The first greyhound stadium in the UK was built at Belle Vue, Manchester. It`s founders were : Sir William Gentle, Brigadier-General Alfred Critchley and Major L Lyne Dixon. Between them they raised £22,000 by way of a £10,000 bank loan and issuance of shares. The stadium was constructed and opened on 24th July, 1926 and with it, the Greyhound Racing Association was formed.

The first meeting consisted of 6 races, 7 dogs per race (cut to 6 dogs two years later). The opening race was won by Mistey @ 6/1. Years later a stand was named after him.
A loss was made on that first meeting as only 1,700 people attended. Astonishingly an aggregate of 16,000 attended the second week during 3 meetings as dog racing really took off - within weeks the average attendance was 11,000 per meeting. The founders were soon able to pay off their bank loan and the shares rocketed. They were quickly on their way looking at other possible sites.
Greyhound racing boomed as it spread nationwide, with aggregate attendances rapidly advancing from 5.5 million in 1927 to 13.5 million in 1928.

In that first year of licenced greyhound racing in 1926, a seemingly insignificant event occurred in Co. Offaly, Ireland. An enthusiastic hare coursing, gambling priest, Father Brophy, owned a b1tch called, Na Noc Lei. One day she gave birth to a litter of 10 whelps, among whom was a brindle puppy dog, who a little later was named Mick the Miller. He was to achieve legendary status around the English-speaking world and was not only to establish the sport`s popularity, but expanded it. Along with Easter Hero and Golden Miller, Mick the Miller helped to lighten the worst years of the Great Depression.

In 1929 he had a run of 22 wins from 24 races and the following year had a run of 19 consecutive wins before being knocked over and badly injured at Wimbledon.
In his final year of racing (1931), he made his farewell appearance in the Greyhound St Leger in front of 40,000 spectators at Wembley.  There were some who doubted that he could maintain his ability at the very top over 700 metres. As the even money favourite, they were proved wrong as those who were there saw him hang on to win a thrilling race.
There are enormous numbers of people who have never attended a greyhound meeting in their lives, yet many of them will still have heard the name.......Mick the Miller.

Unfortunately, as most people know, whenever anything becomes popular, and vast amounts of money starts sloshing around, it soon attracts the attention of unscrupulous people. Greyhound racing was no different. Stimulants, tranquilisers and other sharp practices soon found their way into the sport and at some tracks, results started to become unpredictable.
As said in a previous post, Tom Divall was a Met policeman who joined as an illiterate young man in the early 1880`s, but through hard work and attending part-time board school rose to become one of the `Big-Four` in the Met. After retirement he became a racecourse detective; his final year of work being at a dog track in 1928. As can be interpreted from the piece below, he did not have a very high opinion of the sport. He retired the following year to the South Coast where, in March, 1943, he was killed during an enemy bombing raid.
The final third or so may read like of a sermon from the pulpit but he was appalled at the cheating that was going on; also it has to be remembered it was written around 90 years ago.

" Early in 1928 I took a certain position at a greyhound racing track and, just for everyone`s guidance, I will relate a few of the malpractices that occurred there. The first of the unfair business I discovered there was trainers` lumbering the public. That is to say an owner or his trainer would hand money to an agent to back a dog, of course putting a reasonable amount of money on. The public would follow the agent and back the dog. It would immediately be made favourite at a short price.
Having succeeded, another man would be engaged, unknown to the first one, to back an outsider at a long price, which would win. The public would therefore be on the wrong dog and lose their money. This became so frequent that I reported the matter on several occasions and these men were severely dealt with".

I suspected something else, and one morning a trainer came to me and said (for obvious reasons I shall use a nom de plume), " I can`t back any of my dogs today, I caught Smith stuffing them this morning; it is awful is it not?". I said " the villainy going on here is dreadful ". He said : " it is, and I am taking all my dogs away from here; I won`t stand it any longer ".
A few weeks later a well known man came to me in the ring after a race had finished and said to me : "Tom, this winner has been rung-in (a Ringer). I said, " Are you sure? ". He said : Yes ". I went direct to the Managing Director and told him what I had heard. He said : " Nothing of the kind ". I said : " Very well, we shall see " . I made further enquiries and was absolutely correct.
The owner of the dog, I was told, had a hundred pounds on it, at starting price, which was three to one. The favourite was six to four On, and the owner of the favourite is a very respectable man.

The pitiful complaints I had from the hard working men and women at this track were heart-breaking. I will state cases : A poor woman cried to me and told me she had lost every penny she had. A very hard working man complained to me that he had lost all his money and had to walk home six miles.
A few weeks ago I was at a meeting just to see what was going on. A man I know well came to me and said : " You had better get on Funny Face, the favourite is stuffed ". There is little doubt it was, for Funny Face won.

I have many friends who have money invested in these greyhound racing companies and other friends who are very well-connected in positions in some of them : that is their business, not mine. My advice to working men and women is to cut it out. Have nothing to do with any of it; from what I have seen at the meetings it is about as straight as a butcher`s hook. Those who can afford to speculate and those in-the-know are in a different position.
If you have a few shillings to spare, put it in the Post Office Saving Bank, don`t risk it in a sport such as this, and do not make your lives unhappy and miserable and half-starve yourself. On the 24th December next go and buy a turkey, have a good bust-up with the old woman and kiddies, think of them and first be happy and make them happy also. Far better than being fleeced of it by backing slow and corrupted dogs.

If you must have a day`s racing, have a half-day occasionally, go and see horse racing, not flash of lightening. Some of the good bookmakers are disgusted with the greyhound racing. One told me he was getting a hundred pounds a week out of it, but would like to see it folded up. Another rattling good fellow told me that he was doing well at it but nevertheless it was a dirty game and was terrible for the working man, especially those who could not control themselves. I class myself as a British workman and I want all other British workmen to do the thing that is right".

Here is a couple of examples of what went on years later. Barney Curley told how his father was one of the worst offenders when it came to stopping dogs and that it never occurred to him that it was morally wrong. There were not many dope tests post-war and so Charlie Curley used to put a special tablet supplied by a chemist friend in a ball of mincemeat and give it to the dog, which had the effect of slowing it down by around 10 lengths. One Saturday night, Curley Snr. set off to Dunmore Park with a dog called The F@g. It opened at 10/1 and was backed down to 6/4 : it romped home. Two day`s later the dog reappeared in a similarly moderate race at Celtic Park in front of 2,000 spectators
The F@g was heavily gambled on - down to 2/7 at the off. It had a whole second in hand on Time, but was well beaten. The crowd knew they had been done by another Charlie Curley stumer. There was a rythmic stamping of the feet and cries of, " Out, Out, Out " in protest. The track management took the dog up to their offices and when Charlie Curley arrived there to collect his dog he was told, " As long as your name is what it is, you`ll never run a dog here again ".

A well-known present-day Tatt`s layer once had Flapping greyhounds. This is one of the stories he told about those days.
" I once had a dog named Exclusive Native, who, whenever the money was down on his handsome nose, never once failed to oblige. In fact he was more reliable than most human beings I`ve come across. But every now and then we didn`t want him to win, in order to get a price when he was trying; and in order to slow him down we had little schemes, like feeding him a sausage not long before the race. Not any old sausage, however, but a sausage with an Aspirin concealed inside. That took the edge off him I can tell you ".

A greyhound`s brain is about the size of a hen`s egg, so if an Aspirin has an effect on a large 3LBS human brain, it certainly will have many times that effect on a dog brain. Aspirin causes a chemical to be released which often causes lethargy in dogs. It has to be chewed by the dog, otherwise, unlike humans, and because of the coating, it will go straight through the digestive system and out the other end whole.

Of course, not all large amounts of money are won at the dogs by cheating with the dogs in a direct way, but by more subtle and technical means, even though unscrupulous........if you get paid, that is.

In 1964 the only things I knew about Dagenham, Essex were, firstly, the Dagenham Girl Pipers, who every year put on a great display for the TV cameras and the people lining the streets. The heart-rate of every red-blooded man was raised as the Drum Major tossed and twirled her Mace. Secondly there was the seemingly endless 1960`s car strikes and sackings at the Ford Dagenham plant.
My favourite comedy film, `I`m All Right Jack` , made in 1958, was probably initiated by the infamous " Bellringer " strikes and mass sackings of 1957 as Shop Steward, Johnny McGloughlin rang his bell and shouted : "Everybody Out! ". Peter Seller`s didn`t ring a bell, but he did say : " Everybody Out! ".

Thirdly, there was the Dagenham Coup, or to give it its unofficial title : Operation Sandpaper (because it was designed to rub the bookies up the wrong way).
The aim was to manipulate the Tote straight forecast dividend on one particular race, in order to produce a massive Tote dividend for that straight forecast to a single 2 shilling unit (10p) and net a fortune off-course by placing large numbers of units on that forecast at Tote odds.
The two men who hatched the scheme were London businessman, John Turner and betting shop owner, Leslie Carey.

Basically the operation consisted of 170 people, split into three groups, with each group given a specific task.
Group one consisted of a gang of heavies who would provide the muscle - blocking off all the 31 Tote windows/booths to the general public. There were at least two men per window, each with a large bag of silver and placing the straight forecast bets throughout the interval between the 5th and 6th races. It was vital that nobody outside of this gang be allowed to place a bet. Anybody complaining was met with an angry look and a scowl.

The second group were given the the job of placing the combination forecasts around the betting shops nationwide, and if possible, without arousing suspicions that something was afoot.
The third group`s task was to jam the telephone circuits connected to the Tote service and to any other telephone at the track.

The race chosen for the coup was the 4.05, the 6th race on the card on Tuesday, 30th June, 1964, over the marathon trip of 840 metres.
This race was chosen, partly because the long distance would give one of the fancied dogs a good chance to recover, should it miss the break, but mainly because it had two rank outsiders who were almost certain to finish at the back - both were priced up at 33/1 (afterwards it was rumoured that both dogs had been " sorted " anyway). It was vital that neither of these two dogs be placed.
The other runners were : trap 1, Dancing Nell @ 4/6; trap 5, Buckwheat @ 2/1; trap 6, Handsome Lass @ 9/2 + trap 2 @ 25/1.

After the 5th race had been run, a lot of punters made their way to the Tote windows, only to find all 31 busy. These aggressive-looking characters took the whole of the race interval buying nothing but straight forecasts on 3 & 4 and 4 & 3, the two rank outsiders - roughly 11,000 2 shilling tickets in total, thus massively running-up the dividend on the other 12 possible straight forecast dividends on traps, 1, 2, 5, 6. One of the gang was charged with buying just one ticket on each of those 12 straight forecasts.

While this was going on, the off-course team members were busy going around the betting shops placing straight forecast combinations on those four dogs. They managed to get just over 300 tickets on each of the 12 possible straight forecasts at Tote returned dividend.
Therefore, whichever of those forecasts was correct, there would be approximately 300 multiplied by the dividend to collect, in total.
The betting shop chains eventually got wind of what was going on and frantically tried to get money back to the track in order to get the Tote forecast odds back into line. However, all the telephone lines had been successfully jammed, so they were foiled.

It was 4.05 and they were running : it was a one-dog race as trap 5, buckwheat won by 8 lengths from trap 6, meaning the forecast was secured - mission accomplished! Of course, with the loading of almost 99.9% of straight forecasts on 3 & 4 and 4 & 3 meant a massively skewed dividend no matter which of the four dogs filled the places because there would be just the one winning ticket that would scoop the pool, minus deductions. The Tote dividend was declared at £987 11s 6d to a 2s unit stake.
So, with just over 300 units placed off-course at Tote prices, it meant that there would be £987 11s 6d multiplied by 300 + to come - approximately £300,000 (£4.5 million today), for a total of around £1,500 staked on and off-course.

The bookmakers` cried foul and the heads of the big firms quickly convened a meeting at the Victoria Club. They, and others who joined them, all agreed to declare the betting on the race null and void and to refund all stakes.
In their favour, the coup operators held legitimate winning tickets, there had been no meddling in the race and the police found they had not done anything legally wrong.
Under Britain`s Gaming Act at that time, a bookmaker could not sue a punter, and vica versa. The bookmaker`s however, sued Dagenham Stadium for " Failing to operate their Tote properly and John Turner for procuring odds by unlawful means ". John Turner sued the bookmakers - he wrote to the courts, asking that the bookmakers` licences not be renewed, but this request was unsuccessful. The full court case lasted two years.

The court ruling on the case was: -
All legal costs incurred by Dagenham should be paid by off-course bookmakers.
All off-course bookmakers` should return the stake money.
The one winning ticket at Dagenham should be paid.
Some independents` made generous payments to regulars.
The Sporting Life told bookmakers that by refusing to pay " they have done themselves the greatest possible disservice ".

The only thing that registered with me about the name, Rochester, was The Pickwick Papers and Jack Benny`s valet. However, the name, Rochester, reared its head again in May, 1978 when the " Rochester Dog Coup " made the headlines. At Rochester stadium an evening meeting took place. There was a series of three sponsored races, called the " Long and Short Stakes ", run over dual distances of 277 metres and 901 metres on the same card. The first two races were sprint heats over the 277 metres - the first three home in each heat would contest the marathon final over 901 metres 90 minutes later.

Trainer Jack Purvis, who, prior to becoming a trainer, had owned a betting shop at Leysdown, Kent, entered two dogs - one in each of the sprint heats. They were called Leysdown Pleasure and Leysdown Fun.
Punter`s knew very little about these two dogs. The reason was that they were ex Irish and both had been given new names upon their arrival at Jack Purvis`s kennels.
Leysdown Pleasure had once been Rathsaker Stuart and Leysdown Fun, Band Major. Unknown to punters they had been putting in some fast times at Newbridge and Shelbourne Park.

In the first heat, Leysdown Pleasure opened at 8/1. However, one bookmaker was particularly vocal and knocked the dog`s odds right out to 33/1. It romped home by 3.5 lengths from the 8/11 favourite, Top Fancy. This 33/1 was the price returned by SP reporter, Melvyn Harrison. The bookmaker knocking out the odds was later said to have been involved in the coup.
In the second sprint heat, Leysdown Fun completed the double at 4/1.
The marathon final was an irrelevance so far as the coup was involved as the two sprints were the races that mattered. Leysdown Pleasure was tailed-off and Leysdown Fun was withdrawn " lame ".

These two winners represented only part of the coup as other winners at Rochester, Crayford and Walthamstow had been included with them in off-course doubles and trebles to substantial stakes, meaning big payouts from the high street chains. ladbrokes alone had been taken for £50,000 - total winning were thought to be around £400,000 (£1.5 today).
It was later rumoured that the two dogs had been placed in the care of a highly experienced private trainer (unattached to NGRC tracks) prior to Rochester and he had given them runs in Flapping races - so no form in the NGRC form book. They were then returned to Jack Purvis prior to Rochester.

After news broke of the coup, Jack Purvis said, " I know no more than anybody else and have no idea where the money for my dogs came from ".
Many of the independent shops paid out, but after convening a meeting with BOLA the big chains refused to pay. Lawyers and solicitors` were involved, but the punters` solicitors` were no match for the big bookmakers` legal teams who were prepared for the long haul, and were forced to withdraw.

The very end result was disappointment and anger for the organisers of the coup - the final payback was a lot of betting shop doorlocks and keyhole`s being filled with Superglue.
Both Dagenham and Rochester closed within months of the coup attempts.

sparrow. I bet the blower and phone lines between the betting shops were red hot that evening. Close on 10,000/1 about a 2/1 and 9/2 forecast. Having jammed the telephone circuits and block-off the Tote windows meant they were never going to get paid; although maybe if they had gone for a much smaller win, say 15% of what they "won" then perhaps they would have been paid.
I do think the bookmakers were wrong to refuse payment at Rochester. Maybe they were cunning in changing the names of the two Irish flyers but nothing illegal about that. Besides, there was plenty that could have gone wrong for them. £1.5 million in today`s money is not a lot when spread amongst quite a few firms, and several big firms at that......just a few day`s profits, that`s all. They did themselves a lot of harm there and BOLA were perceived as disreputable by punters. That organisation was as thick-skinned as they come.
By the way, what was Max Parker like to work for?

KPF. In answer to your question on the value of those stolen pictures it`s impossible to say. It all depends on the size, quality, condition etc. Rembrandt and Reubens are big names indeed and if any of those pictures was top of the range then they could fetch anything. Reubens` `Massacre of the Innocents` made about £50 million a long time ago. Anything by those two artists will be worth millions today. The gang were never going to sell those pictures - it was silly of them to even try. Nobody was ever going to touch them.
For the really top quality pictures by the present `in-vogue` artists it has become a playground for the billionaires and the billionaire foundations, museums and dealers. The super-rich have so much money sloshing around and looking for a home that they choose to put some of it into expensive art, so jacking up the prices. Many of those same pictures will be on sale again in a decade or so. It is more a merry-go-round for the sake of money and status/prestige, and much less to do with art and aesthetics.
A few years ago a picture by Cezanne went for $250 million; another by Gauguin for $300 million and recently the one (possibly) by Leonardo de Vinci, in terrible condition, for $450 million. Crazy! As for me, I`d rather pull off a coup at the local flapper.

Just recently

Henry........... I only worked for Maxie Parker a short while as I was just 17 and a trainee settler. They shoved me in a back office all day checking the previous days betting slips and then sent me round the West End shops laying off bets. And yes I was only 17!
I was well acquainted with those wonderful stories you posted as I went greyhound racing virtually every day in the 60s to tracks long gone such as Clapton and Harringay.

The biggest enemy to punters is of course, the non-trier. Another enemy, which affects everyone connected, most of all the horse itself, is doping. Some of the earliest recorded crimes were in the late 1700`s. In May 1772 a horse called Rosebud was poisoned in his stable while strongly fancied for a race at York. In September of that year, at Scarborough, a horse named To$$pot was doped with poison.
In 1778 a filly called Miss Nightingale died in agony on the Sunday before her race at Boroughbridge. On examination her stomach contained two pounds of duckshot, made up with putty balls. It was then mixed with feed to make her swallow.
This however was small-time doping compared to what was to come in later years.

The doping of horses was a pretty gruesome affair in the old days, with arsenic poured into the watertrough, so leaving the animal to experience terrible agonies, and often to die.
In the late 1770`s the Jockey Club barred touts from Newmarket Heath. However, this did not work and the touts continued to infest the Heath, hiding in ditches and behind hedges. One of these touts was named Daniel Dawson - he was in the pay of the unscrupulous bookmakers, the Bland brothers.

During that period, trainers had their own watertroughs on the Heath. After work, the horses were allowed to drink. One day, horses from the string trained by Stevens were taken ill - two of them dying : it was obvious the water in the trough had been poisoned. The Jockey Club offered a reward to anyone who could lead them to the perpertrators. However, nothing was to materialise.
Two years later, some of the best horses trained by Richard Prince, including some who were being heavily bet ante-post for major races, drank their fill after work. A few refused to drink - obviously their sense of smell detecting something wrong with the water. Those that did drink became very ill. Three horses owned by Sir Frank Standish died in agony. The Jockey Club put up a huge reward to anyone who could lead them to the villains.

The amount offered was irresistable and Daniel Dawson, who had gone into hiding, was turned in. He appeared at Cambridge Assizes in 1811 to answer the charges brought against him. Under examination it was understood that he had obtained the poison from a chemist and doped them on behalf of the bookmakers so that they could be layed heavily to lose ante-post in their big race engagements. Dawson also admitted doping horses at Doncaster.
Previously Dawson had been a popular man around Newmarket and, despite what he had done, several people tried to save him, but to no avail, and Dawson was sentenced to death for his crimes.
Daniel Dawson stood on the scaffold atop of Cambridge jail, his face covered, the noose around his neck, and before 15,000 spectators was hanged.
Amazingly, the bookmakers, thought to be the wicked Bland brothers, were never charged.

The main cause of nobbling was the colossal sums of money bet. In 1806 £1 million had already been wagered on the St Leger two months before the race was run; therefore knocking a fancied runner out of the race was extremely lucrative for the bookmakers - even more so if nearer the event. Doping, or other forms of nobbling for big rewards must have been very tempting to poorly paid stable staff.
Plenipotentiary, who had won the 1834 Derby in a canter was a red hot favourite for the St Leger, but was beaten a long way, finishing one from last. Tests revealed he was almost certainly poisoned. The horse almost fell 3 times on the way to post - his jockey saying to fellow rider John Scott, " my horse is dead as a stone ". He was already beaten 6 furlongs out and even finished behind the horse who had finished last in the Derby : the head lad told all on his death bed. Plenipotentiary was a failure at stud and ended up servicing half-breds at a fiver a time.

In the crooked Derby of 1844, the well fancied Ratan was not only doped, but jockey Sam Rogers paid to pull the horse.
In the Derby of 1845, Old England, trained by John Day was doped before the Derby by the trainer`s son, William, and two accomplices called Stebbings and Bloodworth. The horse drifted right out in the betting and was beaten : all three were warned off.
In 1848 John Kent, who trained Surplice to win the Derby of that year from his Goodwood stables said, " It was common to dope or lame horses and there was several attempts to bribe the lads ".
In April 1892 John Porter housed the ante-post favourite for the 2,000 Guineas and Derby in the form of Orme. After some impressive work on the 21st April, Orme was put back in his box at 12.30pm looking in the pink of condition. Five hours later when the door was opened again, the horse was lifeless, with trails of slime running from his nostrils. For the next 2 days his life was in the balance. It took several days of treatment with antidotes being administered before Orme recovered, but was not well enough to run in either the Guineas or the Derby.

In the 1890`s there occurred the so-called, " American invasion ". American owners, trainers and jockeys arrived to not only challenge the natives` racehorses, but also, especially with one trainer, to clean up in the betting ring.
Jockey`s Skeets Martin, Danny Maher, Tod Sloan and the Reiff brothers, Johnny and Lester : the first two were honest, the last three, not so. The three main trainers to come over were named, Huggins, Joyner and Wishart. The last named was financed by hotelier, John Drake and two professional gamblers, John W Bet-a-Million Gates and Charles Dwyer. This period was known as " The epoch of the Yankee alchemists ".

Huggins and Joyner were honest : Wishart was not. George Lambton had found out that Enoch Wishart had become the trainer with the most number of winners in 1900 was because he had been administering his horses cocaine. He had become known as a " good " doper because he knew the exact dose to give a horse to enable it to win without damaging the animal in any way.
Lambton reported this to the Jockey Club, who doubted him; so he set about proving his case. With their permission he administered cocaine to 5 of his poorest horses before their races : Four of them won, the other finished 2nd. All of these horses appeared crazed before their races, but then ran well above their former natural capabilities. Following this, the Jockey Club officially banned all stimulants and tranquilisers from horse racing under Rules, taking effect from 1903.
The Americans then moved to France where they began outstripping the locals in terms of numbers of winners, who then began doping their own horses. The authorities were desperate to find a solution. This came in the form of the saliva test, invented by Professor Frankael of Austria in 1910. In 1912, Bourbon Rose, who won the Gold Cup at Maison Lafitte, provided the first positive dope test in France and was subsequently disqualified.

In 1930 a horse named Don Pat won a handicap at Kempton : a drugs test proved positive. The steward`s addressed trainer Charles Chapman thus : " We have given careful thought to this case. We have come to the conclusion that Don Pat was doped and he is disqualified for life. We consider you, as trainer, were directly responsible for the care of your horse. Your licence to train is revoked and you are warned off Newmarket Heath ".
This led to a long court case with appeals and counter appeals, but the end result was that the warning off stood. This was a worry for all trainers - for a positive dope test meant their licences being taken away. This now became an accepted rule of racing. It was eventually scrapped, but not before a lot of good, experienced trainers were warned off.

Trainer James Russell, formerly very successful in South Africa, moved to the UK to train initially at Epsom before locating to Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire, from where he trained the winners of the 1934 and 1936 Lincoln. He lost his licence after his winner of the John o` Gaunt Stakes in 1947 tested positive. Russell sued, but this was dismissed by Lord Chief Justice, Lord Goddard, and James Russell had to pay crippling legal costs.
Former Epsom trainer, George Allden`s Luxurient won a race at Pontefract in 1949, but a dope test positive
Cecil Ray, trainer to Phil Bull, lost his licence after one of his winners tested positive.
John Beary, brother of Michael, lost his licence after one of his horses tested positive for cocaine.

Bill Eacott produced a very comprehensive and encyclopaedic work on Epsom......400 trainers, hundreds of horses, jockeys etc. It is online. Title : `A History of Racehorse Training at Epsom`. It gives a very good explanation of the Cecil Ray case and how Phil Bull fought it for years, and Ray`s early death, thought to be due to the distress of the loss of his livelihood.
David Ashforth produced a book called Ringers and Rascals, which really is the definitive work on Ringers. In a piece on doping he gave some extraordinary statistics : Between 1946 and 1951, just 28 horses received sweat and saliva tests, and yet 13 were positive. In NH racing, between 1948 and 1951, 11 were tested, and yet 7 were proved positive. That is an incredibly high ratio. It makes you wonder why more samples were not taken and if any big names were among them, yet were swept under the carpet. James Russell said that if everything was known about the extent of doping in racing, it would blow the game wide open.
In 1951, a horse belonging to Lord Rosebery called Snap ran deplorably in the Dalham Hall Stakes at Newmarket. He at once ordered a private dope test, which registered positive. If it had been an official test then trainer Sir Jack Jarvis would have lost his licence to train. It brought about much needed changes, but it was some time before the rule was rescinded.

One suspected doping was that of Cameronian in the 1931 St Leger; already the winner of the Derby and Guineas and 5/6 to complete the Triple Crown : he came home in last place. So emphatic was the defeat that he could not even beat pacemaking outsider, Birthday Book. Jockey Fred Fox said, " He was never going for a moment ".

Doug Smith acknowledged that many of the French horses who came over and won a lot of our great races during the 20 or so post-war years were top class. However, he was convinced some of them were given some " help ". He was aboard future Eclipse and Arc winner Migoli in the 1947 Derby. Taking it up 2f out, and thinking he was going to win a Derby, Smith was amazed when the French outsider, Pearl Diver, swept by contemptuously to score by a long-looking, comfortable 4 lengths.
In France, Pearl Diver was thought to be well below Derby standard and opened at 100/1 ante-post. He was sent over from Percy Carter`s Chantilly stables a month before Epsom to finish his preparation at Claude Halsey`s Newmarket yard.

Jockey George Bridgeland arrived 3 days before the race and at first didn`t recognize Pearl Diver : the horse looked bigger, more muscled-up and altogether stronger. In 2 previous races he had finished 3rd in the Prix Jean Prat, then 2nd to the moderate Timor, getting the race in the Steward`s Room. All through the preparation, Pearl Diver was being steadily backed. As said, he won the Derby easily from Migoli, with future Irish Derby and St Leger winner, Sayijirao in 3rd position. Smith said he rode against Pearl Diver on its next race in France and said it didn`t look like the same horse and was well beaten. In fact it only won one modest race during the next two seasons. The horse finished a long way behind Migoli in the Arc. Many thought the way he won at Epsom was remarkable. Even more remarkable was that the horse was not dope tested. Pearl Diver was exported to Japan where he was a failure at stud.

In 1948 Doug Smith was riding the very strongly fancied Explorer for Dorothy Paget in the 1948 Cambridgeshire. The horse was well handicapped, in terrific form and heavily backed in the ante-post market. A jockey with some very shady contacts approached Smith, and the sum mentioned was £4,000 to stop the horse. He turned down the offer immediately, but the jockey said he would speak to him again at Alexandra Park. When the offer was again refused, the jockey said, " Never mind, you won`t win anyway ". In the race, Explorer ran  terribly and was beaten 2 furlongs out. No dope test was carried out. £4,000 was 10 times the riding fee + the percentage if Explorer had won.

In the 1951 St Leger, Talma II, over from Charles Semblat`s Chantilly stables was a 14/1 chance. It must have seemed as if it should have been 100/1 the appalling way the horse behaved, not only in the paddock, but on the way to post and at the start, where he was in a complete muck sweat. Amazingly there was a great deal of money for Talma II as he halved in price to 7/1. In the race, he moved up to take the lead into the long home straight, and from then on the race was a procession. The official winning distance was 10 lengths; however, people who were there said it looked more like 20 lengths.
Talma II had never showed anything remotely like this sort of form before, nor did he subsequently. It was a bad advertisement for racing, particularly as it was a Classic, and so the focus of much attention.
The stewards did not order a dope test - they didn`t get much of a chance. The horse had been transported to Doncaster on the morning of the race by plane. As soon as he was unsaddled, Talma II was taken immediately to the plane, loaded up, and on his way back to France.

Sing Sing put up some brilliant sprinting displays as a 2yo in 1959; jockey Doug Smith said he was the fastest he ever rode. The following season, although only beaten a neck in the King`s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot, Smith said the horse was lifeless and distressed; instead of putting his head forward in the race, it just sank into his chest.
So close to winning obviously made the dopers think they hadn`t given the horse enough of a dose. They got at him again before the July Cup at Newmarket; so much so that he was a sick horse on the morning of the race and unable to run.
Sing Sing never recovered his pre-Royal Ascot speed and retired after finishing unplaced in the Nunthorpe.

In the middle of July 1961, trainer Farnham Maxwell called the police to his stables. His best horse, Pandofell, who had won the Ascot Gold Cup a month earlier was found to be in a very bad state, just hours before he was due to run in Ascot`s Sunninghill Park Stakes. The horse was tested and the test proved positive. The dopers, who were never caught, like Sing Sing at Newmarket, obviously overdid the dose. Pandofell was meant to run, get beaten and so netting those behind it a great deal of money.
A professional criminal named Charlie Mitchell was doing a lot of doping during the 1950`s and 1960`s. He was known as the best dog doper around and was doping horses as well. One of his accomplices, Frank Fraser said, " I never did the doping, I just held the syringes ". Charlie Mitchell later moved to Spain where he met a violent end.

Great stuff as ever Henry. Was the Frank Fraser mentioned in the above article the same one that worked for the Richardson gang in South London and known as "Mad Frankie".

I always remember Fraser being called the Dentist as it was said when their case came to trial that the Richardson's held these torture trials and Frank pulled out the people's teeth with some pliers. He was also very active in installing gaming machines in clubs. My father knew Billy Kray the twins uncle quite well and also Charlie as he used to go to a spieler of theirs in Wellington Way Bow which was funnily enough next to a police station. We lived in Hackney in those days.

Glad you enjoy them North of Perth - researching and typing them out keeps me off the streets.

I remember that Richardson Torture Trial sparrow. What I remember most is the length of sentences....25, 30 years etc being read out one after the other. Yes, Frank Fraser used to pull teeth in order to extract, not just the teeth, but information. He was nicknamed, The Dentist. I`ve only ever been to Hackney once, and that was to the dogs a long time ago. Myself and three pals decided to go to London and do three dog tracks in a single day. We thought at the time this was unique and considered ourselves a bit special. Come the 3rd meeting on our itinerie we realized we were seeing the same faces that we had seen at the earlier tracks.... Park Royal and Wembley, I think, so we were not so unique after all.

To be continued............

Great to hear those stories of the 60s Henry. 1965 and we get the two best horses of my lifetime in the same year Arkle and Sea Bird 11. The world and his wife seemed to know about Elan in that Schweppes and I recall being told about it weeks before and getting 9/2 on the day.
Ryan Price was some trainer but took too many liberties and who will ever forget the booing when Hill House won his Schweppes.
I had a friend who worked for Alan Aylett in the 70s and told a few tales about that experience.

Did Aylett eventually get Anji, who'd won the Bessborough and Ebor for John Sutcliffe? Or am I imagining that? If so, the horse would have been with two of the ultimate 'job' trainers.

I remember Aylett having a home-bred chaser called Lumparita, who won first time out at Plumpton in the mid-80s in quite a competitive event. It was a big price too - all very unlike AR Aylett, or so it seemed. Inevitably it was then a beaten favourite twice in a row in races it looked a certainty for.

Many thanks for taking the trouble to look that up and confirm it, ged. Brings back all sorts of memories of the time and place.

Funny you should mention AR Davison in this context, because it was the administration of a prohibited substance which actually led to him finally getting banned for six years. The problem wasn't so much the Procaine given to Will I Fly to land that claiming hurdle at Leicester in 1994 after a four-year absence, but the fact it prompted an investigation, which revealed the fact that the horse had very little to do with Anne Jermy, who was listed as the trainer, but plenty to do with Albert Davison.

The ban didn't seem to bother Davison much. He never reapplied for his licence, but his horses (and owners) continued to pop up in a variety of other yards, including those of Rod Simpson, John Long and Mo Long.

Thanks, kingofthebop. I was trying to remember the name of that mare.

He actually had some very decent horses. I was out of the country in 1981/2, and was a bit shocked when I came back and discovered how many races he'd won with that novice hurdler Du Maurier. Ended up winning at one of those late-spring meetings they used to have at Ascot, I think.

Folkestone my fav racecourse ever, never heard any jockey, trainer, bookie or punter who disliked it.. hope the bad brothers who closed it down, go skint

Horatio Bottomley was born in St Peter`s Street, Bethnal Green, London on March 23rd 1860. Before he was 5 years of age, both his parents had died. After 4 years of being fostered, he was inducted into Sir Josiah Mason`s Orphanage at Erdington, Birmingham. Having completed his formal education years there, the young Horatio moved around from one odd job to another, ending up in London, where, aged 20, he quickly got married to a girl he loved, but was constantly unfaithful to for the rest of their 50 years of married life together. He kept a never-ending string of mistresses : mostly young working class cockney girls - shop girls, waitresses, actresses etc.

It has been written that as he grew up he bore a strikingly similar resemblance to a close friend of his mother - Sir Charles Bradlaugh M P, a secularist, who, when elected, caused a stir by refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance. (They say it`s a clever child that knows its own father).
Despite a brief orphanage education, Bottomley was a naturally intelligent man, possessing enormous energy, self confidence , bravado and vanity.

Initially he began training to be a lawyer, but then decided to go into the Stock Exchange and publishing. One of his greatest successes was, together with James Sheridan, founding the Financial Times in 1888. Four years prior to that he had founded the Hackney Hansard. By 1886 he had bought his own print works. By a combination of luck, persuasiveness and connections, Bottomley secured the contract to print and publish Hansard, the in-house parliamentary chronicle which details all business and debates.
However, this lasted only 2 years, 1889 - 1891, as rumblings of discontent surrounded Bottomley`s business dealings. Reuter`s Telegram  Company took over publication of Hansard.

His head was always full of ideas : the problem here was that many of these ideas were converted into fraudulent schemes. His dealings in shares of suspect companies which he himself had promoted, via his publications, brought him in a great deal of money and he became a comparatively wealthy man. He was now able to rent a smart apartment in London`s Pall Mall. He breakfasted on kippers and champagne, had another bottle of champagne for lunch, another for tea, and at least two more in the evening.

Horatio had a partner in his printing and publishing businesses, but the partner left, taking the publishing side with him, leaving Bottomley with the printing business. He floated this business but eventually was unable to pay the shareholders a dividend because he had siphoned off £100,000 (£6.5 million) for himself. He filed for bankruptcy : he went on trial in 1893 on a fraud charge, but against all the odds was acquitted. He repaid much of the investment money and his bankruptcy was discharged, which meant he could perhaps still achieve his ambition of becoming a Member of Parliament.

It was not long, however, before he was plotting another dishonest scheme. In 1892/3 there was a gold rush in Western Australia. He invented names of gold fields and mining companies out there. He was soon floating these companies on the Stock Exchange, and via his publications was able to issue fictitious bullish reports of rich seams of gold being found. Investors piled in and the share prices rocketed, along with Bottomley`s finances. Of course, it was later reported that the seams were low grade deposits and the shares collapsed; Bottomley had of course long since cashed in.  One investor lost £40,000 (£2.6 million).

Horatio Bottomley was now riding high in the world of finance and decided that what he now needed to elevate himself even further was a country home. He purchased Crossways House at the Sussex village of Upper Dicker. He had it knocked down, greatly expanded the property and a brand new residence built, which he named, The Dicker. He kept horses there and a small stud. He became chairman of the village cricket team and had the only telephone, which he allowed anybody to use; this of course made him a popular man.
He would later dodge between London and Upper Dicker, depending on which, and how many creditors and wronged ladies were searching for him. Strangely, Upper Dicker is one mile south of Lower Dicker.

As well as making a lot of money in floating dodgy or fictional companies, he also made a big gains by purchasing struggling and failing businesses at knock-down prices, asset-stripping them, then selling the profitable part that was left for a good return on his initial outlay.
Not every deal, purchase or transaction was a success however. In 1902 he bought an ailing newspaper, to which he contributed a column : `The World, the Flesh and the Devil`. The paper failed and was liquidated. In 1905 he floated (no pun intended) a canal company : `London and South Western Canal Company`. It also failed and investor shares were rendered worthless.

He had for some time been drawn towards horse racing; he found the chance element very appealing and thought there was a lot of money to be made. He quickly became a prolific owner and a gambler on a huge scale. He became seriously involved on the Turf when, in 1897, he paid a total of £13,000 (£900,000) for 3 horses : a Dewhurst winner, a dual Goodwood Cup winner and a very useful chaser. He wanted to win the Derby, the Grand National and the Grand Steeplechase de Paris. It all ended in failure. Hawfinch and Count Schomberg were well beaten at Epsom and Auteil and Gentle Ida fell at Valentines on the first circuit.

Harry Batho was engaged by Horatio as his private trainer. He had served his time with Tom Leader Snr and then was head lad to William Jarvis - great grandfather of the present-day trainer of the same name. While there, he leaked information to Bottomley - what was going to win, and what wasn`t - to such success that he was made Horatio`s private trainer.
Batho trained Northern Farmer to land a huge punt in the 1899 Steward`s Cup at 20/1. Bottomley had backed it to win £50,000 (£4 million). Another huge win was with Wargrave in the 1904 Cesarewitch. Two years earlier, the horse had won the Ebor easily at 20/1; he then ran in the Cesarewitch, finishing 6th. Two years on and Wargrave had tumbled down the handicap, being given just 7st 4Lbs to carry. A boy was engaged to ride, so with the claim, Wargrave had just a featherweight. Backed down to favourite, he pulled off another £4 million gamble for HB.

Despite these huge big handicap successes, Batho and Bottomley concentrated mostly on winning selling races, and not always honestly.
One trick was outside Batho`s remit. Just before a small-field selling race was due to be run, Bottomley would buy all the runners, instruct the jockeys in which order to finish, and then help himself in the betting ring. Of course this only happened in a minority of races, but was very profitable. There was one horse, Aldansi, that he was particularly fond of. It won 17 selling chases between 1901 and 1907 and was bought-in every time; the total buying-in cost was £3,175 (£210,000).
The biggest races which attracted the greatest gambles were the Cesarewitch, Cambridgeshire, Lincoln and Manchester November Handicaps. Although handicaps, the turnover was huge. However, in terms of types of races, selling races were greatly used as mediums for pulling off gambles. One of the best jockeys of the last century was Harry Wragg. He said that during the inter-war period, the usual pre-race instruction from the trainer before getting the leg-up in a selling race was, " Twenty-Five pounds for you if you finish second, nothing if you win ".

Horatio Bottomley had joined the Liberal Party and fought an unsuccessful election campaign in the 1890`s. He espoused a public health service, a state pension and a basic 8 hour working day. He again stood in 1906 for election to the South Hackney seat. This time he was successful. At about the same time he founded the penny scandal sheet, John Bull.
In 1908 he was arrested and summoned to appear in court on account of his now-bankrupt `Joint Stock Trust Company` in which he stood accused of re-issuing the same set of shares as many as six times.

Despite a lot of adverse publicity, Bottomley stood again in 1910 for his South Hackney seat, this time as an Independent Liberal : he won, and now thought he was untouchable; so much so, that he dubbed himself, " England`s Superman ".
Just as all seemed well, an investor in the `Joint Stock Trust` sued for £49,000 (£3 million). Horatio claimed he couldn`t pay and was bankrupted to the tune of £233,000 (£13.5 million) and, because an undischarged bankrupt cannot sit in the House, in 1912, he had to resign his seat. His dream of becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer had now evaporated. Financially it wasn`t the end of the world because he had been astute enough to legally transfer his most valuable assets to his relatives.

Horatio needed cash to continue his luxurious lifestyle of racehorses, girls and champagne; so, together with Birmingham businessman, Reuben Bigland, he organised sweepstakes, lotteries and raffles in his magazine, John Bull, whose circulation had by now reached over a million. These competitions, which were operated from Switzerland, proved very popular. However, when the £25,000 (£1.3 million) first prize winner of the 1914 Derby result became known, the Anti-Gambling League proclaimed that most of the winners of the John Bull competitions were either employers of the magazine or relatives of the editor (HB). Bottomley sued them but received minimal damages. Years later it transpired that 99% of that £25,000 first prize ended up in a Bottomley bank account.

War broke out in 1914 and Horatio was filled with patriotic fervour, as was the nation. He styled himself as " England`s Orator ", travelling the length and breadth of the land, giving over 300 rousing patriotic and anti-German speeches between 1915 and 1918, imploring young men to " Enlist Now! ". He attracted large crowds; photographs were pinned up showing him visiting troops in the trenches.
His gung-ho rhetoric knew no bounds; he called Germany " a debased civilization "; he called German`s " Germhuns " and Austrians " Austrihuns ". In John Bull, Bottomley called them, " Unnatural Freaks " and even called for the ethnic cleansing of all ethnic Germans living in Europe. Not only this, but he urged British people to attack ethnic Germans living in Britain.
Prime Minister Asquith called all this, " shallow jingoism ".

Bottomley had a surprising competitor for anti-German public rhetoric in the form of Bishop Winnington-Ingram, the Bishop of London. His favourite spot was Trafalgar Square, where he was regularly tub-thumping, while wearing his ministerial robes. He urged all men of fighting age to enlist and even implored young clergymen to become combatants. He was a favourite with politicians because of his valuable earlier work in helping the poor of the East End but they thought he was going too far when calling for, " The Great Crusade " and " Kill them, lest civilization of the world be killed ". He received awards for his war efforts, especially from overseas, where he was given, `The Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer` (Greece) and the `Order of St Sava` (Serbia).

One central european priest took things a stage further. A private soldier, who had been the last survivor of the Austro-Hungarian armies during that war was, in an obituary, quoted as saying, " I was sickened when a priest came over to our battalion and blessed us just before we went into battle. He then walked over to the stockpile and blessed the ammunition ".
Large crowds were being whipped up into such a frenzy by such powerful and emotive orators as Horatio Bottomley and Bishop Winnington-Ingram that King George V decided to change the surname of the royal family from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor.

Bottomley called out two founders of the Labour Party, Kier Hardie and Ramsey McDonald to be tried for treason - they both opposed the war. He asked that they should both be thrown in the Tower, tried for treason and then shot at dawn.
McDonald hit back, saying, " Bottomley is a man of doubtful parentage who has lived all his life on the threshold of jail ". This remark backfired when Bottomley published McDonald`s Birth Certificate, which showed he was illegitimate himself. Bottomley said, and wrote, " Ramsey McDonald was born the illegitimate son of a Scottish serving girl.

By the end of the war his reputation had not only been redeemed, but, in the eyes of the general public, enhanced. He had been discharged from bankruptcy and once again stood for his his old South Hackney seat, which he won.
He then began the John Bull `Victory Club Bond`. Investors would receive no interest or dividends, but instead would be given the chance to win cash prizes - smaller ones on a monthly basis, larger ones annually. These prizes would be paid out of accrued interest.
These Bonds proved very popular, no doubt due to the patriotic fervour instilled in the nation after victory over the axis powers. Over time they became a kind of pyramid scheme as more was being paid out than coming in. The real problem was that much of the cash being paid out was going into Horatio Bottomley`s bank account in order to enable him to return to his former lifestyle of racehorses, gambling, girls and champagne. Of course he had long ago discovered that the way to riches was ......OPM (Other People`s Money - for the use of).

He could no longer operate his selling race ruse as the Jockey Club had changed the rules, and so shut it down. He used some of the money stolen from the Victory Club Bond scheme to buy two newspapers - they both failed. He even floated a business which, it was promised, would be able to turn water into petrol. He had become a large scale mug punter in the betting ring and described walking in to settle his debts on a Monday morning as, " Akin to walking through the Garden of Gethsemane ". He was used by professional punters and others in-the-know to place bets for them, as bookmakers welcomed Bottomley bets.

A former partner, Reuben Bigland, became involved in a dispute with him, which deepened. He described Bottomley`s war bond scheme as his " Latest and greatest swindle ". Things were now closing in on him; it took a long time, but now his fraudulent activities were now out in the open. In 1921 John Bull management paid him £25,000 to leave (£280,000). That same year he was summoned to Bow Street. Fraud charges were read out and he was committed to appear at the Old Bailey.

In May 1922 he was up in front of the judge to answer 24 counts of fraud and of converting Trust Funds into cash. He was found guilty on most counts and sentenced to 7 years penal servitude. During the trial, Horatio frequently asked for breaks in proceedings so that he could drink some champagne in order to combat the effects of withdrawal symptoms. For around 40 years he had lived in a haze of alcohol. With his oversized head, rotund, squat body, he was now, in appearance, a frog-of-a-man. Now, no more lovely young cockney girls to pamper him; and for them, no more Botty, Horace or Skipper, as they called him. " England`s Superman " had been brought low.

At first he was sent to Wormwood Scrubbs, then transferred to Maidstone, where he served 5 years and 2 months. Whilst serving his Time, he took a leaf out of Oscar Wilde`s book (The Ballad of Reading Gaol) and wrote The Ballad of Maidstone Gaol by " Convict 13 ", which was his actual prison number and was sown onto his prison uniform and cap. One day a regular prison visitor uttered a passing remark as he was sewing mailbags, " Ah Bottomley, still sewing? ". " No " he replied, " Reaping ".

On release, he was paid the huge sum of £12,500 (£400,000) by the Weekly Dispatch for a series of articles on his life in Maidstone prison. Inevitably he used the money to fund a return to his old lifestyle; it seemed he just could not help himself. He started up a new magazine called John Blunt. The public mood however had changed while he was Inside and it was an expensive failure. It closed as he was on a lecturing tour throughout the British Empire in late 1929.......just as the great financial crash began.

In 1930 his wife died, he had lost The Dicker and was hard up again. He was very fortunate that one of his old girl friends, an actress called Peggy Primrose, took him into her flat in Tottenham Court Road. No doubt due to her theatrical experience she was able to organise dinner-jacketed monologue lecture performances from him on various subjects, including.....fraud, and how to avoid being caught out. It was not a great success. His excessive and turbulent lifestyle had now caught up with him and he became very ill.
Horatio Bottomley breathed his last in a public ward at the Middlesex Hospital on May 26th 1933. After cremation his remains were scattered over the Sussex Downs. He had died penniless.

Many thanks to you for posting.

I loved that Harry Wragg quote about finishing 2nd and South Hackney would have been my constituency as a youngster.

Absolutely wonderful stuff, HENRY the Seventh.

Not just a glimpse of a lost world, but a complete immersion in it. Maybe it just shows my ignorance of social history, but in every paragraph of these posts there's been something which makes me think, "Well, I didn't know that."

My mother, born in 1921, grew up off the Walworth Road in SE London, where she spent the first 20-odd years of her life. I feel I know that world in which she grew up, and how it framed the person she was, just a little bit better now.

Many thanks.

Thanks for all the compliments men. Hackney dogs didn`t exist in Horatio`s time, otherwise there would have been some fun. Frightening to think he wanted to be Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Geordie, I have no time to research and write out these types of postings for a good few months but I`ll try and post, say, one per month, starting in November - eyesight permitting. I`ve become a bit slow - it took me five and a half hours to type out this afternoons offerings. Then there`s all the researching to do - I like to take my time and give facts, not what might have happened. Next winter I`ll probably stay in the Bottomley era for 3 or 4 stories and then go back even further in a couple of postings - to the days when young aristocrats inherited too soon and would lose the family estates on the racecourse.

Very interesting reading thanks for posting.

She wasn't 'made', though ... she inherited.

Although - Members of the Lesbanian Society would argue that they DO make them, nowadays - and in much more abundance.

She reputedly 'hated men' - and called her staff by colours, instead of their name

Wiki is somewhat enlightening ...

'Her many trainers, seventeen or eighteen in all, included Basil Briscoe, Owen Anthony, Frenchie Nicholson, Fulke Walwyn, Walter Nightingall (under both codes), Henri Jelliss, Sir Gordon Richards and, for a brief period, Fred Darling. She was considered a notoriously difficult owner, often phoning her trainer in the middle of the night.

She famously, and very publicly fell out with Basil Briscoe after Golden Miller's repeated failure to win a second Grand National, despite it being very clear that the horse despised the Aintree course.

She also threw a screaming fit at Fulke Walwyn after the trainer could 'only' deliver five winners of a six race card.

However these rantings were as much dealing as she had with any man, claiming that the very sight of men made her physically sick.
Some society commentators of the day noted that her deep hatred towards men may have been due to the fact that, despite her immense wealth, her plain, bordering on ugly looks and huge, at times 20 stone frame ensured that no man ever attempted to win her affections.