Greyhound Racing
It was a greyhound racing stadium for the purposes of entertainment, usually including gambling on the outcome of a race. It was opened in 1933 by William Chandler and is still owned by the Chandler family. It had a larger attendance and income from gambling than any other dog racing track in the UK, with capacity for over 5,000 spectators. It had five race meetings a week, during the day on Monday and Friday, and at night on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The first race started at 7:45 pm on Tuesday and Thursday, and at 7:30 pm on Saturday. The last race started at 10:30 pm on all three nights. Trials were held on Wednesdays and before racing. All meetings had 14 races except for the Friday meeting, which had 12. The most common races were over 475 and 640 metres, with occasional 430, 835 and 880 races for specialist greyhounds.
Twelve greyhound trainers were attached to the track. They were: Gary Baggs, Seamus Cahill, John Coleman, Paul Garland, Dickie Hawkes, Kelly Mullins, Mick Puzey, Peter Rich, Graham Sharp John Sherry and Mark Wallis. There were numerous major "open race" events, including the Arc, Stewards Cup, Puppy Stakes, The Grand Prix an original classic race and the Racing Post Festival. The track record holders were: Horseshoe Ping (14.14 seconds over 235 metres), Thankyoumadam (25.71 over 430), Barnfield on Air(28.15 over 475), Blue Meadow Lad (28.75 over 475 Hurdles), Spiridon Louis (39.19 over 640), Sizzlers Bossman (39.78 over 640 Hurdles), Star of Dromin (52.46 over 835 and 55.78 over 880) and Betathan Pebbles (67.50 over 1045).
Read more about this topic: Walthamstow Stadium
Famous quotes containing the words greyhound and/or racing:
“Why, what a candy deal of courtesy
This fawning greyhound then did proffer me!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Upscale people are fixated with food simply because they are now able to eat so much of it without getting fat, and the reason they don’t get fat is that they maintain a profligate level of calorie expenditure. The very same people whose evenings begin with melted goat’s cheese ... get up at dawn to run, break for a mid-morning aerobics class, and watch the evening news while racing on a stationary bicycle.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)