2004 Lincolnshire based businessman Kevin Boothby, who owns numerous runners at Peterborough takes over at Henlow. He immediately invests in the stadium, upgrading facilities, increasing prize money and adding a third race night.
1990 The ‘Westmead’ team of Brits came home with a 15-12 lead from the first leg of the Anglo-Irish at Shelbourne Park. Maximum points scorer was Westmead Harry who led home Monaleen Stag. Harry’s team mates Phantom Flash and Bens Baby finished third and fifth.
1970 Irish runner Nijinsky is doing his best to emulate his equine namesake who is currently the most successful thoroughbred in training. The canine version has won twelve in a row for Cork handler John O’Connor. Interestingly, the Cork schoolmaster has a three month old pup in his kennel who will go on to put his kennelmate’s achievements in the shade – his name is Patricia’s Hope.
1953 Baytown Colt (Babs Choice-Baytown Angel) who won the Puppy Derby earlier in the year at Harolds Cross, has been bought for 75 guineas by American airmen based at South Ruislip.
2005 Mineola Farloe, Seamus Graham’s Derby finalist is retired after finishing lame in a race at Newbridge. The situation also looks bleak for kennelmate Blue Majestic, who has broken a shoulder blade. Fortunately, Majestic returns to racing five months later and goes on to win the ’06 English Derby Invitation.
2018 GBGB launches a new apprenticeship scheme for kennel staff that will lead to a qualification in husbandry and animal welfare.
1935 The Catford management announce that during the coming ‘close season’ they will be laying an “all-rubber racing surface in replacement of the existing turf”.
1961 With a huge debate going on over the benefits or otherwise of spaying bitches to extend their racing careers, American breeder Leland Fisher explains how they cope in the US. He tells an astonished Wimbledon management that it is quite common back home for bitches to be injected with male hormone to prevent them coming in season. Crazy Yanks!
1991 Bord na gCon announces it is to suspend all greyhound sales to Spain following a damning independent report of the condition of greyhounds. However, agents continue to send dogs.
2006 Reigning Stayer of the Year Greenacre Lin is retired from racing boasting a career record of 44 wins from 82 opens. Her successes included the 2004 Coral Marathon, the ’05 St Leger, the ’06 Golden Jacket and Cesarewitch. Bred by Ian Greaves, the daughter of Top Honcho didn’t win her first race until she was 20 months old.
1988 Tom Stanley, who led Rayleigh to becoming the first NGRC permit track before taking over the running of Ipswich, dies aged 81. Tom’s daughter Janet Tite is a trainer at Hackney.
1971 There is tragedy following the final of the Irish Leger. Michael Loughnane, owner of the neck winner Time Up Please died of a heart attack a few minutes after the result was announced.
1991 Bristol announce that they are to introduce eight-dog racing.
2015 One of racing’s most popular owners Mitch Millward dies following an operation to tackle liver cancer. Millward had hoped to live to see his Millwards Teddy land the St.Leger. Sadly, Teddy broke a hock in the Leger second round just three days later.
1955 The first Blue Riband Stakes is run at Wembley. It is one-off race worth £100 (£3,300) to the winner and Pauls Fun beats Duet Leader, Hi There and Gulf Of Darien.
2006 Paula Simmons switches from Hall Green to Monmore following the retirement of Pat Radley. She is replaced by Nick Colton who changes track for the second time in two months having left Oxford for Coventry before the latest switch.
1946 Greyhound authorities announce a fund of £70,000 (roughly £3.5m 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.
1992 Lorraine Rogers, a Catford employee is taken hostage in a van by armed raiders as she leaves the track on Saturday night. At 8.30am the next morning she is taken back to the track. With the raiders holding a security guard at gunpoint, she is forced to over-ride the security code on the stadium safe. A total of £30,000 is taken.
1981 It is a great month for British breeding. There is a 1-2-3 in the Puppy Derby as Special Account beats Gigolo Diomedes and Killacca. At Henlow, Dorothy Ives’ hot favourite Rondor Smiler lands the local Derby. Decoy Silver won the £500 Clifden Restaurants Hurdle at Wembley. One night later his sister Decoy Boom landed the Scottish Marathon as another East Anglian, Alfa My Son carried off the GRA Stakes. The month concluded with Thanet Princess landing the Oaks at Harringay and Decoy Boom securing the Stow Marathon.
1974 October 24 Hardy Wright trainer of two Waterloo Cup winners, has died aged 82. Taking over his father’s kennels at Cummetrees, he steered many great coursers to victory.
1993 Reading advise owner trainers that their runners are no longer required.
1961 One week after landing the Irish Oaks final, Just Sherry returns to England to land the Flying Four at Wandsworth for owner trainer Leslie McNair. She will then return to her long term handler Phil Rees.
2006 William Hill announce that their nightly Channel 854 (formerly ‘425’) will cease at the end of the month. Though popular with owners and punters alike, the Hill hierarchy were unhappy that while they incurred the cost of the evening racing, many other bookmakers and betting exchanges were getting a ‘free feed’
Hills also announce that they are dropping their role as GRA’s main sponsors. Instead they announce a festival of racing at Brough Park and Sunderland
1958 October 4 White City London boasts the first ever long-distance programme, with seven races over 725 yards and one over 1025 – nearly 3 1/2 miles of racing.
1971 Born na gCon announce that Irish tracks will introduce dope testing for the first time. It will carry out some trials at Shelbourne Park.
2015 Farloe Blitz is retired after breaking a hock in a trial at Limerick. Owen McKenna’s dog had led in both the English and Irish Derby finals finishing fourth and second respectively.
1945 The photo finish is introduced at White City for the first time.
1993 Pat Dalton and agent Peter Arthurs were both fined £300 for positives tests of sulphadiazine found in dogs that contested a greyhound sale at Belle Vue. (Dalton’s defence that the drug had come through the food chain was refused. He later overturned the evidence of the NGRC experts and the charge was rescinded)
2009 Five months after the release of balloons at the Derby lunch, Blue Square PR Alan Alger received a call from Holland asking how the finder could claim his prize.
1988 Julius Caeser is inducted into the American Greyhound Hall Of Fame. The dog was bred at Lambourn by Linda Mullins’ sister Jean Chapelle. He was a Jan ’58 brindle by Northern Champion out of Galloping B and he was sent to the USA with four littermates. Linda Mullins recalled: “I can honestly say I have never seen better looking pups before or since. They were all massive but didn’t look the least bit clumsy. Julius Caser was the biggest of the lot at 89lbs, though even the bitches were 75lbs.” They all won Grade A though Julius Caeser was easily the fastest. He won the Phoenix Futurity which even back then was worth about $200,000. The big brindle went on to become a top sire and could be found in the pedigrees of the next generation of America stud dogs including Westy Whizzer and ‘the Jones brothers’ ‘Onie’ and ‘Kelly’.
2014 Barrie Draper has an interesting runner in a Sheffield 660m maiden. Making her UK debut, the ex-Irish star (and super brood) Volcano finishes second at 1-2f.
1978 No dog has ever won the English and Irish St Legers. Matt O’Donnell’s Rhu, follows up a narrow second place at Wembley with a half length win in the Limerick equivalent.
1994 Harlow stages its first ever trial session with 30 runners going around the Pinnacles circuit. Meanwhile, the commencement of racing at Sittingbourne has been put on hold. The stadium held several trial sessions before their landlords, the local football club, announced debts of £1.1m with a major structural design fault to the stadium roof that will cost £680,000 to repair.
1981 Poole Stadium win a High Court appeal against bookmaker Peter Joliffe over his right to stand at the track. Joliffe had been originally thrown out of the stadium after taking bets at the track. He had argued that he was entitled to do so provided the was prepared to pay the statutory ‘five times admission’ charge. The initial court judgement had found in his favour.
1950 Zurus, described at “Australia’s champion puppy” following his victory in the Australian Derby, arrives in Ireland to commence stud duties. He is a litter brother to top Aussie sire Just Andrew.
1972 John Benstead dies aged 88. One of the pioneers of greyhound racing, he was Chairman and Director of Catford Stadium, which he built with his partner F N Sutton in 1932.
2015 Mo’s Bullet goes into the record books for a bizarre reason. The Grand National winner became the first runner with an apostrophe in his name to win a major competition. For many years the use of grammatical symbols was banned by the NGRC and two stud books. The NGRC later changed their rules but nobody bothered to us a ‘. And no, I’m Slippy, was actually, Im Slippy.
1954 Owner/trainer/breeders Frank and Mary Johnson request a stewards enquiry into the running of their two dogs Rushton Mac (2-1jf) and Rushton Spot in an open race at White City where they had finished fourth and sixth respectively. Mrs Johnson believes that the dogs were doped while in the kennels at the stadium. They paid a 20 guineas fee for an analysis of the dogs. Following a two and a half hour enquiry, the NGRC state that they too believe the dogs were doped, but not while in the care of White City, and order Mrs Johnson to pay a fine of £20 and order her to be more cautious of the greyhounds in her care. Pic shows Mrs Johnson with Rusheen Spot at White City
1946 Shareholders in Glasgow track Carntyne will receive a 100% dividend on their shares following the company’s £98,000 profit (roughly £5m at today’s values)
1997 TV series Soldier Soldier features a greyhound racing theme filmed at Reading trainer Dave Egan’s schooling track. The plot is that the lead characters acquire a young greyhound who they plan to win a race with at a flapping track but they are delayed on their return from manoeuvres and it is up to the wives to train the runner. They are so successful at preparing her that she wins by too far and they are given the red light.
1935 Kitshine established herself as one of the great pre-war females when winning the Oaks by seven lengths. Earlier in the year she had won the Laurels.
1974 In readiness for the changeover to metric distances on 1 January 1975, Brighton are changing their 525 yards standard trip to 542 yards, the equivalent of 500 metres.
1980 GRA announce that kennel fees at White City are to rise to £2.50 per day – £2.30 at Harringay. (Equiv of £15.07 and £13.86 today – £105.50/£97 per week).
2009 Airport Pilot and Drumna Thistle dead heated for the TRF Shelbourne 575 and were both disqualified for fighting
1946 Romford and West Ham become the latest tracks to ban under-18s from attending their meetings.
2014 The 23 acre site containing Lifford track in Donegal goes up for sale.
1961 Tragedy hits trainer Joe Booth when a van containing his two sons and a friend of the family is involved in a car crash on the Beeston bypass. Terence Booth and Brian Langford are both killed. Derek Booth, who is also Joe’s head lad, is injured.
1959 A White City Saturday card features only one race over 525 yards. There is a 525 hurdle, three 725yd kennel sweepstakes, a 725yd open and two 1,025 yard opens. All the opens pay £50 to the winner – index linked to roughly £985.
2008 Former Walthamstow Gary Baggs loses a long battle with cancer. He was 60. Pic Steve Nash
1977 Trainer Ger McKenna wins his third consecutive Irish Leger when Red Rasper takes the Limerick decider. It is the Borrisokane trainer’s eleventh victory in the event.
2009 The St.Leger kicks off with the Racing Post headline ’25-1 Kinda Easy to pick for Leger gold.’ Tipster Peter Meldrum is right on the money 17 days later when the Mark Wallis trained blue gets home by a short head. Shame that day’s front page carried a headline tipping the other Wallis runner Droopys Zach – 2nd short head.
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.
1946 Clapton suspend the distribution of advanced racecards in trap order. They are normally sent to a handful of journalists, under strict embargo. This follows the discovery of the sale of ‘pirate’ racecards outside the stadium with all the runners in the correct traps, thus undercutting the stadium’s own racecards which sell for sixpence each.
2014 With Chris Allsopp due to join Towcester, Monmore appoint two new trainers in Sandra Ralph and Allan Jenkins.
1977 The Greyhound Stud Book records its highest number of litters since 1950, 1,123.
1980 Bletchley announce plans to sign up to the new NGRC permit scheme. They will join fellow ex-flapping tracks: Yarmouth, Ipswich, Henlow, Rye House, Norton Canes and Cambridge.
1997 A runner shortage in Ireland is highlighted as one race at Tralee has all six non-runners.
2004 The army’s former chief of Legal Operations in Sierra Leone, John Petrie, is announced as the BGRB’s new Secretary General.
1968 At Dunmore Park a Gala Benefit Meeting in aid of the National Playing Fields Association is held. The Duke of Edinburgh’s Camira Flash (Prairie Flash-Duet Fire, Jan’66), who won the English Derby earlier in the year, lines up for a cracking 435 yard sprint against the track record holder Irish Rain, plus Itsamint. Drawn trap 6, Camira Flash is made favourite and leads from Itsamint after the first bend. Accelerating down the homestraight, he holds on to win by a neck in 23.93 from Itsamint with Irish Rain third. Pic shows HRH Prince Philip being given Camira Flash at a Harringay charity night in aid of the Duke Of Edinburgh Award Scheme
