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I too worked for WH, but in the 1960’s not 80/90’s. I used to get there 30 minutes before the first race and leave at 6-30pm. In those days racing was always interesting and, as you say, betting shops were full from start to finish. There were no calculators; all we had to settle bets was a ready-reckoner. A carbon copy of all bets went to head office and if you accidentally overpaid a punter it came out of your wages,which were only £3 for a Saturday. When I complained I was told to get such losses back by underpaying another punter. I was told the 1% rule. If an underpaid punter complained, pretend to check the bet and confirm OK. 33% would shake their head and walk away. Next 33% would demand a futher check, but with the same result. The final 34% would say they were not happy, but under pressure from the queue behind 33% would give up. The remaining 1% would say there were staying put until the right amount was paid at which point you would apologise for the mistake and pay the full amount.
One day I was in a betting shop with my father who had just managed to have three winners in his 50p Round Robin. I knew that if you calculated the treble and doubled it you were close to the correct payout. I told him his luck was obviously in as the best was worth around £107. He came back telling me I was wrong – it only came to £62. So I worked the bet out line for line and got a very similar amount. So I sent my father back who returned convinced I was wrong. I got to the counter to be told assertively the bet had been checked several times and was correct. OK, I said, we will go through this bet line by line. We only got to the second X bet when the clerk gave in and paid the correct amount
Of course, those days have long gone – all bets are now computerised and paid correctly. But the atmosphere has evaporated – go into a betting shop now and you will see 1 or 2 people playing on the fruit machines; nobody is interested in racing.
Good luck with your book, but it’s not for me.
Today is a good example of what i mean “The ground is very soft and more rain is likely (actually happended) so you should look to older horses to find the winner. You are looking for a horse with lots of experience who can go in this groumd.”
The winner and second were 3yo in the Prix de L’arc de Triumph.
I do use the mute button, but only for the adverts which are more annoying than commentators.
I believe this rule should be amended for flat racing as well. Simply, if a horse plants itself in its stall and refuses to race it should be declared a non-runner. Likewise, in jump racing if a horse refuses to race it should be a non-runner. In both cases if a horse is slowly away but is then racing it should be deemed to be a runner. It will be obvious that in a 3 mile+ race a horse not facing the right way at the start can still win if good enough.
Hollie Doyle must be laughing her socks off. Sacked for being an alleged inadequate jockey she is replaced by the best – Oisin Murphy. Does it make a difference? Don’t you believe it! Oisin has ridden only one winner for Imad Alsagar in eight runs. This one winner raced today at Epsom’s last meeting; went off at four to one ON and was beaten out of sight.
Message to Imad Alsagar and your advisers. Yes you need a new strategy – you need new horses, not a new jockey.
Another runner (September 23) ridden by our top jockey for Imad Alsagar and another well beaten horse. When will IA and his team of advisers realise that their current crop of horses are simply not good enough?
Another one bites the dust! Backed from 9/2 to 11/4 today (23 September) and ridden by our top jockey the Imad Alsagar’s horse was well beaten. When will he and his advisors realise their horses this season are simply not good enough?
Another one bites the dust! Latest one, backed down from 9/2 to 11/4 and ridden by the best jockey available is beaten out of sight. When will Imad Alsagar and his advisors realise that their jockey was not the problem? When will it dawn on them that their current batch of horses are simoly not good enough?
Those who believe that voting Liberal Democrat is a wasted vote because they will never get into power ensures democracy will fail.
As things stand, the Liberal Democrats are the only feasible choice. Trump, with his silly sanctions is systematically ruining the USA. It will be a sad day if we follow his policies, such as allowing Israel starving millions of Palestinians and constantly bombing their country and denying climate change. The problem we have is that Farage and Reform are Trump supporters who would mimic his disastrous policies. Then we have Labour who are afraid to criticise Trump. For example, it would be right to imprison those who broke in and damaged aircraft, but to define Palestine Action a terrorist group is over the top. The Conservatives could be described as ‘Reform Light’. This leaves the Liberal Democrats as the only sensible party. I admire, Ed Davey, their leader, for refusing to attend the Trump meets our King Event. I feel for King Charles as he is an obvious supporter of the Commonwealth and Canada, yet he has to meet the moron who is trying to destroy that country. For those who say, ‘but the King invited him’ the reality is that the King has to be non-political and has to do what the Government tells him to do.
Epsom Racecourse in my view is a disgrace. They have an interesting Spring meeting, followed by a 2 day Derby meeting with some quality races. But over the years, taking account of inflation, the Derby has gone down and down. After the Derby meeting it is pure rubbish with most races being class 6 maidens or handicaps. It would be OK if there were one feature race showing off some good horses but there isn’t. Of course, bookmakers love it as it is well known poor horses aee more unrealiable.
I have been to 75% of the courses in the UK and York, by far, is the best of them. For me the August Ebor meeting is as good as it get, far better than Royal Ascot. The quality of racing all round is as good as it gets – every meeting will have a feature.
To date in 2025, Hollie Doyle has ridden 6 winners for Imad Alsagar out of 28 rides, a strike rate of 21 4%. Ousin Murphy has ridden 1 winner from 5 rides, a strike rate of 20% Now I think we would all agree that with Ryan Moore being injured Oisin Murphy is the best jockey currently racing. Yet he has a lower strike rate than Hollie Doyle. This seems to reveal the Imad Alsagar’s perceived lack of success is down to his horses, not his jockeys.
Also, I did not miss the blank day. There is far too much racing and most if is rubbish. In the 1970’s/80’s the balance was right. Most punters looked forward to the next meeting at their local track. Now it is impossible to follow racing; the fun has been driven out of it. After the St Leger meeting, we have Newmarket, Ascot and the the biggest French meeting to look forward to. Nothing else. To demonstrate how racing had gone down hill in this country compare the prize money for the Derby and the Arc de Triumph in 1975 and 2025. At one time the Derby has the highest prize money; now look at it!
I have only had two seasons (in over 20) where I made a reasonable amount of cash. The first was when I noticed an apprentice was amazing – he kept winning at big prices. So I kept backing him and he kept winning. I thought this was easy, but at the end of the season everyone, including the bookmakers, latched on. Now a 4/1 shot (7/1 when he was an apprentice) was 5/2 and a horse whose fair odds would be 1/1 was now 2/5. So you could not win long term backing this apprentice.
Of course, this apprentice was Ryan Moore, without doubt the best jockey out there.
So, thank you Ryan. Hope your leg is healed completely soon.In my view you can only beat the bookmaker when he gets the odds wrong, which is very rare. This will usually be in a small field (up to five runners) where the favourite is a ‘false favourite’.
Many punters like to bet in large field handicaps, which is bread and butter to bookmakers. If bookmakers work to a margin of (say) 1.5% per runner, then the margin in their favour will be 7.5% in a 5 runner race, but 30% in a 20 runner race. Of course, the margin in their favour multiplies in doubles and multiplies again in trebles etc. Which is why bookmakers love ACCA’s and offer minor incentives to encourage punters to lose their money.
I spent 20 years trying to find a system that would make money following racing. At last I discovered it – I bought Paddy Power shares (now Flutter Entertainment) for €5 per share.
At Wolverhampton today Oisin Murphy was riding one of Imad Alsagar’s horses which appeared to get blocked in and was well beaten. It could have looked as if it were a terrible ride, but the reality was the horse would not quicken when asked to. The point I am continually making is the jockeys are often blamed when the horse is simply not good enough.
