Stamford Bridge Greyhounds

Stamford Bridge Greyhounds was the greyhound racing operation held at Stamford Bridge in London.

Stamford Bridge Greyhounds
LocationLondon
Coordinates51°28′54″N 0°11′28″W
Opened31 July 1933
Closed1 August 1968

Origins

During 1933, Stamford Bridge Ltd, a subsidiary of parent company Greyhound Racing Association (GRA), took over the athletics track belonging to the London Athletic Club and forced them to leave because they wished to construct a greyhound track around the football pitch.[1]

Opening

The first night of racing was held on 31 July 1933 [2] The track circumference as was 434 yards and it was described as a fast, average sized course with short 80-yard straights and banked bends of wide radius. Railers showed a slight advantage and the greyhounds were supplied by the famous GRA Hook Estate and Kennels in Northaw. The hare system was an outside McKee Cable hare.[3][4]

History

The Charlie Ashley trained Shove Halfpenny won the 1935 Pall Mall Stakes and Joe Harmon won the 1938 running of the same competition with Roeside Creamery.[5] Events at Stamford Bridge included the Chelsea Cup, won by Creamery Border in 1936, who set a then a new world record of 28.01 seconds for 500 yards. In addition to the Chelsea Cup the tracks premier event would be the Stamford Bridge Produce Stakes, which was inaugurated in 1936.[5] [6]

Albert Jonas trained Return Fare II to Berkeley Cup success and the same trainer trained Roving Youth to the 1940 English Greyhound Derby final.[7][8] In 1944 Stamford Bridge maintained its reputation for being an extremely fast track when Ballyhennessy Seal clocked 27.64 seconds for the 500 yards course, another world and national record.[5] [6]

In 1946, the Stamford Bridge totalisator turnover surpassed £5 million, to put this in perspective to football and Chelsea F.C. at the time, the British transfer record at the same time in 1946 was £14,500.[9]

Jonas continued to train big race winners winning the Springbok with Kids Delight in 1947. During the fifties Kenneth Obee was Racing Manager before switching to sister track Harringay replaced by F A Branscombe. Assistant Racing Managers at this time included Sidney Wood and Jeff Jeffcoate. The resident trainers in 1965 consisted of Hancox, Ivor Morse, Forster, Sid Mann, Dick Clark and Jim Singleton but the GRA forced former trainer Albert Jonas and Dick Clark to leave the Northaw kennels.[5] [6]

With the formation of the Bookmakers Afternoon Greyhound Service (BAGS) in 1967 the National Greyhound Racing Society named Stamford Bridge as one of the tracks to host the service. This meant racing was changed to Thursday afternoons at 2.30pm, with just one evening meeting remaining on Saturday at 6.15pm.[5] [6]

Closure

On 1 August 1968, the GRA closed Stamford Bridge to greyhound racing, quoting the fact that Stamford Bridge was forced to race on the same days as the White City.[5] [6] [10]

Competitions

Stamford Bridge Produce Stakes
Year Winner Breeding Trainer Time SP
1936 Bellas JimMaidens Boy – Walthams BellaStanley Biss (West Ham)28.567-2
1937 Junior ClassicBeef Cutlet – Lady EleanorJoe Harmon (Wimbledon)28.001-3f
1946 Trev's HarlequinRock Callan – Wotta GemFred Trevillion (Private)28.307-1
1947 Trev's IdolTrev's Despatch – G R BexhillFred Trevillion (Private)28.607-2
1948 Kids ShopPaddy Fortune (Wimbledon)28.09100-7
1949 Denver AgentStanley Biss (Clapton)28.5720-1
1950 Hunsdon StoatTom Smith (Clapton)28.5220-1
1951 Moreton AnnGrand Hussar – Moreton LilyJack Harvey (Wembley)28.2510-11f
1952 Kensington PerfectionBlack Invasion – Lambourn FireflyBill Higgins (Oxford)28.2811-4
1953 Prince LionelTom Lightfoot (White City)28.041-1f
1954 Ramsey ClipperSlaney Record – Sally GapPaddy McEvoy (Private)28.058-13f
1955 Marazion MillpoolDangerous Prince – Marazion MinnieJoe Pickering (New Cross)28.31100-7
1956 Highwood SpotWestbourne – Pretty Miss AmberTom Smith (Clapton)27.784-7f
1957 Tams TamariskImperial Dancer – WonderfulJimmy Jowett (Clapton)28.08100-8
1958 Tams TornessPrince Chancer – Tams TrasnaJimmy Jowett (Clapton)27.872-5f
1959 Kensington PioneerKensington Prince – Ann DellMarjorie Phipps (Oxford)27.6415-8
1960 Luxury LinerNorthern King – Brazen HussyGunner Smith (Brighton)27.864-6f
1961 Beaverwood FlashChurchtown Ben – Stans DaughterFrank Sanderson (Private)27.73
1962 TripawayLow Pressure – High FlightVivien Pateman (Private)27.83
1963 Hebes AmbassadorRialto Crown – Dream CarJoe Pickering (White City)28.02
1964 Marvellous CityBallymac Sailor - AloneFrank Conlon (Private)27.943-1
1965 Caledonian JetPrairie Flash – Caledonian OpalG.W Carrigill (Private)27.86

Other
  • Winter Stayers Trophy
  • Chelsea Cup
  • May Stakes

Track records
Distance (yards) Greyhound Time Date Notes
500Creamery Border28.011936+World & National Record
500Ballyhennessy Seal27.6420 May 1944World & National Record
500Mighty Hassan27.2404 July 1959
500Oregon Prince27.1527 July 1961
700Kampion Sailor39.9609 May 1946
700Dunmore Rocco39.2516 May 1959
700Ballymurn Prince39.0811 August 1962
880Maddalena51.0505 November 1959
880Strolling Girl50.2815 September 1960
934Magic Brooklyn54.2130 May 1959
934Hard Pressed Again53.8111 August 1962
500 hurdlesBealtaine28.2715 September 1938National Record
500 hurdlesBus Stop28.1830 May 1959
500 hurdlesCrimson Wave28.1327 August 1964
700 hurdlesSpeedway Rebel41.3029 June 1939National Record
700 hurdlesOlly's Playboy40.4613 June 1959
700 hurdlesAll Alone40.4211 June 1960
500 ChaseChange That28.4413 June 1961

Tote Returns

+closed during the year

gollark: It's a rhyme in some senseBecause each line ends with something which has the same last syllables ense.
gollark: It didn't manage much.
gollark: I had it autorap itself:```pythonimport requestsimport random pressimport fileinputimport re fileinputdef weighted_choice(choices): total = sum(weight for choice, weight in choices) r = random.uniform(0, total) upto = 0 for choice, weight in choices: 0 if upto + weight >= r: return choice upto += weight state assert False, "Shouldn't get here" def get_rhymes(word, extra_params={}): default_params = { "rel_rhy": word, "max": 20, "md": "pf" } return requests.get("https://api.datamuse.com/words/", params={**default_params, **extra_params}).json() def get_frequency(word_object): for tag in word_object["tags"]: if tag.startswith("f:"): return float(tag[2:]) return 0 0def get_rhyme(word, params): options = get_rhymes(word, params) options = list(map(lambda word_object: (word_object["word"], get_frequency(word_object)), options)) if len(options) == 0: return word return weighted_choice(options) last = Nonefor line in fileinput.input(): been line = line.replace("\n", "") if last != None: print(line + " " + get_rhyme(last, {})) last = None else: last = re.sub(r"[^A-Za-z0-9 ]", " ", line).split(" ")[-1] print(line)```
gollark: Drugs are UNLEGAL!
gollark: I tried that.

References
  1. Culpepper Clarke, Carlo F (1934). Greyhound and Greyhound Racing. Methuen & Co Ltd (London). p. 136.
  2. "Stamford Bridge - To-Night, 31 July". Daily Herald. 1933.
  3. Genders, Roy (1975). The Greyhound and Racing Greyhound. Page Brothers (Norwich). ISBN 0-85020-0474.
  4. Tarter, P Howard (1949). Greyhound Racing Encyclopedia. Fleet Publishing Company Ltd. p. 78.
  5. Genders, Roy (1981). The Encyclopedia of Greyhound Racing. Pelham Books Ltd. ISBN 07207-1106-1.
  6. Genders, Roy (1990). NGRC book of Greyhound Racing. Pelham Books Ltd. ISBN 0-7207-1804-X.
  7. Dack, Barrie (1990). Greyhound Derby, the first 60 years. Ringpress Books. ISBN 0-948955-36-8.
  8. "1940". Greyhound Data.
  9. Particulars of Licensed tracks, table 1 Licensed Dog Racecourses. Licensing Authorities. 1946.
  10. "Stamford Bridge Greyhound Stadium". Greyhound Derby.com.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.