Alex Bird

read a book about him sometime back. He was the man back in the day

Was a favourite pastime of Freddie Williams in his earlier days too.

I've got Bird's book and thought it was a bit disappointing.

I have also heard it mentioned that he had some, erm, 'help' with deciding which horse to bet with some of those very tight photo finishes that required the print.

Cyril stein had the best winning system in those days.
Bookies were never sure if he was backing for himself or laying off for Laddies.
Mind you he put them right as soon as the result was in.

used to take a specific spot in the stand to get correct photo finish result

or was in co hoorts with the judge

you decide

also never bet in Handicaps

chapter later having LARGE investments on THe GN

load of pony

My mate tried to get £200 on a photo at Worcester a few years ago.

They wouldn't take his bet.

Alex Bird lived in a different world, what passed for shrewd in his day would just be laughed at today. But society was far more honest then. Farmers would rather lose a field than their good name, and the ordinary bettor was cannon fodder. Trust abounded. How many times would you lay his bet in a photo this season?
Also, if you read his book, wasn't Alex Bird about the most boring person in the world?

Phil Bull was said to be making a million pound a year back in the day using a stop watch.

alex invented the stepladder

Timeform was brilliant in their day

That's reminded me... where is foxy boxy?

Hope he's not...

Agree with the comments about Alex Bird. I thought the book was a bit boring, I was expecting more, and it was mainly, to my recollection focused about the dead heat situation.

I get a bit sad about reading about racing books as I used to have hundreds and I always thought that I would give my collection to a worthy individual.  Alas now through moving a lot, long story, I have only a fraction of them

When Bird was betting on photos, probably one reason his stakes could be so large was that effectively he was offering a hedging mechanism for the satchel-swingers.

Think he went to usa for big bet on Dancing Brave in BC turf...DB lost about a stone in weight travelling to the meeting...and Harwood had a very poor record with his usa runners anyway...DB only 4th to Manila...the finishing kick wasn't there...

Didn't they also claim that a large chunk of the DIRT surface was thrown up and hit Dancing Brave in the eye, causing bruising.

Eh, he ran on grass...was he exercising on dirt? Dunno, but obviously he should have been retired after the Arc.

Correct you are - from Wikipedia ...

'Dancing Brave suffered an injury in the race when he was struck in the eye by a clod of turf.'

He would have murdered those horses in Europe...2 defeats going left handed, though...

MARVELLOUS STUFF STARKEY!

Onlooker

They have to run across the dirt track on the turf course at Santa Anita.
I believe Dancing Brave got the eye injury going across the dirt track and back on to the turf.

Anyway, i found this newspaper article from the time.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1356&dat=19861103&id=IrlPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mgYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6656,687342&hl=en


Oh and the race itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt3F74Oea64

Thank you.