[KUTYAFAJTÁK] Agár fajták

Hungarian links go back over a century

HUNGARIAN trainer Gabor Tenczel has put his homeland
well and truly on the greyhound racing map through the Derby
exploits of his Irish-bred charge Lyreen Mover, who won the
European Derby at Rabapatona in record time.
Racing in Hungary rarely attracts any outside interest,
but the central European country has a long association
with the longtails, which was outlined in a 1912 Coursing
Calendar article contributed by Bela de Bagny, keeper of the
Hungarian Greyhound Stud book, a work established in 1902.
Coursing on an organised club basis began there around
1860, and in 1911 was hosted by nine clubs, which held 19
meetings in the short twomonth season (October and
November), a restriction imposed by hunting regulations.
Overall control was exercised by the Hungarian
Coursing Union, whose rules were modelled upon those of
Britain’s National Coursing Club. Like the NCC, it held
biannual meetings, at Szolnok and Budapest.
The richest event was the 32-runner Orszagos Verseny,
Hungary’s version of the Waterloo Cup, held near
Szolnok, for which the winner received 1,000 crowns (about
£48), a silver trophy worth 500 crowns and a young
thoroughbred horse, presented by the Minister of Agriculture.
Puppies were catered for by the Derby, run at different
venues each year, which carried a winner’s purse of
1,200 crowns and a piece of silver plate for the breeder.
The ‘Waterloo’ was won in 1903, 1904 and 1905 by the
white bitch Galamb, Hungary’s most celebrated greyhound of
the decade, a daughter of the imported British-bred sire Dear
Sportsman, who divided the 64-runner Newmarket
Champion Puppy Cup in 1899. Her dam Cricza was by Grouse Hill,
another import from Britain.
Making the reverse journey, a Hungarian-bred bitch named
Wild Girl (Rajko V–Czifra II, by Dear Sportsman) ran at the
Sussex County Club open meeting in 1913, but was
disqualified for some unstated reason.
Her owners, the Chelsea based partners J Tomlinson
and E Werner, registered the January 1912 whelp in the
British Stud Book, but no produce from her was ever reported.
About 1,700 greyhounds were registered in the first nine
volumes of the Hungarian Stud Book. Breeders often crossed
imports with the native breed and had made a promising
start, but two world wars, followed by social and political
upheavals, were fatal to their efforts.

Gabor Tenczel and Lyreen Mover have put Hungarian greyhound racing on the map