Another favoured bet back in the day - & I'm talking 50 years or so - went something like this; "2.30 Haydock - K Payne's Sel"
That meant we were betting on whatever horse Ken Payne had in the race. He often entered 7 or 8, usually in sellers or maidens, then left one in, & that would be the one we were on. Often he left several in, so the rule was we were on the one with the shortest price SP.
Ken Payne was as bent as a nine bob note, & everyone knew that. Except me, probably.
He was known as the King of the Sellers, as his horses were all woefully bad, but by ducking & diving he got by somehow. He also had the nick "Window", as in "Window Payne".....
If anyone likes a good non-fiction horse racing book, "The Coup" is a great read, it's effectively the story of Ken Payne's life as a trainer. I don't recall how it all ended for Ken, but I know it ended badly. Any time he had a nice win, drugs, sex & gambling absorbed the cash pretty quickly.
Great read.
Tikay, Funny how things happen.
To add to this post i was trying to find a horse that was regualarly taken to the Scottish Festival in the seventies when it included Lanark. it was a sprinter called Gold Something and I thought it was trained by A Bailey but that could be way out.
I do remember it was a money spinner for me one year when I was on holiday in a book makers in Bath . It ran at least four times and won three and all at goodish prices as nobody thought it could win day after day. Those were the days.
anyway in looking for details of the horse came across Ken Payne who loved the sellers at Lanark and the festival and apparently was a legend up there.
V
PS RABDENIRO, BRING BACK ANY MEMORIES
I was at Lanark years ago but it was just point to point, where I stay is about 1/2 mile from Bogside which packed up in the early sixties ( I think) just before my time , there was a lot of good racing then. Up until recently the grandstand and some of the rail was still there but I havent been over for a walk for a while. Every year we have a festival in August called Marymass which includes racing on the moor on Saturday, horses used to run on the friday night at Bogside or Lanark then they would run some of them as ringers on the Saturday, if you managed to find out what the horses were happy days as they always stoated (at short prices usually).
I was trying to think of a horse years ago which in my younger days I won a few quid on,( I stopped punting the horses for about 20 years so my memory is a bit vague) if I remember rightly I think it was called Spindrifter it won something like 13 races which at the time I think was a record until Chaplins Club beat it, I couldnt stop punting it and I won a right few quid, ah they were the days.
My fav horse was Lochsong which I first bet at Ayr early in its career, another horse I have really fond memories of was Top of The North Racing, not a great horse but won lots of bets on it a big prices.
Your post brought back more memories Rab, you might be interested in this, I remember him well and Will O'gorman who mentioned in same para was one of my favourite trainers as a great trainer of sprinters
In 1980 Spindrifter, trained by Mark Prescott, won 13 of his 19 starts which left him 3 short of The Bard's record for males. But, he had matched the 'Modern Day' mark set by Nagwa. The story then comes to a climax with the training career of Bill O'Gorman. He had been producing multiple winning 2yos since the late 1970s and had more than one example of juveniles winning 9 races in a season in that period. In 1984 the experience and the horse came together with Provideo who had 16 successes from his 23 outings. This surpassed the 'Modern Day' level and matched the historical record set by The Bard. Provideo had won the Brocklesby Stakes as the first race of the season in March and won his 16th race on November 1st.
Mr. O'Gorman has said that he had other horses that he could have pressed into winning this high number of races but targeted higher class races with them instead. In 1990 the right type of horse, of the 'right' quality, came along in Timeless Times and he won 16 of his 21 starts. He had won 16 by September 15th but then got an injury otherwise he might well have surpassed the record held by The Bard & Provideo rather than joining them at the top of the list.
I remember all 3 of those V. and Bill O'Gorman too. It was much better when you could get a durable horse that won so many races, Great to follow them, but usually odds-on so hardly ever at backable prices. I don't think the modern system for 2-y-o's allows that to happen nowadays.
I remember all 3 of those V. and Bill O'Gorman too. It was much better when you could get a durable horse that won so many races, Great to follow them, but usually odds-on so hardly ever at backable prices. I don't think the modern system for 2-y-o's allows that to happen nowadays.
no certainly doesnt Misty and remembering the good old days makes me want to go back rather than forwards but hey still fun
I don't know if anyone remembers a juvenile hurdler called CHILDOWN and trained by a certain N.J.Henderson (I wonder what happened to him??) My boss at the Golf Club was told to follow this horse from it's very first run....... I'm sure it won it's first 6 or 7 races and was favourite for the Triumph Hurdle. We were on at all fancy prices from 33/1 downwards. Sadly CHILDOWN broke his leg at the 2nd hurdle, so a really awful end to what had been a really fantastic and profitable season.
But the best horse I backed every time it ran was the great DESERT ORCHID, 'coz I have always followed David Elsworth and I love front running, good jumping hurdlers. 'Dessie' used to blast off in front and nothing could live with him, but in his first race as a 3-y-old hurdler at Kempton he fell at the last, and lay on the floor for ages. It looked really bad and that he would have to be put down Fortunately he was only winded....... he had taken so much out of himself, but my love affair had started
And who can forget this one too. Backed him for all three of his Gold Cup wins, before his untimely death. Was there at Cheltenham when he won the first one at 7/1
Here was his first one. All I can remember is watching it on the big screen as it was so crowded, and I was just shouting, "He's absolutely cruising, BEST MATE is cruising!"
My friends thought I was mad calling him the winner with a circuit to go.
Probably one of my favourite FLAT horses around that time (few years earlier) was DANCING BRAVE. How did he never win THE DERBY? terrible ride by GREVILLE STARKY.
My favourite jumper of all time was Desert Orchid and I really fell in love with him when he beat Elsworth's other horse Combs ditch who I had backed . Colin Brown and I both got it wrong that day and Dessie won at 16-1. As I missed that and didnt want to jinx him I made the terrible decision moneywise not to ever back him. See I was an idiot then G. He is my sons favourite racehorse and he has two 1 of 500 prints of Dessie. Funny I watched his gold cup win earlier today and nearly cried my eyes out again. What a horse.
Also a great fan of Guy Harwood and especially Dancing Brave, the best horse never to have won the Derby, Greville got it wrong that day. It must have been really galling for Greville to lose the ride to Pat Eddery as they had fell out badly over the treatment of To Agori Mou In the Irish 2000. Funny thing was To Agori Mou was another of my winners that day back in 1981 when he won the 2000 Guineas on the same day that Standaan won.
Never a great fan of Best Mate but he was a great horse.
Memories, memories, doubt if they will ever be bettered but then didnt see Frankel coming so you never know.
I used to punt on the dogs, too, & always had the same bet, which would be reverse forecast doubles on Traps 1 & 6 in an 8 race card, so that was 112 bets. Started off doing them for a penny (old penny), then moved up to 10p (new money) so £11.20. God knows how much I lost over the years, though this was 50 years ago before I learned what a mug bet it was.
My Dad loved all those weird accas - Heinz, Yankee, Super Yankee, Trixie, Round Robin. The bookies loved them even more of course.....
Great post Tikay and it reminded me of my Saturday Mornings in the bookies doing forecasts 1, 3, 6 at Hackney. I like to remember it was a money spinner but probably wasnt, although for some reason those traps came in more than the others in forecasts and a lot at nice prices.
Those were the days, not the same sitting in front of a screen . One thing i miss about not going in the bookies
The Saturday morning card at Hackney Wick was the best thing ever, I doubt I ever enjoyed the dogs as much as the atmo at Hackney on Saturdays. I used to frequent Haringey, Hendon, White City, The 'Stow, Catford, & in later years, Watford & Slough, but none gave me the fun Hackney did.
Hackney dogs were attended by all sorts of degenerates & amongst them, the cream of the East London underworld. Just to see these sort of mini gangster sorts used to send a shiver of excitement down my spine. The bookies all looked proper dodgy, too, with their Crombies & trilby hats.
And here's the spooky thing.
A regular there every Saturday morning was a famous actress who had a fascination with dodgy sorts. She was quite famous, & amongst other stuff she was in several "Carry On" Films. She was the first "celebrity" I had ever seen close up in real life. Her name was Liz Fraser.
Several mentions in the thread of Sir Mark Prescott, Spindrifter, & George Duffield. George rode Spindrifter, including on 11 (?) consecutive wins.
My Dad - truly the worst punter ever ever ever - used to back George Duffield's rides "blind", & perm them into Patents, Yankees or whatever. Every day. At the time George was seen as a journeyman Northern jockey, though he later proved he was far better than that & won a few Classics & a bunch of Group 1's. Anyway, I digress.
My Dad fell quite ill in his later years, & could no longer get down to the local bookies. (There was no internet in those days). So he'd give me his George Duffield bets, & the stake, & I'd do it for him. After a while, it occurred to me that this was a mugs game, & anyway, going to the bookies every day was time consuming. So I started standing my Dad's bets myself. Soon I was in clover. He never bet much - £5 or £10 per day, but it soon added up.
It then occurred to me that, maybe, making money out of my sick Dad was a bit unethical, even though it made no odds, he was going to lose the money either way. So I started saving all the profit up, & eventually, I had enough cash to surprise Mum & Dad with a little holiday in Jersey. It was their best holiday ever. Dad died a few months later, so in a perverse way, George Duffield had a special place in my heart.
Anyway, after all that, I'm pretty sure some of you will enjoy this.
If you go to the link below, it is the website of Trainer Ann Duffield, who is George Duffield's second wife. Then scroll down to the part where it pays tribute to George Duffield MBE.
In there, there is a video of some of George's best moments. It's about 20 minutes long, but you will enjoy it, I promise, the memories will flood back.
After Betting Shops were legalized, the first LBO I ever entered was "Terry Downes". Terry was a great boxer, World Champion, then retired, but he kept bad company. The Licence & shops were in his name, but really he was just a "front" for some dodgy underworld sorts. Soon they had 90 shops, which they then sold to Wm Hill for a fortune. Terry died last year, sadly.
In those days Betting Shops had to black out the windows, as you were not allowed to see inside them from outside. They never had a door though, always those coloured plastic strips that you sort of walked through.
Once inside, they were dark, dingy & smoky & full of right characters. I'm not sure I've ever been happier than inside those places, rubbing shoulders with gamblers.
They never had any TV Screens, SIS or whatever it's called these days did not exist. Instead, they had a commentary provided by a Company called "Extel". It's nickname was "the blower".
The commentators used to do their best to make every race sound exciting.
A furlong from home, Gay Spartan is 2 lengths clear, but here comes Mindbender finishing very fast, he's closing with every stride, 100 yards to go it's neck & neck, they flash across the line together - IT'S CLOSE, IT'S VERY CLOSE, PHOTO".
Then you'd read The Life next morning & see that Gay Spartan or whoever had won by....3 lengths.
So, intoxicated by the whole atmo of betting shops, I got myself a Saturday Job as Board Marker in a Betting Shop owned by an elderly Jewish chap in Harrow.
No screens or anything, so we used white sheets pinned to the wall & I'd write up the prices, update them, & then the results. All the results would be written on a white market board with coloured felt tip pens.
I got into trouble though with the owner, as I had a fascination with numbers &, as a young man, I was full of myself, & thought I could change the world.
And here's the thing. I'm not into decimal odds, fractional odds are my thing, but there was an anomaly then in fractional odds which exists to this day.
You may not have noticed, but in betting parlance, "odds" are always reduced to the lowest common denominator. We say 11/10, not 22/20, 11/8 not 22/16, 5/4 not 10/8, 2/1 not 4/2. Right? Right. No exceptions.
EXCEPT 6/4. WTF? Why is it 6/4 & not 3/2?
So I'd write 3/2 instead of 6/4 on the Results Board. Then punters started complaining, "oi, I took 6/4, not 3/2".......
To this day, I've never understood why we use 6/4 & not 3/2.
Soon, with the ambition of owning my own LBO, I took a Settling Course up in London. It was run by Wm Hill & cost £100, which was a lot of money in those days.
It was a 6 week course, & ended with an exam. If you got 60%, you'd be offered a job as a clerk in a Betting Shop, 75% & you'd be offered an Assistant Manager's job, 80% & they'd make you a Manager right away.
I got 99.1%, but felt cheated, as I got just one answer slightly wrong.
Proper set up it was. The bet I had to settle was an EW bet on an 8 runner race, but a short-priced one was withdrawn without coming under Starters Orders, so a rule 4 was applied. Then the selection deadheated for 2nd. Only 2 places in a 7 runner race, dead heat for 2nd, so split stakes, Rule 4, & the price of the horse was 85/40 ffs......
The demise of dog racing is sad, my home town had two at one point both gone now. Used to be on Tues, Thurs, Sat and trials on a sunday, on the Saturday there was maybe 25 bookies and queues to get in.
There was loads of dodgy things going on, the parade boys only got paid a couple of quid, Ive seen dogs getting put in backwards, elastic bands round the hips and haws, dodgy photo finishes, and dogs getting "fed" before races.
When I was 14/15 I used to get paid from a bookie to stand at the finish line to see if it was a close finish and the run back and tell him what I thought won and the distance so he could put up betting.
There was one time a dog was really fancied running off the front getting maybe 10 yards in a 325 so wasnt a very good yin but we were told lump on it, so coming round the last bend its getting gubbed, next minute somebody flings a Jack Russell on the track just before the finish, "void race void race" comes over the tannoy, lets say we were glad to get our cash back.
Another wee aside, next to the track was a large playing fields so a lot of owners used to walk their dogs there, so me and me mates used to hang about to see if we good get any tips.
This local family of 5 brothers bought a monkey of a dug for a right few quid and decided to train it at the playing fields, so one of them arrives on a bike with a rope and a furry toy tied to the back so were lying on the grass watching this performance, one of the brothers is holding the dug the other starts peddling like mad, he lets it go thinking it would chase the bike but it decides to bolt over to us, they start shouting " stop the dug, stop the dug" my mate jumps up sticks out his leg hits the dug "whack" broke its leg, next minute were getting chase all over town by these nutters, needless to say we had to lie low for a while.
With my Settlers Course passed, the Jewish chap gave me the gig as Saturday Settler in his shop. Tenner a day, all of which I punted off, so he got me for free.
There were no computers then, but they did have a thing called a Genie, which was a glorified calculator really.
There was also a "Sporting Life Settler"....
I never used either though, I preferred to settle by mental arithmetic.
We had learned some great "short cuts" to settling bets on the Wm Hill Settlers course, & to this day, 50 years on, I still use them to settle bets "in my head".
So, using an easy example, £8 @ 11/8, I did this "evens plus a quarter plus a half trick".....
£8 @ evens = £8.00
+ a quarter = £2.00
+ a half = £1.00
= £11
Plus Stake of £8 = £19.00
Now do it with 13/8, slight change to the formula, now it's evens plus a half plus a quarter.
£8 @ evens = 8.00
+ a half = £4.00
+ a quarter = £1
= £13
Plus stake of £8 = £21.
Easy peasy. I learned dozens of those short cuts, but have forgotten most now. Age is a horrible thing.
My job every Saturday was to do all the Accas - Yankees, Patents etc, but mostly the ITV Seven.
When the first race started, I'd have a pile of betting slips 6 inches high.
Usually, after the first race, 80% of them were dead.
By race three that 6 inch high pile would be down to a handful.
So I learned, very early, that except in rare circumstances, any form of Accas (Yankees etc) were mug's bets, & I doubt I've done a single acca or yankee or whatever since that day. Bookies love them, but don't want singles. No surprise there.
Comments
my best and worst day at the races
Every year we have a festival in August called Marymass which includes racing on the moor on Saturday, horses used to run on the friday night at Bogside or Lanark then they would run some of them as ringers on the Saturday, if you managed to find out what the horses were happy days as they always stoated (at short prices usually).
I was trying to think of a horse years ago which in my younger days I won a few quid on,( I stopped punting the horses for about 20 years so my memory is a bit vague) if I remember rightly I think it was called Spindrifter it won something like 13 races which at the time I think was a record until Chaplins Club beat it, I couldnt stop punting it and I won a right few quid, ah they were the days.
My fav horse was Lochsong which I first bet at Ayr early in its career, another horse I have really fond memories of was Top of The North Racing, not a great horse but won lots of bets on it a big prices.
In 1980 Spindrifter, trained by Mark Prescott, won 13 of his 19 starts which left him 3 short of The Bard's record for males. But, he had matched the 'Modern Day' mark set by Nagwa. The story then comes to a climax with the training career of Bill O'Gorman. He had been producing multiple winning 2yos since the late 1970s and had more than one example of juveniles winning 9 races in a season in that period. In 1984 the experience and the horse came together with Provideo who had 16 successes from his 23 outings. This surpassed the 'Modern Day' level and matched the historical record set by The Bard. Provideo had won the Brocklesby Stakes as the first race of the season in March and won his 16th race on November 1st.
Mr. O'Gorman has said that he had other horses that he could have pressed into winning this high number of races but targeted higher class races with them instead. In 1990 the right type of horse, of the 'right' quality, came along in Timeless Times and he won 16 of his 21 starts. He had won 16 by September 15th but then got an injury otherwise he might well have surpassed the record held by The Bard & Provideo rather than joining them at the top of the list.
But the best horse I backed every time it ran was the great DESERT ORCHID, 'coz I have always followed David Elsworth and I love front running, good jumping hurdlers. 'Dessie' used to blast off in front and nothing could live with him, but in his first race as a 3-y-old hurdler at Kempton he fell at the last, and lay on the floor for ages. It looked really bad and that he would have to be put down Fortunately he was only winded....... he had taken so much out of himself, but my love affair had started
Had £400 on at 11/4, quite a bit for a teenager back then.
I can almost recite the commentary word for word.
And who can forget this one too. Backed him for all three of his Gold Cup wins, before his untimely death. Was there at Cheltenham when he won the first one at 7/1
Here was his first one. All I can remember is watching it on the big screen as it was so crowded, and I was just shouting, "He's absolutely cruising, BEST MATE is cruising!"
My friends thought I was mad calling him the winner with a circuit to go.
But PAT EDDERY made no mistake on in him THE KING GEORGE at ASCOT.
Was there that day too. (Only 4 miles from my house)
Great race and got my money back that I lost on him on THE DERBY.
My favourite jumper of all time was Desert Orchid and I really fell in love with him when he beat Elsworth's other horse Combs ditch who I had backed . Colin Brown and I both got it wrong that day and Dessie won at 16-1. As I missed that and didnt want to jinx him I made the terrible decision moneywise not to ever back him. See I was an idiot then G. He is my sons favourite racehorse and he has two 1 of 500 prints of Dessie. Funny I watched his gold cup win earlier today and nearly cried my eyes out again. What a horse.
Also a great fan of Guy Harwood and especially Dancing Brave, the best horse never to have won the Derby, Greville got it wrong that day. It must have been really galling for Greville to lose the ride to Pat Eddery as they had fell out badly over the treatment of To Agori Mou In the Irish 2000. Funny thing was To Agori Mou was another of my winners that day back in 1981 when he won the 2000 Guineas on the same day that Standaan won.
Never a great fan of Best Mate but he was a great horse.
Memories, memories, doubt if they will ever be bettered but then didnt see Frankel coming so you never know.
As you might shortly see, several posts in this thread touched a (nice) nerve with me.
Hackney dogs were attended by all sorts of degenerates & amongst them, the cream of the East London underworld. Just to see these sort of mini gangster sorts used to send a shiver of excitement down my spine. The bookies all looked proper dodgy, too, with their Crombies & trilby hats.
And here's the spooky thing.
A regular there every Saturday morning was a famous actress who had a fascination with dodgy sorts. She was quite famous, & amongst other stuff she was in several "Carry On" Films. She was the first "celebrity" I had ever seen close up in real life. Her name was Liz Fraser.
And what's spooky about that?
Liz Fraser died. When? Yesterday.
Several mentions in the thread of Sir Mark Prescott, Spindrifter, & George Duffield. George rode Spindrifter, including on 11 (?) consecutive wins.
My Dad - truly the worst punter ever ever ever - used to back George Duffield's rides "blind", & perm them into Patents, Yankees or whatever. Every day. At the time George was seen as a journeyman Northern jockey, though he later proved he was far better than that & won a few Classics & a bunch of Group 1's. Anyway, I digress.
My Dad fell quite ill in his later years, & could no longer get down to the local bookies. (There was no internet in those days). So he'd give me his George Duffield bets, & the stake, & I'd do it for him. After a while, it occurred to me that this was a mugs game, & anyway, going to the bookies every day was time consuming. So I started standing my Dad's bets myself. Soon I was in clover. He never bet much - £5 or £10 per day, but it soon added up.
It then occurred to me that, maybe, making money out of my sick Dad was a bit unethical, even though it made no odds, he was going to lose the money either way. So I started saving all the profit up, & eventually, I had enough cash to surprise Mum & Dad with a little holiday in Jersey. It was their best holiday ever. Dad died a few months later, so in a perverse way, George Duffield had a special place in my heart.
Anyway, after all that, I'm pretty sure some of you will enjoy this.
If you go to the link below, it is the website of Trainer Ann Duffield, who is George Duffield's second wife. Then scroll down to the part where it pays tribute to George Duffield MBE.
In there, there is a video of some of George's best moments. It's about 20 minutes long, but you will enjoy it, I promise, the memories will flood back.
http://www.annduffield.co.uk/about-us/
Just found these photos of the Rail Bookies at Hackney Wick.
In those days Betting Shops had to black out the windows, as you were not allowed to see inside them from outside. They never had a door though, always those coloured plastic strips that you sort of walked through.
Once inside, they were dark, dingy & smoky & full of right characters. I'm not sure I've ever been happier than inside those places, rubbing shoulders with gamblers.
They never had any TV Screens, SIS or whatever it's called these days did not exist. Instead, they had a commentary provided by a Company called "Extel". It's nickname was "the blower".
The commentators used to do their best to make every race sound exciting.
A furlong from home, Gay Spartan is 2 lengths clear, but here comes Mindbender finishing very fast, he's closing with every stride, 100 yards to go it's neck & neck, they flash across the line together - IT'S CLOSE, IT'S VERY CLOSE, PHOTO".
Then you'd read The Life next morning & see that Gay Spartan or whoever had won by....3 lengths.
Fabulous times.
So, intoxicated by the whole atmo of betting shops, I got myself a Saturday Job as Board Marker in a Betting Shop owned by an elderly Jewish chap in Harrow.
No screens or anything, so we used white sheets pinned to the wall & I'd write up the prices, update them, & then the results. All the results would be written on a white market board with coloured felt tip pens.
I got into trouble though with the owner, as I had a fascination with numbers &, as a young man, I was full of myself, & thought I could change the world.
And here's the thing. I'm not into decimal odds, fractional odds are my thing, but there was an anomaly then in fractional odds which exists to this day.
You may not have noticed, but in betting parlance, "odds" are always reduced to the lowest common denominator. We say 11/10, not 22/20, 11/8 not 22/16, 5/4 not 10/8, 2/1 not 4/2. Right? Right. No exceptions.
EXCEPT 6/4. WTF? Why is it 6/4 & not 3/2?
So I'd write 3/2 instead of 6/4 on the Results Board. Then punters started complaining, "oi, I took 6/4, not 3/2".......
To this day, I've never understood why we use 6/4 & not 3/2.
Soon, with the ambition of owning my own LBO, I took a Settling Course up in London. It was run by Wm Hill & cost £100, which was a lot of money in those days.
It was a 6 week course, & ended with an exam. If you got 60%, you'd be offered a job as a clerk in a Betting Shop, 75% & you'd be offered an Assistant Manager's job, 80% & they'd make you a Manager right away.
I got 99.1%, but felt cheated, as I got just one answer slightly wrong.
Proper set up it was. The bet I had to settle was an EW bet on an 8 runner race, but a short-priced one was withdrawn without coming under Starters Orders, so a rule 4 was applied. Then the selection deadheated for 2nd. Only 2 places in a 7 runner race, dead heat for 2nd, so split stakes, Rule 4, & the price of the horse was 85/40 ffs......
Meh.
Wonderfull stories about your Dad and how they got that holiday in Jersey!
Another betting exception as well as the 6/4.
We used to have 100/30 too, you'd never say 10/3 back then.
Although the online bookies do display it as 10/3 now. But I always say it as 100/30 in my head, I'd imagine only "youngster" would say it as 10/3?
Did you know any of the tic-tac stuff? Top of the head, 9/4, Double Carpet, 33/1 etc?
Use to love seeing the guys doing all that on the course.
Don't see it much nowadays, and with John Mccririck no longer on TV Racing, it seems to be quite forgotten and a thing of the past now.
Shame, it all added to the atmosphere.
There was loads of dodgy things going on, the parade boys only got paid a couple of quid, Ive seen dogs getting put in backwards, elastic bands round the hips and haws, dodgy photo finishes, and dogs getting "fed" before races.
When I was 14/15 I used to get paid from a bookie to stand at the finish line to see if it was a close finish and the run back and tell him what I thought won and the distance so he could put up betting.
There was one time a dog was really fancied running off the front getting maybe 10 yards in a 325 so wasnt a very good yin but we were told lump on it, so coming round the last bend its getting gubbed, next minute somebody flings a Jack Russell on the track just before the finish, "void race void race" comes over the tannoy, lets say we were glad to get our cash back.
Another wee aside, next to the track was a large playing fields so a lot of owners used to walk their dogs there, so me and me mates used to hang about to see if we good get any tips.
This local family of 5 brothers bought a monkey of a dug for a right few quid and decided to train it at the playing fields, so one of them arrives on a bike with a rope and a furry toy tied to the back so were lying on the grass watching this performance, one of the brothers is holding the dug the other starts peddling like mad, he lets it go thinking it would chase the bike but it decides to bolt over to us, they start shouting " stop the dug, stop the dug" my mate jumps up sticks out his leg hits the dug "whack" broke its leg, next minute were getting chase all over town by these nutters, needless to say we had to lie low for a while.
As Elvis used to sing "Memories".
With my Settlers Course passed, the Jewish chap gave me the gig as Saturday Settler in his shop. Tenner a day, all of which I punted off, so he got me for free.
There were no computers then, but they did have a thing called a Genie, which was a glorified calculator really.
There was also a "Sporting Life Settler"....
I never used either though, I preferred to settle by mental arithmetic.
We had learned some great "short cuts" to settling bets on the Wm Hill Settlers course, & to this day, 50 years on, I still use them to settle bets "in my head".
So, using an easy example, £8 @ 11/8, I did this "evens plus a quarter plus a half trick".....
£8 @ evens = £8.00
+ a quarter = £2.00
+ a half = £1.00
= £11
Plus Stake of £8 = £19.00
Now do it with 13/8, slight change to the formula, now it's evens plus a half plus a quarter.
£8 @ evens = 8.00
+ a half = £4.00
+ a quarter = £1
= £13
Plus stake of £8 = £21.
Easy peasy. I learned dozens of those short cuts, but have forgotten most now. Age is a horrible thing.
My job every Saturday was to do all the Accas - Yankees, Patents etc, but mostly the ITV Seven.
When the first race started, I'd have a pile of betting slips 6 inches high.
Usually, after the first race, 80% of them were dead.
By race three that 6 inch high pile would be down to a handful.
So I learned, very early, that except in rare circumstances, any form of Accas (Yankees etc) were mug's bets, & I doubt I've done a single acca or yankee or whatever since that day. Bookies love them, but don't want singles. No surprise there.