2005 SKY cameras were on hand as Pelaw Grange celebrated 40 years of racing with a special ‘60s’ night. The track stages its first ‘under rules’ open races later in the month.
1964 Portsmouth trainer George Curtis has his biggest winner to date when favourite Bad Trick (Tuturama-Nifty Lady, Jan 63) beats Cons Duke by half a length to land the Puppy Derby Final at Wimbledon. Two weeks later the brindle establishes herself as the top pup in training by winning the £200 Junior Stakes at West Ham and then the Puppy Oaks back at Wimbledon where he 27.76 heat win is the fastest ever recorded by a juvenile around Plough Lane.
2011 BAGS announce a new £150,000 inter-track championship for the 17 stadia supplying the service.
1994 At the World Greyhound Conference in Dublin, American promoters Patrick Winters and George Downey told the tale of a novel marketing plan that became too successful. It involved ‘doggie days’ when the owners of other breeders were invited to come along to the track to trail against other dogs of the same breed, beagles, sheepdogs, spaniels etc. When a reliable field could be compiled, it would be added to a greyhound card as a novelty race. However, it all went gloriously haywire when they invited owners of Dachshunds to take part in a doggie day at Multnomah. The local radio stations picked up on the idea more than 12,000 people crammed into the stadium. All the neighbouring freeways were jammed, with track employees unable to get to work. Many thousand potential punters went home hungry, thirsty and decidedly unimpressed.
1927 October 1 Carntyne opens with an afternoon meeting which attracts 7,000 spectators. The Lord Provost together with the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton are also in attendance. The first race honours go to J A Coates’s Aisy Tune. The 2-1 favourite, trained by R Thomson, wins the 525 yard opener by four lengths in 33.80. They hold another meeting in the evening, which attracts an even bigger crowd of 10,000.
1990 Bord na gCon announce that random pre-race drug testing will take place at all race and trial meetings from January 1991.
1958 Wimbledon boss Con Stevens applies to the NGRC for a change in the rules to allow racing managers to disqualify ungenuine dogs as well as fighters.
1982 White City trainer Colin West is to leave the sport saying he “finds it difficult to make ends meet.” His place is taken by Powderhall’s Graham Mann, whose position at the Edinburgh track goes to Jane Glass.
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.
1994 Stanley, the North East independent track closes following a series of break-ins. Manager Brenda Johnson said: “There have been two or three lately and it is just impossible to insure the place. The owners are totally fed up.”
1963 Following a fire that gutted the racing office destroying all entry forms, Monmore Green decide to cancel the Midland Produce Stakes. They place an advertisement offering to refund all entry fees to anyone returning receipt of payments.
1978 Pat Mullins’ brilliant stayer Paradise Spectre is retired to stud after winning his second Grand Prix at Walthamstow. The black son of Spectre won £12,550 and 32 of his 60 opens including the Mecca Winter Stayers Stakes, the Guys And Dolls, the Colt 45 Stayers and the Scottish Leger. He broke track records at Ipswich (647m), Powderhall (650m) and Walthamstow (640m).
1933 The Queens Bench Divisional Court decreed that totalisators on greyhound tracks are illegal. The Government, panicking over a potential loss of millions in revenue, are expected to announce corrective legislation as soon as possible.
1971 Blissful Pride took her winning sequence to 12 when landing the Ulster Cesarewitch. The sequence included the Irish Oaks Final.
2005 Greyhound Monthly ceases publication.
1951 British bred Rushton Smutty set a new Walthamstow 525 yard track record in the Grand Prix Final. It was his 16th win in his last 18 starts.
1993 Charlie Lister joins the training strength at Peterborough.
1970 Dr Dick Handley, founder of the Greyhound Breeders Forum takes his own life aged 36. The Dunstable GP was a successful breeder in his own right, having produced top hurdler Tonys Friend out of his brood Maggie From Cork. He also owned the stud dog Ballyard Music.
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!
2012 Razldazl Luke wins the Irish Puppy Derby at Harolds Cross. He is exported to Austalia where he wins two of his seven races (best 29.55 Sandown 515m) before being retired injured.
1969 For the first time ever four bitches contest the Anglo-Irish International at White City. But it is the male Kilbelin Style who comes home clear of his female compatriot Cals Pick and Tullyvallen for the Brit 1-2-3. Completing the field are the trio of Irish females, Itsmint, Shady Primrose and April Flower.
1982 Litter brothers Rikasso Mick and Rikasso Hiker (Glenroe Hiker-Lady Myrtown) are proving to be match specialists. Following on from Mick’s victory over Bright Pin and Go Winston in a three runner match at Leicester, brother Hiker beats Bright Pin and Ardralla Victory in a three dog event at Hall Green, setting a new 474m clock of 28.59 in the process.
1933 October 16 Filming began at Northaw for Wild Boy, starring Mick The Miller. On Saturday 21 a special charity meeting in aid of the Christie Cancer Hospital was held at London White City, starting at 2.30pm. Racegoers who attended were filmed for the crowd scenes. All races were named after personalities who appeared in the film.
2012 BAGS announce that Oxford will lose its Friday morning BAGS fixture, which will be taken by Kinsley. They will still have a Sunday afternoon meeting. Rumours suggest BAGS have been unhappy with various integrity issues at the track but describe their action as “a business decision”. GRA’s Clive Feltham describes it as “a bombshell”.
1953 Staff at the Animal Welfare Health Trust remain cautiously optimistic that they may not be too far away from creating a vaccine for the prevention of distemper. Director of research Mr S S J Hodgman reveals: “We have been encouraged by the results but much more time will have to be spent in testing our vaccination under normal conditions and this will be done with the help of greyhound racing managements.”
1948 British bred Good Worker added the Silver Salver to his victory in Wimbledon’s Two Year Old Produce Stakes. His owner had opted for the Wimbledon race in preference to the English Derby which was staged at the same time. He ended the year with winnings of £957, equivalent to around £44,500.
1937 Entry Badge, the first Derby winner, dies aged 13 years. The brindle son of Jamie-Beaded Yora, was whelped in June 1924. Edwin Baxter’s greyhound was regarded as one of the pioneers of the spot, winning all his heats in the Derby in 1927, and starting a hot 1-4 favourite in the final. He was rarely beaten afterwards and after a brilliant track career he went to stud and sired some good greyhounds in the 30s, none of which turned out to be classic winners.
