BIG MONEY IN “THE DOGS.”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 41, 18 February 1939, Page 4

BIG MONEY IN “THE DOGS.”

f 20,000,000 BETTING TURNOVER

ROMANTIC TALE OF GROWTH OF SPORT Dog racing in England has just celebrated its 12th anniversary, an event accompanied by the revelation of many amazing features of the sport.

Microphones that record the barking of the greyhounds m their kennels and loud-speakers through which a distant nightwatchman controls their sleeping hours, are innovations contributing to the latest chapter in the romantic story of grey-hound-racing in Great Britain, says the Sporting and Dramatic News. The recent 12th anniversary ot the date of the introduction of the sport to England by a Canadian— BrigadierGeneral A. C. Critchley—has focussed public attention on these and other surprising developments in a business which, though unknown in U> - don before 1926, commands to-day investments amounting to millions ot pounds sterling. Dog Hospitals. How widely, for example, is it recognised, even among the followers of the track, that dogs to-day are living longer than was the case four or five years ago? How generally is it known that wherever a race track is in operation there is now a dog-hospital or surgery where the most intricate operations are performed on ailing animals, where ageing ve.erans are given a new lease of life and where others, suffering from minor complaints, are placed on a diet, or perhaps a tonic, or both? Yet such has been the advance made in this direction in the g re > hol "\ kingdom in the last year or two, that it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of pounds have been saved for owners and the busmess as a whole. Greyhound Surgery. ■•Where there is life there is hope. ” appears to have become the dictum of the dog track. Whereas, merefore a tew years ago a dog, once it began to reveal a slowing of its paces, was sold for domestic purposes or put down altogether, to-day the veterinary surgeon is called m, a period in the nearest dog-hospital follows and if need be, even broken bone’s are set or new skin grafted on braised places. The almost human response which the greyhound has shown to the nev. loud-speaker contrivance by which a night watchman, stationed several hundreds of yards away, maintains perfect silence among 800 or more animals in 40 or more kennels throughout the night, is perhaps the latest wonder of this side of the canine world. The contraption is simple. If the dog barks suddenly during the night, the disturbance is recorded on the kennel microphone. The sound is relayed to a panel situated in the night watchmans lodge, and there recorded by the flashing of a small red light. The night watchman promptly turns to his loud-speaker transmitter. The two words “Lie down!” are commanded into the mouthpiece to the kennel concernd. In a moment the restive dog is still. No Pandemonium. Were it not for such an ingenious invention, pandemonium would reign more frequently than not in the kennels after dark, for a dog’s bark is infectious, and once one or two begin a nocturnal howl, it is not long before all the others have joined in the chorus. In contrast with these human sidelights on a sport which, incidentally, interests to-day either directly or indirectly probably half the population of Great Britain, there are the cold statistical facts of the business which tell a dramatic tale in themselves. And statistics, say the best statisticians, seldom lie.

Certainly figures show that no new business launched on a national scale since the war has grown so rapidly in so brief a space of time.

Take, for example, the rise in the number of registered animals on the books ot the National Coursing Club. In 1926, when General Critchley first set out to become the Lonsdale of the dog world, there were 2400 greyhounds registered. To-day there are more than 56,000. * They are worth an average of £lOO apiece, which gives them a total value of £5,600,000. 30,000 Owners, There are more than 30,000 owners registered \Ath the National Greyhound Racing Club, which is controlled by the Greyhound Racing Association, Limited, which, of course, is the largest organisation operating tracks in the British Isles. It is estimated that about 25,000,000 of people pass through the turnstiles of the 52 licensed tracks in the country alone. This does not include the hundreds of thousands who frequent the unlicensed tracks numbering 100 or more. About 30,000 people are employed, directly and indirectly. Approximately £15,000,000, the bulk of which is British money, is invested in the licensed tracks. The betting turnover at White City, which is the largest track, amounts approximately to £20,000 a night, or to £20,000 000 a year. Prizes at White City alone reach a value of £350 a week or perhaps as much as £20,000 a year. And this, be it remembered, is only one Hack out of 52 on the official register Strict Control. Strict control of the sport is in the I hands of the Home Office under the Betting and Lotteries Act, 1934. The I provisions of this Act permit the holding of 108 meetings, each meeting being restricted to eight races. The meetings are held on 104 separate days of the year with the exception of four extra meetings which take place during holiday seasons. Matinee and evening meetings are arranged on the same day by most stadiums. The days chosen must be fixed well in advance. They are set by the local authority, such as the city council, borough council, or county council, except in cases wherein all tracks in the council’s area are unanimous on a certain date, when the council must automatically agree. The cost of training greyhounds involves substantial sums. Cost for the individual dog, undertaken by the track management at specially-designed kennels, where diet, medical and surgical treatment are under skilled veterinary surgeons and the training is in the hands of professionals, amounts to £1 per week. This entitles the owner to free cptry for his dog in graded races and a pass for himself and one friend to all meetings. Many Precautions. Elaborate precautions are taken nowadays to protect the health of the dogs and to keep them in every way up to scratch. Northaw, near Potter's Bar. where the greyhounds racing at White City are kennelled, offers a typical picture of the daily routine. Here, on the day of racing, the dogs may be seen being paraded for examintion by the veterinary surgeon shortly after 4 o’clock. They are given no afternoon meal, for stern diet before the race is considered essential to a high standard of performance.

Similarity of the dogs in action has necessitated an elaborate system of checking to prevent substitution, and every greyhound has his identity card. There are 36 different markings on this card, and all of them are registered.

Details recorded include even the colour of each toenail of the animal, and before the race a careful tally is made between the markings of the entrant and the register. The stage is colourfully set for the actual racing, which in the events; takes place between 8.15 and 11 o’clock. .

There is a separate kennel for each dog listed on tne racing programme, and the exterior of this is opened to the public view facing on an illuminated paddock, which is carefully encircled by wire to prevent interference by spectators when training is in progress just before the event. The dogs are kept under guard until about 8.15.

Then the first six to participate in the first race are taken to the outside paddock in the stadium, where their jackets are placed on and their muzzles adjusted in view of the public. They are then led on to the track with a fanfare announcement through loud-speakers suspended over the stadium and under a blaze of light cast by two powerful searchlignts each of 3,000,000 candle-power, and are trotted round the track before their admiring public. Bedtime for the dogs is shortly after midnight. Following their night of racing they are rubbed down, examined carefully by the veterinary surgeon, and despatched back to their kennels. There they are fed on arrival, usually between 11 o'clock and 12. New System. Under the new system of loudspeaker control the kennel remains comparatively peaceful throughout the night. To the Canadain soldier and former British M.P., Brigadier - General Critchley, belongs largely the credit tor the bringing of greyhounds to England and, indeed, for the astounding success which has attended the business in '.his country. The idea of racing dogs is said to have originated on a humble farm in Oklahoma, U.S.A., where the owner one day entertained his neighbours by having his greyhounds pursue some live hares down an enclosed track. An American sportsman, Mr. Charles Munn, well known in this country, heard of the experiment. He saw in it enormous possibilities if an electric hare could be successful substituted for the live animal, to escape the laws against cruelty to animals. He communicated with General Critchley. A trip to England followed, meetings were held, financial arrangements made, and so, in 1926, the first tracks were set up on British soil under the aegis of the National Greyhound Racing Club. Future of Sport. There is no doubt about the future of the sport in Great Britain. Passage through the House of Commons of the Betting and Lotteries Act, 1934, after lively opposition from many quarters, making the totalisator legal and carefully regulating the control of tracks, has ensured its promoters every possible safeguard for their investments and for the expansion of their business. Expansion on a marked scale is anticipated, for not only has the canny Scot decided that there is nothing illegal or immoral in putting two shillings each way on a mere dog—thus giving the pastime official endorsement in Scotland—but Ireland, too, has gone in for greyhound racing. Mick the Miller, the most famous : dog in the world to-day, came to England comparatively unknown from the Irish Free State. His prize-money has totalled £lO,OOO, and, with stud fees, he has earned altogether for his owner nearly £30,000 when revenue from appearances in films and on the legitimate stage are included. Ataxy, another famous dog. was also bred in the Free State, in County Wicklow, to become the most outstanding greyhound in England at the moment of writing.