Greyhound Racing in England

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 62, 4 June 1927, Page 12

Greyhound Racing in England

White City Course For 100,000 People Greyhound racing with a dummy hare, which became a favourite diversion of Lancashire last year and is to be introduced to London, has been recommended for a 26-weeks’ season at Manchester. The Belie Vue racecourse at Manchester has been banked since th last meeting into a bowl-shaped auditorium and, with the provision of four additional grandstands, accommodation is now available for 50,000 instead of 20,000 spectators. Between 40 and 50 different greyhounds will run each night, and so many entries have been received for the season's events that the kennelling accommodation has had to be increased to accommodate more than 200 animals. Racing in London will begin at the principal London course at White City, Shepherd’s Bush, and will take place there on alternate nights with the other course at Harringay, N., which will open about a fortnight later. The White City enclosure has been prepared to hold 100,000 people, and Harringay is designed for half that number. Women Owners Later in the season courses will also be opened at Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, and Cardiff or Swansea. The prospective development of the sport has led to a remarkable growth of greyhound breeding, and the names of "women owners preponderate in the official register. The racing seems to have a special fascination for women, who often were the larger section of the crowd at the last Manchester meetings. Greyhounds which a year ago might have been sold for from £5 to £ls have realised from £BO to £250. These prices have slowed down the export of greyhounds to the United States, where this form of racing is now being carried on on an immense scale. One greyhound has been sold to America for £I,BOO, and another which left Britain won £B,OOO of racing prize money in one season. The grotesque “hare" which has been used so far in Britain is to be replaced on all courses by a life-like “animal.” Until now the quarry has been a largesized toy bunny—it was overtaken and chewed only once by the dogs, when the controlling mechanism fused—but the substitute is a correct model in wood and aluminium covered with hare skin and fur, and provided even with whiskers.