A NEW SPORT

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 36, 11 August 1927, Page 6

A NEW SPORT

GREYHOUND RACING

ELECTRIC HARES

THE WEMBLEY STADIUM

[From "The Post's" Representative.)

LONDON, Ist July.

Greyhound racing, which now involves no cruelty to the hares, may become a popular sport in England. An excited crowd of 15,000 people watched the first greyhound race meeting to be held in London at the "White City track. In many ways it was a triumphant opening, for the weather was delightful, the new-old Olympic Stadium looked at its best, and the spectators were fairly representative of that variegated mass of people known as the British sporting public. . The rows of small boxes were occupied by spectators, many of them in evening dress. The members' portion of the stands also was crowded, overcrowded, in fact, with the enthusiasts who firmly believe in the new sport. Down below in the enclosures and the. equivalent of Tattersail's ring, the. bookmakers dia their best to sustain the illusion—their shouts cortairily created a thunderous echo under the new metal roof of the grandstand;, but business was not very brisk. It was significant that the excitement grew as steadily as the crowd itself had done. The last winner—a mere London dog novice—aroused-the loudest cheers of all, unless it was another gallant hurdler, who turned a dozen double somersaults when, going at 30 miles an hour and yet refused to finish last, who earned and obtained that honour. This gallant animal was Jealous Eranty, owned by Colonel B. C. Freyberg, V.G. SIGHT NEW TO LONDON. Mr. H. V. Morton, writing in the 'Daily Express," thus describes the meeting:—"Bugles were blown as the first six idoga were paraded round the course by kennelmen wearing white overalls and bowler hats. It was a sight quite new to London! Each dog wore a little coloured and numbered jacket strapped round his thin body. When about a hundred yards from the starting point they were led -past a white box in the middle of the track. Beneath this box waa the jugged hare! No dog showed any emotion! They were all hardened racers, and they must have known that their uneatchable enemy was hidden under the white bos, but they never let on!

'They were boxed. A gria was let down in front of them. They stood expectantly, gazing forwards towards the white box. An official lifted the bos, just as a chef Temoves the cover from sirloin, and exposed to view a stuffed hare poised in a stiff attitude or speed on a la*ge wheel. Prom the side of the wheel ran an iron rod connecting with the concealed electric trolly. The man in the control tower moved a lever, and the hare began to move!

'The effect on the dogs was remarkable. They barked; they made indignant noises; they pawed at the bars of the boxes. They were mad to be ofi after the hare! They did not seem to mind its jugged appearance. They seemed to care nothing for the mechanical sounds made by it in its progress. The beast gathered speed and swept round the course on its wheel with a smooth, swift inevitability. The very noise of its approach appeared to drive' the kennelled dogs crazy. Then, as the hare shot past them at a good thirty miles an hour, the start signal was given, the grid was lifted with one movement, and the six greyhounds shot out together in pursuit. ROUSING THE CROWD. "The crowd roared its excitement. It was a remarkable sight. Unlike a horse race, where the tension is broken as the horses disappear from sight, every moment of this race was visible. It could be frillowed from start to finish. The names of the dogs were shouted as they sped round the track behind the white skut of the impossible hare. "Bound they came, neck to neck, eager, instinctive, out to catch and kill. They passed the post to a roar—a real racecourse roar—and; followed the hare until it was sidetracked. It was «ecu to dive into a white tunnel whose little trapdoor snapped over its tail/and the dogs just stood there—done again! "The electric hare, which amused me from the start, amused the crowd in the hurdle race. Instead of taking the hurdles.it shot through a little trap door in. the hurdle which snapped behind it, leaving the obliging greyhounds to follow at the jump. But the dogs did not care! They leaped amazingly Colonel Freyberg's Jealous Branty turned a somersault and landed on hii back. He was, lam glad to say, tmhurt, and finished in. good style. The crowd cheered him/ "The crowd cheered everything. It was a remarkable evening. I would not dare to say that greyhound racing lias captured London, but it will be most interesting to see if it does." ..: Wembley Stadium is to be the home of the best-equipped greyhound racing track in the country, and the transformation is to be begun at once. Mr. James AVhite, the financier, has agreed to sell the Stadium to a newly-formed syndicate of London sportsmen and business men, and a sum of between £100,000 and £150,000 will change hands in the process. There is nothing in.the terms of the transfer to prevent the English Cup final from being played at Wembley, Mr. White told a Press representative. FUTURE OP THE SPORT. . Lord Lonsdale, a steward of tlie Jockey Club and a member of the National Hunt Committee and National Coursing Club, in a statement to the "Daily Mail," raises in an acute form the question of the independent control of greyhound racing, and predicts the failure of the new sport. Lord Lonsdale said: "As a spectacle greyhound racing may catch on for a time, but I do not anticipate that it will last two years. In its conception it is contrary to British ideals of sport, and the British public of all classes, essentially sporting in the widest sense, will soon discover this. In the first place, dogs are run in the names of owners who have never seen them and have never had any control over them. Can you imagine what the public would say if horses were run in that way? "I have asked, people about the dogs entered for races in their names. Some of them told me that they had never Beon the dog, but were asked if they would allow a dog to run under their name. For the novelty of the thing they consented. (The Greyhound Racing Association, Ltd., have stated that they apply implacably the rule that no dog can run on their tracks which is not the bona fide property of the owner in whose name it is entered.) "Another thing, continued Lord Lonsdale, that sportsmen cannot understand is that ten days before the events in which they are entered the dogs have to be handed over by the trainers arjpointed by the owners to trainers employed by the proprietors of the racing trade.

"No trainer wants to hand his dogs over to such custody. The absence of responsibility on the part of thcso course trainers leaves considerable latitude for all sort's of abuse. This