1973: The 40 mph FAMILY PETS | Man Alive: Going to the Dogs | Animal Magic | BBC Archive

It’s not all expensive dogs, corporate races and chicken in a basket as far as the eye can see. Away from the National Greyhound Racing stadiums are the equally popular flapping tracks where amateurs train their own greyhounds and enter them into races where winning means everything.

Edie owns two dogs with her husband and her puppy Yellow Ribbon has a race at the end of the week. Edie likes to win not for the big money but to help with her household bills - and she’s got an electric bill that wants paying. Hopefully the fresh food she prepares at home will give her younger dog the boost it needs on race night. Meanwhile building tycoon Tom and his wife Dot own 80 greyhounds; they say they can’t bear to part with them when they retire and Tom describes the hounds they own as “our children”. Their new dog Shaney is racing at Walthamstow; she’s already won once before so they’ve got their fingers crossed for another win.

If you’re lucky, you’ll end up with a dog like Dolores Rocket. Bred by three brothers from East London, who were newcomers to the sport, their dog won a plethora of trophies and prize money in less than a year. Was it down to their training or was Churchill right when he described greyhound racing as “animated roulette”?

In this film Man Alive looks at how official NGR stadiums and flapping tracks operated side by side across Great Britain.

Clip take from Man Alive: Going To The Dogs, originally broadcast on BBC One, Wednesday 10 October 1973.

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