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I personally know of three Natuonal Hunt jocleys who never had a bet all the time they were riding. Not one.
When they retired (all at about the same time) they decided to give it a go; thinking if hey pooled all their info they would be able to make a go of it.
They had no culture of gambling, and I had to explain the most basic things to them . They were a laughing stock.
Anyway they soon stopped gambling as they were losing too much money.
Some of you people are living in cloud cuckoo land. SOME jockeys may tell their parents and gorlfriends etc to have a few quid on….but I never listen to jockeys as they are such CRAP tipsters.
So do jockeys bet? No. Its is absurd. You can’t stop their immediate family etc doing it…but they aren’t very good at it.
I have been in this game for 25 years and I have NEVER seen any evidence of anything that could be regarded as corruption. I am on the gallops, socialise with jockeys  owners and trainers National Hunt and flat, and it just does not exist.
When there is a planned "coup" most of the time it goes badly wrong.
Saving a horse for a target race is not the same thing. A yard may bet on a horse on the day it is "off"….but most of them still get beat. You cannot get the horse in on it, or the other horses in a race. So when I hear people talking about races being fixed it makes me laugh.
Waht is more likely going on is things like this.
A cetrain ex jockey friend of mine was asked by a certain lady trainer not to give her horse too hard a ride, as he was a bit "delicate" and it was just a bumper. The jockey nodded; but in the race found himself coming to the last furlong a length down on the leader. He whipped it and whipped it, and lost by a short head. As far as I know the horse never ran again, and the jockey in question hid in the loo from the trainer for 3 hours.
Now if anyone had heard the said lady trainer they may have deduced that the horse wasn’t "off". That was not the issue. They are not a gambling yard….just one that liked to bring their horses on slowly.
Few trainers bet …or if they do it is just a few quid. The reason for this is, that like jockeys , they would be pretty rubbish at it.
There are trainers of course who do……and they should be able to. Very few would ever resort to pulling a horse for betting intent. We onve had a horse in a yrad and the trainer was debationg whether to bet one of his runners. We were in the paddock, and his son was riding. He sent my brother down to see what price it was, and as it was only 16/1 he didn’t bother. We will wait till he is 33/1 he said . His son was riding it. The trainer said "just give him a nice run round".
The horse drifted to 66/1 because there was no money for it. It bolted up.<br>Jocketys think more of riding winners than money. That is the truth of it.
(Edited by GreenGreenDesert at 9:07 pm on Sep. 17, 2006)<br>
(Edited by GreenGreenDesert at 9:12 pm on Sep. 17, 2006)
I was thinking about this the other day and thought that there is never much thought given to whether the handicappers bet? Aren;t they in the best position to influence races and so would therefore be able to manipulate things and make money from it? Anyone know what controls are in place to ensure this doesn’t happen?
Maybe someone should start a new poll and ask if wrestling is fixed. Or if a one legged duck swims in a circle. Or if the pope wears a funny hat.
Trackside… Of course, only if the evidence is there.
Like Greens post. Its very easy to appear all worldliwise cynical and hardbitten by assuming the worst about everybody, but frankly life is often a lot simpler, straightforward and honest than people like to believe.
All a bit reminisent of 9/11 and diana conspiracy theories. People believing that what you see isnt what you get….
I always think it is strange that pundits like Francome and Weaver didn’t bet when they were riding, but once they retired they decided to pursue this treacherous pastime.
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