1970 Yarmouth have reduced admission charges since more than doubling their tote retention from 6% to 12.5% following the change in law the previous month.
1990 Results of a random drugs testing experiment carried out at Shelbourne Park and Harolds Cross reveal that one runner in every six runners failed the test.
1934 January Greyhound punters have never had it so good in Glasgow. There is racing at Carntyne, Albion, Shawfield, White City, Clydebank, Olympic, Capplelow, Firhill, Carfin and Wishaw, nearly all operating matinee and evening meetings.
2010 At the annual awards dinner GBGB chairman Maurice Watkin announces that new owners will not be charged for the first transfer of ownership.
1950 Sheevaun (Bellas Prince-Honey Gale, Mar 46), one of the greatest bitches of her era, fails to win a third Longcross Cup when finishing third in the final – the same position she occupied in the 1948 Derby final.
2013 BGRF chairman Tom Kelly manufactures a deal to bring back live greyhound racing on SKY. The broadcaster refused to finance any further projects after its 2012 contract ran out. SIS will provide the broadcasts which will be produced at cost and funded by BAGS. The GBGB’s prize money fund will contribute £7,000 towards each meeting.1946 January Fog is so dense in London that at White City’s meeting on January 19, a light is attached to the hare. One Tuesday 22, the van carrying greyhounds from Northaw to White City for trials, is involved in an accident and trainers Lightfoot and Heyes are taken to the local hospital. Only one greyhound is slightly hurt.
2012 The GBGB warn off bogus vet Patrick Keniry following his recent 20 month conviction in the High Court. At the same hearing, former trainer Trevor Wales and kennelhand Richard Williams were disqualified indefinitely following convictions of money laundering and handling stolen property.
1971 Flaming King (Market Green-Maglin Lady) has been sold to Jack Mullan to stand at stud in Newry. Early in his career, the Pauline Wallace owned brindle broke the 525 yard track records at Limerick and Tralee and won the Irish Laurels. He also raced in England, Spain, and the USA where he won eight straight races at Flagler. With the exception of Backdeed Man he threw little of note but did sire two important brood bitches in Glenroe Angel and Noble Lynn.
1938 Dee Rock is attracting plenty of coursing dams to Harold Wright’s kennel at Preston Brook near Warrington. The 1935 Waterloo Cup winner who stands at a fee of 25 guineas, will throw the 1940, 1941 and 1942 Waterloo winners thanks to Dee Flight and Swinging Light (twice).
1992 Figures released by the BGRB reveal that 1991 saw a 9.6 per cent decline in attendances and a 10.9% drop in tote turnover at Britain’s 38 NGRC tracks. Irish tracks suffer a 5.8% drop at the same time.
1981 Wimbledon Stadium run a benefit meeting in aid of their neighbours, Wimbledon Football Club.
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!
2001 Belle Vue are on the mat after John Walton’s Nire Ranger (A3) accidentally ran in place of kennelmate Diamond Lass and finished second in an A4. Nobody spotted the error, including the fact that Lass is a bitch and Ranger is a dog!
In the subsequent inquiry, the Belle Vue executive are fined £1,000.
1983 Frank Melville gives up his White City training contract to become the NGRC’s stipendiary steward in East Anglia. He is the first former trainer ever appointed. Stan Gudgin’s head lad Ray Peacock will be given his trainers license and take over Melville’s range.
1978 The British Greyhound Racing Federation are attempting to railroad the registration of British bred greyhounds by producing their own stud book. The National Coursing Club advise all owners to continue to register new litters with them. They even consider a merger with the Irish Stud Book.
1957 The 1957 fixtures list shows most of the major events in their regular slots in the calendar. Dates of finals: Grand National (May 3), Gold Collar (May 25), Greyhound Derby (June 29), Welsh Derby (July 6), Scottish Derby (July 13), Scurry Gold Cup (July 27), Laurels (Aug 23), St Leger (Sep 7), Grand Prix (Sep 24), Oaks (Sep 28) Cesarewitch (Oct 11), Pall Mall (Nov 25).
1993 In an article in The Sporting Life, trainer Charlie Lister is asked what he would do if her were the NGRC Chief. His opening response: “All open-race trap draws must be made in public on racenights.”
1993 Our Timmy wins the Sporting Life Juvenile for Cradley trainer Jim Barratt. Bought for 1,000 guineas at Shelbourne Sales he recorded 27.84 for Wimbledon’s 460m.
1937 January 9 Mr and Mrs A S Reid’s Anzak (bk d Conversion-Batch, Jan 34) trained privately by H Galt in Lanark in Scotland, is making his third appearance at Harringay, a round trip by train of more than 800 miles, to contest the 700 yard Berwick Stakes, worth £40 and trophy to the winner and £10 to the second. He is made 6-4 favourite but the 9-4 second favourite Maiden’s Delight, trained at Wembley by J Syder leads at the third bend holding off Anzak who finishes well by two lengths in 41.47.
1981 Two seven month old pups from the last litter sired by Westmead County are stolen from Nick and Natalie Savva’s kennel. The pair are later recovered from a travellers camp near Cambridge. Savva paid £100 for the return of the pups who had been ‘bought for £60 by a gipsy from another gipsy’. Their pair, County Border and County Final, both make minor open class. Within the same week there are thefts of pups in Surrey and Yorkshire. Most breeders had hoped that the theft of pups would slow following the introduction of earmarking in Britain a year earlier.
2002 The BGRB threaten to remove NGRC senior steward John Nicholson from the board when the NGRC refuse to hand over its copyright to registrations.
The board need the copyright in its attempts to force the off-course bookmakers pay for the sport’s intellectual property rights. In retaliation for its ‘treachery’ the board refuse to rubber stamp the appointment of new NGRC steward Christine Kershaw. Nicholson would later, secretly, change the NGRC’s constitution and thus enable it to appoint stewards without BGRB approval. The move would ultimately cost Nicholson his job.
1963 A group of former owners at Charlton, headed by the man destined to build Beaverwood, Frank Sanderson, make an offer to buy the recently closed circuit from owners London Stadiums.
1947 Mrs H Sanderson pays what is believed to be a record price for a bitch when purchasing Puppy Derby and Oaks winner Castledown Tiptoes for £3,000 – index linked to £134K.
1961 Velvet Sis, a daughter of English Derby winner Endless Gossip, wins the $50,000 Flagler International.
2007 The industry’s worst kept secret is finally unveiled when Blue Square are announced as the new sponsors of the English Derby on a three year deal.
1951 On a blank day for racing, Geryhound Express produce some fascinating facts and figures for readers. In terms of track circumference, the huge West Ham circuit comes out on top at 562 yards. By means of comparison, White City’s is 498.6yds, Wembley’s is 463.5yds Brighton’s is 492.5yds Walthamstow’s is 437yds and Wimbledon’s is 439.5yds. The smallest circuit in London is Park Royal at 353yds (Romford is 380yds). The longest run to the bend for a standard distance race though is at the old Reading track which boasts a 208 yard run-up for the 440 yards. (Reading is actually the second biggest circuit in the country, a mere 36 yards smaller than West Ham.) By comparison the run to the bend for the 525 yards at White is 99.3yds, Wimbledon’s is 90yds. White City has the second shortest run-in from the last bend to the winning line – 45yds). Only Gloucester (33yds) and Southampton (40yds) are shorter. The longest run-in is Perry Barr’s lung bursting 106 yards.
