- This topic has 6 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 1 month ago by
.
- Posts
Did Robby Box and the like lead you into betting shops for the first time back in the 1980’s?
I was already hooked by the time Robby Box came along but such were my betting lurches, both up and down, at that time I could relate readily to the character. I loved it! Thanks for reminding me of it.
Simon, I’d be interested to see you do a blog about integrity in the industry, particularly on a personal level. A great deal of sensitive information must come your way in your position.
How do you avoid the urge to take a piece yourself when the right faces are taking ‘unders’? What is the StarSports policy on insider trading and what steps do you take to make sure your conduct is always completely clean?
Did Robby Box and the like lead you into betting shops for the first time back in the 1980’s?
http://www.starsportsbet.co.uk/the-big-deal-of-tv-betting-nostalgia/
Proof that Gambling is not good for your health in the long run. You lose more than money:-
Robbie Box-1984
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1214976703/L_Cctv30487_400x400.Jpg
Robbie (Ready For A) Box-today
Luckily I still look the same as I did in 1980.
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
I started working for Star Sports as a freelancer on-course at Cheltenham after I got made redundant by the PA. Prior to that I was working for TurfTV returning SPs for nearly nine years. I worked for bookies on course before that after leaving the Army in 1989. Star Sports have now taken me on full time working on course (though they only do big meetings) and writing content for their site, based at home. As such I am not privvy to anything sensitive. I know they’ll take whatever comes at them on-course. Surely racing has always been about ‘Insider’ information, and most people go skint listening to it. If you elaborate as to what what you’d like me to look into I’ll do my best to look into it. I imagine most of us have to take ‘unders’ because if you show any hint of even breaking even (I got restricted by Ladbrokes, when I asked for my betting record I was a score up). I think people on the ‘outside’ think there’s a lot more sinister going on then there actually is.
Not to derail the thread but picking up on Simon’s mention of the PA. Apart from the horses with which I’ve crossed paths over the last 50 years, and the passing of the old-style trainers like Walwyn, Winter, WA Stephenson, Ken Oliver etc., the other steady change has been in journalism.
Every newspaper used to have at least one racing correspondent, some two or three. Many worked at the Life and the Chronicle and, indeed, at the PA. They’ve dropped away over the years and the Guardian guys are the only ones who seem active and fully involved day to day now. The likes of Geoff Lester, one time top reporter at the Life, are struggling for slim freelance pickings here and there.
Now that the bookies are letting the media side slide – when Graham Sharpe is made redundant you know the game’s up – the talk of the good old days when a handful of the old boys get together must be almost heart-rending.
Absolutely, they see no need for a racing correspondent, a paragraph here and there in print written by an intern or staffer with limited knowledge gleaned from a quick glance at Google will suffice for most papers. It’s heartbreaking really when you consider that racing (I’m pretty sure) is still the second highest spectator sport in the UK after football.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.