REMEMBER WHEN – THE OAKS

The English Oaks, ’the bitch’s classic’ was first staged 97 years ago over 500 yards at London White City and will be held at its sixth venue for the final time on Saturday.

It is an immense event with so many champions worthy of note. But given the limited time and space, here are a few memorable moments and hounds.

It is difficult to appreciate how novel the greyhound industry was back in the early days.

When Three Of Spades crossed the White City winning line on 12 October 1927, greyhound racing had only been operating for 14 months.

In fact, the sport was still so new, that every race meeting, nationally, was allocated its own number. Sid Jennings’ Harringay based winner had actually won the third race on a seven race card at meeting no.268 of the year. Or the 305^th greyhound meeting since Mistley crossed the Belle Vue winning line the previous year.

In fact, one of the four founders of the GRA, Major Lynne-Dixon sold Edna Best, a sister of the first English Derby winner Entry Badge, for 250 guineas (roughly £19,800 today) in December 1927 and she was to throw the 1931 Oaks winner, Drizzle.

Mutton Cutlet was the ‘Droopys Sydney and some’ of his era, as the top producer of Irish coursers in the late 1920s and early ‘30s.

He threw the 1928 and 1929 winners of the National Breeders Stakes, the stake that existed before the event was scrapped into the Coursing Derby and Oaks and he sired the 1930, 1932 and 1933 Coursing Oaks winners as well the 1933 Coursing Derby winner.

Although he never influenced British coursing in any major way, Mutton Cutlet is considered to be the father of the modern track greyhound – globally!

Cutlet would sire three English Oaks winners. The first of them was the 1930 winner Faithful Kitty who was trained by Paddy McEllistrim, father of Norah.

The second and third were won by the first female superstar of the track, Queen of the Suir. Bred by Paddy Byrne from Outeragh House in Cahir – hence her name – Queen won the 1932 Oaks over 550 at Clonmel and was shipped over to England to join Stan Biss.

The brindle duly won the 1932 English Oaks and was laid off for the winter. She returned in 1933 and won the Coronation Stakes at Wembley followed by the 1933 Oaks Final.

In 1934, Queen landed a second Coronation Stakes but was eliminated in the first round of her third English Oaks attempt.

There were just a couple of postscripts to the Queen of the Suir story. In 1937, the racing press reported a story from Stan Biss saying that the seven year old had been recaptured after running wild for two months. She had a cut jaw and had lost a couple of teeth but was otherwise okay.

Queen returned to Ireland but would largely be considered a failure in breeding terms. But at nine years old, and in her last litter, she threw Brave Damsel, winner of the 1941 Irish Derby.

Stan Biss with Queen Of The Suir (brindle centre) – photo courtesy Charles Blanning – from his book ‘Please Mister – Golden Age Of Greyhound Racing’

Queen Of The Suir’s Oaks double were the first for Stan Biss who went on to land the event on a record six occasions (or maybe seven – the 1930 winner is a subject of some debate).

It was Biss who famously became the first trainer to win £10,000 in a year (equiv today of £829K) – with Queen getting him over the line on New Year’s Eve 1933. He was also the first to £20,000 (equiv today of £930k) in 1948.

Yet famously he never won the English Derby.

Perhaps the most quirky Oaks story concerns his fourth winner, the 1946 winner, Dumbless Maid. From our archives: “Interestingly, when first trialled at White City two weeks previously she had twice turned in the traps and refused to chase. Following her second refusal, Racing Manager Percy Brown had ordered that she be given a handslip.

A number of Clapton runners have recently refused to chase the White City hare, the general consensus is that they fail to notice the hare on the outside of the track and are looking at the centre of the course. At Clapton, the hare passes the boxes between traps three and four.”

The kennel’s 1948 winner Night Breeze, who also won the Pall Mall was one of the British entries in the first American Derby at Taunton in Massachusetts.

The Oaks was granted ‘classic’ status in September 1939 but within a week, the competition had been scrapped due to wartime restrictions

It would be 1945 before it finally became the seventh classic, alongside the English Derby, St.Leger, Gold Collar, Scurry Gold Cup, Laurels and Cesarewitch. The septet were eventually joined by the Scottish Derby, Welsh Derby, Grand National and Grand Prix.

In 1990 the classification was axed, and replaced by ‘Category’ status, due to complaints that the majority of the events were staged by one company, GRA.

The Countess of Westmoreland presents the 1961 Oaks Final trophy to owner Bill Tabbush. Jack Harvey holds the winner

Wembley trainer Jack Harvey sent out five Oaks winners including one of the great British bred racers of her era, but often overlooked in terms of her achievements, Ballinasloe Blondie.

Owned and bred by Bill Tabbush, in her first season, the daughter of Northern King and Ballinaloe Chick had won the Puppy Oaks and Trafalgar Cup.

In 1961, she went unbeaten though the Oaks having won her semi final at 2/7f and the final by just under four lengths. Before the year was out, she had also won a couple of heats of the Laurels and St.Leger and reached the Regency Final.

Her 1962 season was just eight races which included another unbeaten run through the Oaks. She won the final by seven lengths and was returned at 1/2f. She is retired following her 50^th race and 28^th victory.

In 1961 the NGRC introduce a new stating that any bitch who has been spayed should carries notification of that operation on the racecard. The move appears to be aimed specifically at one greyhound only, Paddy Sweeney’s 1960 Oaks winner Wheatfield Countess.

Sweeney denies that spaying makes a bitch run faster, and believes he is the only person for whom the rule is being introduced. He carries out the operation on his bitches to prevent them coming regularly into season.

A number of tracks are said to be considering barring spayed bitches from competing in major events.  The first to enforce it are Wembley who refuse to accept spayed bitches for the Coronation Stakes. GRA then follow and ban the bitch from all their ‘classics’ (Derby, Oaks etc) except the Grand National!