Dog Racing of England: history, present time and future by Rob Rixon

© Rob Rixon

The article has been published in Finnish in the Finnish Whippet Magazine 2/2009.

My opinion of Dog Racing history of England

In England it is suggested that the rabbit was introduced to our country with the Roman invasion around 54 BC. I believe that the invading Roman Army not only would have introduced the rabbit but also a dog capable of catching and killing this source of food. Greyhound type hounds have been bred since the dog was domesticated and whereas the Greyhound is more suited to hunting the wild hare a native animal of our land, the smaller Whippet is better suited to the rabbit.

During the reign of King Cnut (1016-1035) a law was passed that only gentleman could keep the larger Greyhound, while the ‘working people’ were only entitled to keep smaller dogs. Much of the forestland in England was hunted by the noblemen using Greyhounds to ‘course deer, hare, fox and the like’ and it was against the law for the ‘normal land working people’ to hunt in these forests. So it was obvious that the two types of hound that almost certainly had the same origin developed separately. But it was easy to hide a whippet size hound in your coat if you were illegally hunting to feed your family.

A major date in the history of our islands is the Norman Conquest in 1066 when William of Normandy crossed the sea and claimed the ‘Crown of England’. Before this the Saxon Kings had Whippets. On the Bayeux Tapestry (now in France), Harold who was later to be King, can be seen loading Whippet size hounds into boats to cross the sea to hunt in France with William.

the Bayeux Tapestry

It is said that our Queen Elizabeth I enjoyed watching Greyhounds work and during her reign (1559-1603) the rules of live hare coursing were drawn up. Coursing hares was very popular and although Whippets can and do course hares it was more often that the Greyhound was used to course. The first coursing club was formed in 1776 at Swaffham, in the county of Norfolk near to our present home.

In 1612 Captain Robert Dover organised the Cotswolds Games, which was a new major fixture in England’s sporting history. This area of England now hosts the modern pedigree whippet racing Championships. The games included football, running races and hare coursing, among a number of other popular sports – an early and local form of the Olympic games? A wooden carving show hounds behind a hare, the hounds are hare sizes and are probably Whippets.

During Queen Victorian’s reign (1837-1901) coursing continued as a popular sport for the Upper Classes but Whippets were very popular with the Working Class people and as with Horse Racing it was possible that two individuals would test the speed of their animals against each other across a predetermined distance. In these days there was no lure for dogs and the owners would stand at the end of the distance and call their Whippets, while another independent person would release the animals. This became known as Rag Racing as the runners would run to a rag being waved by their owners (or trainers). This type of racing developed in the north of England and dogs were trained to run in taped lanes. I was aware, when I was young, that this type of racing still existed but I never saw any races.

Hand Slip

In 1876 an engineer called Leary developed and patented the first mechanical hare in fields in north London close to where my family lived and worked. I believe that the mechanical lure was developed to train hounds to run after live hares. The first race was won by Charming Nell noted as a little black bitch and possibly a Whippet. At this time there was no official difference be-tween the Greyhound and the Whippet, as the UK’s Kennel Club did not recognise the Whippet until 1899 after the formation of ‘The Whippet Club’. Part of the breed standard for the whippet is its size, which is stated to be 18.5 inches (47 cm) for dogs and 17.5 inches (44.5 cm) for bitches. With quality runners during these early days weighing as little as 9 lbs (4 kg), these limits were considered as high.

The White City Stadium in West London built for the Anglo-French exhibition and the Olympic Games of 1908 had a dog race track as part of the facilities added after. The dimensions and winning times from this track were considered as ‘the standard’ for all tracks in the UK. It was in the USA that the mechanical hare was further developed by Owen Patrick Smith and by 1919 the first bend race was demonstrated. The first Greyhound stadium in the UK was opened in Manchester, England in 1926 and the first races were on the night of 24th July. The first Greyhound to win was Mistley over 440 yards (406 m).

This can be considered as the break between Greyhound and Whippet Racing in the UK as the Whippets who raced straight across fields, were mostly owned and trained by people who worked in the mining industry of the north, Greyhound racing became a business with professional trainers, stadiums with bend tracks and with entry fees.

Coursing

There is very little written about Whippet racing in the UK in these early days of organised racing. A book called ‘The Whippet or Race Dog’ by Freeman Lloyd dated 1894 lists the plans of tracks of 200 yards (184.5 m) straight and a whippet handicap system dated 1894 of Robert Baker of London based on the runners weight, are well known. An interesting point is that this handicap did not go above 28lbs (13 kg) for runners.

In the early 1900s a 21lbs (9.5 kg) fawn dog called Comedian was winning a number of the major races in England. These wins were reported in the National News Papers. On 31st July 1910 a whippet called Wild Irishman won a race over 171 yards (158 m) and his weight was 12.5lbs (5.5 kg). Straight track racing has continued to be popular with Whippet owners, while bend racing for Greyhounds was much more of a spectator sport. The running races of 1948 Olympic Games in north London was held at Wembley Stadium, this also was modified to host a Greyhound track after the games.

Foundation of the British Whippet Racing Association (BWRA) and the Whippet Club Racing Association (WCRA)

In the UK owners have always been particular to consider weight rather than height. This may well be the underlining factor as to why the UK whippet is considered as narrow by those who have Whippets in Europe. In the late 1960s interested owners who wanted to promote organised racing formed the British Whippet Racing Association (BWRA). It is stated that in order to keep control over Whippets, The Whippet Club formed a sub-committee called the Whippet Club Racing Association (WCRA) to promote pedigree whippet racing. Part of the WCRA ruling made it illegal for registered owners to win prize money; this was to reinforce the amateur status of pedigree whippet racing in the UK. At this time pedigree whippets also raced with the BWRA but with the introduction of Greyhound and Terrier blood into this type of racing dog and with their larger weight limits and no height limits the pedigree whippets did not continue to race with the BWRA. These non-pedigree whippets are much faster and with the ability to crossbreed with other hounds have a much larger gene pool. It was fashionable in those days to use small Greyhound bitches (around 40 lbs – 18 kg) with whippet dogs to produce racing whippets, but these could not be registered with the UK Kennel Club. I can remember my family saying that with a pedigree whippet you were able to compete at ‘big’ Shows, in the Coursing field (live hares at that time) and on the Racetrack. With non-pedigree whippets your options were much more limited.

It is true to state that pedigree Whippet Racing in the UK is popular, most clubs are for Whippets only, some build their track each week across playing fields and 150 yards (138 m) straight is the most popular racing distance. The WCRA Championships are held four times a year, two meet-ing are on the straight 150 yards (138m) track and the other two over 240 yards (222 m) bends. These meetings are in 2lb (1 kg) weight groups, between 16-32lbs (7-15 kg) with all bitches un-der the 20 inches (50 cm) limit and dogs under 21 inches (53 cm). The bitches and dogs run to-gether in the races. In recent times over 200 whippets have raced at this type of meeting. Profes-sional Greyhound racing is in decline, with a number of stadiums closing. The recent lost of the east London, Walthamstowe stadium (now part of the development for the 2012 Olympic Games) where we have seen 4000 spectators eating in the restaurants and watch Whippets race for charity, organised by me, is now only part of our sports history. Is it possible that the new facilities built for the London Olympics in 2012 may well be converted to host dog racing in the future? We wait and see.

My family & whippet racing

To my knowledge none of the dogs my family have owned and worked have been registered to the ‘men of the family’. The present 5 dogs we have are all registered in my wife Philippa’s name (3 Whippets and 2 Bedlington Terriers). The first Whippet I can remember was a small brindle and white bitch who was registered as Long Tall Sally and raced as Little Sally at 16lbs (7 kgs).

I was responsible for breeding a litter of pedigree Whippets in late 1971. There were 3 dogs and 3 bitches in this first litter all were registered with the prefix Long Tall. One of the bitches – a pretty fawn was both liked and kept by my family. My mother, who had lived with these types of hound from an early age, commented that this bitch reminded her of another bitch owned by her family in 1930s – the little bitch was named Joan possibly after my mother. She was both successful on the track and in the show ring; she weighed 20lbs (9 kg). Breeding from Joan in later years resulted in 4 of her pups making the WCRA Racing Championship Finals. Although we had used the kennel name Long Tall for a number of years the UK kennel Club would not allow us to formally register the name as someone with the name Longhall (a breeder of Labradors) officially objected to the use of the name. The result after a number of further litters and years was that we changed our kennel name to Zyrak.

It is not possible to say that my family have only had pedigree Whippets as before 1899 there were no pedigree whippets and I am almost sure that my family, like others at that time, did not travel far to have their bitches mated. An older member of my mother’s family who traced the Roberts family movements has told me that between 1851 and 1861 the family moved from Northamptonshire to London and they took dogs with them. My mother was the youngest daughter by some considerable time and she can remember dogs between the two world wars. There is a photograph of my mother sitting on the house doorstep with running dogs looking over her shoulder – the photograph is in the 1920s. She called some of the dogs lurchers as they were probably Whippet/Greyhound crosses, others may have been pedigree but the paper work has been lost a long time ago and no one is alive to remember that far back. I spoke to my Aunt (who is now 90) about the dogs that my father’s side of the family had worked and was surprised to find that they worked Terriers.

I have been involved with organised racing and live hare coursing with whippets for most of my adult life, so you could say that ‘racing dogs’ are in our blood and so keeping whippets and working them is part of our family history. The love of Terriers comes from my father’s side of the family.

The litters born before I was interested in dogs are not recorded in places that I have traced. I believe that your kennel name and reputation is only as good as the last litter and al-though I can trace our present runners back 10+ generations (others could go further) I have found that few people are now interested.

We bred a very successful litter in 1978 after using a stud dog that I felt was not right for our ‘line’, then we bred another litter with a pup of this litter in 1981 to the top stud dog of the time and the resulting pups were not as fast as their parents. So after all these years I think it is not possible to guarantee speed or ability in a litter, we just hope that we are doing the right thing. If we knew how to breed the best runners we would loose all the excitement of breeding and training. If professional UK Greyhound trainers knew how to select their top pups they would keep them within their own kennels and not sell them.

In the early days (1979) we bred our most successful ‘track dogs’ to date. Her name was Zyrak Juicy Victoria – racing name Vikkie Plum who won the WCRA Championships, made numerous Championship finals and was the top racing ‘breed able’ bitch in the 1981 competi-tion. More recently, Savernake Chinzano Girl – racing name Millie Any’um was second at the WCRA Championships, but also top puppy (2000) and then top bitch (2001) on the coursing field (coursing live brown hares) and is our top ‘field dog’ that I can remember. We have always bred dogs for ourselves, never breeding litters just to sell. As a result we only bred from the bitches we think are suitable and use stud dogs that suit our line. Problems with the UK kennel club associated our kennel name were disappointing a long time ago but our history with dogs and the breeding of the correct size and ability are much more important to me than a name – after all my Great Grandfather never even registered his dogs – there was nowhere to register them.

Racing in the UK with the WCRA is divided into 2lb (1kg) weight groups. Our aim was to breed successful runners not aiming at a particular group or size of runner. Colour is also not important; we have bred pups that are most colours. I get as much pleasure watching other peo-ple’s whippets work well, as our own. If a dog works well it is a pleasure to watch and across the years I have seen a number of fantastic runners working. Parts of my family have worked ‘Gun Dogs’ in the field and at trials: we have watched a number of these work across the years. This is why last year we were happy to travel to the ‘World Championships’ in Oude Pekela in Northern Holland just to watch. Of course I have also seen a number of accidents on the track and in the field. When a runner is badly injured or even killed it is a shock. But I have always felt that in the end they died doing what they were breed for and that is running.

In March 2009 Philippa and I will be part of the Crufts Discover Dogs exhibition again. We tend to be on the stand during the ‘Hound & Terrier Day’, which will be Thursday, 5th March 2009. I am now not surprised by visitors calling to speak to us who knew my family or me when I was much younger and talking about the ‘old days’ of racing.

Who knows what the future will bring? All I can say is that two of our daughters have dogs. My youngest daughter has four whippets and both her children have been raised with them. Whether they start to race and breed running dogs in the future (after I’ve gone) is up to them, but you could say it’s also in their blood. If they do, they will be the 6th generation of my family to own and train running dogs. So I consider myself as just one of the links in the chain of those who run hounds.