Brief History Of Greyhound Racing In The UK

By James Murray, 22nd Dec 2011 | Follow this author | RSS Feed | Short URL http://nut.bz/21v6l4a0/
Posted in Wikinut>Gambling>Sports Betting>Sporting Events

A look at the history of Greyhound Racing in the UK.

Gone To The Dogs...

Despite its past lack of exposure on TV, the sport of Greyhound Racing has continued to grow but now that Sky Sports dedicate a lot more air time to it, the sport is enjoying a new resurgence much to the delight of the Greyhound Board of Great Britain.

Greyhound racing has an incredibly long history but has its roots in the old sport of coursing, where owners used to train their dogs to chase after wild game such as rabbits and hares. The first ever recorded coursing meeting took place way back in 1776, but it is reasonable to assume that it had been around a lot longer than that. In those days the race was only between two dogs, but very often it was difficult to tell which one had managed to catch the spoils first, particularly as the prey had to be given a start of 240 yards.

As a means of making the sport more competitive the first artificial lure was introduced in 1876 and the field of runners was increased to six. The artificial hare was paraded in front of the six dogs and dragged for 400 yards on a straight course. However, this version of racing did nothing for the sport’s popularity and was soon shelved.

The sport had also caught on in America, where typically innovations were soon introduced to make the sport more competitive, profitable and less inhumane. The chief pioneer of modern greyhound racing development in the ‘States’ was Owen Patrick Smith from South Dakota and it was he that first developed and used an electrically charged artificial hare around an oval track. It was the rights to this version that was sold and which was subsequently brought to the UK in the 1920’s.

American businessman, Charles Munn along with his business partners, Alfred Critchley, Major Lyne Dixson and Frances Gentle were credited with putting on the first race as we have now become to know it in the UK. This took place in Belle Vue, Manchester, where the three men had put together a sand based oval circuit, and installed a separate electric track on which the artificial hare would be sent off ahead of the dogs.

Therefore it was in 1926, that the first greyhound race took place where seven greyhounds chased from purpose built stalls. It became an instant hit with the watching 1,700 crowd and it was not long before the three men had formed the Greyhound Racing Association (GRA) from which they raised sufficient money to build similar circuits to Belle Vue in White City and Haringey a year later. Greyhound racing was up and running.

By the end of 1926, Belle Vue had hosted 37 meetings with an average attendance of 11,000. It was from the gate receipts at Belle Vue along with a deal struck between the GRA and the totalisator (now the tote) which was able to introduce the first betting into the sport and although it has had its peaks and troughs over the years, greyhound racing is now back on the sporting agenda which attracts audiences of well over 3 million to approximately 5,750 meetings at over 25 stadia per annum. The sport generates an incredible turnover of £75m and despite the current economic climate it is continuing to grow.

James Murray - you may be interested to know that greyhound racing is not even considered a 'sport' by either the British government or the EU. Greyhound racing is a self regulted gambling industry that depends on inherent cruel practices for its survival. Latest research shows that over 10,000 greyhounds - bred for British dog racing - go unaccounted for annually. Thousands of puppies are culled - deemed too slow or fail to chase the mechanical lure and hundreds more are destroyed on the grounds of economics after suffering treatable injuries. Unlike those that are re-homed by a netwrok of voluntary organisations - thousands of healthy greyhounds are also destroyed simply because 'no retirement home can be found' If people really wanted to help the greyhounds - they would not support or place bets on dog racing forcing the dog racing industry to slowly die - like so many of the greyhounds the industry deny responsibility for. Please visit www.greytexploitations.com for more information on this inherently cruel industry - thank you

Reply to this comment

Funom Makama
2nd May 2012 (#)