To mark the impending closure of Wimbledon, and its significance in the history of racing in Britain, we have assembled a range of interesting snippets and stories relating to Plough Lane from our archives. There are so many that we are splitting them into sections prior to the last meeting on Saturday.
Enjoy – Ed
1932 A Wimbledon match race between local star Lavaka and Wembley runner Lights Of London is inconclusive – they dead heat.
1932 New Year’s Day racing takes place at Harringay and Wimbledon in the Capital, both tracks staging seven-race cards. Harringay’s features two hurdle events for four runners, winners collecting £12 (index linked to £708). Wimbledon’s card includes races over 440 & 500yds (flat and hurdles both distances), 550yds, and 700yds. Top grade prize money is £15 (£885). It doesn’t all go to plan though with one race made void due to one of the runners fighting. A second race is lost due to mechanical failure.
1934 Wimbledon’s Popular Plate is contested by six littermates from a Mick The Miller and Toftwood Misery. ‘Mick The’ Cheerful, Cavalier, Commander, Curious, Cyclone and Courier are all owned by Mrs Arundel H Kempton and trainer Sidney Orton.
1937 Racegoers on their way to Wimbledon by tram are surprised to find them stopping short of the stadium. For in Wimbledon Road the coming of the trolley buses means that workmen were filling in the lines.
1944 February 26. A group of Wimbledon employees were engaged in a heavy duty card school and decided to ignore air raid warnings. Within minutes, the stadium was being showered with 600 incendiary bombs. No one was hurt, though the main stand, offices, kitchen and totalisator were all destroyed. Racing was shut down for two weeks and, according one slightly miffed employee, there was no sign of a rather large winnings kitty.
1947 In December 1945, Wimbledon’s open race hurdler Ferry Dancer was disqualified in the Christmas Vase. Because he had run 17 clear races, in the interim, he was allowed back into the event – but fought again. However, according to the press, “on January 3, the NGRC, evidently using up the goodwill that was left over from Christmas, decided to ‘give it one further chance’. The owner has been advised accordingly.” The Wimbledon racing office had other ideas and announced in their newsletter ‘the reprieve is not expected to affect the future of Ferry Dancer.”
1947 January Wimbledon racing manager Con Stevens suggests a new method could be instigated for judging close finishes. He believes a camera could be developed which would photograph greyhounds as they crossed the winning line.
1947 Racing continues despite very bad weather. At Wimbledon they change the hare colour to black so it will show up better against the snow.
1949 The four London owned GRA tracks are currently installing weighing scales in the racing racing paddocks. This follows a warning from the NGRC that they will soon become mandatory. West Ham remains the last London track to install them. Wimbledon, who introduced the idea, have insisted on racing weights for all runners for over 20 years.
1949 Wimbledon’s newly introduced rule, whereby every new dog joining the racing strength must trial once over the 725 yard course is reaping dividends. They are currently staging at least three staying races on every eight race card.
1950 Wimbledon issue details of their kennel strength over the course of a year. It varied between 196 and 217 though that figure included dogs required to re-trial, newcomers, lame, sick, in-season, dogs awaiting registration and open racers. On average there were seldom more than 100 greyhounds available for graded racing in any one week. Fortunately, most weeks only required enough dogs for two meetings, eight races apiece.
1950 W J Cearns dies following a short illness. The former office boy invested his life savings in the failing building company that employed him. He took it over, and was one of the first to understand the great advantages of working with reinforced concrete. When one of his customers was faced with bankruptsy, he bought them out and thereby became the owner of the stadium that he was constructing – Wimbledon. Another of his building projects was West Ham, where he built the main grandstand and later became club chairman. He also served on the Football League management committee and was deputy chairman of the BGRS (a rough equivalent of the Racecourse Promoters Association). Popular with his Wimbledon patrons, ‘WJ’ would regularly mingle with patrons during race meetings, listening to their grievances and observations.
1957 In an attempt to justify their policy of not having reserves for their races, Wimbledon’s track bulletin provides figures for 1956. They show that in the 103 meetings there were 5088 runners, of which 108 scratchings took place ‘roughly one a meeting’. Had they included reserves “approximately 700 greyhounds would have been taken to the stadium and not been raced, an average of five greyhounds at every meeting, prepared and transported to the track only to be left in the kennels at the stadium until the end of the meeting.”
1959 Sidney Orton retires after 31 years at Wimbledon. He began as clerk of the scales but took out his trainer’s licence in late 1928. The ‘Wizard of Burhill’ When asked to name the best dog he handled, Orton replied: “I would like to say Mick The Miller, but to be perfectly truthful, I think the best of the lot was Ballynennon Moon. I also had a very soft spot for Ballyhennessy Sandhills.”
1959 Wimbledon announce plans to maintain their graded race mix of one stayers race for every one run over the standard distance. Neighbours Wandsworth announce they will introduce 600 yard hurdle races in addition to graded races over the 776 yard trip.
1959 Clare Orton has his first winner at Wimbledon after taking over from his father Sidney.
1960 Wimbledon racing manager Con Stevens introduces ‘All In All” racing whereby each of the track’s six trainers has one greyhound in every race throughout the entire meeting. Stevens had previously introduced a policy of having at least half over every graded card made up of 700 yard races. The move was hailed by Greyhound Express editor Charlie Hawkins “as one of the main reasons why Wimbledon was bucking the trend of falling attendances.”
1964 Wimbledon’s Con Stevens releases figures showing that the track’s average racing strength during 1963 was 208, which included, on average, 22 lame dogs and seven with sickness. In the 12 months, there was one death, one broken hock and one broken leg.
1966 The NGRC confirm a £10 fine on trainer Jim Irving following the withdrawal of Derby favourite Prince Of Roses from an open race at Wimbledon, who issued the initial fine. Irving had sent the dog to Plough Lane for an open but after being phoned by a kennelhand to say that the going was heavy, he ordered the dog home without it being kennelled.
1967 Wimbledon increase the first prize for their Veteran Championship to £100 to the winner (index linked £1,525). The six oldest runners will automatically be accepted provided they have contested at least 100 races including a dozen within the past 12 months.
1967 Wimbledon announce that 466 litters have been entered for the 1968 Produce Stakes, which also qualifies them for the 1969 Champion Stakes for the year olds.
1968 Roger Cearns, son of Wimbledon MD John Cearns, marries actress Penny Spencer.
1970 Moordyke Spot sets record for consecutive graded wins at Wimbledon when he lands his seventh consecutive top heat race. Later in the year he will equal the 500 yard track record. He is installed as 16-1 Derby favourite with some firms.
1971 Wimbledon report a crowd of 4,500 for the first round of the Spring Cup.
1974 Con Stevens retires from Wimbledon following a 46 year career in which he rose to the role of chairman before becoming deputy chairman to John Cearns.
1974 Wimbledon announce that this year’s Two Year Old Produce Stakes will be the last. They blame “changing times and heavy administration expenses”.
1974 Paddy McEllistrim and Stan Martin both retire as Wimbledon trainers. Paddy (82) arrived, with greyhounds to sell before the track even opened in 1928. His biggest winner was Spotted Rory in the St Leger. Martin was a former head lead to Joe Harmon who died in 1941. Martin won two English Derbys with Ballymac Ball and Ballyhennessy Seal. Ball also won two Laurels.
1975 Wimbledon are having a freakishly bad month with hurdlers. Two die on the same card, from a blood clot caused in a collision, another by a heart attack. A week later, a novice hurdler fell at the third fence and broke his neck.
1976 Racing chief Arthur Aldridge tells Wimbledon that they must now seed all wide runners in open races.
1981 Wimbledon Stadium run a benefit meeting in aid of their neighbours, Wimbledon Football Club.
1984 Wimbledon are making preparations for the closure of White City by widening the track by two and a half feet and reducing the banking around the fist two bends. Statistics compiled by the track show that 23 per cent of winner led by the first bend, and 33 per cent did not lead until after the last bend.
1986 Works gets underway on a 200 seat extension to the Wimbledon restaurant.
1993 Wimbledon H2 grader Gis A Smile breaks the 460 metre hurdle track record when recording 27.99. Trainer Philip Rees faces a stewards enquiry due to the dog’s previous best time of 28.81.
1993 Top Wimbledon hurdler Lisnakill Wish dies of a heart attack minutes after winning. The Philiip Rees trained black, who had a 28.19 on his card over the 460m trip collapsed as he was being led off the track. (He was posthumously voted 1992 Wimbledon Dog of the Year)
1997 The Wimbledon management concede to the wishes of Black Gem Charm who only agrees to walk to the starting traps once prior to a race. He refuses to budge and the pre-race parade carries on without him. The exploits don’t do him any harm though as he runs away with the Sporting Life Juvenile.
2000 Wimbledon announce a rise in tote deductions from 24 to 25%.
2000 Connections were reaching for the rule book after Frenan Focus was allowed to compete in a heat of the Springbok. The dog ran despite having finished lame in his previous race but without a subsequent trial. The Wimbledon stewards pointed out that the decision was discretionary and had even been applied to a Derby final in the past after Indian Joe had been declared lame after the semi finals.
2000 Wimbledon and Nottingham both report overcrowding for Saturday night cards late in the month. Wimbledon draw 3,500 and Nottingham attract 850 customers.
2001 Wimbledon bookmakers seem set to make a point when they return Off The Hook at 1-4f in an A9 graded event (they were then betting 10-1 (x3), 12, 20-1). Ray Peacock’s dog won by three lengths.
2003 Wimbledon announce that they will significantly improve the racing circuit and widen the bends in time for the Derby. The cost of the project is estimated at £70,000.
2004 Wimbledon announce that the winner’s prize for A1 is to increase by £70 to £230 – that includes a £100 contribution from the track bookmakers. The win prize money is £70 higher than the equivalent grade at Walthamstow. Other grades A2-£160, A3-£110, A4-£100, S1-£230, S2-£160, S3-£110.
2006 Wimbledon announce a 10 per cent cut in prize money and a 15 per cent cut in trainers bonuses. They announce “These are short terms actions to ensure a long term future”. Within days, Walthamstow announce that winners prize will be reduced by £10 on all graded races excluding A1 & S1.
2007 Wimbledon stage a ladies night featuring races sponsored by Ann Summers. The races include the Rampant Rabbit Stakes.
2010 Former Wimbledon trainer Philip Rees dies following a short illness aged 67.
2012 Paschal Taggart unveils his ambition to buy Wimbledon Stadium
2012 Wimbledon’s pre-Juvenile trial session is held up by a bomb scare at Plough Lane.
