Trainers Boycott Race at Worcester Over Low Prize Money
It had to happen, as after all bookmakers can go off-shore to avoid paying tax and the levy, which funds prize money, but trainers can’t train horses in Gibraltar and fly them in for the race.
Unless a solution is found, racing will die in the UK and the mugs will bet on football, videos of horse racing and flies crawling up the wall.
If the British public reckon bankers are an evil lot, then they should take a strong look at bookmakers.
A Lady After My Own Heart
I’ve never heard of Merryn Somerset Webb, but I have heard of the magazine she writes for; Money Week.
One of my alerts pulled up an article entitled, For better returns, ditch traditional investments. This is something I definitely believe in. But I would say that after once investing £10 e.w.on a nag at 500-1 in the Derby, I don’t think conservatively. In the end as Terimon came second, I trousered upwards of a grand.
If you read the article, Merryn makes some interesting points. She mentions the first two of possibly many alternative banks aimed at SMEs; Cambridge and Counties Bank and Silicon Valley Bank, who have opened or are rumoured to be opening in the UK.
I don’t need such a bank, but I’ll be watching how both progress in the next few months.
A Four Horse Steeplechase
A friend of mine, long since dead, was a bookmaker.
He gets a call from a jockey, who was on the second favourite in a four horse steeplechase. But the favourite will surely win it, says my friend. Oh No! Says the jockey, we’re all in on it. At the last fence the favourite was ten lengths clear, but sadly upended on landing, allowing the second favourite to come through to win. My friend said the favourite’s fall was the best bit of riding he’d ever seen.
He’d of course been prudent and laid off the bet to a major bookmaker, who could afford it. Adding a bit of the action for himself of course!
How To Manage Dormant Accounts
This afternoon, I got an e-mail from William Hill, the bookmakers.
It said that I hadn’t used the account for some time and would I like to use some of the money there to have a bet.
Quite frankly, I’d clearly forgotten I had the account and I think the last time I used it was well before 2007, as I know C was still alive. I think she had asked me to put money on a horse in the Grand National.
They said there was about £50 in the account, which let’s face it, buys a reasonable meal around here for two.
On trying to login, the site told me the account was locked and would I contact them through the on-line chat button.
I did this and after about an hour of patient chat, I got a new password and they unlocked the account so I could log in.
I then updated the account with my new address, phone number and credit card and then duly withdrew the balance.
Perhaps after the good service I’d got, that was a bit mean.
But it does show how if you manage your customer support well, you can get customers pleased with your company.
So thanks to William Hill, I’m now going to have a free meal.
How many other betting companies or financial institutions would have left the money there earning them interest?
I should also contrast this episode with the service, I’ve received from a well-known energy company (Not nPower or British Gas!) who supplied electricity and gas to the tenants of this house, before I bought it.
When I took over the house, I felt that it might be easier to stay with this company. But after waiting on the phone for twenty minutes or so to contact them, I gave up and went elsewhere.
I did owe them a small amount for when they supplied me until nPower took over, but they did try it on a bit and I still haven’t received what I consider to be a properly audited bill. E-mails to the company are unanswered and I have spent quite some time trying to phone them. I have spoken to friends and most feel that this company has a miserable standard of cutomer support at best.
So if I haven’t heard by Friday, I’ll probably pay the bill in a manner that A P Herbert would have approved of.
I of course advise anybody who uses the company to seriously think about getting an alternative supplier.
It Pays to Go By Bus
Steve Whiteley used his bus pass to take up the offer of a free day’s racing at Exeter yesterday. Knowing nothing about horse-racing he put a single bet on the Tote Jackpot which cost him just £2. His was the only winning ticket and he won £1,445,671.20. The complete story is in the Independent.
Bet of the Month
Ipswich is a close town and rumours get around quickly.
The football team has been terible recently and it is not the team I saw at Middlesbrough or Sheffield United.
So what has gone wrong?
I’ve heard several theories and although, I have my own, I’m keeping it quiet.
But let’s assume Roy Keane doesn’t last the week! Ipswich is an honourable man, and Marcus Evans, the owner, doesn’t seem to be a man to act in haste.
So what would happen if a new manager came in. There are after all some good candidates tending their gardens or walking the dog at the moment. There are a lot of good players at Ipswich Town and they probably need rearranging and remotivating more than anything else. So a good man-manager, like Bobby Robson or Alf Ramsey should have no problem creating a team, without too much trouble. The team is almost a bit like a car with contaminated fuel. And then there are the njured players, who should return soon.
So how about two bets if Keane goes; beat Chelsea in the FA Cup and make the playoffs. The odds for the latter are only five-to-one now, so perhaps the professionals have already helped themselves.
The Day I Stood on the Queen
Putting up the story of the Queen’s Award Reception yesterday, reminds me of one of my other royal stories.
One Saturday, C and I were at a loose end, so we took the Cessna 340, Delta-Delta, and flew into Newbury racecourse. It had an airstrip in those days in the centre of the course.
I,m not sure if we had a runner, but it may have been the day that Vague Shot ran in the Newbury Spring Cup, with the great, Steve Cauthen, in the saddle. When they assess the history of British racing at the end of this century and they rate the great jockeys, it will not be Lester Piggott, Frankie Dettori or Fred Archer, who will be rated the greatest, but the quiet impeccable American from Kentucky, Steve Cauthen. On the track, few could ever match his skills and especially his judgement of pace. Vague Shot’s victory under top weight in the Royal Hunt Cup in very heavy going, could never have been achieved by any other jockey. It was just one of many where he was totally at one with the horse in an impossible situation. He did the same at Nottingham on a horse of ours called Golden Panda, that was named after a Chinese restaurant, which he coaxed home on the 8th of August 1988, which was a day the bookies regretted, as every Chinese restaurant in Suffolk helped themselves to odds of 12-1.
But it is Steve’s personality that made him the greatest. To him every owner and horse was a friend to be treated the same. If you were the local greengrocer with a horse in a selling plate, you got the same treatment as the Queen would have in a Group race. One of my memories of Steve was of him at Haydock Park, between rides, where he spent perhaps twenty minutes talking to a young man in a wheelchair by the entrance to the weighing room. How many sportsmen would do that?
But to return to that day at Newbury and the Queen. We were in the paddock with the trainer of Vague Shot, Clive Brittain, waiting to put the jockey up on one of his runners. A horse in front of us, decided to rear up and as one does, C and I took a few steps back. However, at the same time another horse spooked at something and did the same thing, with those in between taking avoiding action.
I ended up stepping on the Queen. When I realised what I had done, I apologised profusely.
She just gave a knowing smile, put a finger to her mouth and walked to a safer place.
Today’s Nottingham Card
friend has asked me to give him some pointers to the races at Nottingham today.
Here are my quick thoughts.
Race 1 – Neytiki as it’s got the most attractive jockey! She’s a coeliac too! Avoid Brand Bob as the horse has a bad draw. The horse is also owned by someone I know!
A general point is that it’s probably worth watching Richard Hughes mount in the first, but a PlacePot using all his mounts would be a good idea, as he’s closing in on the jockey’s championship.
I can’t say I can guarantee these selections, but my father’s ability to pick winners improved after he’d had a stroke.
Race 2 – Ittirad as trainer Michael Jarvis and jocky Philip Robinson are often dangerous in this sort of race.
Race 3 – Academy and Charles Camoin.
Race 4 – If Hayley wins the first, back Ace of Spies here. Make My Dream is probably worth looking at.
Race 5 – Be patriotic and back the Queen’s horse – Starshine. Seriously though it looks like a horse that gets a distance and few except the Queen run those.
Race 6 – Spinning is napped and should go close and Naddwah is my pick. But don’t underestimate Compton Blue because of Richard Hughes going for the championship.
Race 7 – Point North and Colour Scheme.
Race 8 – Kenyan Cat as trainer a great and honest guy and horse just missed a hat trick.
Horseracing in Crisis
The long running dispute about the size of the Levy seems to have hit the stops again as horse racing and the bookmakers can’t agree how much should be paid. According to this article on the BBC, the decision will go for the last time to the Government.
I love my racing, but I know that this can’t go on!
In the first place, horse racing needs bookmakers and bookmakers don’t need horse racing, as mugs will bet on anything from horse racing videos to the X-Factor. I bet rarely, but I still have one running on Strictly Come Dancing. Any unbiased analysis of bookmakers income shows that their profits come from areas other than horse racing.
One of the troubles with racing is that it is perceived in the wrong way by much of the public and racing sees the public in the wrong way too. For instance, few know that most race meetings outside of the really major ones, let those under 16 in free with an adult. I’ve always found that children enjoy racing as it’s something so different to what they encounter in normal life. Many race courses do try to encourage families in the summer, but others just don’t bother. They just don’t realise that by changing the product on offer slightly they can reach a whole new audience.
Another problem, that exists locally is that big meetings at Newmarket often clash with football at Ipswich. And I suspect Norwich too! I suspect these aren’t the only clashes either. Planning of meetings must be better!
But racing real problem is that it continues to make really bad decisions at the top.
One thing that I can’t understand is why racing has split its television coverage between two separate channels, one of which is free and the other is so much a month. If ever there was a decision that smacks of corporate suicide it is this one.
The trouble with the quality of the decisions, is that it allows those, who perhaps should be funding the sport, like bookmakers, to find ways out of paying for the product.
Racing only powerful card is that it is a large employer, but so were the coal mines and look what happened to the miners. It was just an industry whose time had come. Not because of politics as many on the left would believe, but because of the carbon dioxide burning it produces.
So has horse racing’s time come?
Perhaps in its present form, Yes!
I wouldn’t dream of telling the racing industry what to do, but I know they must change, or at least be perceived to have changed.
Can the Government do anything to help?
I believe one trhing that would help is to move the clocks to European time, as this would give us extra opportunities for evening meetings, which do seem to attract crowds. But even here, some people in racing aren’t as pro this, as I am. But I suspect, it is something that will finally happen.
Racing often has a big asset and that is land, which sometimes is not used to its full potential because of planning restrictions. The Government is giving more power to local people, but would this be for or against racing’s interest?
I would hate to see racing fade out of the rich pageant of Britain’s sporting scene, but unless we think long and hard, it might just happen.
I hope not!
Possibly!
The Anonymous Widower 