1958 A High Court doping case is adjourned when the key witness, kennelmaid Barbera Margaret Barker goes missing. A total of 11 defendants, including five kennelmaids are refused bail.
2011 Two weeks after winning an A1 at Sheffield, Lisa Stephenson’s Olivers Twist lands the Irish Grand National Final at Harolds Cross from Baran Bally Hi and English Grand National runner-up Clonkeen Theo.
1989 Slippy Blue, who ran his only graded race at Brough Park for trainer Norman Oliver, returns to the track to win the £5,000 All England Cup for Ken Linzell.
1979 Ladbrokes introduce a new Greyhound Club. For £40 per year, members are entitled to free admission and parking, and 10% reduction on restaurant bills, at each of the company’s seven tracks; Crayford, Brough Park, Gosforth, Leeds, Perry Barr, Wolverhampton and Willienhall.
1935 Wembey are to reduce kennel fees for dogs not on the racing strength, They will be 18s 6d. Graded dogs will be charged £1 per week (roughly £68 at today’s rates)
1949 Trainer Stan Biss has three runners in the St Leger Final including favourite Rio Cavallero, though the last named is pipped on the line by Lovely Rio, who recently left the Clapton trainer to join Jack Harvey. The winner and runner-up were bred by Mr & Mrs Cardwell, from Grafty Green near Maidstone in Kent – though they kept the wrong one!
1958 Popular TV comedy programme ‘The Army Game’ features a greyhound called Jack The Ripper as a regimental mascot. He is infact, ‘she’, the 10 year old former open racer Overleigh Hostess.
1989 Easy And Slow leads Whisper Wishes by one open race winner in the open race sires table. With Manorville Sand two places below, it means that Sand Man has three sons in the top four. Derby winner Wishes will finish the year in top spot.
1961 There is a top class field for the Blue Riband, a one-off invitation race at Wembley worth £85 to the winner. The field includes Irish Oaks winner Just Sherry and the recent Laurels/St Leger winner Clonalvy Pride. But the race goes the way of Jack Harvey’s brindle and white dog Prairie Flash (Hi There-Prairie Peg, Sep 59). Moderately away, Flash led at the third bend and then held off the late run of kennelmate Clonalvy Pride by a neck in 29.12. It is Prairie Flash’s 10th race in Britain. He went lame on his debut in the 1961 Derby heats but has won the last nine.
1989 Prince Edward is the special guest at Canterbury as the track ran a meeting in aid of the Royal Marines School of Music.
1938 White City introduce an innovative competition, the Right Hand Championship which is staged in a clockwise direction. It is won by Roeside Creamery in 29.60. The English Derby final the same year is won by Lone Keel in 29.62.
1983 Joe Fitzpatrick announces that the 1981 Irish Stud Book should be on sale by Christmas. The delay is brought about by the transfer over to a computerised registration system.
1961 Leading racing paper the Greyhound Express initiates a campaign for consistency in race distance allowances. The paper, along with the majority of greyhound tracks, allow .06 of a second to equate to a length. However the three tracks that comprise South London Stadiums all allow .07 and Wimbledon allow .08.
1983 Bord na gCon raise a few eyebrows when extending the tracks allowed to stage unofficial trials to include Harolds Cross.
1962 Dromin Glory adds the Cesarewitch to his Scottish Derby and Birmingham Cup victories in track record time. The John Bassett trained brindle clocks 32.97 in the final, the fastest run over the West Ham 600 yard course since the introduction of the new outside hare.
1989 Joint Sunderland promoter Harry Williams admits to irritation with the local council when plans for a motel and pub complex are rejected. The track are currently fitting a new McGee hare at a reported cost of £100,000.
1950 Some 49 greyhounds, including many of the leading open race stars of the last two years, go on sale at a packed Aldridge’s sale-room. They are the property of Fred and Harry Davis, who are currently appealing against their prison sentences, following the Red Wind ringer case. Among those on sale are Hurry Ivan, who has track records in Ireland, the USA and England, plus Drumgoon Boy, the 525 yard track record holder at Harringay and West Ham. Among the brood bitches are Light Biddy, described in court as ‘the dam of Red Wind’ – a view not held by the High Court judge. Red Wind, who had been the Derby favourite, was not among the lots on sale. Only 14 of the greyhounds were sold with Drumgoon Boy fetching top lot at 720 guineas. Hurry Ivan received a top bid of 940 guineas but did not reach his reserve. With the NGRC and ICC banning all dogs in Fred Davis’ name from ever racing again, only Boy and For Sure (380gns) were deemed to have stud value. The other 12 dogs sold were all graders in Harry Davis’ name.
1946 American promoters are hoping to arrange a match between the country’s top two racing stars. Taunton will be represented by Flashy Sir, a winner of 30 of his 38 races to date while Wonderland will be represented by the great Lucky Pilot.
1949 The Animal Health Trust issue a gloomy forecast of their likelihood for eradicating Hard Pad. “We are working at the moment on Hard Pad, but it must be remembered that the problem is a very complex one, rather similar to Infantile Paralysis in the human field. If this is indeed the case, and we think it is, then we can look for no easy solution.”
1964 Expensive Irish puppy Cassildo is withdrawn ‘technical’ from an open race at Brough Park. A “local steward” refused entry to the dog and his owner Billy Parker with the line “No dog of Parker’s runs at my track”. Billy’s father is Frank Parker, the promoter at Wakefield independent track. The NGRC stewards decline to call an enquiry.
1946 Greyhound authorities announce a fund of £70,000 (roughly £2.9m at today’s values) has been allocated towards the eradication of distemper which is rife throughout Britain and Ireland. It will be roughly seven years before the first successful trials on a vaccine take place and more than a decade before the major training kennels announce that they are free of the disease, though it will continue to occasionally resurface for decades to come.
1989 Aussie authorities are in a dilemma following the news that SKY are to cover all the year’s remaining major races. The authorities are concerned by the standard of dress of many owners, trainers and handlers, and are worried that they may frighten away potential advertisers. Owners and trainers are outraged about having a dress code enforced “on a working man’s sport”. The AGRCB are being asked to decide who is right.
1963 A new greyhound track is being constructed in the in-field area of Shelly Bay racecourse in Bermuda.
1994 After opening up the St Leger from a restricted 48, Wembley receive 77 entries for the first round.
