Greyhound racing: A brief history of the sport

Greyhound Racing has been part of the British sporting fabric for many years now, almost 100 years to be exact. 

Indeed, special centenary celebrations take place next year to mark the date - July 24, 1926 - when a greyhound by the name of Mistley, wearing the blue jacket of trap two, led home his six rivals - yes, six - to win by eight lengths in a seven-runner 440yd contest at Belle Vue in Manchester. The winning time was 25.00sec. 

Less than two years later, following the formation of the National Greyhound Racing Club, rules were put in place to restrict the number of runners in each race to six greyhounds. Since then, millions of racegoers, enthusiasts and fans of the sport, have enjoyed cheering on their runners across the winning line. 

The number of tracks racing now may be far less than in greyhound racing’s heyday when crowds of 50,000-plus people converged on some of the major London venues. This was in the days before the opening of betting shops when the only way to bet was the horses or dogs but the passion for the sport remains. Especially for its stars. 

Greyhounds such as Mick the Miller, Ballyregan Bob, Scurlogue Champ and Westmead Hawk became household names. Their exploits on the track were legendary and they transcended the sport. 

Mick the Miller, the Derby champion in 1929 and 1930, had a feature film made of his life plus appeared as himself in Wild Boy alongside stars Flanagan and Allen, while Westmead Hawk, the Derby champion in 2005 and 2006, was immortalised in Madame Tussauds with a waxwork as part of the Best of British section, alongside David Beckham no less! 

Ballyregan Bob

Ballyregan Bob’s world record of 32 consecutive victories was shown live on the BBC’s Nine O’Clock News on December 9, 1986, while the extraordinary racing style of Scurlogue Champ - he produced a series of amazing last-to-first finishes after dropping himself out of races early - spawned another huge spike of interest in greyhound racing. 

The Greyhound Derby is the pinnacle of the sport, and its history is rightly celebrated, dating back to the first running of the Classic in 1927. 

Think of the Boat Race, the FA Cup Final, the Epsom Derby - all major sporting events with great history - and the Greyhound Derby, first staged at White City, London, in 1927 when Entry Badge won for local trainer Joe Harmon, has as rich a heritage as any. 

Coming a year after the first ever greyhound race was run under rules behind a mechanical lure at Belle Vue, it sparked the desire to enjoy a night - or a morning or afternoon - at the dogs. Very soon there was an explosion in the number of greyhound tracks built in the UK, especially in London and the major UK cities. 

Some 10,000 people had turned out at White City, London, for its first meeting on June 20, 1927. The newly formed Greyhound Racing Association had bought the now derelict stadium, built for the 1908 Olympics, in Shepherd’s Bush. Millions more would file through to the turnstiles at the west London venue - especially during the Greyhound Derby. 

But then the folk of Manchester had quickly embraced greyhound racing themselves after that first meeting at Belle Vue, with ten times the number of people regularly attending meetings the following year. The sport had clearly taken a hold in the public consciousness - and those who invested in the sport initially now reaped the rewards. 

They had been businessmen from America who, if legend is to be heeded, gave birth to modern greyhound racing in the gentlemen’s clubs of London in the 1920s.  

Having seen and overseen greyhounds race each other across the plains of the United States, in this instance in and around Palm Beach, Florida, Irish emigrant Charles Munn and his associates - most notably Alfred Critchley, a Canadian by birth - saw a business opportunity in the idea of greyhounds racing behind a mechanical lure. 

There was talk of building a track at the Empire Stadium, Wembley - and greyhound racing would later feature massively beneath the Twin Towers. In fact, the old Wembley Stadium was effectively bankrolled by greyhound racing there - not football - and even in the 1966 World Cup a game was moved to make way for a greyhound meeting! 

The beautiful game therefore has a lot to thank these beautiful creatures for - and millions of races have been run since a new company, the Greyhound Racing Association, with Munn and Critchley at the helm, leased a piece of land in Belle Vue in the Gorton district of Manchester in 1925. 

Munn flew back to Florida to inform his investors of his plans to build a track, install a revolutionary mechanical lure, and the rest is history. This is superbly told by Charles Blanning in his excellent and unrivalled tome - Please Mister: The Golden Age of Greyhound Racing. 

So, from the earliest records of greyhounds - from Ancient Egypt to the Greeks and the Romans - greyhounds have thrilled us, been cherished by us as companions and pets, and, during their racing careers, been cheered on and won for us! 

Starting out as very much a working-class sport, greyhound racing has been enjoyed by the rich and poor, from bankers to gangsters, and with runners owned by people from all walks of life. 

There has also been plenty of Royal interest - not least the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who won the 1968 White City Derby with Camira Flash, while his son Prince Edward owned Druids Johno, the runner-up in the 1990 Greyhound Derby at Wimbledon. 

Greyhound racing is a multi-million-pound industry, providing employment opportunities, and thrilling sport which the betting industry continues to invest in. Investing in the greyhound itself and greyhound racing is what Greyhound Homing UK and Greyhound Racing UK intend to do. Enjoy the ride, or rather, the thrill of the chase.