1962 The 11 trainers employed by London Stadiums Ltd all hand in their notice following the sacking of colleague John Scott. Ken Guy, spokesman for the company which owns Charlton, Wandsworth and Park Royal announces that replacements have been found and racing will continue unaffected. Although the Wandsworth meeting went ahead, the Charlton meeting had to be abandoned when the company’s kennelmaids refused to parade the greyhounds. The management eventually cave in and all the trainers are re-instated.
1980 September 18 The 24 East Anglian Derby at Yarmouth is won for the third year in a row by Mrs Noreen Simmons when her Killrickle Star lands the £2,500 first prize. Our Rufus won for her in 1978 and 1979.
1994 After years of turning their backs on BAGS racing, GRA’s Wimbledon and Hall Green are both awarded contracts for the 94/95 season. Wimbledon are allocated 46 meetings which will include heats of the Derby. Hall Green get 47. However Ramsgate loses its contract, and never recovers profitability.
2006 GRA announce that Wimbledon will stage a £10,000 jackpot every Saturday. The scheme is canned just weeks later due to a lack of interest and the first pay out going to a punter given a free tote bet.
1976 More than 5,000 racegoers turn out at Catford for the final of the Gold Collar. They all want to see the race of the year, with English Derby winner Mutts Silver against English St Leger winner Westmead Champ over the 555 metre course. And they are not disappointed. Unbeaten in the competition, Champ starts 4-7 favourite, with Mutts – who had lost only one round – starting at 2-1. The others are 10s 33s 40-1. Drawn in Trap 2, Champ flies the traps and leads Mutts to the first. Rounding second, Mutts draws level, is bumped by Champ but comes back. A neck-and-neck duel takes place that has the crowd roaring them on, and Mutts gets in front momentarily after the fourth. But Champ, being the stronger runner, surges after Mutts and draws well clear from the sixth and last bend, coming home a clear 33⁄4 lengths from Mutts in 35.02.
1995 Peterborough racing manager Mike Middle removes his team from Supertrack after failing to reach agreement on the date of a tie with Nottingham.
1937 The St Leger Final is won by by odds on favourite Grosvenor Bob. Leading around one of the also rans, Neville The Devil, was a young kennel man who would go on to become a successful Wimbledon trainer, Clare Orton.
1962 4-1 chance Dromin Glory won the Scottish Derby Final at Carntyne for Clapton based trainer John Basset. Portsmouth based Hey There Merry was second. It was Glory’s third major win of the year following the Select Stakes and Birmingham Cup. He was also an English Derby finalist. Not bad for a dog who cost only £210 some five months earlier.
1985 Askern promoter Paul Davies has put the track on the market for £25,000.
2005 Walthamstow announce that any punter found attempting to bet on the exchanges will be asked to leave the stadium.
1997 Lord Newall decides not to continue as chairman of the BGRB.
1935 Wembley’s local paper tells the story of an unemployed upholsterer who pawned his watch for five shillings and within a week has won £1,500 punting at his local track. (roughly equivalent to £98,000 today). He duly buys a new sports car, an £80 radiogram and hands over £800 for safe keeping to the bank manager. “I think its mostly luck” he says, “Not all though, some of it was brain work. In any case I’m not frittering the money away.”
1999 Karl and Ralph Hewitt’s Chart King is eliminated from the Irish Derby quarter finals and is retired to stud. The race was the culmination of a phenomenal sequence of 16 straight wins including the Easter Cup, Scottish and English Derbys. He is later diagnosed with a wrist injury. A row then breaks out over the dog’s stud career. Suggestions that the son of Trade Official will join Frazer Black are thwarted when the dog joins Sean Bourke.
CHART KING pictured with trainer/jt. owner Ralph Hewitt
