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Hi everyone,
I just saw this story http://www.theratbook.com/Articles/Article/ill_kill_top_horse_warned_punter_whod_forgotten_to_place_his_bet which has me absolutely disgusted! Money can make a man do terrible things, but to threaten to take the life of a horse over financial gain is just pure wrong.
Has anything like this ever happened before in horse racing?
There was story a few years ago (which may or may not be true) where a punter somewhere in South America put everything he owned on a horse convinced it would win.
It didn’t and he walked up to it in the unsaddling enclosure and shot it in the head.
I think the headlines are worse than the reality.
I think the guy got out of his depth, panicked and made the threats as an act of desperation.
From what I have heard about the case I think it is very unlikely he would actually have carried out the threat, although at the time it had to be taken seriously.
Let’s face it he used his own mobile phone and e-mail account to make the threats – if he cannot even get the “basics” like that right the changes of him getting close enough to the horse to do any damage strike me as being pretty remote.
Considering that he would have owed the gamblers £55,000 should Conduit have won & he did win, I’m assuming they’ll still be after him.
It seems to me he may have made the threats using his own phone & email in an attempt to get caught. I’d imagine the police now have a pretty close eye on him.
The whole thing reminds me of a Dick Francis novel.
In Colombia they’re not averse to shooting defenders who make mistakes in World Cup matches.
The part of the story I find hard to believe is the fact that he didn’t know some of the members of the syndicate, who he described as ‘shadowy’ and those were the ones who stumped up fairly large amounts of cash.
I take it they didn’t know him either, so it begs the question…would you part with large sums of cash to someone you don’t know to place bets for you?
I wouldn’t even give some of my good mates a tenner to stick a bet on for me..
What i find strange (having seen it on nortwest news), the bloke made the threats days before the race, so therefore had days to place the bet
am i missing something here ?
Yes I heard about the football thing that happened where the player was shot…terrible…although I think in that case it was perhaps to do more with national pride rather than money…guess you never know though?
What i find strange (having seen it on nortwest news), the bloke made the threats days before the race, so therefore had days to place the bet
am i missing something here ?
As Ginger would say – he missed the value
That must have been someone else, Moe – Andreas Escobar was shot 12 times outside a bar shortly after returning home.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Strawbear – I think the guy missed the price, placed the bet at the wrong bookies at the wrong time or something, leaving the return way short of what it would have been had he done what he was told.
Obviously this is a depicable act and clearly one of some considerable menace.
But as others have mentioned i think it was clearly a man acting out of desperation and i doubt there was ever any real threat. The fact he used his own mobile and email really points to a lack of intelligence.
It reminds me of these criminals who do such crazy things as robbing a shop of all their scratchcards and then going back to the same place to cash in any winnings!
That said, he should in my opion have been locked up for a period of time as a suspended sentence only makes it seem that little more acceptable when it really is not in any way.
It came across to me from the story that the guy hadn’t even placed the bet?
Was asked to put what sounded like a multiple bet on and not done so. He probably thought to himself that the bet wouldn’t come off and he could pocket the money..
Lets just say it was a treble….it looks to me like the first 2 have gone in and then it’s hit home to the guy that this bet is looking likely to come off and he’s realised his mistake and panicked.
I agree with earlier posts that the threat came about through sheer panic and there was probably no danger at all that he was every going to carry it out..
Strawbear – I think the guy missed the price, placed the bet at the wrong bookies at the wrong time or something, leaving the return way short of what it would have been had he done what he was told.
According to the article the Conduit bet was the last leg of a winning accumulator – and it was the original accumulator he had failed to place the bet on.
If we take the figures at face value he had cira £20,000 rolling up on Conduit in the George VI and Queen Elizabeth…
Of course, even if Conduit was a non-runner he would still have had to had payout the rest of the winnings – so something still don’t add up…
what a fdc
FDC wrote..Of course, even if Conduit was a non-runner he would still have had to had payout the rest of the winnings – so something still don’t add up.
Reminds me of that old black and white American film where the crooks planned to rob all the tote money in between races but to ensure a stewards enquiry and a lengthy delay they arranged for a hitman with a rifle to shoot one of the horses during the race.
Also reminds me of when as a teenager, the typing pool at work asked me to place a six-penny each way six horse accumulator but I ‘forgot’ to place the bet. By the time the fifth horse won I was almost needing to change my pants. Fortunately, the sixth came second but even so the each way payout swallowed most of that week’s wages.
K
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In Colombia they’re not averse to shooting defenders who make mistakes in World Cup matches.
I can remember years ago reading in the Sun (must be true)a referee shot a player, jumped on a policeman’s horse and rode out the stadium…..sound a bit like Glasgow
The court obviously never believed this guys story was factual so they slapped his wrist and sent him on his merry way. Probably 2 sandwiches short of a picnic.
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