janetina. It is the third time that Blondie has landed the award, though she shared the 1960 award with Wheatfield Countess, and became the first bitch to ever win the Best British Bred Greyhound award in 1961. Blondie was bred by farmer William P Tabbush from Manston in Kent. He chose the ‘Ballinasloe’ prefix off a road sign while on holiday in Ireland.
1947 A litter of nine untried 15-month-old pups produced by Carlisle breeder Mr A Forster fetch a combined 935 guineas at Aldridges Sales. Index linked to 2023, the figure would be around £44,500.
1960 Associated Rediffusion’s Channel Nine programme broadcast the longest continuous broadcast of greyhound racing when they screen the last three races of a Park Royal meeting (3-50pm-4.30pm) to viewers in five regions. The programme is introduced by John Rickman. One of the trophy presentations will be made by legendary trainer Sidney Orton who Ballylennon Moon won the first greyhound race on TV with a live race commentary in 1942.
1956 January 21 Brinton Arrow (Jubilee Time-Decameron Nights, Jun 47) owned by Captain John Moffat, Managing Director at Crayford Stadium, which his 100th graded race at Crayford at the age of 8 years 8 months. Trained by Henry Parsons, he wins at the very short price of 2-7. Beating two year old Monacherra (6-1) by 12 lengths in the 285 yard race, leading all the way. After the race he is present with a gold braided jacket bearing his name and his record of 100 wins from 376 races, all at Crayford. He is now retired to spend the rest of his days at the stadium’s kennels. He cost only 25 guineas, had trials at Walthamstow, Romford and New Cross when he was still a puppy, but never raced there. For his entire racing career he was at Crayford, although in his latter years he found the 490 yards there a bit too far, with the younger greyhounds able to catch him on the run in.
2002 Top Savings is quoted as a 7-1 chance for the forthcoming English Derby following a near nine length win the Racing Post Juvenile. The 4-5f chance clocked 27.56 for Wimbledon’s 460 metres. Within 24 hours, Savings Derby price was cut to 5-1.
1991 Slaneyside Hare catches Summerhill Super for an impressive win in the Sporting Life Juvenile in 27.76 for Wimbledon’s 460 metres. However following the race, it is discovered that he has fractured a wrist.
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.
1996 Swaffham’s Tom Smith faces anger from his layers after he grades a ‘selling race’ where all six runners are trained by Paul Godden
1936 January 4 More than 23,000 people are at Harringay for the final of the first Pall Mall, won by Cyril Kenne’s Shove Halfpenny (Town Treasure-Princess Karl, Jul 33). The 7-4 favourite wins the race in 30.97, trained by Charlie Ashley at Stamford Bridge. For the record, this is the 1935 final, as the 1st round, 2nd round and semi-finals were run on December 14, 21 and 23 respectively. It was not until 1937 that the entire race was run off in one year, when it was staged in November.
1965 Albert Mowbray, the boss of independent Chesterfield decides to sell up due to ill health. Mowbray had built the circuit in 1940 and was getting crowds of 300 through the gate. A bid of £9,000 for the track and an adjoining site is turned down at auction – the reserve was £12,000.
1980 Two race wrecking incidents occur on the same night at Romford and Walthamstow. At Romford, a man jumped onto the track and threw a jacket containing a sandbag onto the hare rail. The wrecker escaped. At Walthamstow, Peter Bridle, a 37 year old car mechanic took a greyhound to the first bend and asked if his ‘pup’ could be shown the hare. When they refused, he threw the dog onto the track and it caused a collision and void race. At Waltham Forest Magistrates Court Bridle was bound over to keep the peace and fined £100.
1952 The father and son directors of Taunton track, John P Flanagan and Luke Joseph Flanagan, appear in court on various charges relating to the construction of the track using ‘black market’ materials and a deficiency in the accounts prior to a winding up of of £22,721. They are sentenced to four and two years respectively.
1979 Perry Barr boss Paul Czardybon faces an NGRC enquiry after the track allowed Blazing Ship to contest a £200 open race final at the track. Ship had finished fourth in his semi final but had been promoted to the final following the disqualification for fighting of Northway Run. That switch had defied rule 91, introduced 11 years earlier following the uproar after the Duke Of Edinburgh’s Camira Flash had been promoted to the English Derby final following the disqualification of Not Flashing for fighting. Thankfully, unlike the royal runner, Blazing Ship was well beaten in the final.
1983 NGRC figures reveal that the number of open races advertised in the Calendar increased by 15% in 1982 to 2,607. There are 370 professional trainers, 271 owner trainers and 1,032 permit trainers. The number of new owners fell by 10% to 2,634. There were 7,841 new greyhounds registered for racing on Britain’s 44 NGRC tracks. The average attendance at Irish tracks was 403, in Britain it was 793. Another interesting figure –30 greyhounds received their second and final warning for fighting during the year, out of an estimated 20,000 dogs in training. Interestingly, male fighters outnumbered feisty females by 5:1 and the 30 included two five-year-olds.
1992 Wembley plc, the owners of GRA, announce an £8m loss for 1991, following a £13m profit the previous year. They blame the Gulf War and the recession. The company claim to have spent £10m on improvements at their six greyhound tracks in the previous five years.
2003 Mildenhall racing manager Mike Hill launches a furious attack on the NGRC after 73 year old pensioner trainer Douglas Manning, who has never had a stewards enquiry previously, is fined £500 for a positive dope test in a graded race worth £25. Hill appeared as a witness for the trainer and explained that the substance found salicylic acid had come from a non-prescribed liniment on open sale on dog vans.
1937 January Ex West Ham grader Whipped J (Maidens Boy-Whipped Cream, Apr 34) now renamed El Kiljerry, wins heat and final of the Prix Des Perce at Courbevoie Stadium near Paris. The 593 metre handicap race is worth 10,000 French francs. Racing off scratch and giving anything up to 12 metres away, El Kiljerry wins in 38.60.
1998 Sir William Rous is the new BGRB chairman. He replaces Lord Newall.
2005 Walthamstow is re-shaped and the inside running rail replaced without losing a meeting. It is the first phase of a major reconstruction.
1949 Journalist Leo C Wilson produces an interesting article on ‘colour prejudice’. He accepts that dislike of white dogs for ‘lacking courage’ is still a popular, if unfair, branding. He believes that the overall shortage of white dogs was due to their being more visible to hare on the coursing field. The exception is, bizarrely, in Cornwall since Cornishmen and women ‘have bred with an eye for the show-ring where flashy colours are an advantage’. He notes that in the early days of coursing, the breed was dominated by blacks though interestingly, there is evidence to suggest that due to an extreme prejudice against brindles, many brindles were incorrectly registered as black. Indeed it had been proven that Major, a litter brother to one of the most famous coursers of all time, Snowball, was indeed brindle, despite his being registered as black. Wilson notes “The position is now almost entirely reversed for brindles now vie with reds and red-fawns in being our most popular colour, and blacks form only a small proportion of the total number of greyhounds in training.” Wilson does not believe coat colour is relevant quoting the famous maxim, ‘a good greyhound, like a good horse, cannot be a bad colour.’
