Belle Vue Greyhound Stadium

BELLE VUE GREYHOUND STADIUM This site is not an official website for the track shown here and is neither approved or endorsed by the stadium. I am indebted to Richard English for the scans of badges on this page.
The first greyhound track to open in England was at Belle Vue, situated in the Gorton area of Manchester, when racing took place on 24th July 1926. Whilst the first meeting was well attended by a crowd in excess of 1700 people, interest quickly grew and crowds could be numbered in the thousands. The very first race to be run in England was won by Trap 1 Mistley. In 1931 the two Manchester tracks of Belle Vue and White City were run by the same management team and their back-up staff were interchangeable between the two tracks. The track had a circumference of 433 yards 2 feet and in 1931 raced on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings. In 1931 there was a Members Club called the Belle Vue Greyhound Club which had a membership limited to 500 members and cost £2 2s for Gentlemen and £1 1s for Ladies.

The Cesarewitch was run over 880 yards at Belle Vue for the first time in 1971. As well as its principal race the Cesarewitch the track also hosts the Northern Flat Championships and the Cock of the North Championships. The former has been won by Derby champions in the past with Rushton Mac claiming consecutive victories in 1954 and again in 1955. In the Cock of the North Honeygar Kid gained back to back victories in 1980 and 1981.

Track Records, as of 1947, are shown below together with an indication of how fast the time is in comparison to other tracks, both for currently open and defunct tracks, in the UK. Ratings are between 0 and 100, where 100 is an extremely fast time and reflects the speed of the track, tightness of the circuit and quality of greyhound visiting the tracks. I am extremely grateful to Tony Nash for providing the data. SPRINT (up to 385m) STANDARD (386-549m) DISTANCE (550-699m) EXTENDED (700-999m) Belle Vue Track Records at a snapshot in time:- STANDARD 500 yards Newcestown Ration 28.07 secs Rating 25 DISTANCE 700 yards Jersey Creamery 40.73 secs Rating 12 Track Records, as of September 2014, are shown below together with an indication of how fast the time is in comparison to other tracks, both for currently open and defunct tracks, in the UK. Ratings are between 0 and 100, where 100 is an extremely fast time and reflects the speed of the track, tightness of the circuit and quality of greyhound visiting the tracks. SPRINTS (up to 385m) STANDARD (386-549m) DISTANCE (550-699m) EXTENDED (700-999m) Belle Vue Track Records at a snapshot in time:- SPRINT 260 metres Drumcove Lad 14.96 secs. Rating 77 20th October 2011 STANDARD 470 metres Barnfield On Air 27.20 secs Rating 71 4th October 2007 DISTANCE 590 metres Vatican Jinky 35.06 secs Rating 66 25th September 2007 EXTENDED 878 metres Capoley Ash 54.28 secs Rating 44 8th November 2011
I am grateful to Jon Seddon for the following link to a map showing the whereabouts of the old track http://www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html?txtXCoord=387866&txtYCoord=396042
This section gives a comprehensive picture of the badges produced by the track throughout the ages, but only provides the briefest of glimpses of its history. For those wishing to undertake further research we can recommend a visit to http://astore.amazon.co.uk/wwwgreyhoundd-21 where further reading can be undertaken.
I am grateful to Kevin Spiller for the scan of the badge shown below. It belonged to his grandfather, Joseph Spilling, who was one of the first bookmakers to stand at Belle Vue in the late 1920's. Joe turned to bookmaking after he suffered an industrial accident and used the compensation to build his bookmaking business.
I am grateful to Byron Leeming for the scan of his fathers bookmakers badge shown below. Byron has fond memories of playing in the grandstand whilst his father made a book at the track.

If you have rare Belle Vue badges and artefacts for sale then email johnslusar@fsmail.net