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I well remember the introduction of the Tv’s into betting shops. As I recall 2 Tv’s per shop were allowed (first sport shown was Snooker)and I can remember travelling round with my Area Manager on the preceding Sunday making sure everything was in working order for the following days launch. Some shops operated with just the two TV’s and therefore kept the Boardmarkers for a couple of years until they eventually all had banks of screens fitted. First National televised in the shops was West Tip’s. Changed a lot of people’s betting habits as prior to the TV’s in the shops they used to be relatively quiet whilst the televised stuff was on and then the shops would fill up again once the programme finished. I was that sad I used to tape the Racing to watch when I got home!
As for Dancing Brave’s maiden win – pretty sure that was before televised racing in the shops. I was at Sandown that day and you just knew there was something special about the horse.
I was there when betting shops first came in (and before)
The tickatape would be either in the back room or perched on a shelf looking as if it could fall at any minute. A guy known as “Ginger” did the calling with the difficult job of listening to the course commentary and relaying it over the Tannoy. Some of his pronuciation was terrible and I doubt he would suvive in todays world of Azertyuoip and other French names. I remember a horse called Magybilibite? for which the pronunciation should have been Maggybillibitay but Ginger only knew it as Maggy-Billy-Bite. I was banned from the only shop in town for winning on too many days. I had a system of backing favourites over the sticks on good going in January, when the form had sorted itself out. (jump racing didn’t really start until autumn. Another worthwhile system was backing trainers who won plenty of racing in a particular month; Reg Turnell’s I can remember was November.There were plenty of systems around in those days, some of them pretty good but time consuming.
The tickatape would be either in the back room or perched on a shelf looking as if it could fall at any minute. A guy known as “Ginger” did the calling with the difficult job of listening to the course commentary and relaying it over the Tannoy. Some of his pronuciation was terrible and I doubt he would suvive in todays world of Azertyuoip and other French names. I remember a horse called Magybilibite? for which the pronunciation should have been Maggybillibitay but Ginger only knew it as Maggy-Billy-Bite. I was banned from the only shop in town for winning on too many days. I had a system of backing favourites over the sticks on good going in January, when the form had sorted itself out. (jump racing didn’t really start until autumn. Another worthwhile system was backing trainers who won plenty of racing in a particular month; Reg Turnell’s I can remember was November.- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.