Remember when: February

On the cover: 1988 February 17 Ipswich Stadium hold their last meeting. The track has been under threat of closure since the Citygrove Development Company won an appeal against Ipswich Borough Council in June 1987, refusing to allow the stadium to become a giant 40,000 sq ft Texas DIY store. But the speed of events take the stadium owner Bill Davis by surprise. He is given only a week’s notice to clear the site as best he can and sell off various odds and ends. Bill and his three brothers, who are in partnership, are thought to be receiving about £2m for the stadium. There is not time for a gala farewell meeting, but the very last race is won by Ventry Joe, owned by R Hart, trained by Albert Skelton.

2006  Ex-Sittingbourne trainer Mick White and kennelman Daniel Henty were cleared of the murder and manslaughter of White’s neighbour Paul Cox. The paid admitted to the killing of the haulier with a crossbow and by bludgeoning him to death though the court accepted a plea that the pair had acted in self defence.  Henty had been attacked by Cox with a scaffolding pole. Cox had previously thrown poison rabbits onto White’s property, had left a dead badger in his bed, had cut the electricity supply and had made various threats to both men.

1962 Prairie Flash (pictured) is the 9-1 ante post favourite for the 1962 English Derby. The eventual winner is one of the joint second favourites, The Grand Canal.

1973 Swindon ‘C-licence’ trainer Bill Dore is fined £25 after he admitted attending a meeting at the independent track Aldershot. There was no evidence that Dore had runners, and he claimed he attended to advise an owner on buying a dog who was running there. That cut no ice with the stewards who also suspended Dore’s runners for 28 days.

1999 The NGRC order surveys to be taken of all racing circuits after Belle Vue reveal their official race distance of 460m was actually 465m.

2000 Knockanroe Rover is installed as joint Derby favourite after landing the ‘Wimbledon winter double’, the Juvenile and the Byrne International. Paul Stringer’s brindle is quoted at 16-1 along with Derbay Flyer, Mumble Swerve and Sonic Flight. Within days, a serious muscle injury sees Derby Rumble eased to 25-1.

1999 Stephen Rea takes over as general manager at Hall Green from Jean Feltham.

2012 Eden Star leads home a complete field of category one winners in the Racing Post Juvenile. The 6-4f beats Go Go Sonic, Mill Maximus, Farloe Ironman, Coolavanny Bert and Silverview Perky in 28.59 for Wimbledon’s 480 metres.

2018 The Advertising Standards Authority finds in favour of GBGB over a complaint against Greyhounds In Action for a cinema advertisement entitled “Where have all the greyhounds gone”.

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.

1997 Hilltown wins the Irish Coursing Derby for Brendan Matthews. The Oaks went to Smokey Marion The Matthews family in full voice celebrating Hilltown’s victory

1987 Following a little noticed change in NGRC rules – forced on them by the Monopolies Commission – Oxford attached trainer Terry Atkins creates history when he has a graded runner at Wembley. Dusty Candle was already known to patrons at the Empire Stadium where he had contested a number of minor opens. A Greyhound Star editorial asks whether this could be the start of an open kennel system in Britain.

1985 Whisper Wishes gains 20 of the 29 votes cast by the press to secure the 1984 Greyhound of the Year title. Also considered were the ’83 winner Yankee Express with six votes and Wheelers Tory with three. In fact, the Charlie Coyle-trained Wishes had only raced seven times in the year, the fifth victory being the final Derby victory at White City. The top British bred award went to House of Hope, while the Dam of the Year title went to Wetmead Satin for a fantastic litter by All Wit that included Westmead open race winners Gine, Grace, Milos, Kim, Shade and Sound.

2000 Agent Gary Hardwick is sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment after swindling Irish breeder Roger Sweeney out of £13,000 following the sale of three greyhounds.

1979 Wembley announce that they are to dig up their turf circuit and switch to sand.

2007 BGRB chief executive John Petrie announces his departure. He will become the chief executive of the Aegis Trust, an organisation set up to investigate genocide and crimes against humanity.

1997 Yarmouth host a special meeting to launch their new £100,000 lighting system. But the night brings one of the worst storms in memory and five people are admitted to hospital after plate glass windows give way.

2010 Crayford cancel trials to allow track staff to work on the racing circuit. The previous meeting saw winning traps,3,6,6,4,6,6,6,6,5,5,6,6,3,6. But spare a thought for backers of A7 runner Rachel Dubh who, in the ninth race, was attempting to be the fifth consecutive winner in stripes. She failed – at 2-5f.

1966 GRA issue a muzzling order to all owners walking their dogs at the company’s Northaw kennel complex. The move follows a recent fight where one White City dog was killed.

2008 Former Walthamstow record holder Jazz Hurricane (Top Honcho-Lucy May) is retired from racing. During a sensational career, she won 34 opens including the Circuit, Olympic and Brighton Belle.

1976 Raider stole £20,000 from Walthamstow’s strong room within 45 minutes of the last race. The gang had previously cut through the security bars but used sticky tape to cover up the damage. When police arrived the gang had recently escaped leaving behind axes, a container of ammonia and a shotgun cartridge.

1987 Following a successful trial in January, Monmore announce they are to expand their eight-dog race schedule on BAGS.

1970 Brough Park star Shady Begonia (Pigalle Wonder-Castle Swan, May 66) is retired to stud. Trained by Norman Oliver, his victories included the TV Trophy, Regency, Cock of the North and Pride of the Midlands. The white and brindle also held the records for 550, 725 and 880 yards at his home track. Plans to send the dog to Ireland are thwarted with an eight month quarantine period currently in operation.

2014 21 months after re-introducing greyhound race to Coventry, promoter Harry Findlay announces the closure of the stadium.

1999 Night Breeze (Staplers Jo-Suir Orla), a half sister to Derby runner-up Night Trooper, sets a new Henlow sprint track record of 15.10 (250m) in the first race of her career.

1964 London Stadiums Ltd announce that they have been granted planning permission for a housing project on the site of Wandsworth Stadium.

2009 The sole winner of Coventry’s £20,000 jackpot cannot be paid out as he has lost his ticket.

1985 Hall Green punters are robbed of seeing Scurlogue Champ in the only Golden Jacket Final ever staged at the track. Ken Peckham’s superstar had won the fastest of the 663 metre semi final in 41.99 but was held up in a 30 mile traffic jam on the M1, along with another finalist Westmead Grace. Tony Meek’s Swindon entry Keem Rocket, winner of the other semi in 42.09, was made a 4-6f for the four-runner decider and won easily in 41.67.

2015 Disaster is averted twice in the space of a fortnight when track staff at Romford and Sheffield are unable to remove starting traps during the course of a race.

2000 Swindon announce they have purchased a new set of hurdles and intend to introduce jumps racing within a month.

1994 February 16 – a brave venture by stud keeper Michael Dunne gets underway when expensive purchase Frightful Flash leaves his quarantine kennel in Somerset. Many of Dunne’s fellow stud keepers are sceptical at whether Australian breeding is suitable for Irish bloodlines. They are about to find out . . .

2010 Platinumlancelot, the reigning Hurdler of the Year breaks a wrist in an open at Sittingbourne and is retired. At one stage in his career, the Jason Foster-trained dog won 12 consecutive races. A week later, Foster is in front of the stewards for two belated positive samples –one from his retired star. He is fined £1,000 with costs of £1,500.

1966 Sue Spring, a young bitch who escaped from Cardiff’s racing kennels soon after arriving from Ireland is still running wild, two years after her Houdini act. The kennel leave food near the perimeter fence and the nervous bitch has been chased many times but has thus far escaped capture.

1994 Brough Park grader Boiled Eggs is backed from 7-2 to 4-6f and wins an A2 race in 29.47. Kennelmate Daisy Secret finds time to win a handicap race, but the track management are fined £850 for failing to show the Irish form on the racecard of the two debutants. Yarmouth are fined £300 for a similar offence.

1978 Romford racing manager Des Nicholls is to switch to Brighton following Peter Shotton’s move to Wembley. The Essex track decide to headhunt a suitable replace and choose . . . .Crayford’s  Jim Simson. His chair is then taken by the enthusiastic 25 year old Brummie Tony Smith who had been working at both Brough Park and Gosforth.

1981 Scottish independent Ashfield announce that the 1981 Ashfield Derby will be worth £5,000 to the winner; £2,000 more than the Scottish Derby Final at Shawfield.

1997 Ballyline Prince, third in the Irish National Sprint, wins the Pakistan Derby.

2006 Following the recent dismissal of IGB Chief Executive Aidan Tynan, Board chairman Paschal Taggart defies the wishes of Minister of Tourism, John O’Donoghue to explain his position at a ‘press briefing’ at Shelbourne Park. Taggart also introduced, a drugs expert who had worked for the Irish Olympic council, Dr. Joe Cumminskey, to defend the board’s actions over the failure to report the results of failed drugs tests carried out on Barefoot Jenny and Westmead Rumble.

1967 Private trainer Ernie Gaskin sends out Come On Dolores to win a 1,041 yard marathon which she wins by 13 lengths. 24 hours later she appears in a 1,030 yard event at Romford and wins by three lengths.

1990 Pelaw promoter Joe McKenna dies aged 59.

1977 Norton Canes are forced to cancel a greyhound sale following a frozen track. They take advertisements in the racing press apologising for the cancellation and thanking NGRC stipe Major Spiller “for his constructive criticism”.

1980 Figures released by the NGRC show that the attendances at Britain’s 47 greyhound tracks dipped below the six million mark for the first time. The average attendance is 1,044. Ten years earlier it was 1,412. The news was not all bad with some tracks producing tote increases in excess of 20%. Ipswich, Brighton and Shawfield fared particularly well.

2005 Romford handler Chris Duggan resigns after deciding to ‘take a back seat from racing.’

1987 A stunned silence descends on Powerstown Park on the first day of the coursing festival when the sudden death of Jack Mullan is announced. The Newry trainer and stud keeper had won no less than four Coursing Derbys.

1979 Following a series of puppy thefts, Surrey breeders fear the worst when police announce that they have found the bodies of 10 skinned animals in a river. It is believed that they could be either greyhounds or whippets. However on veterinary examination it transpires that the dead animals are foxes.

1967 Wimbledon increase the first prize for their Veteran Championship to £100 to the winner (index linked £2,430). The six oldest runners will automatically be accepted provided they have contested at least 100 races including a dozen within the past 12 months.

2018 Kinsley announce they have homed a record 56 greyhounds in a single month. Promoter John Curran gives the entire credit to the chain of independent home finding kennels with whom the track has good relationships.

2006 A group of animal rights protestors cause a Crayford race to be made void when throwing cuddly toys and tennis balls onto the track. No greyhounds were injured.

1996 After going into receivership, Hackney loses all its BAGS meetings. It never recovers.

2013 Alan Shearer is a member of a syndicate that buys Shearers Diamond. The dog goes on to win A1s at Newcastle.

1991 Brough Park bookie Alan Roberts is attacked by four masked men on his journey home and robbed of £1,000. He receives 12 stitches for a head wound.

1971 Wimbledon report a crowd of 4,500 for the first round of the Spring Cup.

1961 Sheffield Sports Stadium Ltd announce that they plan to sell Owlerton to Sheffield Corporation for £185,000.

2009 Scottish Derby sponsors Ibetx announce they will repeat their 2008 offer of a £1m bonus should the winner of the Shawfield race go to land the English and Irish equivalents.

1976 February 19 John Bassett one of the sport’s most successful trainers, announces his retirement after 40 years in racing. The 65-year-old private trainer won nearly every major open race, including the English, Irish and Scottish Derbys.

1967 GRA decide to replace Manchester White City’s inside lure with an outside version, the same as Belle Vue. Punters have long complained about backing dogs switched between the two tracks in kennel sweepstakes.

2011 High Earner (Collision-Double Guess) becomes Australia’s leading prize money winner at around $349,000.

1960 A major change is made in the qualification for the English Derby. The event has previously been restricted to the 48 runners chosen by White City racing manager Percy Brown. The change will see Brown nominate 36 runners with the remaining 12 places going to the dozen fastest hounds from the pre-Derby trial session.

2010 Droopys Del Sol wins a Sunderland 828 metre marathon open at 1-20f.

1991 Seven months after killing two spectators on the Catford carpark, drunk driver Anup Kothari is jailed for three and a half years and banned from driving for seven years, by a judge at the Old Bailey.

2007 The management of Rye House request that their racecourse license be removed. The track has not raced for three months.

2005 Henlow general manager Denis King is critically injured when his car hits a tree.

1996 Armed raiders robbed guests at Clonmel’s Hotel Minella at 2.20am on the first day of the coursing festival. Many thousands of pounds were taken by a gang with Dublin accents. Coursing was unaffected the following morning where a massive gamble saw Tullamore backed from 7-1 to 5-2 favourite. The coloured dog eventually won out.

2014 February 17 – more than 500 greyhound fans, including 100 Irish visitors, assembled at City Hall in London for a ‘Show of Passion’. The plan was to draw attention to the plan by Galliard Homes to convert Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium to a football ground and housing development. A letter was delivered by Irish TD Ray Butler to Deputy Mayor Sir Edward Lister (Major Boris Johnson was otherwise engaged!). The stadium had been bought, along with four other Wembley/GRA tracks by Galliards following a £54m loan from the Irish Government.

Sir Edward Lister (left), Deputy Mayor of London accepts a letter from Ray Butler TD on behalf of the Irish government. Paddy Ryan, who was the main force behind the huge Irish presence, is on the right. Show Of Passion, City Hall, London 17th February 2014. Photo: Steve Nash