My older cousin, an ex-serviceman based down south, was mad about the dogs, was involved with a few and had got himself into the odd circle.
On one visit home he took me Ashfield (Glasgow), which was a bit of a flapping track. I was about 17/18 (so 1973-ish) and a fairly frequent racegoer at Shawfield.
During the evening he told me he had 20/1 ante-post about a dog in the Greyhound Derby, that it was a certainty and that I should get as much as I could on it. Now, Jackie wasn't the most trustworthy person in my mind and I think he had only backed one winner at the meeting so, of course, I ignored him, even though he told me connections' only fear was that the dog might not cope well with the crowd should it get to the final [White City?]
So they'd been taking it alongside the Euston-Glasgow line to get it accustomed to loud noises.
If memory serves, by the time it got to the final it was quite short and hacked up. It's name was Patricia's Hope, which went on to win the Irish and Scottish Derbies. I did have a sentimental quid or two on it in those two races but again the odds were nothing spectacular.
for that final
In 1977, not long after I'd got home from my year working in France, my old man and I went to Shawfield one Tuesday evening, just cos it was a lovely night. It turned out there were heats that evening for a final on the Saturday and if you put your name in a box there was a draw for free tickets to the final and the chance to draw a dog for that final. It think it was the Jackie Connor Cup. JC was a well-known professional cyclist at the time and had a cycle shop or two in the Glasgow area. Anyway, my name was drawn for the Saturday so I took my father along and presented myself to the authorities. We had watched the heats and my heart was set on a dog called Bridedog (or something very similar) which had won on the Tuesday. My name had been second out of the draw so I was to get second pick for the final.
First prize was a Jackie Connors Gitane Mistral racing bike, which I was told retailed at £300, a lot of money back then.
Second prize was £100 worth of petrol vouchers.
I think 3rd was £50 but that memory is too vague, to be honest.
I was praying the person drawing first would not pick Bridedog and the prayers were answered when they opted for the short-priced favourite. The clerk turned to me and asked me for my pick. I enthusiastically replied, "Bridedog, please!", at which point the vet saw the look on my face and said, "You know what you're talking about, don't you?" My father overheard this and disappeared off to put money for my Auntie Mary, Jackie's mother, who was an incredibly lucky punter and who had given my father a couple of quid 'to play with' on her behalf, as she often did. (My father had stopped punting a year or two earlier.)
Well, Bridedog scooted in and I got my bike. I tried to sell it for £150 as I already had a perfectly good bike which I'd bought in France but nobody bit so I kept it, only getting rid of it just before I moved house a couple of years ago. To be honest, it wasn't anywhere near as good a bike as my old one, which I'd given to my younger brother and which he still rides.
