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I'm Thinking of writing a Racing Thriller

E

edgt

Senior Jockey
Joined
Mar 25, 2011
Messages
5,740
Location
North Cork. Home of steeple chasing
As I was piking silage to my few cattle this morning this thought struck me.
What the racing world needs now is a racing thriller in the Dick Francis mould; far fetched but plausible.
It involves a philanthropic gambler turned currency speculator whose racehorse empire has exceeded expectations with four possible Blue Riband hopefuls.
With the lack of liquidity in the betting market and an aversion to ante post gambling (he had gotten stung more than once when not near as rich as he is now) he looks for a way to pull off the punt of a lifetime.
So , he decides, after some investigation of the ante post market liquidity to take over the market for a five week period, releasing the market to the bookmakers for the final week before the big race.
What he needs to do is remove his main big race hope from the race in question for the five week period, changing the race plans for another duo whom the race does not suit ,the non runner no bet rule meaning he cannot be accused of laying his own horses, which is against the Rules Of Racing.
Luckily the same rules gave him a free hand to supplement his main hope a week before the race is due so by taking the market he is de facto allowing punters to bet on every horse in the race bar the winner.
Any takers as co- authors among the keyboard warriors out there ?
Or is the idea too far fetched ?
 
You do have to ask what is the rationale for having a supplementary stage for races like the Gold Cup? Unlike say the Derby, it is not a race that needs to make allowance for late developing immature horses.

Great piece, Eddie
 
Grey said:
You do have to ask what is the rationale for having a supplementary stage for races like the Gold Cup? Unlike say the Derby, it is not a race that needs to make allowance for late developing immature horses.

Great piece, Eddie
Click to expand...

Was Coneygree not a late supplementation ? Or maybe Gloria Victus ? I think it's possible sometimes to have a super Novice emerge who could have a crack at the Gold cup and not have been thought that way at the start of the season. Or even something like someone buying a foreign import late in the for the day for the race.
 
My usual, somewhat A-Typical response to Edgt's original post, admittedly whilst having a chuckle, after half a dozen glasses of Baileys, (paid 23 quid in Tesco's, after thinking I was paying 13 quid, but didn't have a 'club card', whatever that is, where's Ian when you need him), was going to be the following......

So the same owner pulled Spillane's Tower out of the King George this season, or didn't have him entered in the first place, (one of the two), before he ran Fact To File close in the John Durkan.

He then supplemented Spillane's for the King George, at a much higher cost, after some noteworthy shite was spouted, by some serial offenders like me, before Spillane's could only actually finish fifth in the KG anyway.

Hence, I was going to gently question if we are giving the owner too much kudos in the original post for this masterplan, admittedly based on my one example, Edgt.

But then, after all, it is JP we are talking about.

A man of mystery, you might say.

No doubt a very intelligent man aswell.

Only god knows, I reckon.

According to JP and plenty of others, he works in mysterious ways.
 
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The Fortune Teller said:
(paid 23 quid in Tesco's, after thinking I was paying 13 quid, but didn't have a 'club card', whatever that is, where's Ian when you need him),
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I don't think I've been this upset since another friend told me they took 7/4 about a horse that then drifted to 7/2! 😂

A Tesco Clubcard is better than Best Odds Guaranteed - and you'll never get restricted using it either!
 
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Ian_Davies said:
A Tesco Clubcard is better than Best Odds Guaranteed - and you'll never get restricted using it either!
Click to expand...
You might though Ian.
Given the World's resources are dwindling, world population is rising and climate change taking it's course it would not surprise me in the future if people's personal consumption record will be taken into account as to gets the termination needle and when they get it ?
My advice would be to by all means have a Tesco/Lidl/ whatever card but buy the odd Baileys/Glenfarclas / fill of motor fuel off grid as a sort of ew bet.
Regards the story/tale/fable our intrepid owner has been accused of much worse and this is just my expression of a funny bone feeling that happens when you are piking silage !
 
What I will say about the possible subject of your OP is this -

1 Having actually worked in the betting industry, I can attest to the fact that ante-post markets are a lot weaker than many imagine them to be - even for big races - only long-term losing punters can get a big bet on and the vast majority of trade is on the day.

2 As stated on other threads, I am not a people person and neither they nor their wealth and how they spend it interests me. I actually in London once met one of this bloke's similarly well-heeled Irish financier associates, I didn't like him one bit, I'd be fairly confident he didn't much like me either, I declined his invitation to go over to Dublin for further talks and we then swiftly went our separate ways. I have a bit more time for the guy you might be alluding to. After landing a gamble back in the 80s at the Cheltenham Festival, Julian Wilson asked him if he'd hurt the bookies: "They know about it," was his understated reply. Both I and my father watching rather liked that - it was the antithesis of the "look at this, loadsmoney!" culture that pervades racing (and life) all too often. I also like the quote "no one ever advanced their position in life by opening their mouth" which has been attributed to him. I reckon he has made his money in the world of finance, and racing is how he spends some of it. Racing won't be profitable for him and I wouldn't even be surprised to discover he's a net losing punter over time as well. I actually don't understand the pleasure he derives from it because if I am owned so many horses I struggled to even name them all, and routinely had plural runners in big races, I wouldn't take nearly as much pleasure as if I just owned one horse and it's somehow managed to win. But it is his money and he can do what he likes with it, and none of it makes any difference to me either way.
 
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Talking of books…
I hope a few of you latched onto to the first-rate football book what I wrote, about our heroes from the 60s and 70s:

troubador.co.uk

Super Squad

Super Squad is a collection of heartfelt messages that pays tribute to those twenty three footballers in the 60s and 70s who paved the way for football as ...
troubador.co.uk troubador.co.uk

Moehat’s other half really enjoyed it, apparently.
 
I still remember the front room in our house in Totley, Sheffield, being full of manuscripts circa 1970.

My Dad was a bit unlucky - back then, there were text books for Economics O Level, but none for CSE so he decided to write one.

They removed the CSE exam from the national syllabus/curriculum shortly after it was published! 😂

Fortunately, New Zealand's equivalent of an Economics O Level was apparently simpler to the UK CSE back then, so he copped a few hundred quid a year in royalties out there for a while until Hulton told him the game was up and they weren't printing any more.

Funny old game, this book-writing malarkey, Saint.
 
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Imagine if you were a really Big fish in the world of currency speculation and got inside information about a plan to devalue a currency -you would obviously bet the ranch on it.
 
The horse that was supposed to be the next Nijinsky, named Wise Pranker has gone missing from it's stall overnight. The police are at a complete loss as to it's whereabouts and have called in the famous lady detective Diane Avis to help them. She has made a thorough search of the box especially the dung left behind which she is a World renowned expert on, having written a pamphlet about it called "Horseshit Through The Ages".

She has come to the conclusion that the horse has been stolen, probably by a well known Gypsy called Piking Silage, who is a strange character well known to be able to disguise horses, so it is possible that he may have been able to disguise a thoroughbred 3yo as a Pikey Pony. This won't fool our sleuth though, as she is such an expert on horseshit that from just one lump she can tell you the age and pedigree of the horse that passed it. She was last seen on her three wheeled cycle heading off to check on every pile of horseshit that she can find.
 
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Ian_Davies said:
A Tesco Clubcard is better than Best Odds Guaranteed - and you'll never get restricted using it either!
Click to expand...

Actually you will.

These loyalty cards tend to restrict offers to n per customer. You probably wouldn't be able to buy any more than six bottles of Baileys.

(Which might not really matter, admittedly, unless you're using it as a milk substitute, which I could see myself doing: Weetabix & Baileys, followed by toast, banana & tea with Baileys, a mid-morning coffee with Baileys, etc...)
 


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