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By chance I happened to be there the day he won at Cartmel.
I had gone with Donal Nolan who was riding at the meeting for Harry Bell.
Right after he won I was speaking to Marten Julian and commented on how easily the horse had won and I swear I asked him what a horse like him was doing running at course like Cartmel. Marten Said had he been his horse he would be running at Cheltenham
Honestly, it was rediculous how easily he won and he stuck out like a sore thumb.
Of course we found out within a couple of hours that all hell broke was breaking lose of course.
Forgetting they were naught boys and just as a matter of interest has anyone got any comments where they went wrong? They made a huge boo boo that any punter with half a brain could done better.
It would have helped if they had taken the other two horses out of the field and sent them to the races.
Colin
For those who may be unaware of The Gay Future Affair :
Gay Future
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gay Future was the racehorse at the centre of an attempted coup by an Irish betting syndicate in Great Britain in 1974. The plot involved a Scottish trainer named Antony Collins initially presenting a poorly-performing horse at his stables as if it were the real Gay Future. This lowered the expectations of reviewers, and hence raised the betting odds on offer, when the real horse was entered in a race at Cartmel in Cumbria.
On the same day, two additional horses trained by Collins were entered in earlier races at other courses, but these were withdrawn shortly before the races. Syndicate members had used bookmakers away from the courses to place a large number of double and triple wagers, which involved Gay Future in combination bets with these additional horses. The last-minute withdrawals now meant that a large number of bets would roll over onto Gay Future.
As the race start time approached, syndicate accomplices at Cartmel ensured that the long odds (10 to 1) on Gay Future were not lowered by on-course punters. Gay Future won easily, but bookmakers became suspicious at the unusual betting patterns. A follow-up police investigation resulted in syndicate leaders being convicted of attempted fraud, although they received relatively small fines from a sympathetic judge [1].
The Gay Future affair was subsequently dramatised in Murphy’s Stroke, a 1979 made-for-TV movie starring Pierce Brosnan and Niall Toibin.
The above piece misses out a couple of other things that reportedly happened.
The horse was rubbed down with soap to give the impression that that it was in a lather and a good Irish amateur was employed to ride and he gave the impression in the paddock that he had never sat on a racehorse before.
I haven’t seen the made-for-TV film but there was a dramatised documentary about events on one of the channels that was entitled "Just for the Craic" and very entertaining it was too.
Colin
I’m not entirely sure taht the case truly revolved round the non-departure of the other Collins horses. Had the horses left the yard but not made it to the races, the allegation would remain that they were purely a smokescreen for a punt on Gay Future. The subterfuge involved would back this up. It’s also worth pointing out that several firms honoured the bets so some sort of coup was landed.
BTW, am I the only one who thinks the ploy of doubles and trebles was misplaced? The liability on a £20 treble would raise more eyebroes than a £40 single surely?
The case did revolve around the horses not leaving the yard for the course as a call was made to say the horsebox had broken down on the way to the track. A clear cut lie that was easily proven.
BTW, am I the only one who thinks the ploy of doubles and trebles was misplaced? The liability on a £20 treble would raise more eyebroes than a £40 single surely?
Exactly. They’d have been better employed going around multiple shops/pitches, placing singles that fell just shy of the eyebrow-raising threshold. It’s a strange one, as everything else in the story seems so well thought out!
I disagree. The fact that they were able to mix up the bets as doubles and trebles with two other names meant that the various shops weren’t able to join the dots until it was too late. If all of the bets were singles on the same horse, they’d have been rumbled in notime. I still think they did nothing wrong and should have been paid- but the planning about the other horses was sloppy.
……..and more :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83hC0TFxHhg
Colin
Thank you Thank You Thank you
been looking for that for ages.
Guys
Back then on a Bank Holiday there was mutiple entries allowed and you never knew half the time where a horse would end up going.
I was riding out at the time and if they had asked me where Even Keel was running I could have told them in a hearbeat. Even, if to be certain, they had called up Rhona Oliver, said they were a fan and wanted to go watch him running, she would have gladly and without hesitation told them.Trainers are not hard people to get hold off and all they needed to do was find out, without involving anyone else, where 2 horses were going for sure then do there 3 cross bets and trebles naming the horses course and race time. Make sure both ran at the same time or near enough to Gay Future and you have a perfectly innocent looking bet eg. Even Keel 2.30 Newcastle Arcturus 2.30 Haydock Gay Future 2.30 Cartmel………one winner 2 non runners from the yards of 2 different well respected trainers with absolutely no knowledge of what was going down.
Sure they would cotton on it was a touch but without their stupidity in involving 2 horses from the same yard trained by Mr Tony "Evil Knievel" Collins they would have cleaned up.
I’m not entirely sure taht the case truly revolved round the non-departure of the other Collins horses. Had the horses left the yard but not made it to the races, the allegation would remain that they were purely a smokescreen for a punt on Gay Future. The subterfuge involved would back this up. It’s also worth pointing out that several firms honoured the bets so some sort of coup was landed.
BTW, am I the only one who thinks the ploy of doubles and trebles was misplaced? The liability on a £20 treble would raise more eyebroes than a £40 single surely?
Had it been any other course the horse would have started 3/1 on but there was no real commuincation between Cartmel and the ouside world then
But don’t kid yourself that 40 pound singles dont raise eyebrows and most bookmakers cover their backsides anyway.
I was involved in a touch and the largest bet we had was 10 pounds.
We had already landed a massive touch with the horse but he was injured and had been off the course for a couple of years.
WE thought he had an excellent chance of winning and was a big price in a handicap hurdle at Hexam. Just for the crack and a bit of fun we got all our frineds together and bet the horse each way in so many shops between Edinburgh and Glasgow we had a small fortune riding on the horse.
Not one person broke the rule (there are ways of finding out) and struck a big bet. The horse was such a big price there was no need and they would only have cut their own throats as there was no early beting on the race.
When I arrived at the races 2 people I know, one works for himself the other for one of the big firms, started laughing and asked "who’s been a naught boy?"
They knew almost every bet we struck but fortunately they were very, very good friends and stepped aside not having a bet….some money got back but not alot and although reduced from 33/1 to 16’s and we did very well thank you. Unfortunately he was beaten half length or so by a horse who burst blood vessels almost everytime he ran, but on that particular day ran to the best of his form. I should have had a sniper with me
But there is a rule and bookies can fall back on it. Mecca definately had it when they were on the go. If it can be proven you have bet a horse in this fashion the maxiumum price shall be 8/1 or whatever. They can’t not pay you, but they can reduce their liability by implimenting this law..making your touch look at little wimpy and making you wish you had just went to the track and stuck yer lot on.
That was 15 years ago or more nowadays you can start the alarm bells ringing with a fiver.
Any horse taking more than say 150 quid is reported to head office. You go to 20 ladbrokes shops and have a fiver on in each…a couple of managers spot the liability and a little bell in the shop goes DING!!!!. every manager checks every bet……….100 quid on and at the expected price of 40/1 for example you would expect to take 4,000 pound out the ring. All they do is send back 200 quid along with all the other bookies you have tried to sting and take all the 40’s the 20’s the 10’s and the 5’s. Horse starts at 3/1 and you get 400 quid are as sick as a parrot and they are only too happy to pay you out…."Come again Sir"
Fist of Fury 2k8, most of what you say is correct in relation to bookmakers Today the systems in use are for more powerful and do not rely on managers checking bets taken. All bets placed over the counter are now scanned and entered into a computerised system. The liability managers at head office have all sorts of software routines running to spot betting patterns.
Keeping an off course gamble under wraps is difficult but still worth the work if you have a good team working on it. A few years a go I landed one of the biggest SP gambles at a Scottish track and the on course market was not alerted until the runners were lining up for the start. The horse drifted from an opening 4/1 out to 12/1 just as the race was about to go off. One well connected bookmaker at the track got a late message and managed to get about £2k on shortening the SP to 10/1.
A pro punter friend who was in on the plan did a smart thing in laying all other runners in the race on Betfair rather than show a significant bet for the horse.
All bets placed over the counter are now scanned and entered into a computerised system. The liability managers at head office have all sorts of software routines running to spot betting patterns.
Believe me, that’s not the case in reality. A single bet of £50 might be spotted by an eagle eyed operative as being of potential significance (and any bet which triggers a particular liability will be automatically referred) but the vast majority of bets are never seen by any liability manager. It would be easy to get several grand on an outsider at SP as long as this was done during a reasonably busy period and around enough outlets.
A pro punter friend who was in on the plan did a smart thing in laying all other runners in the race on Betfair rather than show a significant bet for the horse.
Jesus…don’t think I’ve had the rocks to do this. Could have cost your pal an absolute fortune if the horse had have found trouble in running.
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