Roaring 20’s fuse 🔥 lit

So we’ve established beginnings in the 20’s we could write forever as the boom was real and within 10 years of commencement 200 or more tracks were operational in the united Kingdom, competition was healthy the night out a blast referred to as glamorous and jazzy.

The attendance figures proved it with 32 million people per year, amazing considering Australia’s population in 1930 was 6.4 million.

Whetting the appetite ?these figures and summarisations are from a bygone time but if any young greyhound enthusiasts out there with attention span willing to learn “going to dogs” by professor Keith Laybourn

Although popular and vibrant with many condemnation is never far away , religious organisations, anti gambling associations and even Winston Churchill , he’s dislike from the start was strong .

Gary Oldman is a favourite of mine but I have not seen he’s portrayal of Churchill in the 2017 film “ The Darkest Hour “ maybe I’ll give it a miss now .

Adversity was there to overcome even back then but what the naysayers were barking about was put into perspective soon enough as World war 2 was over the horizon and the world faced adversity of a real kind.

Nearly 100 years later it could happen again so “lest we forget” to our fallen soldiers and let the dogs run.

Racing in Europe will be revisited throughout as we meet the icons of the breed along the way but now we look at Australia’s beginnings only 6 million people in the 1920’s of Oz but we weren’t going to miss out on the new big thing greyhound racing .

Some sketchy information about a place called Shepherds bush race course in the botany and gardeners rd Mascot area in Sydney my pop talked about ,I remember him telling me a story 50 years ago about using live hares ,a horn man would blow he’s horn to send the hare up a safety chute as the dogs would chase it , not sure if pop was telling me fibs but there was definitely some monkey business going on , we’ll get to that later .

Shepherds bush race course (not the one in Europe) was soon turned into a thriving speedway in the 30’s

While all this was going on 8 km across town to Glebe there was something special taking place the finished project a racing Mecca , Harold Park , any New South Welshman who hadn’t heard of Harold park was lying .

Hosting greyhound and harness racing the 1st greyhound meeting with the newly designed tin hare in operation was in May 1927 they raced till the hound track closed in 1987 but the harness remained till around 2010 before it was developed into apartments, I’ve never been anywhere near them.

Next time we meet we’ll concentrate on Harold park a bit but I did promise a gimmicky subject before I sign off .

Any young blokes betting on hounds at the pub on a Friday after long week on the tools and this question will pop up did they use monkeys as jockeys on greyhounds? Quickly bet a schooner before someone hits google ,the answer is yes .

Shepherds bush at mascot in the 20’s , Victoria in the 1930’s . Palm Beach Florida in the 30’s even up till the 1970’s in Mexico.

So as far as greyhound history goes monkeys played a role , two complete different species bonding with affection for a common goal at times a certain monkey would only ride the same greyhound.

I get it ,to the antis from a different more modern time who see cruelty etc for the monkeys and yes it’s finished but you can’t change history some seemed very happy.

Quick young fellas go win a beer on that I hope pub drinking is still popular it seems jeopardised as well . So Cheers until next time Hounfrenz💙!