Racing memories (good or not so good)

I`m 74 next month (hopefully!!) and I suppose racing is in the genes. My grandfather was a street bookie and he had 5 sons who would go to his regular punters to collect and pay out on bets. My father had a bet every day and when he died we found a betting slip in his pocket with 3 winners in a yankee!
 
Grasshopper said:
55yo in January.

Remittance Man’s win in the Arkle.
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Similar age. Had no interest until I started working on the same section (civil service) as this guy who was a proper punter, same age as me (this was early 1989 I was 21). At first we'd go to a casino in Southport then we'd take our packed lunches to a Corals next to Preston Bus Station. He had no interest in the Jumps was flat only.

We actually went to Aintree in 90 and 91 for the Thurs and Fri cards which were very low key in those days and he didn't have a single bet. So I got started getting into the game from there. He was a massive Lochsong fan and left the Civil Service after he collected on her when she won the Portland (he had 3k on at 10/1, all shop bets). We went to York in '93 for her Nunthorpe and he walked up to Pat Whelan I believe on the rails and had 3000/300 on her. He was a right scruffy ****** and Whelan looked surprised when he pulled his wad out for the bet but he complemented him when we returned to collect, said he didn't expect that sort of bet given his appearance. We lost touch a year later and I ran into him at Preston Station maybe 10 years ago, he got Religion bad and stopped betting.

Like my friend I was pretty much flat only myself until Best Mate turned up and I got online and started posting in forums (Betfair mainly until I got banned) and then this place.
 
I'm 71 soon and I think backing Oxo to win the grand national started my interest I think.i probably was only 7 but by the time I was in my teenage years we had a little old lady in the post office that put my bets on and I even had my Maths teacher put my bets on for mr.
Paddy O' Reilly was his name.
Had some great days out at the Grand National.biggest disappointment was when Red Rum caught Crisp just about where I was standing with my mate and did me out of over £300 my mate said 'go on cry,I would.'
I did it a/p at 33/1 fav at christmas in a double with comedy of errors.
Backed Last Suspect at 66/1 and went down to the chair to take a pic when they jumped it.standing amongst the crowd I lifted my arms up and took the photo and when I got it developed Last suspect was right in the middle in mid air.perfect.
Took loads of pics on my little old camera,not brilliant,but ok.
Went around the back by the stables in 1978 and met Red Rum and when the race started and the cheers went up his ears pricked and if they hadnt got hold of him I'm sure he would have gone after them.
Some good memories of the Grant National.
 
Len Madeiros said:
My biggest thrill was backing Croco Bay to win the Grand Annual on Gold Cup Day, 2018(?). 66/1, I had £4ew on him. A mate and me followed the online commentary on our phones, because we couldn’t be arsed to walk 50 yards to the bookies, preferring instead to drink beer and have a fag outside our pub. It was a triumphant walk to the bookies and back to the pub at 5:45.
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2019 it was. I mentioned on the longshot thread that I was backing it too. That was a good day.
 
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EC21 said:
I'll ask you what I ask a lot of people now on here, being an old fook. How old are you and what got you into following racing. I assume it was a NH moment.
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It probably started with my old man taking me to his old man's house - I think it must have been King George day? - and telling me on the way over that we were going to see a horse called Arkle win the big race. He raved about it all the way over and we were going to my granda's house because we didn't have a telly back then.

Arkle couldn't win. Must have been the day he was narrowly beaten due to an injury (short of time to check these things out). BUt I do recall that my old man had never raved about a horse before.

We always watched the National and had bets on it but things on the racing front, for me, were generally quiet.

And then along came Nijinsky as a two-year-old and I read what the Timeform Annual said about him (my eldest brother had bought the book) and that captured my imagination so I followed him through his 3yo career (which needs no reiteration).

I was hooked after that.
 
EC21 said:
I'll ask you what I ask a lot of people now on here, being an old fook. How old are you and what got you into following racing. I assume it was a NH moment.
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I'm 37.

I was always aware of racing as a kid because my mum liked a flutter.

First real memory of flat racing was travelling up to Newcastle one day when Kieron Fallon had at least three winners. We backed him blind that day and that was a nice memory.

I was lucky to see future sire of sire's Galileo win the derby at Epsom in 2001 aged 16. An Irish fella on the train from London to Epsom shouted Galileo to everyone on our carriage on my way to the races. Needless to say I took no notice!

Little did I know I was seeing a future sire like that.

I went to my first Cheltenham Festival in 2016 on Gold Cup Day and the sooner I can get back there the better!

Although I would like a better position next time so I can see more of the horses.
 
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I was a callow youth of 21 starting my first job after college. My boss introduced me to the twin pleasures of going to the pub during and after working hours and going to the bookies to bet on the horses.

28 years later and we still text daily and he stays at my gaff during the Cheltenham festival and glorious Goodwood.
 
I'm 43 and my first racing memory is getting a 'tip' off a guy in School who's dad worked for Charlie Swan and the word was Montelado couldn't be beaten in the Bumper, I was 12 at the time and marched into the local PaddyPower to back it with all my glass collecting pub money of the previous month, girl behind the counter simply asked me to take off the School tie and had no problem taking the bet.

I often reflect on if Montelado had of lost would I have been lost to this wonderful sport, thankfully we'll never know!
 
EC21 said:
I'll ask you what I ask a lot of people now on here, being an old fook. How old are you and what got you into following racing. I assume it was a NH moment.
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60 now. Didn’t get into racing until I was 30 or so when a mate at work organised a minibus to Cheltenham for 1991 Gold Cup day. Had £20 on Garrison Savannah’s nose at 16/1 and that was me hooked.
Didn’t take long to realise the game wasn’t so easy after all but there was no turning back

Don’t get to the races much these days but often went to Trials day at Cheltenham pre-Covid and hoping to go again in January


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I’m 59, and I am proof that if your first bet is a winning bet you will stay hooked: a shilling on Gay Trip to win the 1970 GN. Always loved the horses since then, despite occasionally raising moral objections and agonising over my obvious support for the sport (I’m quite a sensitive soul, at times).

I love the challenge of a bet, but too often take a short cut in my attempts to plunder riches. I do that a bit in life too, the sign of a lazy mind. But a great, great horse will occasionally take my breath away and leave me very emotional. Kauto Star and Frankel have had me going most recently. I’d also say that my love for the game has been rekindled by this forum and my involvement in various season-long and Festival competitions, that draw in quite a few mates.

This is a great place to be at times, sharing our experiences.
 
I’d had a pretty heavy Nelson one Cheltenham day as a late teen and having lost on Mr Frisk became totally convinced he’d win the National and don’t remember the evening but apparently I wouldn’t shut up in the local that night about how he’d win the National.

I backed him at SP on the day (does 30 years qualify as after timing ?) but staggered into my local the next day to be god like treated despite having no idea why. The gaffer was, unbeknown to me a big hitter and remarkably took me for a lad who knew something and had gone in heavily at 40/1 ante post. I didn’t buy a beer for a few days but courtesy of Uncle Merlin I had the cheapest drunken week of my life.

He’d have no chance nowadays as needed it like a road but all I remember of the race was doing a straight tricast on Mr Frisk, Durham Edition and the fav who I cant quite remember but finished 1st, 2nd and 4th with the winner coming in at c. 16/1. I felt like I’d lost
 
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viking said:
60 now. Didn’t get into racing until I was 30 or so when a mate at work organised a minibus to Cheltenham for 1991 Gold Cup day. Had £20 on Garrison Savannah’s nose at 16/1 and that was me hooked.
Didn’t take long to realise the game wasn’t so easy after all but there was no turning back

Don’t get to the races much these days but often went to Trials day at Cheltenham pre-Covid and hoping to go again in January
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Yes, I love reading this kind of stuff.

It reminds me of the story I enjoy telling about the National, which I've told on here before. This might be the one for which I was verbally savaged for aftertiming...

I'm 67, by the way.

During my teacher-training year (78-79) it was common knowledge among my mates that racing was my hobby and that I wasn't bad at finding winners (cos they'd been backing them). As the Easter holidays approached they were starting to ask me about the National. I made out the case for Ben Nevis following in the footsteps of Ayala and Jay Trump, that it was the best chaser in America and that it was going to hack up in the National. I think by then it was one of the favourites, maybe around 12/14s. I told them whatever they had left of their grant should go on the horse and they duly punted it.

I remember reading after the race the jockey's take: that they'd been traveling and jumping really sweetly but - was it Becher's it came down? - it jumped the ditch, jumped the fence and found another horse falling in front of it. "He tried to stretch again to avoid it," reported the jockey, "but it was just too much and he came down." From that moment on, I was determined not to miss it the next year.

By the time the race came round again, I'd been working in Spain since the September, had lost touch with most of my TT mates, had become engaged to the now Mrs O (a fellow TT student) and was coming home for the holidays to see her but secretly to make sure I was right into Ben Nevis! I told Luismi, my flatmate, about it and he gave me money saying, "If it wins, buy me a ghettoblaster!"

Out of form and out of favour, Ben Nevis was allowed to go off at 40/1 and I had plenty on it. On the Monday I went into Glasgow and bought him the biggest ghettoblaster I could find for the money he'd won (£4win, I think, and the GB cost about £150) and he was fair chuffed with it. (A year later I was still hearing Pink Floyd in my head.)

Sadly, none of my TT mates remembered the name of the horse until it had won and suddenly I was unpopular for not reminding them. Their own fault, I reasoned to myself, but a good few of my football team mates were on and we had a right good bevvy up the Beer Bar before I'd returned to Spain.

I still have a framed print of Ben Nevis above the desk I'm sitting at right now.

Good memories.
 
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Desert Orchid said:
Yes, I love reading this kind of stuff.

It reminds me of the story I enjoy telling about the National, which I've told on here before. This might be the one for which I was verbally savaged for aftertiming...

I'm 67, by the way.

During my teacher-training year (78-79) it was common knowledge among my mates that racing was my hobby and that I wasn't bad at finding winners (cos they'd been backing them). As the Easter holidays approached they were starting to ask me about the National. I made out the case for Ben Nevis following in the footsteps of Ayala and Jay Trump, that it was the best chaser in America and that it was going to hack up in the National. I think by then it was one of the favourites, maybe around 12/14s. I told them whatever they had left of their grant should go on the horse and they duly punted it.

I remember reading after the race the jockey's take: that they'd been traveling and jumping really sweetly but - was it Becher's it came down? - it jumped the ditch, jumped the fence and found another horse falling in front of it. "He tried to stretch again to avoid it," reported the jockey, "but it was just too much and he came down." From that moment on, I was determined not to miss it the next year.

By the time the race came round again, I'd been working in Spain since the September, had lost touch with most of my TT mates, had become engaged to the now Mrs O (a fellow TT student) and was coming home for the holidays to see her but secretly to make sure I was right into Ben Nevis! I told Luismi, my flatmate, about it and he gave me money saying, "If it wins, buy me a ghettoblaster!"

Out of form and out of favour, Ben Nevis was allowed to go off at 40/1 and I had plenty on it. On the Monday I went into Glasgow and bought him the biggest ghettoblaster I could find for the money he'd won (£4win, I think, and the GB cost about £150) and he was fair chuffed with it. (A year later I was still hearing Pink Floyd in my head.)

Sadly, none of my TT mates remembered the name of the horse until it had won and suddenly I was unpopular for not reminding them. Their own fault, I reasoned to myself, but a good few of my football team mates were on and we had a right good bevvy up the Beer Bar before I'd returned to Spain.

I still have a framed print of Ben Nevis above the desk I'm sitting at right now.

Good memories.
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I, too, backed Ben Nevis (after timing:whistle:) for similar reasons. From memory, I think it was The Chair that it fell at the previous year.
 
Interesting one that Len. I never ever cash out. The reason being, I will have started that day putting the stake on and as per usual, you normally think, bye bye money. So if your bet moves through increasing, then great. What is it that you are losing when you know you are getting a return greater than your stake anyway? You didn't get the 3 grand, and I just know you would have kicked yourself over that at the time. I couldn't do with the kicking tbh, I would have gave myself stick over it. We don't get many chances of a big win, so my mentality is to let it run and be right happy if it comes off. I am sure this is financial suicide when those who know the cleverness of take or gamble look at it, but it is what I would do.

A few years ago, and you can check this out on the ...what are you backing thread..., it was roughly October/November 2016, I had two days where I won about £3k over both days. My memory tells me that I had 4 out of 5 winners on both days, I let both run on to the fifth, and sadly the 5th on both days lost. I remember it so well, I gave my son 500 sheets for xmas and told him if last one both days had won it would have been a few grand. I'm probably wrong, but I won't ever cash out.


There's a Damon Runyon short story I read many years ago but the gist of it is a man borrows a dollar and goes to races, bets every winner up until last race where he puts everything he's won on the odds on favourite to place. The inevitable happens as he's walking out he's asked how he had got on. Not bad I suppose, I lost a dollar.'
As I said I read it many years ago so details may not be 100% accurate.
 
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I've never cashed out since I backed Zach Johnson to win the open at 150/1, cashed out at 10/1 when he looked like he'd thrown it away, then got back up to win.

Lesson learned - if I need the money that badly I shouldn't be betting with it.
 
My father ran a dockers pub in Bermondsey and took a coachload to Goodwood every year. He smuggled me along in 1954 when I was fourteen wide eyed and innocent. I had never really seen a racehorse before and thought they were magnificent creatures, I stayed by the rails for the first race when the thundering of the hooves as they sped past fair blew me away and that was me - hook line and sinker.
 
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I must say I dont cash out very often but I've only had one regret when I did but was still happy.
I did say at the time somewhere on here but i cashed out for about £400 and reinvested on the others which won.i made a very good profit cant remember the sums now but it probably cost me 2 grand.
 
I remember the days of board marking,really enjoyed that.
The days when me and my mate would spend all day in the bookies going back to his house and his mom cooking us chips for tea and going out on the lash.that must be 50 yrs ago.
I was asked one day if I could settle bets at a bookies in town and I accepted.they told me If some had a big winner in dbles to phone the boss.i was going through the bets and someone had a 33/1 winner going onto another big priced one which I thought had no chance so I didnt ring the boss.of course it won and surprisingly they never asked me again.

I used to play darts with a local bookie who taught me how to settle bets,before machines that do it for you.and one day he rang me up and said I've been given a tip tonight at Perry Barr on the dogs,I said I cant afford it I still owe you money,he said dont worry about that I will pick you up and we will go in time to back it.
We got there just before the race,lumped on and watched as it lost in a photo.so we came home.
It was during the power cut so prob 1972? And they said it was because the lights were on half power and the dog didnt see the finishing line till it was too late.lol.
Oh the Joy's of gambling.
 
This is becoming one of my favourite threads on here. I feel I know all of you that little bit better. I'm also beginning to think I am one of the youngest on here:D
 
Yes, more memories flooding back:

Boardmarking - I was a marker for a couple of local-ish bookies during my holidays while a student. One old duffer was transfixed on the board one day and I said to him, "You okay, Jim?" (Not his name but Glasgow term of endearment.) He replied that he was just admiring my handiwork. "Ye'r awfy guid at yon, son. Keep it up. Ye'll go places." I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I was studying for my MA at the time!

Another day one of the cashiers didn't turn up so the manager asked me if I'd help out on the tills. A couple of miuntes' 'induction' and off I went, with one of the punters filling in for me on the board. At cashing up time, mine was the only till that tallied to the ha'penny. Even his own till was a few pence out. I thought that might gain me promotion to cashier or even to settling further down the line. Nope. Next day I was back on the boards and never asked again to help out at the tills. I wonder if he was afraid I might have his job in my sights (which I didn't but I wouldn't have minded a go at settling).

Not racing related, but I also - stupidly, I now believe - passed up the chance to be an accountant. I was between secondary school and uni when I applied for the job as summer relief janitor in a local primary school. I turned up for the interview 'smart but casual', unlike the rest of the guys in the queue who were there in their tin flutes and ties.

The senior chap invited me in, asked me to talk about my plans and ambitions and said, "The job's yours but I'd prefer if you started in the Finance Office on Monday, full-time." I thanked him, told him I was flattered but I wanted to do languages at uni. He told me the Finance Dept would put me through my CA degree at Glasgow Uni but deep down I wanted to work in France and/or Spain for a year and that was the over-riding factor for me. I did manage both France and Spain but I've never known a poor accountant. I've been an impoverished languages teacher since I finished studying, married to an impoverished English teacher and we're parents to an impoverished English teacher who now has four university degrees and no money.
 
Outsider said:
We got there just before the race,lumped on and watched as it lost in a photo.so we came home.
It was during the power cut so prob 1972? And they said it was because the lights were on half power and the dog didnt see the finishing line till it was too late.lol.
Oh the Joy's of gambling.
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The joys of gambling indeed. I remember a tale told by a bookie mate of mine from around the early 70's, a cast iron cert at the dogs didn't win as expected & they forwarded the theory that as the dog was coming round the last bend in the lead it was blinded by the light shining off a copper's hemet :lol: (thanks DCH)
 
Janthefish said:
Interesting one that Len. I never ever cash out. The reason being, I will have started that day putting the stake on and as per usual, you normally think, bye bye money. So if your bet moves through increasing, then great. What is it that you are losing when you know you are getting a return greater than your stake anyway? You didn't get the 3 grand, and I just know you would have kicked yourself over that at the time. I couldn't do with the kicking tbh, I would have gave myself stick over it. We don't get many chances of a big win, so my mentality is to let it run and be right happy if it comes off. I am sure this is financial suicide when those who know the cleverness of take or gamble look at it, but it is what I would do.


There's a Damon Runyon short story I read many years ago but the gist of it is a man borrows a dollar and goes to races, bets every winner up until last race where he puts everything he's won on the odds on favourite to place. The inevitable happens as he's walking out he's asked how he had got on. Not bad I suppose, I lost a dollar.'
As I said I read it many years ago so details may not be 100% accurate.
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I remember a Dick Emery sketch with a similar story so he must have got it somewhere.
 
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