www.lovegreyhounds.co.uk
The site that loves greyhounds
A history of Greyhound Racing in the UK
Greyhound Racing has it's roots in the 18th century, when coursing became popular. Swaffham was home to the first official coursing club and held its first event in 1776.
The modern sport using a mechanical artificial lure and a "track" was developed in the USA by Owen Patrick Smith, a man who had been involved in coursing but felt the sport was inhumane.
The Greyhound Racing Association (GRA) was set up in the UK by businessman Charles Munn, politician Brigadier-General Alfred Critchley, coursing judge Major L Lyne Dixson and entrepreneur Sir William Gentle back in the 1920's, 4 men who could see the potential appeal of the track racing of greyhounds.
On 14 October 1925 the Association took a seven-year lease on land at the northern end of Kirkmanshulme Lane, Manchester. This land was leased from the adjacent Belle Vue Zoo, with an annual rent of £276. With capital of £22,000, of which £8,000 was borrowed, Belle Vue stadium was built on the land and modern greyhound racing was brought to the UK when the stadium opened on 27 July 1926. By October, thirty seven meetings had been held, with an average attendance of 11,000. In 1927 the sport began in London when the GRA bought the old White City Stadium (built for the 1908 Olympics but left to rot afterwards). Later in the year the very first Greyhound Derby was held at White City, with a prize of £1,000. Hot favourite Entry Badge became the very first winner of this historic race, covering the 457 metres trip in 29.01 seconds. 
The sport went from strength to strength and by the end of 1927 the GRA had an interest (often by affiliation rather than full ownership) in 18 racing tracks, with the GRA financed by the totalisator (tote) system it employed - something still in existence today. In total there were forty tracks operating by the end of 1927.
With the sport becoming so popular and with so much money being involved, it became apparent that foul play and malpractise were likely to happen, so in 1928 the National Greyhound Racing Club (NGRC) was established to enforce a set of rules for greyhound racing.
At the end of the 1920's the first canine "superstar" appeared - the legendary Mick the Miller. Huge crowds went wherever this dog ran and he was to win the Greyhound Derby in both 1929 and 1930. A sign of his legendary status is that people outside of the sport, when asked to name a greyhound, still often name this superstar. The first major challenge for the GRA came with the 1934 Betting Act. This stipulated that greyhound tracks must plan their programme a year ahead and hold no more than 104 meetings a year. The Act also stated that tracks in the same neighbourhood had to hold their meetings on the same evening. Fortunately the GRA, and the industry in general, was able to overcome any problems this Act brought with it and continued to boom, albeit interrupted by the Second World War. After the war, the popularity of the sport peaked, with 25 million people passing through the turnstiles each year. Attendances at indivivual meetings often reached 30,000, with the 1946 Derby final at White City attended by more than 58,000! However, the 1960 Betting and Gaming Act brought an end to the boom of the sport when it allowed the opening of betting shops, which meant people could now bet without going to a track. The Act also meant track operators and the Tote had to pay higher rates of tax than the betting shops. As a result of the changes brought about by the Act and the introduction of televised horse racing, track attendances had dropped to 10 million people a year by the end of the 1960s.
In 1979 the British Greyhound Racing Board was set up. The intended purpose of this organisation was to allow stakeholders in the sport to discuss the promotion and improvement of the greyhound racing industry, to consult with the NGRC regarding the rules of racing and to improve the care and welfare of the greyhound. Although the BGRB had some success, they did not increase the popularity of the sport and were widely rebuked by those involved in the sport.
On the 1st January 2009 the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (the GBGB) became operational, taking on the functions of both the BGRB and the NGRC. It remains to be seen how effective this new organisation will be in promoting the sport, although initial failure to engage stakeholders in the sport has not been encouraging. 
The GRA itself has declined, possibly due to it's failure to re-invest in its assets, and in 1975 the GRA Property Trust was suspended from the stock exchange, with reported debts of £20 million. This led to the GRA selling a number of tracks, adding to the demise of the sport. By 1987 the GRA were taken over by Wembley Stadium and the GRA Group renamed Wembley plc. By 2005 the GRA was sold by Wembley PLC to Risk Capital Partners (a venture capitalist group) for £50m.
One thing worth noting is that betting on greyhound racing has never been more popular than it is now. Around £2.5bn is staked on races each year, but the problem facing the sport is that an increasingly small percentage of that is being traded at tracks and, because of the "voluntary levy" system, bookmakers are returning less and less to the sport. The sport of greyhound racing faces a long struggle just for survival, let alone to get back to anywhere near the attendances it once had, but the stakeholders within the sport have started to take a much more active role in guiding where the sport is heading, so fingers crossed! |
