- This topic has 15 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 8 years ago by
.
-
Posts
-
It now seems inevitable that Wimbledon – home of The Derby – will close, leaving the staggering reality of no greyhound racing in the capital proper (Romford & Crayford still race). Londoners who remember the likes of White City, Wembley, Hackney, Harringay, Catford and Walthamstow (plus many others) can only shake their heads at how the sport has diminished.
In Birmingham, Hall Green will be going too. It’s a track I’ve visited many times and were you to turn up on a Saturday night, you’d see a busy restaurant and a generally youthful crowd. However, this ‘pint and a punt’ bunch are just as likely to go to another promoted event elsewhere. Move downstairs and you’ll be greeted by just a couple of bookies and very few ‘real’ punters. Back in the 70s & 80s, a Saturday night of open-race action would see the terraces crammed, and there were scores of genuine ‘dog-men’ who had an opinion and were prepared to back it. The atmosphere was crackling at times and so was the betting, with up to a dozen layers prepared to stand their financial ground.
I saw some genuinely great dogs there – the likes of Scurlogue Champ, Grand National winner Kildare Slippy, Oaks winner Bonmahon Darkie and the track’s own Star Of Tyrone, the tightest railer you’d ever see and basically a pension plan when he red-boxed ‘at home’.
Realistically, the sport has been in decline for decades. Following WWII, attendances peaked at near 50m into 77 licensed tracks, today they have declined to around 2m into 25 tracks. Whilst some of the causes are obvious – the arrival of LBOs in 1961, increased choice in entertainment – other more oblique reasons such as the arrival of the internet and demographic shifts in our major cities have also played a part. When Walthamstow closed in 2008, there was a Save Our Stow movement that optimistically appealed to the locality to get behind it’s local track, but it soon became apparent that those who cared for the sport were realistically few in number, in fact many more were vehemently opposed to the game. That lack of interest smoothed the transition to the flats built there now. With so many tracks being situated in city suburbs and such pressure on housing nowadays, the equation for their owners is becoming increasingly straightforward.
It’s not all doom-and-gloom. Towcester have just built a superb track at their horseracing venue, buoyed by BAGS contracts and overseas picture revenues. But it’s a gamble and they are very much the exception rather than the rule. More than £2 billion is still wagered on the dogs every year, but the presence of a weak voluntary levy ensures a mere £7 million of the layers’ £200m+ profit makes it back into the game itself. Let’s be honest, as a business model, that’s pretty unsustainable.
The sport’s link with animal cruelty also hangs around like a bad odour. I’ve always defended greyhound racing as it’s plain to see that the dogs love to race and the overwhelming majority of those involved in the game play fair. Those who indulge in any form of cruel practice are entirely unwelcome. And yet…
When it was revealed in 2006 that a builder in Durham was dispatching huge numbers of greyhounds for £15 a time, welfare jumped to the top of the agenda. The RSPCA claimed that anything up to 10,000 dogs were ‘disappearing’ annually. The spending on welfare mushroomed (it’s now the biggest component of the NGRC’s spend) and in conjuction with the Retired Greyhound Trust many dogs now enjoy a loving retirement. But not all.
In the reply section to this post, I’ve linked a high-quality video of the great Balliniska Band winning the 1977 Derby Final at the all-grass White City. Lights darkened, the traps fly open and the dogs hit a wall of noise from the 25,000 strong crowd. These days are gone, an important part of our sporting and cultural history soon to be forgotten forever, younger people never to have known it or experienced it.
‘Tis a shame.
Mike
Nice post, Mike. I was never into greyhound racing but agree that it is a part of our sporting heritage which ought to have been preserved. It’s the way of the world that profit will (nearly) always rule over tradition.
Nice post, Mike. An early example of a commentator with Silviniaco Syndrome – sounds like he calls it Ballinaliska.
The two who trapped early – wow – talk about exploding from the traps and the fact that the winner, who lost a length there, caught them by the first bend…some speed.
Only afternoon dog I can recall from my betting shop days of the 70s was a probable nonentity called Bigboppermula.
great post mike. im more greyhounds than horses. and like you said they are thinning out very quickly. my ex racer bolt of blue has a great home with my son. but i still have 3 racers at the moment with jim daly. at the moment they trialling in at crayford. that be our new track.
i used to go to catford. new cross. charlton. west ham. harringay. hackney. i bought my 1st greyhound from there great track.
but like you said mike a disgrace not to have a london trackIs Irish dog racing suffering the same fate? I used to really enjoy the RTE coverage from Shelbourne Park with Michael Fortune. He came across as a real enthusiast. Always had a real Saturday night feel to it.
I remember in my teenage years sending off for a dog “system” that I saw in the Sporting Life. Two quid I think it was, came back in a brown envelope. Turned out to be a martingale that eventually ran up to a hundred quid on a dog called “Luton Town FC”. Needless to say the dog was about as good as the football team.
Hundred quid was a lot of money in the mid eighties in the rainy west of Ireland.
Good post Mike.
Love the video, the hare looked like a mini version of the Marshmallow Man off Ghostbusters
Westmead Hawk will always stick in my mind he was some machine. He was like a heat-seeking missile at times would trap slowly then weave in and out before nailing the lead dog on the line.Blackbeard to conquer the World
Miss White City more than any other track, Derby Days there after Ascot in the afternoon on a pub outing.
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highwaysMy mate who I work with went to our local(ish) track Kinsley the other week…
He’s like me….loves horse racing…lives and breathes it and has done for the best part of 30 years, and with that obviously loves a bet….
He went with his Mrs and another couple but he was the only one of the four who really likes a bet…
They had the meal etc….and thought that was very good, an enjoyable evening from that side of it so they are getting that part right by the sounds of it!
The betting side sounds a farce though….one of the dogs he backed was showing on most boards at 3/1…..it was showing a little more on the tote so he put 15 quid on with that…the dog won so he went to collect what he thought was somewhere around the 60 quid mark…incredibly…even though it was clear 2nd favourite it returned 4/5 on the tote, so only got 27 quid back!
Towards the back end of the meeting he went to put another 15 quid bet on the tote and they wouldn’t accept it…the most they would let him have on was a tenner!
Also….I’d picked a couple of dogs out on names and was looking through the results the day after to see if any had won…I was gobsmacked at the SP’s in all the races! In 13 races the biggest SP of any of the 78 dogs was 9/2….there were two 9/2 shots over the whole card and the next biggest SP of any dog was 7/2! How on earth is any of that going to attract anyone who likes a bet, back the next week?
The grub was ok, but these days you can go out hundreds of places that will feed you better than a local dog track….it’s certainly not left me feeling like I want to pay my local track a visit any time soon!
Yes its a great shame about greyhound racing,I live in manchester and can recall when I was ten years old going to white city dogs Monday and Thursday it being across the road from old Trafford Salford Tuesday and Friday and belle vue wednesday and Saturday Indeed at white city a certain Mr mccari lou used to buy me and my younger brother a drink of pop most weeks.Only Belle vue now remains and it’s all the younger crowd burger and a pint
It’s a great shame but sadly nothing stays the sameA very fair and balanced opening post and subsequents posts. Minority sports like speedway shared tracks with greyhound racing and also peaked in popularity in the immediate post war.
I think that greyhound racing did its own legs in 2005 when the GRA was sold to venture capitalists with the deal part financed by property developers Galliard Homes. This is what has done for Wimbledon and others.
I’m a volunteer walker for a greyhound rehoming centre and share concerns about the attrition rate for the greyhounds:-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/pets/news-features/greyhound-racing-an-industry-interminal-decline/Thanks for this post Mike. An interesting read. Timely (for me) as well, as my daughter has recently moved down to London and I was thinking of taking her to a greyhound race meeting down there as she’s never been to one before.
Can anyone give me a brief analysis of what facilities, atmosphere etc. are like at Romford?My father used to race greyhounds around the North West of England in the 60’s. I used to go to our local track at Chester (long since defunct) from time to time. A flapping track but a high standard one (better than most non-flappers). I really enjoyed it,there were about 15 or so bookies there who would take £100 on a dog without wetting themselves. How times change.
Such at pity that Greyhound sports are on the wane. They are such elegant, streamlined beautiful creatures who can best be appreciated when racing or coursing. Both sports have blotted their copybook with cruelty and abuse, but that doesn’t alter the fact that the greyhound in pursuit of prey is a breathtaking sight.i have 2 dogs running at crayford tommorow night. KELVA KENTON RUNS IN THE 8-02 having his 1st race at the track after trainer jim daly changed tracks from yarmouth. he must have a great chance if he pop out like he did ins his trial. my other dog BAREFOOT BEAUTY also running in the 9-06 AND IF SHE CAN AVOID THE INSIDE RUNNERS AT THE 1ST BEND SHE HAS GREAT BACK STRAIGHT PACE. SHE WAS UNLUCKY NOT TO WIN ON WED SO LETS HOPE AH GUYS
i have 2 dogs running at crayford tommorow night. KELVA KENTON RUNS IN THE 8-02 having his 1st race at the track after trainer jim daly changed tracks from yarmouth. he must have a great chance if he pop out like he did ins his trial. my other dog BAREFOOT BEAUTY also running in the 9-06 AND IF SHE CAN AVOID THE INSIDE RUNNERS AT THE 1ST BEND SHE HAS GREAT BACK STRAIGHT PACE. SHE WAS UNLUCKY NOT TO WIN ON WED SO LETS HOPE AH GUYS
Congrats on the winner Lionroars, nice tip. Notice KK DNF, did he get interfered with by the one dog that had his card marked ?
hi tim yes the 1 dog decided to have his head off out the 2nd bend lol. but my KENTON HAS to trial again this wednesday because he got beat a distance, ridiculous rule, let kenton settle down and will be moving up the grades. as for my BEAUTY LAST NIGHT SHE FLEW FROM 2 TO 3 BRILLIANT DISPLAY OF PACE OI OI
It used to be great watching the greyhound racing on an ITV 4 when the horse racing was off in the winter because of the weather. There was occasionally a double-header with two tracks covered.
I remember one Saturday in February when there was only greyhound racing from Harringay on World of Sport because both ITV horse racing meetings were off. The BBC’s meeting was also off but Kempton, which survived and did race, was not televised.
Nobody switched to Kempton in such circumstances in those days. Now, of course, the TV coverage would switch there but in those days it didn’t because it was less easy and there were no betting shop pictures to take.
Gary Newbon used to present the greyhound racing coverage, with commentary usually by Reg Gutteridge, better known for his boxing commentaries.
It was all fairly pedestrian as a spectacle, especially Reg’s low-key and seriously lacking in excitement commentaries. Sad that those tracks are no more.
Similarly, the days of the BBC TV Greyhound Trophy on Sportsnight on a Wednesday was a highlight for several years for greyhound fans. It was presented by Harry Carpenter and taken very seriously.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.