Dolores Rocket

Dolores Rocket was a famous racing greyhound during the 1970s.[1] She is regarded as being the one of the leading racing greyhounds in history and won the sports ultimate prize, the English Greyhound Derby.[2]

Dolores Rocket
SireNewdown Heather
DamCome On Dolores
SexBitch
WhelpedMarch 1969
ColorBlack
BreederErnie Gaskin Sr.
OwnerHerbert White
TrainerHerbert White
Major wins
St Leger
Juvenile
Essex Vase
Wembley Spring Cup
Other awards
Greyhound of the Year
Honours
1971 English Greyhound Derby champion

Mating

Ernie Gaskin's brood bitch Come on Dolores was sent to Jack Mullan in Ireland to be mated with Ireland's leading sire at the time, Newdown Heather, which led to their subsequent litter being registered as Irish bred, despite the fact that they were actually whelped in the UK. It is even possible that the litter were sired by Monalee Champion because she was put with him three days later under the presumption that the first mating was unsuccessful. The Irish Coursing Club however had already processed the original paperwork.[3] Come on Dolores (in whelp) returned to England and Gaskin sold her to Bert, Len, John and Arthur White (four decorating brothers from Brookwood in Surrey) for £375. Gaskin had sold her due to recent death of his father (also Ernest Gaskin).

Rearing

Come on Dolores whelped a litter of seven at Herbert 'Bert' White's Brookwood Kennels during March 1969.[4][3] White sold the litter, with the exception of a black bitch called Dolores Rocket and reared her until she was ready to race.[5]

Racing

The black bitch won her first event, the Puppy Oaks at Wimbledon Stadium, in a fast time of 28.31 seconds. She then won the Sporting Life Puppy Championship and Juvenile in 1970.[4] [3]

Dolores Rocket won the Spring Cup over 700 yards at Wimbledon Stadium, set a track record at Crayford & Bexleyheath Stadium before victory in the Wembley Spring Cup.[3] After seasonal rest she headed for the 1971 English Greyhound Derby and won the competition and became the first bitch to win the Derby since 1949.[6][7]

After the Derby she broke the track record at Romford Greyhound Stadium when winning the Essex Vase on 6 July and broke the 700 yard track record at Wimbledon on 26 July. Later in 1971 she also won the St Leger at Wembley and reached the Cesarewitch final at West Ham Stadium.[8][2] She earned £15,044 in career prize money which constituted a new record.[9]

Litter

Dolores Rocket's litter brother Come On Wonder broke track records at West Ham (550 yards) and Crayford (700 yards) before being disqualified and going on to race on the independent circuits winning the Henlow Derby and Ashfield St Leger.[8] [3]

gollark: Due to environment weirdness.
gollark: Well, its bundling system conflicts with the one potatOS *itself* uses.
gollark: I'm personally trying to debug issues with the potatOS ECC library, which is problematic because the tools to do debugging are cryptographically signed... using the ECC library... for privileged execution mode.
gollark: PotatOS nesting.
gollark: * unsupported.

References
  1. Genders, Roy (1975). The Greyhound and Racing Greyhound, pages 260-261. Page Brothers (Norwich). ISBN 0-85020-0474.
  2. Genders, Roy (1981). The Encyclopedia of Greyhound Racing. Pelham Books Ltd. pp. 179–180. ISBN 07207-1106-1.
  3. Genders, Roy (1990). NGRC book of Greyhound Racing. Pelham Books Ltd. pp. 145–146. ISBN 0-7207-1804-X.
  4. "Hall of Fame". Greyhound Board of Great Britain.
  5. "Dolores Rocket profile". Greyhound Data.
  6. Dick, Barrie (1990). Greyhound Derby, the first 60 years, pages 136/137/138/139. Ringpress Books. ISBN 0-948955-36-8.
  7. "1971 Derby final". Greyhound Data.
  8. Barnes, Julia (1988). Daily Mirror Greyhound Fact File. Ringpress Books. ISBN 0-948955-15-5.
  9. "Monthly Greyhound Star (Remember When) October edition". Greyhound Star. 2012.
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