Bruce Prole Greyhound Racing Collection Lots 414 to 422 Bruce Prole was in charge of the veterinary hospital at the Greyhound Racing Association's f

Bruce Prole Greyhound Racing Collection Lots 414 to 422 Bruce Prole was in charge of the veterinary hospital at the Greyhound Racing Association's famous Northaw Kennels in Hertfordshire. He had joined the GRA in the mid-1960s and in its heyday Northaw housed more than 600 racing dogs. Prole was a pioneer in a series of veterinary advances on racing injuries. After the demise of Northaw, he became a track vet at Poole and Portsmouth before retiring in 2005. Bruce Pole died in 2018, aged 85. The Roll of Honour Boards from the main building of the kennel complex at the former GRA greyhound training centre at Northaw in Hertfordshire, a matching pair in oak with gilt inscriptions, both titled WINNERS OF CLASSIC RACES TRAINED AT NORTHAW, the boards totalling 49 listings dating between 1931 and 1979, comprising the winners of six Greyhound Derbys, namely Wild Woolley (1932), Davesland (1934), Greta Ranee (1935), G.R. Archduke (1940), Camira Flash (1968) owned by H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh and Patricia's Hope (1972), together with the following Classics: Grand National (13), St Leger (11), Cesarewitch (4), Pall Mall (4), Oaks (3), Scurry Cup (3) Gold Collar (2), Laurels (2) and Spanish Derby (1), good condition The Hook Estate and Kennels was located just off Coopers Lane Road in Northaw near Potters Bar in Hertfordshire and was Britain's premier greyhound racing kennels for over fifty years and became a famed facility within the industry as the base for the London stadiums of White City, Stamford Bridge, Harringay, and later Clapton and West Ham. The kennels were built on 150 acres of park and grassland purchased by the Greyhound Racing Association (GRA) in about 1931. The mansion 'Hook House' or 'The Hook' served as a base for some of the senior staff including the kennel manager and veterinary surgeon and the Hook Cottages and newly built Hook villas were divided among the trainers and their families attached to the GRA's racetracks. The kennels opened with 150 employees and there was a separate kennel block for each of the original three tracks. The estate at this time was solely for racing hounds and puppies over nine months old and could house over 600 greyhounds. The puppies under nine months were reared under the supervision of William Skerratt on farms in and around Blythe Bridge, before graduating to Northaw, it is reputed that there were sixty farmers employed to help rear them. The kennel staff at the Hook Kennels lived in track dormitories depending on their race track attachment and had the use of leisure facilities on site. There was an animal medical facility, isolation kennels, laundry and even a sun tanning room for the greyhounds. The first person in charge of the facility was Colonel A. D. Cameron, the Racing Director of GRA at the time. Trainers based at the kennel at one time or another included Leslie Reynolds, Joe Harmon, Jack Harvey. Petter Hawkesley, Jimmy Jowett, Randy Singleton, Joe Pickering, Les Parry, Tom Lightfoot, Jim Singleton, Jimmy Rimmer, Wilf France, Eric Hiscock, Dick Clark, Sidney Mann, Bert Heyes, Charlie Ashley, Albert Jonas, Harry Buck, Eddie Wright, Ted Parker, Charlie Smoothy and Jack Cooper. In 1968 the GRA decided to move all of the greyhounds out of the Clapton kennels, at Claverhambury Farm and the West Ham kennels and put them at the training establishment at the Hook kennels which would now house all trainers from Harringay, White City, Clapton and West Ham (Stamford Bridge had closed the same year). West Ham closed in 1972, Clapton in 1974 and White City closed in 1984, leaving only Harringay being served by the kennels. The kennels were closed down in the mid-1980s and in 1986 the kennels were subject to planning for retirement homes. Hook House was acquired in April 1980 by the Oshwal Association of the United Kingdom and is used as the Oshwal Centre. Some of the former estate is now private housing known as Northaw Park.