Dorothy Paget and William Hill

William Hill did not take to the arrival of betting shops when they first opened their doors on May 1st 1961, nor for many years after. Ladbrokes took a similar view and were cautious; Corals were quicker off the block and by 1962 had opened 23 shops. Most were owned by small chains and one-man concerns. They were more or less made to discourage punters by making these premises as uninviting as possible, with bare floors, little in the way of seating and definitely no televisions allowed. You were supposed to put your bets on and then leave straight away. No member of the passing public was allowed to see the inside of the shop from an outside view. Those that came and went often had a kind of furtive look about then. The police had a saying back then: "If you want to find a crook, have a look inside the betting shops first".
Betting shops had been banned since the early 1850`s. Often, after punter`s had had a good win on, say, the Derby or a Lottery, they would turn up the following day to find the shop stripped bare and boarded up. Many times a riot broke out and the place was set alight,  so the authorities closed them all down.
William Hill had by the 1960`s groomed himself into some sort of racing elder statesman and called betting shops "A cancer on society". However the big chains soon began to feel the "wind of change" blowing through the betting industry and by the end of the decade Ladbrokes had opened 400 shops. William Hill were the lagards with just 90 shops.

Ladbrokes began at Ladbroke Hall when Mr Pennington and trainer Harry Schwind formed a partnership to back runners trained by Schwind and to act as commission agents to other punters. (Ladbroke is the name of a village in Warwickshire). They were joined in 1902 by a Mr Arthur Bendir, who virtually founded Ladbrokes. As Pennington and Schwind dropped out in 1906 so Ladbrokes moved to the Strand, from there to Hanover Square and finally to legendary Six Burlington Street, Mayfair, where they were to remain for the next 49 years.
One of Bendir`s Lieutenants was Jim Santry who became the firms first on-course rep. One evening he and his wife were going to the theatre in a carriage and two when he decided to pop into his Club for five minutes. He couldn`t resist a hand or two at cards. He came out of the Club and said to his wife, "you`ll have to get out, we`ll have to walk, I`ve lost the lot".

Arthur Bendir developed Ladbrokes into bookmakers to the titled classes; so exclusive that one had to be Listed in Debrett in order to open an account. Even if you were among the richest in the land but were a commoner, you were not welcome - especially if you had made your money in Trade.
The telephone accounts were handled by well dressed elderly clerks speaking from curtained-off cubicles: they could be heard whispering respectfully, "would that be win only or each way Your Grace?"......"you have 6/1 on that one Your Lordship"......"that`s all settled then Sir John". They used quality paper on copper plate and wrote with a feathered quill pen and ink. Lunch was served by dinner-jacketed waiters and many accounts were settled by cheque over cigars, Brandy & Port in the Front Room at Six Burlington Street. Of course there was the exception. Bendir hired an ex sergeant as a general assistant and minder. He still had a very military bearing and was once involved in an embarrassing situation to his boss. He knew very little about racing, and even less about racing`s protocols. One day, in the 1930`s, Arthur Bendir was having a chat over drinks with two members of the Jockey Club in the Front Room when in walked the ex sergeant, stood to attention and announced, "Sir, a Mister Stephen Donoghue is on the phone for you".

Ladbrokes employed a Scottish female racecourse rep called Helen Vernet, known as the "Lady Bookmaker". In 1890, at the age of 13, she      inherited £8,000 on the passing of her father and quickly lost it all when she came of age - a folly which never left her. Because Helen developed a Tubercular condition she was advised to take an outdoor job. Gambling appealed to her and so she applied for the vacancy at Ladbrokes and got the job - coming from aristocracy no doubt helped. She soon got to know which punters were shrewd and in the know, and those who were just wealthy guessers. She made a lot of money during the two post-war betting boom periods and accordingly spent prodigiously. Helen had a real taste for the high life, had two husbands and a weakness for Giggolos. Even though eventually wheelchair bound she worked right up past normal retirement to 1955. She died the following year - the same year that Arthur Bendir retired.
The only time she angered Bendir was over the 1913 Derby when the favourite, Craganour, was first past the post, but then disqualified. Aboyeur, a 100/1 shot was called the winner - she had layed AP Cunliffe of the `Druid`s Lodge Confederacy` £250 at 100/1, thus wiping out all off-course and ante-post profits.

The company was then bought in 1956/57 by on-course bookmaker, Max Parker, for a reputed £100,000, although Cyril Stein later said it was £250,000. Max was one of four brothers operating on the racecourse - Harry, Jack and Isaac were the other three. (Harry was also often, confusingly, called Dick and Snouty). They were the sons of Russian immigrants named Stein. Harry was known as the "King of the Knock-out". He also had a flourishing off-course SP business. In early 1937, James Park, probably the greatest-ever racing journalist, advised Harry that Royal Mail was a certainty for the Grand National. Harry backed it continuously for the next 3 months and when it won he cleared £100,000. He celebrated by putting a bottle of champagne on every restaurant table and telling James Park to go down to Saville Row and treat himself to the best and most expensive suit money could buy. They may have been a shade fortunate however. The mare who was 2nd home by 3 lengths, Cooleen, was impeded during the race when a loose horse tried to savage her. Then a horse right in front of her at one of the fences took off too early and landed on top of the fence, so Cooleen had to not only clear the fence but the stricken animal too.
There is a sad postscript to the Royal Mail story. Its owner, Hugh LLoyd-Thomas, who at one time was Equerry to the Prince of Wales and a member of the British Embassy had decided to ride Royal Mail in the following years` National but was killed in a fall at Derby a month before Aintree. Derby closed the following year to great disappointment. At the final meeting in August 1939 all 19 owners and trainers boycotted a handicap race, which was then declared void.
James Park wrote a 3,000 word piece every day for decades. He formulated his own handicap and was the first journalist to incorporate Timefigures into his calculations. He would produce an analysis of all the previous days` races, making special note of the most noteworthy performances. He also performed a comprehensive essay, together with summaries of `today`s` races.

In 1941 Harry Parker was Warned-Off for allegedly bribing jockeys and died in 1945 of a heart attack.
When Max Parker took over the running of Ladbrokes, he and nephew Cyril Stein could not but help laugh at the antiquated, almost Dickensian, set-up at Six Burlington Place. They were going to change almost everything, but slowly. At first, to the horror of their clients, they advertised, but only in Tatler and Country Life. They cleared out the elderly clerks and the waiters, recruiting younger staff - it was sandwiches and luncheon vouchers from now on. Lines of telephones were installed, and the cubicles were gone.
After 49 years at Mayfair, Ladbrokes moved to Ganton House in September 1962, next to trendy Carnaby Street in 3 days and installed 100 telephones.

Ladbrokes then began a new venture: Fixed Odds Football, which was to almost ruin the business. First they had to overcome a court action instigated by William Hill, stating "Infringement of Copyright". Hill`s had been operating in this arena for several years and objected to a big newcomer treading on its toes. The upshot of it all was that William Hill were awarded £1 damages, but Ladbrokes could proceed to operate in fixed-odds football........the lawyers scooped-up £30,000.
Ladbrokes issued their first coupons for the 1960/61 season. There were various types of bets: Homes, Aways, Draws etc. 5 Homes, 6 Homes, 7 Homes accumulators were very popular, as were 4 Aways and 3 Draws. On some coupons some bankers were excluded, and on another it was `Nothing Barred`. The big risk with fixed-odds is that there is no way of laying-off if the vast majority of results are predictable. Many other firms came into the fixed-odds scene after the court case, including, Corals, Littlewoods, Vernons, Zetters etc; the last three named had been operating the Treble Chance coupons for many years, where a large amount can be won for small stakes eg (Perm any 8 from 11 = 165 lines @ 1/2d per line etc). 8 draws on a low-draw day was the Holy Grail.

One Saturday in the early sixties these fixed-odds operators had a nightmarish experience. The `Nothing Barred` coupon had what looked like an unusually large number of Home bankers, and one in particular which was a gift....Jock Stein`s mighty Celtic at home to little Raith Rovers - it was on everyone`s coupon. Five Homes was a certainty, Six Homes was almost `Past the Post` before kick-off and even Seven Homes looked a cinch.
The results were coming in thick and fast. Every home banker had won; all that remained was the 5 - 0 score from Hampden Park. In it came: Celtic 1  Raith Rovers 1. The baritone voice of Len Martin reading out that scoreline reverberated around the nation resulting in a chorus of groans and disappointment. Ladbrokes admitted that result saved them £500,000, Hill`s far more.
At that time top players were earning less than £30 per week, so there was a deep suspicion by many that the Celtic players had been `Got-At` before the match. Collectively, those eleven players would have earned not much more than £5,000 in today`s money that week. It was estimated that by only managing a draw, Celtic saved the fixed odds firms £2.5 to £3m million (£40 to £50 million in today`s money) on that Saturday afternoon.

In 1966 Max Parker died. He was not a popular man, neither with the punters, nor with his fellow bookmakers: he was the hard face of the Parker family. Peter O` Sulleven recalled that after just one winner out of seventeen horses he had owned he was about to have his second winner after getting encouraging messages from the trainer. It was 1958 and his wages at the Daily Express were meagre. He had a good bet on the horse at what he thought was 6/1 - he missed the 10/1 opening show. Just Friendly won. A delighted owner went to collect his winnings from Max Parker. "You had 3/1" said Parker. After a long and heated exchange of words, Max Parker delivered what O` Sulleven called the unforgettable line, "If I returned you any bigger I`d lose on the race". Salt was rubbed into the wound when the bookie next door, Laurie Wallis, said to O` Sulleven, "There was plenty of 7/1 and I layed Maxie £1,000- 70 twice". Just over a year earlier Max Parker had bought Ladbrokes. Cyril Stein, son of the charming and mild-mannered Jack Parker, served his apprenticeship with his uncle Max. Cyril had already failed as a bookmaker: he had his own credit office business but went bust. He was much happier punting.

In September 1967, a year after Max Parker`s death, a third of Ladbroke`s shares were offered to the general public and institutions, via the Stock Exchange, at 10 Shillings (50p) per share. They were massively oversubscribed and Cyril Stein became a millionaire.
Cyril Stein used to eat and sleep Finance, Mergers & Acquisitions and Business Management. He took his Company into the property and Hotels business in a big way. He was a darling of the City and his shareholders and seemed unstoppable, until........the London casino scandal. By 1979 Ladbrokes three casinos represented 27% of the British casino market. Much of this consisted of oil-rich Arabs who had become incredibly wealthy in the wake of the Yom Kippur War. Stein wanted more of the action and hired a dodgy Dane called Andreas Christenson to head the casino division. Christenson dreamt up a scheme to steal other casino`s clients by noting the car reg. numbers  parked outside their casinos, then passing them to a crooked policeman who had access to the Police National Computer Centre at Nottingham who then forwarded their home addresses to Christenson at `Unit Six` as the scheme was known. Champagne and flowers were delivered to these addresses by pretty girls, together with an invitation to be entertained at Ladbroke casinos. The scheme was of course illegal.

When it was exposed by Private Eye the police opposed the renewal of Ladbrokes` casino licence, which was backed-up by the Magistrate`s Court. Cyril Stein denied neither he nor his top manager`s knew of the scheme and appealed. It all blew up in their faces in Court however when Stein`s personal secretary, Jane Ballard, an upright, middle-aged, church-going lady found that she could not hold the Holy Bible in her hand, swear on oath to tell the whole truth, then lie. She told the court that Cyril Stein had come into work one morning and ordered her to shred all the files relating to `Unit Six`. The judge threw out the appeal and ordered that the casinos close that afternoon - permanently. It was estimated that their loss amounted to £100 million.
Cyril Stein`s closest associates and main shareholder`s asked him to resign, but he refused, insisting,"I have done nothing wrong". He must have been going through an amoral phase. He made some bitter enemies along the way, especially Victor Lownes of the Playboy empire and its casinos with their Bunny Girls. As a result of evidence produced by Stein, Playboy casinos were shut down too - two years after the Ladbroke closure among all sorts of corruption allegations. Clement Freud, a director of Playboy and Liberal MP was also involved. Ladbrokes` casinos had come to rely on the casinos as they produced half of all Company profits at that time. Things looked bleak but over the following 10 years Cyril Stein completely turned the Company around - getting half their profits from their Hilton Hotels division and just 25% from racing.

Ladbrokes` shares have performed poorly since Cyril Stein`s departure, which reinforces that old City saying, "don`t back the Company, back the man behind the Company".

Wonderful stuff again Henry. Interesting you mentioning Maxie Parker as he had a betting shop at Poland Street in the West End and I worked there for a short while in 1964 as a trainee settler. Whilst I was there the Dagenham Greyhound Coup took place and the shop was in uproar when the tote forecast dividend of £987+ was announced over the blower.

Great stuff.

Thanks men. Yes that Dagenham Coup was quite something - there was also the Rochester Coup. Sparrow, those were the days of proper settlers - piles and piles of slips to works through, many of them no doubt indecipherable. Your father was poorly paid considering the workload with big crowds at such a venue, and a race nearly every 15 minutes. The turnover on big nights must have been enormous. Did you ever clerk on the racecourses?
By the way, the name of Cyril Stein`s secretary was Janet, not Jane. Also, with the O` Sulleven bet, it was £1,000 - £140 twice, not £1,000 - 70. It was a long day. I got half-way through and the posting disappeared - I had lightly touched the Control key and couldn`t get it back. I made up a small bracket to cover the key and started again. I can`t type - just the two index fingers.

wonderful tales much appreciated

@ Ramruna /Henry..... all posters.....Superb read.

The nostalgic threads are always the best. This one ranks up there with a few others that have recalled bygone days with interesting  anecdotes. Much appreciated.

Half price on the RP site if you are doing your Christmas shopping on Black Friday. Cheaper than Amazon!

https://shop1.racingpost.com/collections/black-friday-weekend/products/dotpag

Well spotted Ramruna.....tenner with free delivery,much obliged.

Rarely do I post on here nowadays, but enjoyed reading the stories on this thread ... Are they all in the book ?

Not all the stories are taken from the book, but where they concern Dorothy Paget, there are probably different accounts of them in the book, but I can't say I've checked.

Brilliant stories, Dorothy Paget's older sister,Lady Baillie, owned Leeds Castle in Kent. Should you pay a visit to the castle it may be worth looking in the Seminar Room, from recollection there are old photographs of Miss Paget and her horses and a wonderful oil painting of a fine looking Dorothy when she was a young child.

Great stuff , a very interesting read this thread !

Alex Bird was born in 1916 at Newton Heath, near Manchester. His father was a coal merchant. However it has to be doubtful that this was the mainstay of the household income. The room at the top of the stairs was used as a cash betting office where his father sent out `runners` to factories with clock bags to take bets from workers and to pay out any returns from the previous days` wagers. This was of course illegal. The profits must have been enormous with no tax to pay and very little in the way of overheads. It was probably all profit as the money coming in from the coal business no doubt provided enough to pay all household expenses. It is generally thought that at least 90% of all betting in that era was carried out illegally. The police usually turned a blind eye and were often `looked after`. I say profits must have been enormous by way of using the example of one illegal pre-1961 `street bookmaker` business run by Jim "The Bishop" Wicks, manager of heavyweight boxing champion, Henry Cooper.

He was known as The Bishop because nobody looked more like a Bishop than old Jim, with his round, balding head, cherubic face and benign features. He was also known as "Master of the Malapropism". When arriving back from a successful fight in Germany, he said it was "Wunderbra". One day in the gym he went out to the food shop to buy some comestibles. He returned half an hour later carrying a bag of groceries and said, "Well, i`ve got me combustibles". After a fight that was supposed to have been easy but turned out to be a close call and gave them a fright, Jim said, "I nearly had a cardigan arrest". The camp used to joke about what was going to be the malapropism of the month. He was a great character.

Despite not having a great formal education, Jim Wicks was very street-wise and a very smart businessman. He was also a fearless gambler.
He used to manage Wandsworth greyhound stadium, and from where he would promote and stage fights. During the period of the Great Depression when many had to get by on £2 or £3 a week Jim would earn £500 a week from manageing the stadium, promoting fights and the illegal betting business. However, these lucrative incomes attracted the attention of some especially vicious gangs who would come looking for protection money and to tread on Jim`s patch. He had to pay a lot of money to the right people to sort out the gangs by `special arrangements`. As a consequence, some of these methods had to be defended in Court. He had to pay out dearly again, this time in expensive legal fees. People in the boxing world used to say that Jim knew exactly where all the bodies were buried.
As well as illegal bookmaking he ran a starting price office in Panton Street, near the Union Arms Tavern that the greatest of all bare knuckle fighters, Tom Cribb, ran after his retirement from the fight game in 1822.

For a while, he entered into a partnership with Jack Solomons but found that Solomons was too much of an `innocent abroad` and in any case Wicks was much too independently minded for partnerships. They parted on friendly terms. Jack Solomons eventually became one of the top boxing promoters of his era, along with Harry Levene and Mike Barrett.
When betting shops were opened for business in 1961 it decimated the illicit bookmakers` turnover. At that time Jim Wicks had amassed £60,000 (about a million today) from his nice little enterprise. All of it was in cash and stashed at his home. When the shops opened and began to proliferate, Jim`s business went into serious decline; he then virtually gave it up, turned punter and lost the lot. He had to work right up until his mid-eighties in order to have a decent standard of living.
Whether Jim Wicks was promoting, manageing or bookmaking - riding high or skint - he would often come out with his own little piece of philosophy: "Son, the game must be played".

Henry Cooper didn`t do too well at the end either. After his boxing career was over he tried to climb a notch or two up the social ladder by becoming a NAME at LLoyds of London, the famed re-insurance company (nothing to do with the bank). Generally speaking, its terms of business in relation to its investors (NAMES) is `Unlimited Liability`. If you`re a Name (or Member), your liability when the company `Calls` on you for money when disaster strikes means just that: `Unlimited`, possibly leading to personal bankruptcy.
Lloyds is basically a direct and mutual re-insurance firm which is made up of around a 100 syndicates that collectively underwrites tens of billions of pounds worth of premiums per annum worldwide. These syndicates are made up of Names who collectively underwrite the insurances in their own syndicate, so picking up the bill whenever there is a claim for a particular disaster or other form of claims.

In 1988 the Piper Alpha oil rig in the North Sea exploded in flames - 167 men perished. A year later the Tanker, Exxon Valdez, spilled 11 million gallons of oil, so polluting 1,300 miles of Alaskan coastline: it was an environmental disaster.
On top of these hugely expensive compensatory demands, Lloyds were facing infinitely more expensive costs emanating from never-ending asbestosis claims. £17 billion has so far been paid out in the USA alone.
As a result of these disasters and other claims there was a crisis at LLoyds and Names were called upon to stump up the money and, under the `Unlimited Liability` stipulation, were obliged to pay. Many simply did not have enough in money or assets and so were bankrupted. Around 5% were stripped of everything. There were many suicides as a consequence of these events. Individuals have since shied away from Lloyds and Names are mostly made from Corporates and international insurance backers. Nowadays no new Names with Unlimited Liability are admitted so their numbers, in time, will disappear. Charles St George, who owned many top class horses was badly affected. He died of a heart attack in 1992. The company has insured many odd cases. Perhaps the oddest one was the 1920`s silent movie star, Ben Turpin, who was insured against his eyes becoming uncrossed.

Henry Cooper was forced to sell his luxurious six bedroom house in the upmarket area of Hendon, North London and his three Lonsdale belts, won over a long period of a hard career in the Ring. As a result of bankruptcy he had to go to work as a ringside pundit, an after-dinner speaker and advertising an after-shave lotion.
Lloyds of London is also known for its Lutine Bell, which in the old days was rung whenever news came through of the loss of a ship laden with a precious cargo returning from overseas.
HMS Lutine sank in 1799 carrying a large cargo of gold. Although the bell was salvaged, the gold was not and still lies among the shifting sands of the West Frisian Islands. I bet now you`ll all go and look to see where the West Frisian Islands are. lol

Alex Bird left school at 14 to work in his father`s business. When war broke out he joined the Royal Navy. Because millions were in uniform it took a very long time to demob everyone and so some were still waiting to re-enter civvy street 18 months later - some overseas personal mutinied.
I once read an article penned by Bird`s great friend, Richard Baerlein of The Observer. He would often stay at Baerlein`s Sussex farm for Goodwood week. It claimed that Alex Bird bet 500 photo finishes correctly - getting just one wrong, at Epsom. He said if it had happened early on then it would have finished him with this kind of betting. He must have been betting in photo`s almost from the time he left the Navy. There were far fewer meetings back then, and there were probably no photo finishes at all at some of them. Because of the optical illusion he would only bet if he thought the nearside had won, so that means he would probably bet in just half of all photo finishes. The mirror image was adopted in 1957 and quicker developement eventually killed this type of betting; also bookmakers realized what Bird was doing and put their own men on the line. At Sandown Park it used to look very quaint, seeing the photo in a small bag traversing up what looked like a clothes line stretching from the winning post area, up to the judge`s box. It gave the bookmakers plenty of time to form a market.
He reckoned he won over £700,000 on this type of wagering, where he would place £30,000 to win £3,000, and even £50,000 to win £1,000, which was an absolutely colossal amount in the 1950`s. No wonder he was able to buy a large moated house, send his three sons to public school, own a Rolls Royce and much more besides.
Of course there were people who were jealous of his success, especially as he was not shy about showing it off. Some spread malicious rumours that he had the judges and their assistants in his pockets. They used to say that if the horse at the top of the card had won then the assistant would touch the top of his head and if the one at the bottom of the card had won then he would bend over as if to pick something up. They also used to say that the judge would deliberately string it out so as to create the feeling that it was closer than it looked, therefore hopefully encouraging the price of the winner to lengthen in price.

Maybe he was bankrolled by his father in those early days, for within two or three years of demob he would be flying from Manchester Airport to the racecourses most days of the week and betting in thousands when many were still earning a fiver a week. Once established he would be on his own. He pulled off his first really big win - £50,000 on Freebooter in the 1950 Grand National. He won £50,000 (£1 million today) on Teal in the 1952 Grand National....10 horses fell at the first fence. Two previous winners, Russian Hero and Freebooter fell later and future winner, Royal Tan, fell at the last when closing, leaving Teal to pull away from Dorothy Paget`s Legal Joy. This was the year of the fall-out between the BBC and Mrs Mirabel Topham, leaving no radio commentary; the racecourse commentary was a farce. Mrs Topham gathered together a bunch of odds and bods to do the racecourse commentary. The first to be called a faller at the first was Teal. A gateman was stationed at Bechers and uttered only, "they`re up and over" without mentioning a single horse.

Teal was once offered for £2 10s by Mr G Carrol of Clonmel......the offer was turned down. The horse had several owners and uses over the years, including, a ladies` hack; a Catterick army officer`s mount and a hunter/pointer for Thormanby farmer, Mr Ridley Lamb before coming into the ownership of Harry Lane, a Stockton-on-Tees engineering contractor. He took his entire 600 strong workforce to Aintree to watch Teal run. There were enormous post-race celebrations. The horse was then aimed at the following seasons Cheltenham Gold Cup. In the race he dropped his hind legs in the water jump. This caused such a severe rupture that he died 10 days later.

Alex Bird had also pulled off the Spring Double in 1950 with Freebooter and Dramatic, who landed an enormous coup for his friend, gambling trainer, George Todd. It was said that Bird handled a fair amount of the commissions. On the day Teal won the National, Alex Bird struck again with his own horse, Signification, in a minor flat race at Aintree. He had a £50,000 to £3,000 with course bookmaker, Laurie Wallis. It must have been a certainty in that little race as the horse went on to win the Ebor a few months later. Those two or three years must have been the apogee of his betting career.

At the racecourse he seldom ventured to the paddock, instead choosing to drink champagne and down oysters with his friends, Richard Baerlein, George Todd, John Gosden Snr and, for a while, Willie Satinoff, who was killed in the Munich air crash when several Manchester United players were killed. He was the only fan on board.
Alex Bird loved champagne and oysters, drinking several bottles a day and reckoned on one day he slid down 58 oysters. He was certainly taking a chance there. The film director, Michael Winner, once ate some bad oysters in the Caribbean and ended up having several stomach operations. He eventually died of organ failure.

Bird also won substantially on what he called his "thieving bets". Backing 2nd favourites who had achieved a decent Timefigure and running in a non-handicap against a vulnerable short-priced favourite. These were bet of course 1/4 the odds a place. The imposition of the Betting Tax and 1/5th odds a place killed off this type of bet. The bookmakers had promised to bear the tax themselves in return for the reduction to 1/5th odds, but reneged on that promise.

AB had a man called Stan Platt who did all the Timefigure calculations for him; he also consulted journalist James Park before having a sizeable bet. Of course he had his bad runs and lost £250,000 during a particularly bad one, He had £10,000 on Ribofilio in the 1969 Derby: it came 4th. That horse was favourite for four Classics and lost all four, costing his followers dear. El Gran Senor; Tromos, who failed to train-on after putting up an outstanding Timefigure in the Dewhurst; Dancing Brave in the Derby, and again at the Breeder`s Cup; also Zilzal in America were some of the expensive failed punts. Alex Bird was unusual in that he was a punter who over many decades managed to hang on to his winnings; something that is quite rare. Trying to copy him of course is impossible because so much has changed, but we must keep on trying.

HENRY - you write, of Alex  ...

'Maybe he was bankrolled by his father in those early days, for within two or three years of demob he would be flying from Manchester Airport to the racecourses most days of the week and betting in thousands'
-----------

Indeed - that could well  be true - as I am sure I recall Alex saying that the family 'did very well' out of both the Coal Royalties Cmpensation scheme (during the second World War) - By 1946, over 26,000 claims by 13,000 different owners had been met - and  the nationalisation of the Coal industry, through the formation of the National Coal Board in 1947 (2 years after the end of the war, and around the time of Alex's demob) - Alex's father having held shares in various coal mines, aswell as being a Coal Merchant.

Haven't posted for a long time on the forum as seems to be just full of nonsense and abuse these days but just wanted to say thanks (especially to Henry) for an utterly fantastic and informative thread. A brilliant read.

It's a while since I read Alex Bird's book so it was good to read again Henry. As I recall the bookmakers own men referred to were top greyhound racing people to judge them photo finishes.

Thanks Saritamer. I never knew that onlooker. I`ve never read the book but it does seem the family came out of the war in clover - in contrast to our family who were ruined by it. I wonder if they sold the coal business or kept it going while the father was still alive. I`ve read quite a few interviews with AB but he never much mentioned his family, rather alike another pro punter of the time, Steve Ahern. He was the middle one from a family of 13 and they were from a very poor part of London; not one mention of his family in the autobiography. Did you know Alex Bird to speak to? I saw him on the racecourse a few times but never met him.
I didn`t know that sparrow. I don`t know how those dog men did it. I couldn`t tell who`d won when they flashed past together, although I suppose you do get an eye for it if you go often enough and keep practicing. In contrast, I always found close horseracing finishes easy. I remember once at Newbury, a Willie Carson horse won by about a head. I couldn`t believe it when they started shouting evens. I nearly broke a leg getting to them. They soon realised they had got it wrong, but too late. Their man on the line must have got a rocket for that one. In the 1968 Schweppes Gold Trophy, unbelievably some people thought Major Rose had won. Persian War had won by a good half length. There used to be some real errors, but not often enough, unfortunately.

Terry Ramsden was once listed as one of Britain`s wealthiest individuals. Not quite in the top 50, but closing fast; an amazing feat when one considers his North London council flat beginnings. Starting out as an insurance clerk, he was much too ambitious to stick with a mundane job. He left it to work for a stockbroker where he specialized in Japanese warrants. He eventually became dissatisfied with being just another City employee and purchased his own company. It was a small Edinburgh-based shell company called Glen International for £18,000 in 1984. Working a 90 hour week he took the company annual turnover from a miniscule £20,000 to £3.5 billion in just 3 years, and with a billion pounds worth of credit lines to call upon.
Once again he specialized in Japanese warrants. These were warrants issued by Japanese companies in conjunction with companies` bonds. Bonds are issued by companies to raise money. In return, purchasers of the bonds get interest and a possible capital gain. Warrants are a kind of hedging insurance, and so by attaching the warrants to bonds as a kind of insurance against a fall in the value of the bond value and/or interest, the issueing company gives the company bond purchaser insurance against volatility, and in return, the company issueing the bond pays a lower rate of interest to the bond purchaser.
It`s similar to Stock Options; a CALL option on a main share, say, BP, which is priced at £5 per share, gives the buyer of the CALL of the main share a larger piece of that underlying share (BP) for a fraction of the full £5, and the profit on the CALL is magnified if the price of the underlying share goes up. The drawback of course is if the the main share price falls, then the loss on the CALL option is magnified.

Then there are PUT options, which are the reverse of CALLS. Basically, investors by CALLS on a main share when they think the price of that share will rise; however, they can sell any CALL they hold if they think they`ve got it wrong and the price of the share is about to fall. A CALL option gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy an underlying stock (BP) at a certain price, quantity and at a future time.
Conversely, investors will buy PUTS if they think that the price of the underlying stock will go down. Of course they can sell any PUT options they hold if they think they`ve got it wrong and that the price of the underlying share is about to rise. For the most part, options are used for hedgeing purposes, but can also be bought separately for speculation.

A warrant is a security which doesn`t have the flexibility of a Traded Option but is similar in some respects. The main difference is that a warrant is issued by a company and is attached to its bond, whereas an option is an independent instrument of the Stock Exchange. Options, warrants futures etc. are often, collectively, referred to as Derivatives, and sometimes, confusingly, as Futures; although futures are normally classed as trading in commodities: metals, livestock, crops etc.

If things go badly wrong, derivatives can leave the investor highly leveraged, and so, in certain cases, vulnerable to sudden market volatility. What Terry Ramsden did was to split the warrants from the bonds and offer them as two individual entities. These warrants in isolation, therefore became highly speculative.
One financial journalist wrote: " Ramsden does something in the Japanese commodity markets that no one else had thought of, and it works".

`Black Monday` October 19th, 1987 saw a huge one-day Stock Market crash around the world. There had been a 5 year Bull Market which was becoming overheated and it all got completely out of control. Billions of dollars of "Junk Bonds" were being issued by companies at high interest rates in order to attract investors and so obtain money in order to facilitate what were highly leveraged buy-outs of other companies that looked vulnerable to a speculative takeover bid. (The mantra at the time was that the more companies the core company owned, then the more profits the core company would make, and as a consequence, the share price of that core company would rise ever higher). This all caused high inflation, which indeed cause company share prices go ever higher, which in turn, fed the appetite for yet more borrowing, so creating a self-perpetuating upward spiral.

The investing public saw all this and couldn`t but help get involved, and in doing so, exascerbated the buying frenzy. It seemed that everybody wanted a piece of the action in this, in what we now know, was a lemming-like rush towards the cliff edge. It was a classic bubble in the best traditions of the Dutch Tulip Bubble and the South Sea Bubble; so much so, that at one stage Tokyo became worth more than the entire USA. This all reached a point where institutional money managers became alarmed and rushed to hedge their positions in order to protect their clients` portfolios.

On October 19th 1987 there were unusually large early selling orders on the the Stock Index Futures market. This soon became a flood, which then affected the main share market index. Panic set in and suddenly it was all "Sell! Sell! Sell!". Many investors could not sell because brokers were so overwhelmed with sell orders that they took many of their phones off the hook. All these investors who had bought shares during the manic buying spree and the Call derivative speculators could do was to stare at the graphs showing steep declines in their markets, and in many cases, observe their financial ruin. On Wall Sreet, over $500 billion was wiped off the value of the main Dow Jones Stock Market Index. Worldwide, many people lost very heavily. In Japan there were suicides and in America some stockbroker employees were shot when ruined investors burst into their offices and started shooting brokers.
Terry Ramsden was caught up in all this mayhem, and, as is well know by racing people, suffered badly. he once famously said, "Swimming with the sharks is how I live".

Terry Ramsden and Glen International went spectacularly bust. In no time at all the luxurious possessions were gone: the fine Georgian mansion; multiple overseas homes; jet & helicopter; fleet of high-end cars; racehorses etc. had all been repossessed at the request of pursueing creditors. Total losses are not known exactly but, by general consensus, have been put at around £100 million. In addition there are the gambling losses, estimated by bookmakers to be in the region of £57 million during the 3 year period 1984 - 1987. It is thought there were losses prior to that period, but of course that money had long gone.
He would place a £1,000 yankee, and sometimes a £5,000 yankee, meaning a layout of £55,000 - in todays` money that`s around £120,000.

Terry Ramsden really did bet on a prodigious scale. Of course there were some big wins along the way. He won millions on his filly Katies when she won the Irish 1,000 Guineas and then followed up in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot. Winning a Classic and a Group One at the Royal meeting is almost the pinnacle for many racehorse owners.
He pulled off a tremendous win when the Alan Bailey trained Cry For the Clown won a Seller at Ripon on Monday August 4th 1986. Opening at 20/1 the horse saw bets of £50k at 12/1, £100k at 10/1 and £150k at 8/1, much of it on credit with Ladbrokes, amounting to £2.8 million, getting on for £6 million today. However, by 1988 he owed Ladbrokes £2 million. One day, the company credit manager, Ron Pollard, pulled the plug and reported Terry Ramsden to Tattersall`s Committee, who then reported him to the Jockey Club, and as a consequence he was Warned Off.

His life as a bigtime, risk-taking stockbroker, multiple racehorse owner and plungeing gambler was over.......for the present. There are some similarities in the Terry Ramsden/Nick Leeson sagas: the far eastern highly leveraged stock market gambles and disasters; the extraditions; jailings; wives leaving them etc. I think the film producers slipped-up here. The Nick Leeson book and film were boring - the film was a Box Office disaster: Budget, £18 million....Box Office, £1million. A film which was made at about the same time called Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels: Budget, £800 thousand.......Box Office, £19 million.
A Terry Ramsden centred film would have had so much more scope for a good screenwriter than the Leeson film. There are a lot of top class actors out there in the provincial theatres who would act a part in in a film for next to nothing in order get a part on screen. It could be made for very little. Hedge Funds, groups and individuals invest in these sort of projects. Film producers definitely missed a trick there. It`s hard to believe Terry Ramsden is now a pensioner.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joe Sunlight was born Kadish Schimschlavitch in Belorussia in 1888/89; at that time it was a part of the Russian Empire. He was not much more than a baby when his parents moved to Britain in order to lead a more secure life and to escape the harassment of Tsarist/Soviet Russia.
The family settled in the Manchester area. He adopted the name Joe Sunlight, thought to be taken from the model village, Port Sunlight on the Wirral, which impressed him. It was designed by enlightened employer William Lever to house his workers.
Joe Sunlight was a bright lad who studied architecture, and such was his workrate and success that by his mid-forties he had designed and overseen the building of over 1,500 houses, factories, warehouses, offices and arcades and Sunlight House, then the tallest building in Manchester.

He became so consumed by his work that he realized he needed a hobby. Horseracing and betting seemed to come naturally to him. Eventually he became hooked; so much so that betting on horses became almost an obsession. Surprisingly, for somebody so intelligent, he became a mug punter supreme. In the second half of the 1940`s when many were still earning £300 a year, Joe Sunlight was making £200,000 a year; this was confirmed by the size of his settlement payment cheques to bookmakers. His main account was with William Hill; he also had an account with fellow Mancunian, Gus Demmy and one with Ladbrokes after they had been taken over by Max Parker.
Not only was he one of the highest earners in the country, he was one of the most consistent losers. At the bookmakers` offices, special direct telephone lines were set up to take Sunlight`s bets. He would often bet in every race of the day, punting four or five runners in each race, with William Hill accepting the largest wagers. The extraordinary thing about that account with William Hill was that Hill never once had to write out a cheque - every account over a near thirty year period was a losing one. No bets were ever layed-off or questioned by Hill and nothing ever went through the books - ever pound went in his back pocket.

Sunlight had some strange habits; he would travel to the racecourse via public transport 2nd class, leaving the Rolls Royce in the garage. He always wore the same old coat and trilby, with sandwiches in the pockets. He lived quite frugally, carefully checking every bill down to the last penny, although this is common practice with self-made people, even the wealthiest of them. He would often make William Hill wait for his account money, then on the racecourse offer to settle immediately for a sizeable discount. Hill was thought never to refuse his munificent benefactor. There was the odd occasion when he didn`t have sufficient funds to settle and so handed over deeds to some property as surety.

Joe Sunlight died in April 1978 leaving a £5 million estate to his son Ben. From 1970 - 1980 there was enormous inflation. Property prices multiplied five-fold during that decade. As it would have taken around 18 months to sell his properties, it can be assumed that in 1970 the Estate would have been worth around £1 million. This would have been a tiny fraction of what he would have earned and lost over the preceding forty years or so. Allowing for inflation, his losses today would have amounted to £120 to £140 million. Terry Ramsden`s losses overall, using the same inflation criteria form the 1980`s would have been roughly the same, so Terry and Joe might have fought out a photo finish, so to speak.
Of course Sunlight`s losses were spread over decades whereas Terry Ramsden`s were in quick-time and spectacular.

Joe Sunlight is down as marrying in 1940. His son, according to Hislop`s Art Price Guide is recorded as being born in 1935 so perhaps he was previously married. It`s hard to imageine those Matchmakers allowing such a successful man to remain a bachelor past fifty. lol. They used to run a race in his honour at one of the midland racecourses.
With both Joe Sunlight and Dorothy Paget on his books and constantly plungeing, William Hill must have thought he had been blessed twice.

Thrice blessed - he got paid.

Andy Geraghty was a medium-sized layer who accommodated Terry Ramsden as a top-of-the-book punter for sums which dwarfed the rest of his business. As Geraghty said years afterwards, it wasn't having Ramsden as a punter for which he gave thanks; it was getting paid by Ramsden.

Good point screaming. A week after Barney Curley pulled off his great Yellow Sam coup at Bellewstown in 1975 he phoned his father, who had read all about it in the papers. The first thing his father said was, " Did you get paid? ".
Of course most bookmakers have suffered at the hands of bad payers. Many say they would be quite well-off if everyone had paid-up. It should also be said that bookmakers are often owed money by their fellow bookmakers who often never settle in full. Dougie Goldstein was a case in point. He walked out of one Ascot meeting owing, it was said, six figures to his bookmaker colleagues. He never returned to a racecourse again. It left a lot of those books in distress. It was said his aircraft seating business also went under.

Personally I would never criticize racecourse bookmakers because after attending around 2,000 meeting over many years and having probably around 6,000 to 8,000 bets I have never had a single dispute. In fact I was called back twice for walking away before I had received full payment - once from a Ladbrokes pitch and again from Linda at the Sam Harris firm. I almost once had a query. I always go in the Silver Ring at Royal Ascot to avoid the crush. I went up to the bookmaker to draw after a good winner only to be told I hadn`t had the bet. Before I could question him he said, "Hang on, let me check". He played the tape and sure enough there was my bet being called. My strike rate is about a third, so after over 2,000 successful transactions, not one complaint. Amazing really.

The only really serious complaint I can recall was over the Corporal Clinger - Chester Barnes dispute at Haydock Park some years ago. Owner Steph Stephano entrusted Chester Barnes to put his £1,000 bet on for him. He put the bet on with Len da Costa. The horse won and on handing his ticket over, Barnes was told he`d had a hundred on, not a thousand. The dispute went to Tattersall`s for arbitration. Len da Costa offered to settle for half the bet before the hearing but was rebuffed. The Tribunal found in Chester Barnes`s favour. I don`t quite know what went on there. Myself and my racing friends have had a great many bets with Len da Costa over the years with not one problem. Something went seriously wrong there. Of course it could never happen now with the receipts. Personally I`d go back to the old tickets - I still miss them.

Henry the seventh
do you remember rails bookmaker terry myers I think he was fron Wolverhampton  think he went to live in oz left a good few  quid owed to punters.
regards
Ronnie.

It was Victor Chandler day at Ascot in 1989 which saw the last of Dougie Goldstein (trading as "Benny Services"). That was the one where Desert Orchid gave no less than 22 lb to Panto Prince and somehow rallied to beat him. He was one of 5 winning favourites on the day, and the other race went to Slalom, which, as a second favourite from the Michael Robinson yard, was probably an even worse result for the books.

The form figures of the six winners that day - what chance did a rails layer have?

Pertemps Network 1111311

Desert Orchid 211-1111

Delius 4 / 111-F1

Sondrio 111

Slalom 432-1111

Alekhine 123-111

https://www.racingpost.com/results/1989-01-14

And that was it. Dougie Goldstein didn't turn up at Fontwell on the Monday (just as well, with 4 winning favourites and the other two races going to second favs trained by Peter Hedger and John Jenkins). As Henry the Seventh said, the knock-on effect on the books he owed was debilitating.

Looking back, it was an apocalyptic day for the betting ring in the South, the last day really of the 1980s, a mad decade. Terry Ramsden had done a runner to the States; Wayne Heathcote, the art dealer who used to stand next to Terry Barfoot's joint on the rails and lay bets of £50,000 to £40,000 in Plumpton amateur riders' chases, had returned Down Under. What they were left with was a variety of punters to bet against who, one way or another, knew what they were doing: whether they were fixing races, as Brian Wright and his associates did, or backing the short ones at the top of the market, like Johnny Lights.

Just to make it worse, if the books did manage to get a good thing beat, then more often than not they found they'd laid the winner to one of a band of form-book obsessives like Eddie Fremantle, who'd recognized the value bookmakers balancing their books were offering on the rags.

What had disappeared for good, as far as I could make out, was the likes of some of Dougie Goldstein's staff, who had been punting in thousands on every race for no other reason than that they could.

... Just realized I got at least one thing wrong there - Heathcote's adventure on the rails actually extended into the 1990s. He then returned to England for a while a few years later, laying horses alongside John Pegley.

From an article in the Sydney Morning Herald about Wayne's brother Robbie Heathcote, a trainer in Australia, and how the latter got started:

Enter brother Wayne Heathcote, owner, punter and knockabout, funded by his uncanny judgment of New Guinea art. "Wayne had horses with Tommy and Ernie Smith," Heathcote said. "He also raced Quick Ransom who was fourth in the Melbourne Cup. Wayne actually was financing a couple of bookies in England. A lot of them had no money. Wayne came along and, being a gambler, put the money up. I used to go along during my non-travel times and make sure they were honest."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/horseracing/former-tour-guide-avoids-racing-pitfalls/2009/07/09/1246732422449.html?page=2

superb read Henry-Screaming

thank you

Thanks Captain_F. Ronnie, I knew Terry Myers had moved to Australia a few years ago but never realized he owed money to punters. Presumably he is still out there.
That`s all very interesting screaming. I`ve always thought that was Desert Orchid`s best ever performance.
I remember Terry Barfoot well - very busy sort, but I didn`t know too much about Wayne Heathcote, and didn`t know about the John Pegley connection. The last time I spoke to John was about 10 years ago when he was doing an antique stall business with his wife. Nice chap. Anyone who got into the Tribal Art business at the right time and knew what they were doing will have done well. It`s a tough business infested by forgers and fakers - all art and antiques is - as soon as an artist or type/genre of art lifts off in value, the fakers get to work; there are workshops all over the world. In China they will have, say, 20 good artists in a large room. One who is good at the priming who will then pass it to the next artist who is good at the background, then to the one who is good at figures, to the one who is good at faces, then to eyes, hair, hands etc until at the end it is a very good likeness to the work of a top class artist. The picture is then specially treated to look the right age and an old frame will be found for it.

Of course there were/are also the lone master forgers, such as: Tony Tetro, John Myatt, Eric Hebborn, Shaun Greenhalgh, Wolfgang Beltracchi, Hans Van Meegeren, Elmyr de Hory, Konrad Kujau etc. More recently Carter/Drew of Truro have been caught out.
People seemed to have been fascinated by the TV programme Fake or Fortune with Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould concerning `Sleepers`: paintings waiting to be discovered or verified as being by a great artist, but so far not recognised as such. A couple of years ago a small picture of Hercules at Bonhams was estimated at £3,000, but, after a lot of frantic bidding, was sold for £254,500. The buyer and other bidders obviously thought it was by a very important artist. However, after having it cleaned he realised it was no such thing so he put it back into an auction, where it made just £23,000. Bearing in mind the commission charged to the buyer is 25% + 20% VAT on that commission and then commission 15% + VAT is charged on selling the item, the loss on this picture speculation was around £300,000. The underbidder must still be sweating over that one.

Thanks The Coat. Looking at those made me go all nostalgic. Gary Wiltshire happily still with us. Fred Binns (Ted Sturman) long gone. I wonder if Leslie Steel is still alive; if so he must be nearing a hundred.

henry

Leslie is still alive and aged 97, He moved from Garforth to a little village near Wetherby,I think his son married one off sir Robert Ogden's daughters

One of the other tickets, Gilibrand from Blackpool was run by 2 brothers who have both sadly since passed away.

Another ticket T and F, sadly they tried to take JP and Coolmore on and there was only one way that was going.

JH Gillibrand. "without this favourite".

Len Da Costa "Win n Win n Place".

Gillibrand had a most distinctive gravelly voice, as did Joe Barnett.

the coat
gillibrand used to bet in running without watching the race.
regards
Ronnie.
he used to bet on the photo typical prices
2/1 dead heat
4/7 short  head
4/6 head
4/5 neck

the coat
gillibrands owned a lot of amusement arcades in blackpool
very wealthy family
Ronnie.

Thanks Ronnie,as a young man between 1987 and 1999 I spent most of my miss spent youth doing as many race courses as possible (I eventually got round them all), admiring the ducking and diving that was going on in the betting rings, hence I kept all my losing tickets, as I appreciated at the time that this particular art of legging would not last forever. I've got a box full of these losing tickets, I've left them in my will to the Horse Racing museum in Newmarket. They will probably chuck them in the bin

the coat
did you have one from mory peter aka don't be sorry bet with mory
he had his photo on the ticket
regards
Ronnie.

Fairly sure I have. I'll have a look.

best thread ever on this forum  ...

I didn't know that George Todd had trained for Dorothy Paget ... my first ever bet was an ante -post bet ... 10/1 Sodium for the 1966 St Leger... placed IIRC about two months in advance.

I was on cloud nine when I walked into the bookies (James Scoular in Potterrow , Edinburgh) to collect my winnings, which to me,  as an impoverished first year university student,  was an absolute fortune. Oh btw I only had £1.00 on ...

George Todd was a revered figure for me from that day onwards.

Ronnie, no photo on my Morry Peter ticket, although I found some with photos on. I also came across a John Peglet who was mentioned in this post.

Wonderful stuff again Henry. I remember reading about Joe Sunlight many years ago and he was another great character the like of which we will never see again. Most would dismiss Sunlight as a mug punter but he lived an enviable life and a far more exciting one than most of us will ever dream of. As others have said a brilliant thread.

Tom Divall was a policeman who served in the London Metropolitan Force for over 30 years - two thirds of it spent in the latter part of the long Victorian era and the other third in the Edwardian era and just beyond. Dodgy "goings-on" in the horserace betting world and other sharp practices were not unfamiliar to him. During his time in the Met. he came across many scams, some of which he explained in his memoirs.
"The `invisible ink` trick was another brainwave on the part of its originators. At around 2.15pm a rogue would write on a slip of paper in invisible ink, "£5 each way Blue Post", which had already won the 2.00 race; on the same slip of paper he would write, in ordinary ink, "£5 each way Plazel", in the 3.00 race, and then hand the slip to the bookmaker. Then about an hour or so after he had placed the bet, Blue Post, the winner of the 2.00 would suddenly appear on the slip. At the time of accepting the bet the bookmaker would only have seen Plazel on the piece of paper. The rogue knew he would always win - he only ever placed a bet when the bookmaker was at his busiest and so much less likely to examine the slip thoroughly as he took it. This artful fraud went on for a long time and I am sorry to say that scores of honest bookmakers were taken in by it".

"There was a gang of sharpers living in the Elephant and Castle district who were exceedingly clever in catching legal and illicit bookmakers. Their chief was a man with long wavy hair, fair whiskers and a moustache; he used to visit a hairdresser every morning to be got-up, scented and made perfect. His appearance, manners and conversation were those of a perfect gentleman, but his methods of tricking and robbing his dupes were really marvellous: if ever there was a wolf in sheep`s clothing, he was the one.
The hairdresser would carry on his business at a house in Sumner Street, Southwark; just opposite was a vacant piece of land, and a shop adjoining it, and on the side of that shop was an advertising billboard poster boarding. The hairdresser was very interested in horseracing and made a book on the quiet.

"A little before 3.00pm one afternoon, the chief of the gang, accompanied by a pal, walked into the shop and sat down in a big armchair opposite a large looking-glass in which he could see the boarding opposite clearly reflected. This man, while being shaved, kept the barber in constant talk about horseracing, sport and other topical subjects. This went on for a few minutes, and then at about 3.10, turning to his pal, asked him if he was in a hurry. Getting a negative reply, he told the barber he would have his hair trimmed. About 3.15 he called out to his friend to hand him the newspaper. He began looking through the field of the already-run 3.00 race and suddenly exclaimed:" well I`m blessed, I quite forgot the time; I had promised my brother to put £5 each way on a horse for him, and I was going to have the same for myself, but perhaps it won`t win as it`s a bit of an outsider - I think it has no chance".
The barber then said to him, "as you were in here before three o` clock and could not possibly know the winner of that race, I`ll take it for you". The man then handed the £20 bet to the hairdresser: the horse won at 100/6.
A confederate of the two men had obtained the result by telephone just after it had been run and ran quickly to the billboard opposite the shop and wrote out the result of that race so that his friends inside the shop, who were busy keeping the barber in conversation and distracting him, could see the winner reflected in the large mirror on the wall. He then pasted a poster over it to cover up the evidence and so the victim had no idea that he had been dishonestly fleeced. The next day the grand gentleman and his pal walked in and collected the money".

Before looking at his second-career, that of on-course security, there was an unpleasant non-racing episode which may be of interest to some. Tom Divall had been newly promoted and transferred to `H`, or Whitechapel Division, whose base was at Leman Street. One of the men under his command was a young constable named PC Thompson. This officer is believed to be the only policeman to have witnessed "Jack the Ripper" in the act of carrying out one of his evil deeds, in what was to be his last gruesome murder.
"One dark night PC Thompson was patrolling Royal Mint Street when he turned right into a small road leading to Chamber Street. Under the darkened railway arch by Swallow Gardens he saw what looked like a man holding a bag. The man spotted him and ran off. PC Thompson immediately gave chase but tripped over something at about the point where the man had been standing. Turning his Bull`s Eye lamp on it he was horrified to see the body of a woman who`s throat had been slit from ear to ear and the torso mutilated - disembowelled.
He blew several blasts on his whistle and two nightwatchmen and a PC Leeson soon arrived on the seen to find the gruesome sight and young PC Thompson in a dazed and shocked state of mind. He was helped back to the station, where he said, " Now I shall never die a natural death".

Some while later PC Thompson was patrolling Commercial Road well after midnight when he came upon an altercation between two noisy groups of people at a coffee stall. He took action and dispersed them. One group became rowdy and abusive again. PC Thompson once more took action and tried to break them up and get them to move on, but a scuffle broke out. During a struggle with a man named Barnet Abrahams, PC Thompson was stabbed in the neck. He was able to blow his whistle and a constable William Harding quickly arrived on the scene. Thompson had been stabbed through the jugular vein and bled to death very quickly.
Barnet Abrahams of Newark Street, Whitechapel was arrested and charged with murder. At the trial he was defended by one of Britain`s top defence lawyers, Charles F Gill, who succeeded in getting the charge reduced to manslaughter. Abraham`s pleaded guilty and said, "I did do it; it was an unlucky minute; may his soul rest in peace". He was sentenced to 20 years penal servitude.
So PC Thompson`s doom-laden foreboding at the station that night about never dying a natural death, came to pass".

The name of the Ripper`s victim was Frances Coles. She had been born into a poor family at Crucifix Lane, Bermondsey. Tom Divall had asked the `H` Division surgeon to keep the severity of her injuries a close secret so as not to cause panic in the area and to lessen the distress already wrought on her ageing father who was in the Bermondsey Workhouse.
Frances Coles had for 8 years, up until her death, been a common (street) prostitute, living, for the most part, in common lodgings (doss houses) in and around the Whitechapel and Spitalfields districts.

"The Ripper murders gave us no end of worry and anxiety. They caused the greatest sensation throughout the civilised world, and, I think, frightened the general public more than any other crimes yet known. The death of each victim was evidently instantaneous, and the way the bodies were dissected showed a very skillful knowledge of anatomy on the part of the murderer. In each instance the body was disembowelled, and it is the opinion of both experts and police that the deeds were those of a lunatic.
We have never found any trace of this man, or of any trace of his; nor have we been able to ascertain definitely the end of him.
The much lamented and late Assistant Commissioner, Sir Melville MacNachten, received some information that the murderer had gone to America and died in a lunatic asylum there. This may be correct, for after this news, nothing was ever heard of any similar crime being committed".

So far some of the cranks belonging to the various Jack the Ripper societies have managed to narrow the culprit responsible down to just 8 suspects.......after only 125 years of "evidence" and investigations. They call themselves "Ripperologists" and their science,"Ripperology" and always refer to him as "Jack", as if he is some great mate of theirs. There are even Ripper magazines and for the more macabre-minded, `Ripper Tours`.

When his police career was ended by stomach ulcers in 1913, Tom Divall became a security official at racecourses run and administered by Messrs. Pratt & Co. He was granted a licence by Messrs. Weatherby`s, so enabling him to begin his employment on the racecourses.
"The worst side of racing is that it attracts undesirables. There was one gang termed "The Lightening Bookmakers", consisting of four men, all very smartly clothed. They would enter the betting ring, and, while two of them watched the officials, the other two would take up a position in a clear space between two well-known bookmakers and, while the aforesaid officials were busily engaged, would jump up and offer two points above the market odds. The punters, especially strangers, would make a rush in order to get the longer odds to their bets. In a few minutes these two supposed bookmakers succeeded in gathering a heap of money and then off they would bolt.
This sort of thing did not last long however for as soon as I started at Hurst Park races I went to work and arrested a lot of these rascals".

"When at Ascot one day I noticed two men standing up in Tattersall`s ring making a book - they had taken a few small bets. Going to them I examined their betting book and found they had layed an outsider, on which, had it won, they would have to pay out £100. I asked them to turn out their pockets, and, on their doing so, they produced £4 and a few coppers - the money they had taken from their bets. I asked them how they were going to pay their client if the outsider won. I determined to make a Test Case of it, and so I charged them under the Vagrancy Act. The two offenders were brought up before Sir Charteris Byron and he sentenced them to three calendar months Hard Labour.
The result of this finding worked wonders on similar rascals, and for some time afterwards we had much less trouble with them.

Only one other instance happened to my knowledge and that was 3 years subsequently at Nottingham races. I noticed a strange bookmaker; I then went towards him and was just going to challenge him, but, before I could say a word, another man rushed up and forced a handful of £1 Treasury notes into his hand. Taking them, he payed out after the race. I then turned him out of the ring - his confederate had been just in time to prevent his arrest. This showed the effect the Ascot conviction had on this class of men".

"Owing to the strictness of the rules at some race meetings, forbidding stools, umbrellas etc I was absolutely detested by some bookmakers because I always carried out my orders to the letter without fear or favour.
Once I stood at the entrance at Kempton Park and stopped all those with stools from coming in. After having taken away about 20, a bookie tried to pass with his; he told me that lots of people took stools into the ring. While this was going on, another of the gentry came through with his stool and I told him what the regulations were. He turned purple with rage and called me all the names not in the English Dictionary. When I was about to take the stool he banged it on the ground. Although I passed that man about 20 times a day at various race meetings, he would not speak, but put on the most hideous grimaces whenever I approached him. I really felt sorry for him as he was a very good-looking chap, and it seemed a pity he should distort such a countenance in order to annoy me".

The racecourse gangs, as most people will know, were a prevalent force during most of the inter-war period. There were lots of different gangs, mostly from the big towns and cities, often at war with one another for control of the most lucrative areas and businesses. There were some very powerful gang leaders and they eventually gained control and were joined by some of their smaller former rivals. Eventually it became a North/South divide, with Billy Kimber and his Brummagem gang from Birmingham controlling the Midlands and North; he had confederates in the Leeds and Uttoxeter gangs. Kimber had also allies in London so that he could get a foothold on the Southern racecourses by force. His chief allies were the Elephant and Castle Mob controlled by Charles McDonald and his brother; the Camden Town gang headed by George Sage; the Finsbury Park Boys, controlled by Freddie Gilbert.
One group of renegade Brummies began to prey on Jewish bookmakers from London`s East End, who turned to local underworld boss, Edward Emmanuel, who in turn recruited the Italian Sabini gang for protection.

The eldest of six sons from the "Little Italy" quarter of Clerkenwell, London, Darby Sabini was the leader of the feared Sabini racecourse gang. He was into pretty much everything illegal and was a leading figure in the London criminal underworld during the first third of the twentieth century.
The Sabini`s were joined by the feared Alf White and his King`s Cross gang and Alf Solomon`s Yiddishers, who often fought it out with other London gangs.

If a bookmaker wanted a pitch in the South he had to pay the Sabinis; pay for the tissue prices; pay for the chalk to write the odds; pay for the bucket boys to come round with a sponge to wipe the slate clean after each race.
The bookmakers of course could do all these things themselves, but they weren`t allowed to : it was all part of the `service`.
It was the same in the Midlands and North, except they paid Billy Kimber.

"Some low Birmingham Blackguards, full of liquor, visited the cheap rings at various meetings and blackmailed and terrified a small number of East End bookmakers working there. If the latter did not shell-out they were cruelly assaulted and badly damaged. Gang leader Darby Sabini took up the cudgels on their behalf, but he was attacked. The Sabini`s formed a gang of London Italians and East End Jews. The hatred of the London men towards the Birmingham ones was most bitter and fierce. At Alexandra Park the former suddenly visited the Silver Ring and violently assaulted everyone from the opposition they could find. The Sabini`s were eventually cleared out of the Silver Ring. As soon as they had departed, the Birmingham gang were then cleared out and told to take the train back to their Midland City".

"In order to take their revenge on the Sabinis, the Brummagem`s unexpectedly arrived at Bath in a Charabanc. They entered into the two shilling ring and mauled any East End Jews they could find there. It appeared that any news of their arrival had preceded them, because several of the Jews came to me for assistance and I put them in a temporary safe place.
The sufferings of these gangs during their feuds and strife was awful, both for them and those who witnessed them. I saw all of the injuries, both in and out of hospital".

In June 1921, an incident occurred which led to open warfare between the two main factions. A former Birmingham gang member was spotted boarding a train for Plumpton races and was set-upon and badly beaten and razor-slashed. He was taken to Guys hospital in an unconcious condition. The Birmingham gang, who had entered into a truce with the Leeds gang decided to head South and take revenge. They were also furious that the Epsom Downs betting pitches and booths were now in the hands of the London gangs: they prepared to strike on the last day of the meeting.
Forty of them turned up in a coach and cars and they were well tooled-up. They learnt that the London gang would be returning via the Ewell route. The one important thing the Birmingham gang forgot was to tell the Leeds Gang of their intentions. The Brummies were the first to leave the course and feigned a breakdown. When the Leeds gang arrived the Brummies piled into them with hatchets, hammers, chisels and knives - strike first then ask questions later. This of course caused terrible injuries; not only that but the Birmingham mob, unbeknown to them at the time, had beaten up their allies. They quickly made their getaway, but the police were on their tails and caught up with them at Kingston were 28 arrests were made.
On 27th June, 1921, 23 men were given custodial sentences - the wounded were dealt with after their recovery and release from hospital.

"I 1922 George Sage was followed and shot; he lay at deaths door for almost four months. Billy Kimber was badly beaten and shot in cold blood at King`s Cross and given up for dead.
Just to show what generous and brave fellows Sage and Kimber were, they would not give any evidence against their antagonists and stated that they would sooner die than send those men to prison. Honour among Thieves!"

...................to be continued

This is a great read , much appreciated by me , and no doubt many others . I recall seeing a very old , slow and unsteady gent going up to bookies joints at Musselburgh ( circa 25/30 years ago ) and handing over a new stick of chalk . I think the bookies gave him a pound or two in return . I did wonder at the time if it was some sort of throwback to " Brighton Rock " times , or just a way of giving something back to an old , somewhat decrepit , gent . That I thought might have been involved with the bookmaking fraternity in days gone bye .

Very good read Henry and the other contributors,thanks for sharing.

Probably the best thread on here for a very long time.

From a list of the 20 most numerous crimes recorded in one year in Tom Divall`s Division, these were the top 3 offences:-
1. Various Larceny......171 offences
2. Street Betting.......63
3. Pickpocketing........46
Keeping and conducting a betting and gaming house was in 6th place with 18 offences
Bottom was Sacrilege, with just one offence, thank God

"On one occasion at Kempton in 1923, a very fast filly, Mumtaz Mahal, belonging to H H the Aga Khan, was a very hot favourite in a race; the second favourite was Arcade at 10/1. However, Harry B. was shouting 16/1 Arcade. I thought to myself he must have layed the favourite heavy to offer such a long price Arcade.
Shortly after there was a loud shout that the favourite was beaten and then Arcade`s number went into the board. In a very few minutes I was surrounded by people who had backed the winner. Harry B., as they said, had hopped it. I at once went to his pitch, and he had; all that was there was his book. Of course a lot of nasty things were said and I told all his punters they need not trouble as every penny would be paid. I took all their names and addresses and tickets.

After racing I returned home and within half-an-hour along came his nibs with his clerk. He made all sorts of excuses; thinking the favourite could not be beaten he took a liberty with it and had not sufficient money to pay out. I said "you scamp! the next time you bet in my ring I`ll chain you to the railings with a padlock". The next day every punter was paid in full, and afterwards he said, " you won`t call me a welcher will you? I`d hate to be called that. You see I`m a perfect gentleman every time". Now dear reader, what do you think of him? What a lad! This gentleman has given up going racing; he is with a good wife, in a business and doing well, I`m pleased to say".

In Tom Divall`s police days in the East End of London it was customary for a new constable to have to face up to a local thug and beat him in a one-to-one fist fight in order to gain respect among his colleagues. "My fellow men were brave as lions" he wrote.
Although plenty of new recruits were from the towns and cities, the most popular targets for recruiting were British and Irishmen from the countryside, in particular, from an agricultural background: they were considered strong, healthy, had a solid constitution and were amenable to discipline; unlike many of their counterparts from the big cities who were often undernourished and suffered from the constant smoke and smog in wintertime that used to roll in and affect their lungs, throats and sinuses, as well as the diseases and infections which used to regularly sweep through the slums, often leaving the victims permanently weakened.

He came from just such an agricultural background, in rural Sussex, never went to school and started work at 8 years of age. When attending the interview he explained his lack of an education. One of the first things the Local Inspector asked of him was, "Can you fight?". The answer was in the affirmative and he was taken on at 15 shillings a week, rising to £1 for a 48 hour week on shifts. He had to stay in uniform out of hours in case of a sudden call-out and was often required to sleep at the station.

J H Hayes (House of Commons) wrote of him in 1929: "Tom Divall would bring hands up in amazement these days, but one has to remember the times of which he writes, which are considerably pre-war. The book should be all the more acceptable because it is shorn of all the polish and treatment the journalist friend gives to people`s reminiscences. Tom Divall discloses the type of earnest, public-serving officer who not only risked his own skin, but often-times his reputation in order that his job might be well done. He became a policeman in rather a crude manner; he worked his way through the jungle in a crude, determined way, in spite of his handicaps. He was known to both colleagues and crooks as one who could be relied upon to do a good turn to a deserving case, no matter how black the background".
His work of course was extremely varied and below are five non-racing cases which may be of interest to some.

" Deptford was the rowdiest district in London, with hundreds of Surrey Commercial and other dock labourers inhabiting it. The foreign cattle market was in full swing and thousands of men were employed in this work, in addition to seamen and drovers of the various ships bringing the animals from America and other countries. The latter class of men consisted of the roughs of New York, Chicago etc.
These men, on their arrival at Deptford were paid-ff and often had to wait two or three weeks, and sometimes longer, before they could find a ship to take them back. They would hang about and generally get mad drunk: their great object was then to attack the police.

A man named Bob Williams, a New York champion boxer, used to engage the men in America to be in charge of the cattle transit. He was a huge, burly brute and a bully of the worst kind. He got angry with constable Charlie Ashby one Saturday night. They agreed to go down to the sheep market to settle their differences. On their return, the American bruiser had a black eye and badly swollen nose, proving he`d had the worst of the encounter.
The duties of the constable at the gate were both arduous and risky. He had to be continuously opening and shutting the gates and this was dangerous work when letting through cattle just landed from the ships on which they had been badly knocked about. Some of these were mad with pain and would rush at the man and try to gore him. They also had to be prevented from getting out onto the streets where much damage would be done to the pedestrians. Thus, that post required plucky and steady men".

"The `White Slave Trade` was very rampant in the East End of London and the awful inhuman manner in which some of those poor Jewish girls were treated was almost beyond description. I will not, for certain reasons, go into details of these horrible offences beyond stating that I saw one poor pretty girl after she had returned to Whitechapel with her face much disfigured, deeply scarred with teeth bites. My staff and I set about these unmerciful villains who procured them, got them heavily sentenced, and then completely smashed them up.
The most gratifying result of one arrest was that we obtained a satisfactory result of a Test Case as to Juristiction and it will be a matter of impossibility for a repetition of this very serious offence.
I was very highly commended by the Jewish Protection Society and Jewish Press for the active part I took in capturing these villains".

"I spite of worrying my readers, I will relate this case. A quarrel had occurred between two men at a public house in Spitalfields; one of them was injured so badly that he was taken to the London Hospital. I was called there that night and the House Surgeon told me that the patient had been deeply stabbed in the heart and was bloodless. The doctor suggested the infusion of animal blood. After stitching up the heart, the man, in a little while, was able to come out and give evidence against his attacker, who was convicted at the Old Bailey, although the man himself was one of the worst criminals living".

" A poor woman was going through Orange Street shortly before midnight one Saturday when she was attacked by several men who robbed her of her week`s groceries and provisions: she received a dangerous kick in the abdomen which caused her immense pain for a long while; it also had the after effect of shortening one leg. When she had sufficiently recovered I tried to obtain from her a description of the attackers, but she could describe only one.
After enquiries I traced a man living in a lodging house in Gravel Lane. At 3 O` clock in the morning I arrested him, and, later confronted by the woman, she positively identified him. The judge, in sentencing him, explained the situation and the gravity of his actions. He was given a long period of penal servitude and 25 lashes with the Cat.
I saw this man on completion of his sentence and he told me the pain he had endured from the flogging would keep him from ever committing another assault.
This proved to me that flogging has a most deterrent effect on brutal criminals".

"Of all the most cruel and unmerciful blackguards, the horse thieves were the worst. The treatment of those poor, dumb animals must have been terrible for anyone to witness. If a horse was lame in one leg they would injure the other leg opposite so that the lameness would not be so conspicuous as the one leg only. Should they steal a fat carthorse they drove a long nail into the quick of its foot, which caused intense agony and made it lame, thus avoiding suspicion from the slaughterer to whom they sold it for human consumption.

They file down old horses` teeth to make them appear younger, ram pieces of sponge up their noses to prevent them showing symptoms of a cold and use other disgusting methods unfit for publication. We always had great worry and trouble in capturing these villains, but all those we did get were very severely punished".

William Bebbington was born in Manchester in 1878. He spent 25 years in the British Army, fought in four major battles of the Boer War - he was at the Siege of Ladysmith with Baden-Powell - served in the Great War and then onto India in the jungles of Assam. He was tall, strongly built with a moustache and wore a raincoat and bowler hat. Dennis Hoey played Inspector Lestrade in the old early forties Sherlock Holmes films. He was almost a ringer for Bebbington. The main difference is that the latter was smart, whereas the bumbling Lestrade couldn`t catch a cold, never mind a murderer.
Bebbington took up his job as senior racecourse detective in the South and Midlands in 1925. He almost at once uncovered a racket involving staff managers, ring officials and gatemen, concerning the selling of pitches, trafficking in complimentary tickets and "pass-out" checks on a vast scale. If an honest ring inspector wanted to take action to stamp it out he was sacked; similarly, if a gateman was unco-operative, he soon found his services were no longer required. Two of those staff managers died not long after being exposed.......one left £40,000 in his Will, the other, £27,000 - an awful lot of money in the mid 1920`s. This delving deeply into the  inner workings of the horseracing machine did not go down too well with the Jockey Club.

William Bebbington was warned by journalist Geoffrey Gilbey of the Jockey Club`s resistance to change. He wrote that when the Jockey Club brought anything new into racing, some of the older members seemed thoroughly ashamed of themselves and felt they had let their forefathers down. He suggested that they were so resistant to change that if the Jockey Club had been at the War Office during the Great War "We should have been sent to fight with bows and arrows".
A body of 60 ring inspectors and a band of security men, mostly ex CID, Army and ex Army personnel, under Major GP Wymer had been recruited to help break the racecourse gangs and keep-out other undesirables. Earlier, the bookmakers had formed their own protective organisation, the BPA.

An early target for removal was the card sharps who were quickly ejected "neck and crop". Pickpockets infested the racecourses, sometimes working in pairs or more; often they could deftly remove watch and chain or wallet without the owner having the slightest idea of what was going on under his nose. They never worried about getting caught; a "Carpet" (3 month sentence was considered all part of the risk).
Sometimes, however, they would use very crude methods, such as pushing over a bookmakers joint; in the melee, one of them would grab the satchel and bolt. Another favourite with them was to shout out the name of a horse, together with the stake and price to a bookmaker, then disappear. Of course they would not hand over any money. If the horse won, the man would be back to collect. If the bookie refused to pay, he and others would create such a scene that he would often be paid. Of course, if the horse lost, he never came back.

Another favourite with them was to target punters. They would watch for a punter who had won a sizeable amount and was paid in cash and observe whereabouts on him he would lodge the cash. One of the gang would then drop a lighted cigarette down the back of his shirt. The punter would then start to shout and wriggle around. A bunch of "helpers" standing conveniently close by, would straight away pull up his shirt and jacket and extract the cigarette, while one of them relieved the man of his winnings. It was all done so quickly that before the victim could thank his helpers, they were gone, together with his cash.

Racegoers were sometimes relieved of their money/possessions even before they reached the racecourse by cardsharps, pickpockets etc. At one time it used to be fashionable to wear a tiepin with a jewel to crown it - the more expensive the jewel, the more status it conferred on its owner. Gents wore these prestigious statement tiepins proudly as they journeyed 1st Class to the racecourses.
In those days when a train entered a tunnel, everything went very dark, until the train emerged at the other end. This is where a rogue called "Diamond D1ck Fisher" would strike. He was known as the "Master Cannon" among his friends.

He would walk through the carriage with a cunning eye, picking out the juiciest jewel. Then, as the train approached the tunnel he would make for his prey. As soon as all was complete darkness, then utilizing his razor-sharp front tooth, he would bend down, and with the greatest skill, bite off the jewel from the tiepin without causing the slightest disturbance to its previous owner, and then he was gone.
One day that razor-sharp tooth snapped off. A friend who was there with him when it happened said that "Diamond D1ck" broke down and cried.

Despite all the extra security, there was still the clashes between the racecourse gangs. There was a big clash at Yarmouth one day in 1925. A London gang from the Walworth Road district allied themselves with a violent Northern gang from Leeds and Mexborough. Their target was the Italian-Jewish gang who they saw as moving in on their own territory. The latter took a beating as iron bars and large spanners were liberally employed. The police had been forewarned and came out in force. However, such was the antagonism between the the two rivals that they spilled over into the three shilling ring and the assaults continued. The Jewish-Italians had the best of it this time and the casualties mounted. The wounded were collected and those who tried to get away were rounded up and put in cells until a date for sentencing could be arranged.
They all eventually appeared at Court, with heavily bloodstained bandages around their head and hands and were given severe sentences.

.....................to be continued

Some more great tales of yesteryear, thank you for posting Henry.

Excellent read thanks

One of the last episodes of racecourse gang warfare was at Lewes in 1936. The superintendant of Lewes police had received an anonymous telephone call telling him that a vicious London gang would be going to Lewes races on this very day to smash up the Italian-Jewish gang who would be there to threaten and assault some bookmakers and their employees who were not paying their dues.
One member of the London gang had been badly beaten and razor-slashed across the face and neck by one of the Italian-Jewish gang at the Bedford Hotel off Tottenham Court Road; he was taken to the Royal Free Hospital where he remained in a bad way for several weeks. After recovering, he was determined to seek revenge, and that would be at Lewes Racecourse.

The London gang arrived in cars - there was about 30 of them all told. They at first moved menacingly along the front and back row of bookmakers, then all of a sudden fighting broke out. From amongst the melee bookmakers and their employees were seen fighting their way out and making their way for the exit, although not before some of them had been badly cut. The police then moved in and made 18 arrests. It turned out that few of the gang had ever been on a racecourse before; they had been recruited to merely wipe out the opposition.
Nearly all of this London gang - known as the Hoxton Mob - had previously been behind bars, mostly for assault and wounding offences.
When they appeared at Lewes Assizes for sentencing, all doors were locked in order to keep out any friends or relatives of the accused so as to avert any noisy or disruptive demonstrations from them. The judge read out some hefty sentences and ordered that no two offenders be lodged at the same jail, and that they be spread throughout the country. All of them were subsequently Warned-Off all racecourses.

This episode virtually brought an end to the terror being wrought by the razor gangs on Britain`s racecourses. It was then eradicated by the outbreak of war - men of all backgrounds received their call-up papers. Racing journalist Geoffrey Gilbey, who had been a soldier in WW1 was put in charge of a "Bad Lads" battalion during WW2. The kindly and very religious Gilbey turned them into a good fighting battalion by coaxing rather than forcing them along.
The Jews were keen to enlist, as they wanted to try and strike back at Hitler for his savagery against the people of their faith. The Italians, however, were considered a security risk and were placed in internment camps - this of course included many of the gangsters. Besides all this, the vast majority of racing was cancelled.

There was a sting in the tail for the police at Lewes. The superintendant in charge was up on a fraud charge in 1938. He was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment in the very same courtroom where the gang had been sentenced 2 years earlier. The police had only just recovered from a major scandal in 1933.

In bygone years, a lot of police corruption problems within the force stemmed from low pay, but in the case of Sergeant George Goddard, and officer with 28 years service and many commendation for bravery behind him, the main problem was greed.
He was stationed at Vine Street, London and was ordered to clean up vice in the West End. After a time, rumours began to circulate - he had moved into a £2,000 house, and yet his weekly pay was £6 15s 0d.
After making investigations, senior officers found that he had £12,000 in an account in Pall Mall and £500 cash in a Selfridges deposit box.

He and a constable, both in plain clothes, had for a long time been given exclusive control over street prostitutes. Each girl paid a lump sum to Goddard, which entitled her to be arrested in proper rotation with other girls, with advance warning, which meant she was able to give proper attention to passing men without having to constantly keep looking out for policemen and being moved on, harrassed or suddenly arrested.
It was such a good arrangement for them that these girls, on appointed days, formed small queues at places such as Lisle Street to pay their dues to Sergeant Goddard.
After being questioned by his superiors, Goddard said he had had an exceptionally good run on the horses. But on being further grilled he admitted everything. He was jailed and his career and life were in ruins.

In the same year as the Lewes fracas, there was violence at Wandsworth Greyhound Stadium, but not the gangland sort. Bookmakers Bert Marsh and Herbert Wilkins got into a row with the Columbo Brothers, Massimino and Carnello, over a betting pitch dispute. There was a fight and Massimino Monte-Columbo was fatally stabbed and Carnello injured.
A lawyer managed to get the sentences downgraded to manslaughter and GBH. Marsh and Wilkins received very light sentences of 12 and 9 months imprisonment respectively. Jim Wicks (Henry Cooper`s future manager) was a manager at Wandsworth at the time and spoke in favour of the defendants.
Bert Marsh was a former Boxer and for a time, had been a hardman for the Sabinis. His real name was Pasqualino Papa - he was interned for a part of the war. It was said he had been involved in the Croyden Airport bullion raid. After his gangster days were over he owned betting shops in Soho, London and became `respectable`. He died a rich man.

As for Massimino`s funeral, the Daily Express gave it a page headline and full coverage of the cortege and pageant of a very Italian-catholic funeral......
"RACETRACK VICTIM IS BURIED WITH THE POMP OF A PRINCE. MOURNERS AND WREATHS FILL FORTY CARS. CITY STARES AT AMAZING PILGRIMAGE".

Massimino Francesco Antonio Monte-Columbo, who died of wounds received at Wandsworth Greyhound Stadium, lies buried beneath £500 worth of flowers that cover thirty square yards of St Mary`s Catholic Cemetary, Kensal Green, with crosses, wreaths and dove-tailed pillars.
Thousands wondered at the extravagance of his funeral procession when they saw it pass, guarded by mounted policemen, through the narrow streets of London`s Italian Colony yesterday.
No Chicago gangster - not even Beer Baron, Dion O` Bannion, who, after falling riddled with revolver bullets amid the roses of his flower shop, was carried away in a silver coffin, given the greatest funeral of them all, made a gaudier last journey than swarthy young Massimino.
Massimino had lain in state since since Sunday, when his razor-slashed body was carried from the mortuary of St James`s Hospital to an undertaker`s parlour in Chadwell Street E.C.
There his body was draped in white sheets, placed in a coffin with solid brass mountings, covered with a pall of white silk with mauve embroideries.
He was carried into a lace-curtained private chapel of the undertaker`s shop, his arms folded across his breast.
A giant crucifix was placed at the head of the coffin. Four tall white candles in four tall brass candlesticks were ranged around it, their tapers lighted.
There, while the candles flickered, Massimino lay in state for three days.
Thousands filed through the undertaker`s parlour to pay their last tribute.
To the coffin of finest elm, undertaker Treacy, given a free hand by the dead man`s relatives, told to spare no expense - affixed a nameplate of solid brass.
It read:
Massimino Francesco Antonio Monte-Columbo, died 3rd September, 1936. Aged 27 years.  R. I. P."

Graham Greene wrote the novel, Brighton Rock, which was published in 1938 and was thought to be inspired by the Lewes Racecourse fight.
The story is based around a violent racecourse protection gang who reside in squalid accomodation behind the smart seafront facade.
The Brighton Gazette lambasted the book and accused Graham Greene of sticking a knife into Brighton`s back. It was upgraded to a bayonet when the London Evening Standard serialized the story.
Civic leader`s were angered still further when the book was turned into a film in 1946 and ordered the film crew off the racecourse. These civic leader`s usually take their responsibilities very seriously : the Rolling Stones group were given a lifetime ban by Blackpool Corporation in 1964 after they gave what was deemed to be a disgraceful concert.
The film`s director, John Boulting, gave a non-speaking role - that of Charlie the barman - to a former gang member.

Brighton had attracted the wrong sort of attention in 1934, when on Derby Day a trunk was deposited at Brighton Station`s Left Luggage office. Day`s later, when it was opened, it was found to contain parts of a woman`s body. More parts of this same woman`s body were found in a suitcase at King`s Cross Station. The police were led to a man named Mancini, who had several aliases. On searching his flat, another woman`s body was found in a large trunk. A top Barrister managed to get a "Not Guilty" verdict, and so Mancini was acquitted. On his deathbed he admitted to one of the murders. For more gory details of these murders, Google: Brighton Trunk Murders.

When in 1945, hostilities ceased, there was still some racecourse protectionism going on. The feared Jack Spot, a real razor man if there ever was one was back on the scene after coming out of the army. One of the first things he did was to razor fellow racecourse protection man, Jimmy Wooder, in an East End Club. The cut was said to be the width of a finger. He was gaining revenge for being slashed himself by Wooder and others years earlier, after which he committed gangland`s cardinal sin of going to the police and getting Wooder and co. put away.
Jack Spot was said to have planned the botched 1948 London Airport robbery.

Some of the robbery attempts by these gangs were something like those old black and white Ealing Studios crime comedy capers.
Billy Hill did a raid on a jewellers in 1936. It was a success - until the car stalled shortly after the getaway and he and others were arrested.

The London Airport robbery of 1948 was said to be going smoothly - the only problem was, the baggage handlers were all coppers. The police had received a tipoff. One man escaped by clinging to the underside of a lorry, but so badly burned in doing so that he had to have treatment and was caught. One gangster said, "the doctors will always turn you in".

A bank robber had to give a clerk a severe coshing to get him to let go of the bag he was clinging on to. When he examined the contents later, it was the lad`s sandwiches.

In the 1950`s a leading gangster and an accomplice did a smash and grab at a jeweller`s shop in broad daylight. They were about to make their getaway but the car wouldn`t start and they were quickly surrounded by the shop staff, then by the general public, then the police.

Three robber`s did a bank raid in London. The manager, an ex WW1 soldier, always kept a gun in his draw. He ran out and fired at the getaway van. One man was injured so badly that they had to take him to hospital. The other two, Bert Rogers and his brother, who was the father of Ted Rogers, the comedian, were easily traced and caught.

Jack Spot was jailed in 1949. As he was going through the prison gates, fellow gangland leader, Billy Hill (not the bookmaker) was coming out. Hill took over most of Spot`s criminal businesses and his gang while he was inside - in other words, behind Spot`s back. In order to gain an early release Jack Spot became an informer (Grass/Nark/Squealer). He moved back onto the racecourses again. Ascot pitches were being controlled by Jimmy Wooder, so Spot had him "cut-up" and forced off the racecourses by Kray hardman/enforcer, Ted Machin. He immediately raised the daily pitch fee from £2 a day to £7. In 1955 he hired the young Kray twins to "look after" his pitches; in return, as well as payment, Jack Spot gave them a pitch at Epsom.

It was said that the Kray`s watched too many gangster films and modelled themselves on 1930`s Chicago Mobsters, who were often played by the likes of Humphrey Bogart and Edward G Robinson. Ronnie Kray would have his barber round every day to shave, groom and scent him for the day ahead : they almost became caricatures of themselves. Somebody must have seen them coming though because in 1963 they paid £1,000 for a horse called Solway Cross. It was still a maiden after 12 outings and hadn`t run for 18 months. Its Timeform rating was just 71. In its only run for them, Solway Cross finished last of 14 in a lowly Windsor handicap. They auctioned it off in the grounds of their restaurant, inside a marquee. The actor Ronald Fraser accidently bought it while drunk at the time.

Jack Spot was now getting a bit old for the rough and tumble of gangsterism. He was told to get off the racecourses by Albert Dimes, who was a pal of Billy Hill and Bert Marsh and had illegal betting businesses and much else - as well as having a pitch at Brighton.
He and Jack Spot clashed at Frith Street, Soho, where Spot was badly cut about with a fruit knife. Spot was attacked again at Capel Street as he was coming home with his wife. Several men set about him to such effect he needed over 70 stitches to his face. His wife Rita went to the police. Several men were arrested: she positively identified Frank Fraser and Bobby Warren, uncle of boxing promoter, Frank Warren. They both were given 7 year sentences.

Gangland played a stunt on Jack Spot. At the committal hearing, ten men who Spot had cut over the years sat up in the gallery. It was said that when he turned around and looked up to see them all huddled together and staring down at him that he turned white as a sheet : they were sending him a message!
To listen to a 5 minute Youtube audio interview with Jack Spot, Just google: Jack Spot.

Bobby Warren was a previous member of the White gang and had lately been operating `pitch allocation` at the East Anglian Point to Points. Ronnie Kray and Ted Machin collected money at the West Country Points. (Ted Machin was later shot dead).
In the mid 1960`s, racecourse security was severely tightened-up, betting shops were opening everywhere and the old gang leaders and members were either dead, getting old, inside prison or had had enough. Racecourses were now much safer places for the staff, bookmakers and racegoers, but it took a long time to achieve it.

I believe at some point on this thread Pony Racing at Northolt was mentioned. Here is a video from the track in 1932 which I'm sure many on here will find interesting.

                        https://ru-clip.com/video/hom0fUsKQ7A/pony-racing-1932.html

More from Northolt Park Races.

https://ru-clip.com/video/zo_wet76pNo/northolt-park-closes-1934.html

Dorothy Paget Video.


https://ru-clip.com/video/xjwQ8oZ3fMY/dorothy-paget-the-eccentric-queen-of-the-sport-of-kings.html

big butch lesbian  from memory whom behaved in a masuline fashion , from a v privileged background . certainly colourful

Thanks for putting those up sparrow. Very entertaining. A poster called KPF also kindly put up some Northolt Park video clips on 25th October. Sobering thought that all those people there are long dead and gone. The lady drawing that load of cash looked as though she was going to enjoy it. The notes were a good size back then. It must have felt as though you had something in your pocket. I hope all those pickpockets back then never helped spend it. I`ll put something up on Northolt and pony racing in a few weeks time. To think Hyperion was not far off being eligible to run in pony races. Now there would have been something to plunder some bookie`s money with on his racecourse debut. Ken "Window" Payne once explained how to fix an excess inch or so.
I`ll put something up on pony racing in a few weeks time.

Thanks Henry and apologies for not noticing the videos put up by KPF in October. I first learnt about Northolt when reading Geoffrey Hamlyn's book "My 60 Years in the Ring". I really enjoyed that book although a few posters on the forum have rubbished it maybe because he was an SP reporter. Just recently the Racing press have picked up on the popularity of Pony racing and giving the impression that it is somehow a new thing in this country!
I look forward to your pony racing article Henry.

Henry, About 20 years ago I was told that Bobby Warren was the man to see if you wanted a pitch at the Arab horse race meetings, he must have been a old man by then, but I suppose old habits die hard.

clayfield 1. If Booby Warren was into selling pitches at Arab racing he must have been pretty hard up. As you say, he would have been getting on in years and mainly reliant on a state pension, although people in his line of "work" don`t usually pay income tax or national insurance so he may have had nothing to come there. He might have ended up a sad Old Lag.
sparrow. There have always been suspicions about some SP reporters. The amount of money paid out nationwide on a race by race basis throughout the year is of course enormous and much hinges on the integrity of the SP reporters. Just a quarter point in a big race can mean so much in terms of volume. Of course the effect is multiplied when applied to winning combination bets. You hear complaints on here all the time. It`s a difficult job to get right in some races and nobody is ever going to be 100% happy.

I enjoyed reading old Geoffrey Hamlyn`s book as well. There was talk about him too. He never mentioned it in the book but Dorothy Paget`s ladies used to come to him when DP wanted a bet, which as you well know was often substantial. He would sort out the amounts and tell them which bookmakers to place each bet with. Of course this caused tongues to wag, with talk about backhanders etc. If this was the case he wouldn`t want to discuss it, but instead talked about it openly in an interview and was even proud to have been chosen for the task by DP`s ladies. Hardly the reaction of somebody receiving backhanders. Also as told in the opening piece I wrote on this thread, Hamlyn infuriated William Hill by refusing to be bullied by him in his knock-out capers.

The one glaring omission of course is the lack of a proper index at the back of the book - always annoying, but so common in racing books. Lots of facts but not as many stories as I would have liked. I did enjoy the one where he had been posted to an intelligence unit during the war and who should be in the unit but Evan Williams, who rode Golden Miller to win a Cheltenham Gold Cup. The officer in charge got so fed up with Hamlyn endlessly chatting to Williams about Golden Miller that he was discharged from the unit and put back on regimental duties, which did not go down well. I also enjoyed the one about old bookmaker, Jack Burns, who became ever more bad tempered as he got older. One afternoon on course he really lost his temper with his long suffering clerk and bellowed, "you`ll drive me to an early grave!" He was 81 at the time.
Old Geoffrey was a real creature of habits: he was the nearest Human Being to an Automaton. In 60 years he never once drove to the races, always caught the train, always the same seating - sitting back to the engine, corridor side - sober suited and bowler/trilby hat with brolly by his side. He was a man of his age and I`m sure as can be he was straight enough.

Oh dear clayfield that was a real slip at the beginning of the post. If he`s still alive and gets to see that he will probably razor me.lol

Henry, I asked one of the bookies at an  Arab horse race meeting who I see about getting a pitch and was told to see Bobby Warren, This was at Pontefract about 20 maybe 25 years ago. One of their rare Saturday meetings.

Slightly off topic a story related to me by one of the "gang" involved

http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-dec-12-1966-1500000-art-robbery-on-dulwich-gallery-the-worlds-biggest-69425488.html

Three young " jack the lads " from Islington cased the museum and on December 12th 1966 carried out the worlds biggest art theft.

Breaking into the museum was fairly easy , however the car they used for their getaway stalled about half a mile from the museum. It was in fact a very foggy night . The car had no automatic starter and required a hand crank to start it.Frantically swinging the crank a police car with bells ringing was heard approaching. Through the fog it appeared and roared past them on its way to the museum .

Our young " masterminds " took their loot to Sollie The Fence the next day. By now the news of the theft was headlines on all media outlets. Sollie , being somewhat wiser than our trio, declined to handle what was now the  hottest property in the world .

The lads attempted to find a "buyer" but failed and so after 5 days "arranged" to return the paintings which were left behind some dustbins.

And so ended "The greatest art theft of all time"

Anyone care to value their loot at todays prices . ?????

The first greyhound stadium in the UK was built at Belle Vue, Manchester. It`s founders were : Sir William Gentle, Brigadier-General Alfred Critchley and Major L Lyne Dixon. Between them they raised £22,000 by way of a £10,000 bank loan and issuance of shares. The stadium was constructed and opened on 24th July, 1926 and with it, the Greyhound Racing Association was formed.

The first meeting consisted of 6 races, 7 dogs per race (cut to 6 dogs two years later). The opening race was won by Mistey @ 6/1. Years later a stand was named after him.
A loss was made on that first meeting as only 1,700 people attended. Astonishingly an aggregate of 16,000 attended the second week during 3 meetings as dog racing really took off - within weeks the average attendance was 11,000 per meeting. The founders were soon able to pay off their bank loan and the shares rocketed. They were quickly on their way looking at other possible sites.
Greyhound racing boomed as it spread nationwide, with aggregate attendances rapidly advancing from 5.5 million in 1927 to 13.5 million in 1928.

In that first year of licenced greyhound racing in 1926, a seemingly insignificant event occurred in Co. Offaly, Ireland. An enthusiastic hare coursing, gambling priest, Father Brophy, owned a b1tch called, Na Noc Lei. One day she gave birth to a litter of 10 whelps, among whom was a brindle puppy dog, who a little later was named Mick the Miller. He was to achieve legendary status around the English-speaking world and was not only to establish the sport`s popularity, but expanded it. Along with Easter Hero and Golden Miller, Mick the Miller helped to lighten the worst years of the Great Depression.

In 1929 he had a run of 22 wins from 24 races and the following year had a run of 19 consecutive wins before being knocked over and badly injured at Wimbledon.
In his final year of racing (1931), he made his farewell appearance in the Greyhound St Leger in front of 40,000 spectators at Wembley.  There were some who doubted that he could maintain his ability at the very top over 700 metres. As the even money favourite, they were proved wrong as those who were there saw him hang on to win a thrilling race.
There are enormous numbers of people who have never attended a greyhound meeting in their lives, yet many of them will still have heard the name.......Mick the Miller.

Unfortunately, as most people know, whenever anything becomes popular, and vast amounts of money starts sloshing around, it soon attracts the attention of unscrupulous people. Greyhound racing was no different. Stimulants, tranquilisers and other sharp practices soon found their way into the sport and at some tracks, results started to become unpredictable.
As said in a previous post, Tom Divall was a Met policeman who joined as an illiterate young man in the early 1880`s, but through hard work and attending part-time board school rose to become one of the `Big-Four` in the Met. After retirement he became a racecourse detective; his final year of work being at a dog track in 1928. As can be interpreted from the piece below, he did not have a very high opinion of the sport. He retired the following year to the South Coast where, in March, 1943, he was killed during an enemy bombing raid.
The final third or so may read like of a sermon from the pulpit but he was appalled at the cheating that was going on; also it has to be remembered it was written around 90 years ago.

" Early in 1928 I took a certain position at a greyhound racing track and, just for everyone`s guidance, I will relate a few of the malpractices that occurred there. The first of the unfair business I discovered there was trainers` lumbering the public. That is to say an owner or his trainer would hand money to an agent to back a dog, of course putting a reasonable amount of money on. The public would follow the agent and back the dog. It would immediately be made favourite at a short price.
Having succeeded, another man would be engaged, unknown to the first one, to back an outsider at a long price, which would win. The public would therefore be on the wrong dog and lose their money. This became so frequent that I reported the matter on several occasions and these men were severely dealt with".

I suspected something else, and one morning a trainer came to me and said (for obvious reasons I shall use a nom de plume), " I can`t back any of my dogs today, I caught Smith stuffing them this morning; it is awful is it not?". I said " the villainy going on here is dreadful ". He said : " it is, and I am taking all my dogs away from here; I won`t stand it any longer ".
A few weeks later a well known man came to me in the ring after a race had finished and said to me : "Tom, this winner has been rung-in (a Ringer). I said, " Are you sure? ". He said : Yes ". I went direct to the Managing Director and told him what I had heard. He said : " Nothing of the kind ". I said : " Very well, we shall see " . I made further enquiries and was absolutely correct.
The owner of the dog, I was told, had a hundred pounds on it, at starting price, which was three to one. The favourite was six to four On, and the owner of the favourite is a very respectable man.

The pitiful complaints I had from the hard working men and women at this track were heart-breaking. I will state cases : A poor woman cried to me and told me she had lost every penny she had. A very hard working man complained to me that he had lost all his money and had to walk home six miles.
A few weeks ago I was at a meeting just to see what was going on. A man I know well came to me and said : " You had better get on Funny Face, the favourite is stuffed ". There is little doubt it was, for Funny Face won.

I have many friends who have money invested in these greyhound racing companies and other friends who are very well-connected in positions in some of them : that is their business, not mine. My advice to working men and women is to cut it out. Have nothing to do with any of it; from what I have seen at the meetings it is about as straight as a butcher`s hook. Those who can afford to speculate and those in-the-know are in a different position.
If you have a few shillings to spare, put it in the Post Office Saving Bank, don`t risk it in a sport such as this, and do not make your lives unhappy and miserable and half-starve yourself. On the 24th December next go and buy a turkey, have a good bust-up with the old woman and kiddies, think of them and first be happy and make them happy also. Far better than being fleeced of it by backing slow and corrupted dogs.

If you must have a day`s racing, have a half-day occasionally, go and see horse racing, not flash of lightening. Some of the good bookmakers are disgusted with the greyhound racing. One told me he was getting a hundred pounds a week out of it, but would like to see it folded up. Another rattling good fellow told me that he was doing well at it but nevertheless it was a dirty game and was terrible for the working man, especially those who could not control themselves. I class myself as a British workman and I want all other British workmen to do the thing that is right".

Here is a couple of examples of what went on years later. Barney Curley told how his father was one of the worst offenders when it came to stopping dogs and that it never occurred to him that it was morally wrong. There were not many dope tests post-war and so Charlie Curley used to put a special tablet supplied by a chemist friend in a ball of mincemeat and give it to the dog, which had the effect of slowing it down by around 10 lengths. One Saturday night, Curley Snr. set off to Dunmore Park with a dog called The F@g. It opened at 10/1 and was backed down to 6/4 : it romped home. Two day`s later the dog reappeared in a similarly moderate race at Celtic Park in front of 2,000 spectators
The F@g was heavily gambled on - down to 2/7 at the off. It had a whole second in hand on Time, but was well beaten. The crowd knew they had been done by another Charlie Curley stumer. There was a rythmic stamping of the feet and cries of, " Out, Out, Out " in protest. The track management took the dog up to their offices and when Charlie Curley arrived there to collect his dog he was told, " As long as your name is what it is, you`ll never run a dog here again ".

A well-known present-day Tatt`s layer once had Flapping greyhounds. This is one of the stories he told about those days.
" I once had a dog named Exclusive Native, who, whenever the money was down on his handsome nose, never once failed to oblige. In fact he was more reliable than most human beings I`ve come across. But every now and then we didn`t want him to win, in order to get a price when he was trying; and in order to slow him down we had little schemes, like feeding him a sausage not long before the race. Not any old sausage, however, but a sausage with an Aspirin concealed inside. That took the edge off him I can tell you ".

A greyhound`s brain is about the size of a hen`s egg, so if an Aspirin has an effect on a large 3LBS human brain, it certainly will have many times that effect on a dog brain. Aspirin causes a chemical to be released which often causes lethargy in dogs. It has to be chewed by the dog, otherwise, unlike humans, and because of the coating, it will go straight through the digestive system and out the other end whole.

Of course, not all large amounts of money are won at the dogs by cheating with the dogs in a direct way, but by more subtle and technical means, even though unscrupulous........if you get paid, that is.

In 1964 the only things I knew about Dagenham, Essex were, firstly, the Dagenham Girl Pipers, who every year put on a great display for the TV cameras and the people lining the streets. The heart-rate of every red-blooded man was raised as the Drum Major tossed and twirled her Mace. Secondly there was the seemingly endless 1960`s car strikes and sackings at the Ford Dagenham plant.
My favourite comedy film, `I`m All Right Jack` , made in 1958, was probably initiated by the infamous " Bellringer " strikes and mass sackings of 1957 as Shop Steward, Johnny McGloughlin rang his bell and shouted : "Everybody Out! ". Peter Seller`s didn`t ring a bell, but he did say : " Everybody Out! ".

Thirdly, there was the Dagenham Coup, or to give it its unofficial title : Operation Sandpaper (because it was designed to rub the bookies up the wrong way).
The aim was to manipulate the Tote straight forecast dividend on one particular race, in order to produce a massive Tote dividend for that straight forecast to a single 2 shilling unit (10p) and net a fortune off-course by placing large numbers of units on that forecast at Tote odds.
The two men who hatched the scheme were London businessman, John Turner and betting shop owner, Leslie Carey.

Basically the operation consisted of 170 people, split into three groups, with each group given a specific task.
Group one consisted of a gang of heavies who would provide the muscle - blocking off all the 31 Tote windows/booths to the general public. There were at least two men per window, each with a large bag of silver and placing the straight forecast bets throughout the interval between the 5th and 6th races. It was vital that nobody outside of this gang be allowed to place a bet. Anybody complaining was met with an angry look and a scowl.

The second group were given the the job of placing the combination forecasts around the betting shops nationwide, and if possible, without arousing suspicions that something was afoot.
The third group`s task was to jam the telephone circuits connected to the Tote service and to any other telephone at the track.

The race chosen for the coup was the 4.05, the 6th race on the card on Tuesday, 30th June, 1964, over the marathon trip of 840 metres.
This race was chosen, partly because the long distance would give one of the fancied dogs a good chance to recover, should it miss the break, but mainly because it had two rank outsiders who were almost certain to finish at the back - both were priced up at 33/1 (afterwards it was rumoured that both dogs had been " sorted " anyway). It was vital that neither of these two dogs be placed.
The other runners were : trap 1, Dancing Nell @ 4/6; trap 5, Buckwheat @ 2/1; trap 6, Handsome Lass @ 9/2 + trap 2 @ 25/1.

After the 5th race had been run, a lot of punters made their way to the Tote windows, only to find all 31 busy. These aggressive-looking characters took the whole of the race interval buying nothing but straight forecasts on 3 & 4 and 4 & 3, the two rank outsiders - roughly 11,000 2 shilling tickets in total, thus massively running-up the dividend on the other 12 possible straight forecast dividends on traps, 1, 2, 5, 6. One of the gang was charged with buying just one ticket on each of those 12 straight forecasts.

While this was going on, the off-course team members were busy going around the betting shops placing straight forecast combinations on those four dogs. They managed to get just over 300 tickets on each of the 12 possible straight forecasts at Tote returned dividend.
Therefore, whichever of those forecasts was correct, there would be approximately 300 multiplied by the dividend to collect, in total.
The betting shop chains eventually got wind of what was going on and frantically tried to get money back to the track in order to get the Tote forecast odds back into line. However, all the telephone lines had been successfully jammed, so they were foiled.

It was 4.05 and they were running : it was a one-dog race as trap 5, buckwheat won by 8 lengths from trap 6, meaning the forecast was secured - mission accomplished! Of course, with the loading of almost 99.9% of straight forecasts on 3 & 4 and 4 & 3 meant a massively skewed dividend no matter which of the four dogs filled the places because there would be just the one winning ticket that would scoop the pool, minus deductions. The Tote dividend was declared at £987 11s 6d to a 2s unit stake.
So, with just over 300 units placed off-course at Tote prices, it meant that there would be £987 11s 6d multiplied by 300 + to come - approximately £300,000 (£4.5 million today), for a total of around £1,500 staked on and off-course.

The bookmakers` cried foul and the heads of the big firms quickly convened a meeting at the Victoria Club. They, and others who joined them, all agreed to declare the betting on the race null and void and to refund all stakes.
In their favour, the coup operators held legitimate winning tickets, there had been no meddling in the race and the police found they had not done anything legally wrong.
Under Britain`s Gaming Act at that time, a bookmaker could not sue a punter, and vica versa. The bookmaker`s however, sued Dagenham Stadium for " Failing to operate their Tote properly and John Turner for procuring odds by unlawful means ". John Turner sued the bookmakers - he wrote to the courts, asking that the bookmakers` licences not be renewed, but this request was unsuccessful. The full court case lasted two years.

The court ruling on the case was: -
All legal costs incurred by Dagenham should be paid by off-course bookmakers.
All off-course bookmakers` should return the stake money.
The one winning ticket at Dagenham should be paid.
Some independents` made generous payments to regulars.
The Sporting Life told bookmakers that by refusing to pay " they have done themselves the greatest possible disservice ".

The only thing that registered with me about the name, Rochester, was The Pickwick Papers and Jack Benny`s valet. However, the name, Rochester, reared its head again in May, 1978 when the " Rochester Dog Coup " made the headlines. At Rochester stadium an evening meeting took place. There was a series of three sponsored races, called the " Long and Short Stakes ", run over dual distances of 277 metres and 901 metres on the same card. The first two races were sprint heats over the 277 metres - the first three home in each heat would contest the marathon final over 901 metres 90 minutes later.

Trainer Jack Purvis, who, prior to becoming a trainer, had owned a betting shop at Leysdown, Kent, entered two dogs - one in each of the sprint heats. They were called Leysdown Pleasure and Leysdown Fun.
Punter`s knew very little about these two dogs. The reason was that they were ex Irish and both had been given new names upon their arrival at Jack Purvis`s kennels.
Leysdown Pleasure had once been Rathsaker Stuart and Leysdown Fun, Band Major. Unknown to punters they had been putting in some fast times at Newbridge and Shelbourne Park.

In the first heat, Leysdown Pleasure opened at 8/1. However, one bookmaker was particularly vocal and knocked the dog`s odds right out to 33/1. It romped home by 3.5 lengths from the 8/11 favourite, Top Fancy. This 33/1 was the price returned by SP reporter, Melvyn Harrison. The bookmaker knocking out the odds was later said to have been involved in the coup.
In the second sprint heat, Leysdown Fun completed the double at 4/1.
The marathon final was an irrelevance so far as the coup was involved as the two sprints were the races that mattered. Leysdown Pleasure was tailed-off and Leysdown Fun was withdrawn " lame ".

These two winners represented only part of the coup as other winners at Rochester, Crayford and Walthamstow had been included with them in off-course doubles and trebles to substantial stakes, meaning big payouts from the high street chains. ladbrokes alone had been taken for £50,000 - total winning were thought to be around £400,000 (£1.5 today).
It was later rumoured that the two dogs had been placed in the care of a highly experienced private trainer (unattached to NGRC tracks) prior to Rochester and he had given them runs in Flapping races - so no form in the NGRC form book. They were then returned to Jack Purvis prior to Rochester.

After news broke of the coup, Jack Purvis said, " I know no more than anybody else and have no idea where the money for my dogs came from ".
Many of the independent shops paid out, but after convening a meeting with BOLA the big chains refused to pay. Lawyers and solicitors` were involved, but the punters` solicitors` were no match for the big bookmakers` legal teams who were prepared for the long haul, and were forced to withdraw.

The very end result was disappointment and anger for the organisers of the coup - the final payback was a lot of betting shop doorlocks and keyhole`s being filled with Superglue.
Both Dagenham and Rochester closed within months of the coup attempts.

I remember the Dagenham Coup of 1964 very well as at the time I worked at Maxie Parker's shop in London's West End at Poland Street. When the near Thousand pound forecast was announced over the blower there was absolute uproar in the shop!
Another forum poster could tell you more about that famous day though.

sparrow. I bet the blower and phone lines between the betting shops were red hot that evening. Close on 10,000/1 about a 2/1 and 9/2 forecast. Having jammed the telephone circuits and block-off the Tote windows meant they were never going to get paid; although maybe if they had gone for a much smaller win, say 15% of what they "won" then perhaps they would have been paid.
I do think the bookmakers were wrong to refuse payment at Rochester. Maybe they were cunning in changing the names of the two Irish flyers but nothing illegal about that. Besides, there was plenty that could have gone wrong for them. £1.5 million in today`s money is not a lot when spread amongst quite a few firms, and several big firms at that......just a few day`s profits, that`s all. They did themselves a lot of harm there and BOLA were perceived as disreputable by punters. That organisation was as thick-skinned as they come.
By the way, what was Max Parker like to work for?

KPF. In answer to your question on the value of those stolen pictures it`s impossible to say. It all depends on the size, quality, condition etc. Rembrandt and Reubens are big names indeed and if any of those pictures was top of the range then they could fetch anything. Reubens` `Massacre of the Innocents` made about £50 million a long time ago. Anything by those two artists will be worth millions today. The gang were never going to sell those pictures - it was silly of them to even try. Nobody was ever going to touch them.
For the really top quality pictures by the present `in-vogue` artists it has become a playground for the billionaires and the billionaire foundations, museums and dealers. The super-rich have so much money sloshing around and looking for a home that they choose to put some of it into expensive art, so jacking up the prices. Many of those same pictures will be on sale again in a decade or so. It is more a merry-go-round for the sake of money and status/prestige, and much less to do with art and aesthetics.
A few years ago a picture by Cezanne went for $250 million; another by Gauguin for $300 million and recently the one (possibly) by Leonardo de Vinci, in terrible condition, for $450 million. Crazy! As for me, I`d rather pull off a coup at the local flapper.

Just recently

That's a wonderful post about greyhound racing @ 16.38 Henry the Seventh, thanks for that, I really enjoyed reading it.

Henry........... I only worked for Maxie Parker a short while as I was just 17 and a trainee settler. They shoved me in a back office all day checking the previous days betting slips and then sent me round the West End shops laying off bets. And yes I was only 17!
I was well acquainted with those wonderful stories you posted as I went greyhound racing virtually every day in the 60s to tracks long gone such as Clapton and Harringay.

Northolt Park, Middlesex was not only Britain`s finest pony racing racecourse, it put over 80% of racecourses racing under Jockey Club and National Hunt Committee rules to shame. Racing under Pony Turf Club Rules (PTC), the facilities were second to none, with a Members` Stand, Tattersall`s Stand, two Silver Ring Stands and two Cheap Enclosure Stands, all tiered and covered with lawn and flower beds at the front and rear. All had access to the tote buildings. The Members` Stand was past the winning post and all other stands were between the winning line and the furlong marker so that everybody got a good view of the closing stages of a race. The long Tote building was between the Tattersall`s Stand and Silver Ring so that both had access - later, another stand was added to the top of the Tote building for extra viewing. The Cheap Enclosure had its own Tote facility. The Parade Ring was situated by the running rail and was elongated so that Tatts and Silver Ring racegoers could all get a view of the runners before a race. Before racing, wooden tiered steps were placed around it.

The Tattersall`s Stand which had plated clear glass sides for ease of viewing consisted of Boxes, Press Room, Seating, Lifts, Restaurant, Bars, Telephone Boxes, Tote Booths and uniformed attendants on patrol selling Tote tickets for those who did not wish to leave the Bars or their Restaurant seating.
The secretary of the Racegoer`s Association walked into the Tatt`s restaurant and thought he had entered Members`. Racing correspondent, Quintin Gilbey, walked into the Tatt`s restaurant and said he thought he was in the Ritz or the Berkeley. Indeed, it had been specially designed along the lines of the Savoy, Ritz and Dorchester. And all for the entrance charge of 3s 6d into Tatts`.

There was a very large electric timing clock situated high-up in full view of all spectators. This clock was started automatically on the release of the starting gate and stopped by the nose of the winning horse breaking a ray across the winning line, so making racetimes very accurate. Many years passed before electrical timing reached even the top racecourses, and some were still using hand timing 50 years after Northolt. Even the starting gate was advanced; if a horse charged the gate, a mechanism moved the gate back and up slightly so that the horse and jockey would not become entangled and frightened, as often happened with the traditional gates. Remember, this was late 1920` and 1930`s. Many racing officials from overseas came to Northolt to gain ideas. NP also gave the first ever racecourse commentary - by Leonard Jayne - in 1937, 15 years before the main racecourses. Bob Haynes, a former Coldstream Guards sergeant gave this at Goodwood in 1952. Previously a Racing Reorganisation Committee had decided that : " any form of broadcasting during the progress of a race can only lead to confusion ".

Northolt became the first to install a watering system, and the first to appoint Stipendary Stewards : one in the `Crow`s Nest` opposite the stands, one at the entrance to the home straight and one at the end of the back straight. These `stipes` were there to assist and advise the stewards of any unusual occurrences during the running of a race. The stipes were always handed betting movements before a race.
There was parking for 6,000 cars. Free return buses were laid on from South Harrow Tube Station to and from Northolt Park for every meeting. A director said, " A great day out racing for the working man, and plenty of change from a ten shilling note ".

There were many other pony racing courses around the country : Hawthorn Hill, Greenford, Wadebridge, Lambert`s Castle, Glastonbury, Shirley Park Sketty Park, Portsmouth, Christchurch, Chelmsford, Weymouth, plus a clutch of them in Devon.......Plymouth, Bideford, Bovey Tracey, Dawlish, Bude, Crediton and Dartmoor. Of course none had the facilities of NP but they all came under the auspices of the Pony Turf Club and its rules.

Northolt had good prize money and several notable races :

The Northolt Derby - 1,000 Sovs
The Metropolitan Plate (their 2,000 Guineas equivalent) - 500 Sovs
The Northolt Summer Cup (1,000 Guineas) - 500 Sovs
The Empire Cup - 500 Sovs
The Champion Two Year Old Plate - 500 Sovs

The trainer/jockey combination of Pat Donoghue/Tommy Carey won three consecutive Derbys.
Attendance in 1937 was 236,000 and Tote turnover was £496,000 (£18 million today).
476 ponies were registered in training.
Northolt pulled off a coup in 1938 when the BBC televised the Northolt Derby. Viewers saw Colonel Sir P Carlebach`s Flying Jib, trained by AM (Monty Smyth) and ridden by Tommy Griffiths beat 20 opponents. Smyth and Griffiths finished the season as champion trainer and jockey, thus breaking the stranglehold of Donoghue and Carey. Dorothy Paget was top owner that year.
Pat Donoghue was a son of the great jockey Steve, who was very proud of his son`s achievements and would often come to Northolt to cheer his son`s horses on.
Pat rode the winner of the 1926 Lincoln on the 100/1 chance, King of Clubs, carrying 6st 2Lbs. Weight problems soon beset him so he switched to jumping; he rode the winner of the Imperial Cup. From there he moved to America where he was known as, "the best jumps boy in England". On retiring from the saddle, he had an enormously successful partnership with Tommy Carey. Pat Donoghue later moved to train in France.

Other well known owners of the time at NP were, Geoffrey Gilbey, William Hill, Sir Alfred Butt, Captain Jolliffe, Lady Lochore, GT Johnson- Houghton, Lady Willoughby de Broke, Mrs Chester Beatty, Mr J Ismay, Captain T Morris Bt., Miss E Jayne and Miss V Leeper. The last two named shared a house, yard and horses. Miss Jayne also shared horses with Captain Morris Bt .....they both had family and business interests in South Wales. He owned Sketty Park near Swansea, home of the racecourse. She also had horses in Jamaica. She attended Northolt`s final meeting, caught a chill and died. Her obituary appeared in the Jamaican newspaper, The Gleaner.

The basic rules of pony racing are : -
The animal must be a thoroughbred; it must be no more than 15 Hands from the platform to the withers (a Hand is approximately 4").
No 2yo pony exceeding 14.3 Hands, nor one older exceeding 15 Hands is allowed to race.
Ponies must be measured before being entered for any race.
2yo`s are measured after 1st May; older ones after 1st June.
The official measurer must be a qualified vet and must be accompanied in his task by a member of the Pony Club.
The Official Measurer is appointed annually by the stewards and cannot hold more than one office.

Normally a pony would be measured at the racecourse; however, if a pony is measured at a trainer`s stable, then a suitable measuring platform must be provided and a fee of £1 10s is charged, plus all expenses incurred by the official measurer + the cost of the certificate.
If a pony is considered in an unfit state, then a report is submitted to the stewards for disciplinary action.

Some very heavy punting went on at Northolt. Scottish Rifle won the 1939 Northolt Derby for Dorothy Paget. In an earlier race, the horse was a 1/10 shot and Miss Paget had several bets at that price, including one of £10,000/£100,000. It was about 3 classes above its opponent and won in a canter. However, she had some expensive reverses and some people began to question the validity of the Formbook as there was too many of these reverses occurring. It affected the turnover and attendances as some punters began to vote with their feet during the second half of 1938. Turnover and attendance saw a 5-10% drop. There were some honest bookmakers who would take a large bet, such as, Billy Chandler and Ernest Simmonds; but there was also William Hill and Mo Tarsh. A trainer and his friend were having a drink at the bar. The trainer had two runners in a later race. "Which one do you want to win?" asked the man. The trainer cynically replied, "it`s not what I want to win that counts, it`s what Mo Tarsh wants to win.

Tommy Carey later became a top rider on the major racecourses, winning the 1943 Derby at Newmarket`s July course on Straight Deal for Dorothy Paget. He was a gambling jockey on a huge scale : accepted backhanders, backed them and layed them.
One of the top trainers at Northolt was AM Monty Smyth. Time and again a Monty Smyth favourite, ridden by Carey, was beaten in a tight finish. " He`s an unlucky little devil for me " said the unsuspecting Monty.
Tommy Carey became a trainer at Epsom, where the heavy gambling continued, although he didn`t have quite the same advantage he`d had as a jockey. He was soon on the slippery slope. One bookmaker said he`d had £100,000 off him in a single year (almost £2 million today).
Tommy not only lost everything but got into serious debt. His death was reported in March 1964. The cause of death was almost certainly suicide.

Northolt ceased racing, along with other pony racing courses when France fell in mid 1940 : it went into official receivership and became a POW and a transit and vehicle depot. After the cessation of hostilities, the old committee and a few newer ones were making plans to reopen Northolt Park for pony racing once again. This was widely reported in the papers. They had a shock however when later, in another newspaper, it was reported that Northolt Park was to be turned into a housing estate. The owners, others with capital invested and many who looked forward to a career there had not been consulted.

Lewis Silkin MP (father of John and Sam Silkin who served in the Wilson Cabinets), was the Minister for Town and Country planning in the Atlee Cabinet, had given permission to James Hudson MP (Ealing West - Labour) to build 900 houses on Northolt Park.
All the NP people were shocked and appealed, saying that they race 56 days a year, double the number of any racecourse run under Jockey Club and National Hunt Committee Rules. They said, " it would deprive hard-pressed and bombed-out Londoners of a day`s racing at an affordable price ". Besides, they reasoned, nearby Downs Barns would cost only a third of the price to purchase.
This all fell on deaf ears as the council set out on its compulsory order path - despite a popular vote among the locals in favour of resuming racing there.

A battle took place by way of public meetings and through the newspaper columns. The council made its monetary position known. A wealthy racing enthusiast, Neal Christey (President of the Eccentric Club), offered to purchase Northolt Park at a price above its commercial value, resume racing there and organise other events between racing days, such as, football, tennis, show jumping, swimming, agricultural shows etc.
The Sporting Life weighed in with : " The Newmarket of pony racing, as well as the best, cheapest and most modern racecourse in Britain ".
There was also a cultural clash between the two sides in this battle: the council was made up of mostly conscientious objectors and socialists, whereas the owners, executives, stewards and committee consisted of ex army officers and conservatives, whether with a small c or a large one, can only be guessed at. The local MP, James Hudson, was an ardent socialist, conscientious objector and Quaker, who considered the racecourse, with all its drinking and gambling, to be akin to a `Den of Iniquity`. He stated : " Northolt Park will close with the stroke of a pen! ". The council pressed ahead with the compulsory purchase order. One NP member said, " whither Northolt, whither pony racing ". The `Battle of Northolt Park` was over. The stewards accused them of a Nazi or Soviet style land grab. The executive and committee members said they were behaving like " old Kings, Norman noblemen and wicked Earls ". And so Northolt Park closed. There was a certain irony in the fact that although 177 homes were initially built on a small section of the property, away from the racecourse and the stands and other racecourse areas, not another brick was laid for almost 10 years.

A lot of the NP equipment was moved up to Hawthorn Hill, which began pony racing again in 1947. In May of that year it saw an attendance record of over 8,000. However, the racing checks were not as rigid as Northolt and corruption reared its ugly head. Within just 4 years the stands had emptied - racegoers had voted with their feet; the final meeting was in October, 1951. Shirley Park, Birmingham soldiered on for another 2 years; its last meeting took place in November, 1953. I think it was Cubone who told the story of a `jockey`s race` there. In one particular race, they had arranged the Tricast between them. There was a row of trees at the end of the back straight. As the runners went behind the row of trees, the Tricast position was hopeless; however, on emerging from behind the trees, the runners were in perfect Tricast order and stayed that way to the line.
All other courses closed and the Pony Turf Club was liquidated in 1956. Hawthorn Hill did have one final go, reopening in 1961. however, the same old problems arose. Ken "window" Payne, who, in the 1960`s, became known as " the Selling Race King " told how he landed his first big touch at Hawthorn Hill.

It shocked racing authorities when he revealed in his autobiography that he had used steroids to help his horses to win.
During his National Service he was sent to Malaya. While out there he had a period of invalidity - his C. O. was a racing-mad Major. He got to know the Major`s vet, a man named Georgie. He showed Payne how to get a win out of moderate or poor horses. They never went on from that first treatment, so it was ideal for pulling off a single gamble and then selling the horse.
Payne applied for his pony racing licence, and got it : he had completed an apprenticeship under that martinet, Atty Persse, which was good enough. The pay there for the first year was 2 shillings a week (just over a fiver a year). On his own admission, Payne had received many a thrashing from him. Persse once said, " ...for although I believe in treating my boys well, I also believe in giving them their just desserts when well and truly earned ".

Ken Payne had a filly in his charge called Fantasia; she was very fast - but only for four furlongs, then she would fold up inside the  last. The other problem was that she was over 15 Hands. He decided how to win with her; he would follow Malayan vet Georgie`s method, then worry about her size. First he cleaned out her stomach and then lined it with a special oil; then she was given vitamin B and iron, then a good feed of mash. Finally came the injection of anabolic steroids in her neck : 2cc`s to begin with every 4 days for a duration of 3 weeks; then a gradual increase in dosage, the final one being given 4 days before the race.
Fantasia blossomed and really impressed in a gallop in which he rode her and knew she was ready to win, so he entered her in a race at Hawthorn Hill.

The only problem now was getting past the measuring man. Payne need not have worried as these men were easily taken care of. Some of them stick a long pin up into the stick to ensure the horse is no more than 15 Hands. he was was easily won over with a " drink ".
Payne booked a very good lady rider, Josephine Clark. Everything was now set for the race. The filly was very excitable beforehand and threw her rider. However they manged to get her to post. The money was already down - 10/1 was the opening show and the bets were spread around.
The field lined up and were off. Fantasia was well away as usual. She was 5 lengths clear at the furlong pole, which is where she normally tied up, but on this occasion, she went further away from them and unable to be pulled up for another furlong : the steroids had done their work.
Even Payne admitted, " the drugs, ringers etc were a joke ". The `Form` also became a joke and, as had happened just over 10 years earlier at HH, punters voted with their feet and the stand`s empties.

Hawthorn Hill became a flapping track for a while, but that soon folded. After changing hands a few times, the property came into the ownership of Clive Smith, who was later to own Kauto Star. His line of business was building golf courses and then selling them on as going concerns. This is what he did with Hawthorn Hill, which then became Bird Hills Golf Course.

Not too far back on this thread, sparrow put up some scenes from Northolt, as did KPF on 25th October, I think.

The biggest enemy to punters is of course, the non-trier. Another enemy, which affects everyone connected, most of all the horse itself, is doping. Some of the earliest recorded crimes were in the late 1700`s. In May 1772 a horse called Rosebud was poisoned in his stable while strongly fancied for a race at York. In September of that year, at Scarborough, a horse named To$$pot was doped with poison.
In 1778 a filly called Miss Nightingale died in agony on the Sunday before her race at Boroughbridge. On examination her stomach contained two pounds of duckshot, made up with putty balls. It was then mixed with feed to make her swallow.
This however was small-time doping compared to what was to come in later years.

The doping of horses was a pretty gruesome affair in the old days, with arsenic poured into the watertrough, so leaving the animal to experience terrible agonies, and often to die.
In the late 1770`s the Jockey Club barred touts from Newmarket Heath. However, this did not work and the touts continued to infest the Heath, hiding in ditches and behind hedges. One of these touts was named Daniel Dawson - he was in the pay of the unscrupulous bookmakers, the Bland brothers.

During that period, trainers had their own watertroughs on the Heath. After work, the horses were allowed to drink. One day, horses from the string trained by Stevens were taken ill - two of them dying : it was obvious the water in the trough had been poisoned. The Jockey Club offered a reward to anyone who could lead them to the perpertrators. However, nothing was to materialise.
Two years later, some of the best horses trained by Richard Prince, including some who were being heavily bet ante-post for major races, drank their fill after work. A few refused to drink - obviously their sense of smell detecting something wrong with the water. Those that did drink became very ill. Three horses owned by Sir Frank Standish died in agony. The Jockey Club put up a huge reward to anyone who could lead them to the villains.

The amount offered was irresistable and Daniel Dawson, who had gone into hiding, was turned in. He appeared at Cambridge Assizes in 1811 to answer the charges brought against him. Under examination it was understood that he had obtained the poison from a chemist and doped them on behalf of the bookmakers so that they could be layed heavily to lose ante-post in their big race engagements. Dawson also admitted doping horses at Doncaster.
Previously Dawson had been a popular man around Newmarket and, despite what he had done, several people tried to save him, but to no avail, and Dawson was sentenced to death for his crimes.
Daniel Dawson stood on the scaffold atop of Cambridge jail, his face covered, the noose around his neck, and before 15,000 spectators was hanged.
Amazingly, the bookmakers, thought to be the wicked Bland brothers, were never charged.

The main cause of nobbling was the colossal sums of money bet. In 1806 £1 million had already been wagered on the St Leger two months before the race was run; therefore knocking a fancied runner out of the race was extremely lucrative for the bookmakers - even more so if nearer the event. Doping, or other forms of nobbling for big rewards must have been very tempting to poorly paid stable staff.
Plenipotentiary, who had won the 1834 Derby in a canter was a red hot favourite for the St Leger, but was beaten a long way, finishing one from last. Tests revealed he was almost certainly poisoned. The horse almost fell 3 times on the way to post - his jockey saying to fellow rider John Scott, " my horse is dead as a stone ". He was already beaten 6 furlongs out and even finished behind the horse who had finished last in the Derby : the head lad told all on his death bed. Plenipotentiary was a failure at stud and ended up servicing half-breds at a fiver a time.

In the crooked Derby of 1844, the well fancied Ratan was not only doped, but jockey Sam Rogers paid to pull the horse.
In the Derby of 1845, Old England, trained by John Day was doped before the Derby by the trainer`s son, William, and two accomplices called Stebbings and Bloodworth. The horse drifted right out in the betting and was beaten : all three were warned off.
In 1848 John Kent, who trained Surplice to win the Derby of that year from his Goodwood stables said, " It was common to dope or lame horses and there was several attempts to bribe the lads ".
In April 1892 John Porter housed the ante-post favourite for the 2,000 Guineas and Derby in the form of Orme. After some impressive work on the 21st April, Orme was put back in his box at 12.30pm looking in the pink of condition. Five hours later when the door was opened again, the horse was lifeless, with trails of slime running from his nostrils. For the next 2 days his life was in the balance. It took several days of treatment with antidotes being administered before Orme recovered, but was not well enough to run in either the Guineas or the Derby.

In the 1890`s there occurred the so-called, " American invasion ". American owners, trainers and jockeys arrived to not only challenge the natives` racehorses, but also, especially with one trainer, to clean up in the betting ring.
Jockey`s Skeets Martin, Danny Maher, Tod Sloan and the Reiff brothers, Johnny and Lester : the first two were honest, the last three, not so. The three main trainers to come over were named, Huggins, Joyner and Wishart. The last named was financed by hotelier, John Drake and two professional gamblers, John W Bet-a-Million Gates and Charles Dwyer. This period was known as " The epoch of the Yankee alchemists ".

Huggins and Joyner were honest : Wishart was not. George Lambton had found out that Enoch Wishart had become the trainer with the most number of winners in 1900 was because he had been administering his horses cocaine. He had become known as a " good " doper because he knew the exact dose to give a horse to enable it to win without damaging the animal in any way.
Lambton reported this to the Jockey Club, who doubted him; so he set about proving his case. With their permission he administered cocaine to 5 of his poorest horses before their races : Four of them won, the other finished 2nd. All of these horses appeared crazed before their races, but then ran well above their former natural capabilities. Following this, the Jockey Club officially banned all stimulants and tranquilisers from horse racing under Rules, taking effect from 1903.
The Americans then moved to France where they began outstripping the locals in terms of numbers of winners, who then began doping their own horses. The authorities were desperate to find a solution. This came in the form of the saliva test, invented by Professor Frankael of Austria in 1910. In 1912, Bourbon Rose, who won the Gold Cup at Maison Lafitte, provided the first positive dope test in France and was subsequently disqualified.

In 1930 a horse named Don Pat won a handicap at Kempton : a drugs test proved positive. The steward`s addressed trainer Charles Chapman thus : " We have given careful thought to this case. We have come to the conclusion that Don Pat was doped and he is disqualified for life. We consider you, as trainer, were directly responsible for the care of your horse. Your licence to train is revoked and you are warned off Newmarket Heath ".
This led to a long court case with appeals and counter appeals, but the end result was that the warning off stood. This was a worry for all trainers - for a positive dope test meant their licences being taken away. This now became an accepted rule of racing. It was eventually scrapped, but not before a lot of good, experienced trainers were warned off.

Trainer James Russell, formerly very successful in South Africa, moved to the UK to train initially at Epsom before locating to Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire, from where he trained the winners of the 1934 and 1936 Lincoln. He lost his licence after his winner of the John o` Gaunt Stakes in 1947 tested positive. Russell sued, but this was dismissed by Lord Chief Justice, Lord Goddard, and James Russell had to pay crippling legal costs.
Former Epsom trainer, George Allden`s Luxurient won a race at Pontefract in 1949, but a dope test positive
Cecil Ray, trainer to Phil Bull, lost his licence after one of his winners tested positive.
John Beary, brother of Michael, lost his licence after one of his horses tested positive for cocaine.

Bill Eacott produced a very comprehensive and encyclopaedic work on Epsom......400 trainers, hundreds of horses, jockeys etc. It is online. Title : `A History of Racehorse Training at Epsom`. It gives a very good explanation of the Cecil Ray case and how Phil Bull fought it for years, and Ray`s early death, thought to be due to the distress of the loss of his livelihood.
David Ashforth produced a book called Ringers and Rascals, which really is the definitive work on Ringers. In a piece on doping he gave some extraordinary statistics : Between 1946 and 1951, just 28 horses received sweat and saliva tests, and yet 13 were positive. In NH racing, between 1948 and 1951, 11 were tested, and yet 7 were proved positive. That is an incredibly high ratio. It makes you wonder why more samples were not taken and if any big names were among them, yet were swept under the carpet. James Russell said that if everything was known about the extent of doping in racing, it would blow the game wide open.
In 1951, a horse belonging to Lord Rosebery called Snap ran deplorably in the Dalham Hall Stakes at Newmarket. He at once ordered a private dope test, which registered positive. If it had been an official test then trainer Sir Jack Jarvis would have lost his licence to train. It brought about much needed changes, but it was some time before the rule was rescinded.

One suspected doping was that of Cameronian in the 1931 St Leger; already the winner of the Derby and Guineas and 5/6 to complete the Triple Crown : he came home in last place. So emphatic was the defeat that he could not even beat pacemaking outsider, Birthday Book. Jockey Fred Fox said, " He was never going for a moment ".

Doug Smith acknowledged that many of the French horses who came over and won a lot of our great races during the 20 or so post-war years were top class. However, he was convinced some of them were given some " help ". He was aboard future Eclipse and Arc winner Migoli in the 1947 Derby. Taking it up 2f out, and thinking he was going to win a Derby, Smith was amazed when the French outsider, Pearl Diver, swept by contemptuously to score by a long-looking, comfortable 4 lengths.
In France, Pearl Diver was thought to be well below Derby standard and opened at 100/1 ante-post. He was sent over from Percy Carter`s Chantilly stables a month before Epsom to finish his preparation at Claude Halsey`s Newmarket yard.

Jockey George Bridgeland arrived 3 days before the race and at first didn`t recognize Pearl Diver : the horse looked bigger, more muscled-up and altogether stronger. In 2 previous races he had finished 3rd in the Prix Jean Prat, then 2nd to the moderate Timor, getting the race in the Steward`s Room. All through the preparation, Pearl Diver was being steadily backed. As said, he won the Derby easily from Migoli, with future Irish Derby and St Leger winner, Sayijirao in 3rd position. Smith said he rode against Pearl Diver on its next race in France and said it didn`t look like the same horse and was well beaten. In fact it only won one modest race during the next two seasons. The horse finished a long way behind Migoli in the Arc. Many thought the way he won at Epsom was remarkable. Even more remarkable was that the horse was not dope tested. Pearl Diver was exported to Japan where he was a failure at stud.

In 1948 Doug Smith was riding the very strongly fancied Explorer for Dorothy Paget in the 1948 Cambridgeshire. The horse was well handicapped, in terrific form and heavily backed in the ante-post market. A jockey with some very shady contacts approached Smith, and the sum mentioned was £4,000 to stop the horse. He turned down the offer immediately, but the jockey said he would speak to him again at Alexandra Park. When the offer was again refused, the jockey said, " Never mind, you won`t win anyway ". In the race, Explorer ran  terribly and was beaten 2 furlongs out. No dope test was carried out. £4,000 was 10 times the riding fee + the percentage if Explorer had won.

In the 1951 St Leger, Talma II, over from Charles Semblat`s Chantilly stables was a 14/1 chance. It must have seemed as if it should have been 100/1 the appalling way the horse behaved, not only in the paddock, but on the way to post and at the start, where he was in a complete muck sweat. Amazingly there was a great deal of money for Talma II as he halved in price to 7/1. In the race, he moved up to take the lead into the long home straight, and from then on the race was a procession. The official winning distance was 10 lengths; however, people who were there said it looked more like 20 lengths.
Talma II had never showed anything remotely like this sort of form before, nor did he subsequently. It was a bad advertisement for racing, particularly as it was a Classic, and so the focus of much attention.
The stewards did not order a dope test - they didn`t get much of a chance. The horse had been transported to Doncaster on the morning of the race by plane. As soon as he was unsaddled, Talma II was taken immediately to the plane, loaded up, and on his way back to France.

Sing Sing put up some brilliant sprinting displays as a 2yo in 1959; jockey Doug Smith said he was the fastest he ever rode. The following season, although only beaten a neck in the King`s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot, Smith said the horse was lifeless and distressed; instead of putting his head forward in the race, it just sank into his chest.
So close to winning obviously made the dopers think they hadn`t given the horse enough of a dose. They got at him again before the July Cup at Newmarket; so much so that he was a sick horse on the morning of the race and unable to run.
Sing Sing never recovered his pre-Royal Ascot speed and retired after finishing unplaced in the Nunthorpe.

In the middle of July 1961, trainer Farnham Maxwell called the police to his stables. His best horse, Pandofell, who had won the Ascot Gold Cup a month earlier was found to be in a very bad state, just hours before he was due to run in Ascot`s Sunninghill Park Stakes. The horse was tested and the test proved positive. The dopers, who were never caught, like Sing Sing at Newmarket, obviously overdid the dose. Pandofell was meant to run, get beaten and so netting those behind it a great deal of money.
A professional criminal named Charlie Mitchell was doing a lot of doping during the 1950`s and 1960`s. He was known as the best dog doper around and was doping horses as well. One of his accomplices, Frank Fraser said, " I never did the doping, I just held the syringes ". Charlie Mitchell later moved to Spain where he met a violent end.

To be continued....................

Great stuff as ever Henry. Was the Frank Fraser mentioned in the above article the same one that worked for the Richardson gang in South London and known as "Mad Frankie".

Yes sparrow, that was him. I met him once, quite by chance (not inside lol) and couldn`t believe how small and thin he was. He served 42 years in prison. He came across as quite puritanical : rarely swearing or drinking, didn`t smoke or gamble. He wore suits, collar and tie and was a family man. Thinking about it though, many of his generation of professional criminals were like that. They loved their suits and expensive hand-made shirts. They all seemed to need the support of a woman when things went wrong. Of course there is the odd exception, such as the psychpathic Ronnie Kray who would want to shoot the glass off the shelf if it wasn`t shiny enough. Of course what they all wanted was money, and lots of it, without having to go out and work for it - a bit like us punters really. At least we don`t have to go inside if we get it wrong.

I always remember Fraser being called the Dentist as it was said when their case came to trial that the Richardson's held these torture trials and Frank pulled out the people's teeth with some pliers. He was also very active in installing gaming machines in clubs. My father knew Billy Kray the twins uncle quite well and also Charlie as he used to go to a spieler of theirs in Wellington Way Bow which was funnily enough next to a police station. We lived in Hackney in those days.

Some very interesting reading as usual . I , like many others no doubt , appreciate these articles .

Glad you enjoy them North of Perth - researching and typing them out keeps me off the streets.

I remember that Richardson Torture Trial sparrow. What I remember most is the length of sentences....25, 30 years etc being read out one after the other. Yes, Frank Fraser used to pull teeth in order to extract, not just the teeth, but information. He was nicknamed, The Dentist. I`ve only ever been to Hackney once, and that was to the dogs a long time ago. Myself and three pals decided to go to London and do three dog tracks in a single day. We thought at the time this was unique and considered ourselves a bit special. Come the 3rd meeting on our itinerie we realized we were seeing the same faces that we had seen at the earlier tracks.... Park Royal and Wembley, I think, so we were not so unique after all.

The early 1960`s was a nightmare period as far as stopping horses with dope was concerned. Among the more prominent names to fall victim were : Imperial Cup winner, and favourite for Cheltenham, Antiar, who fell when 4/11 favourite for his prep race at Wincanton - test : positive. Hot favourite for the Rosebery Stakes, Sanctum, finished  " distressed " - test : positive. Skymaster, drifted from 1/2 out to evens, when beaten at Ascot - test : positive. The Finn, hot favourite, sprinted at the first fence, failed to take off and gave jockey Derek Ancil a crashing fall. The Finn then got up and did exactly the same thing at the second fence. He got up again and galloped straight into the rails. The horse was completely wild and was oblivious, or blind, to anything in front of him. Dope tests revealed he had been given a very powerful drug.
After Sanctum`s Rosebery Stakes disaster, trainer Sir Gordon Richards called in the police. It was a big story in the Sunday papers for two or three weeks. A stable lad named Bandy Rogers had been visited by the police - shortly after this visit, he shot himself.
All sorts of incriminating evidence was found at his home : addresses of chemists, names of stable lads, jockeys etc. Several people who  ended up in court were sent down. It is thought that Rogers took the names of several very prominent people with him to the grave.

Most people already know of the Pinturischio (pint o` sherry to the bookmakers) doping. He was the very heavily gambled ante-post favourite for the 1961 Derby. The first doping stopped him in his work but Noel Murless got him back on track again, only for the dopers to strike a second time, with the aid of the lad closest to him, with the result that the horse was not only knocked out of the Derby, but was never seen on a racecourse again. Lester Piggott waited and waited, hoping the horse would come right again - he had, in the meantime, been offered the ride on Psidium, an outsider trained by Harry Wragg, who could wait no longer and booked French jockey Roger Poincelet. Lester had to sit at home and watch Psidium win at 66/1.
Anybody who wants to read the inside story should buy a copy of Jamie Reid`s superb book, DOPED. Central character is Bill Roper (Roper the Doper), a Ladbrokes` man. Lots of names are named and he must have run a risk of litigation proceedings being taken out against him. Full marks to Jamie Reid. It won him the William Hill `Sporting Book of the Year` award - only the second racing book to win the award.

Defeat for the hot favourite, Rupununi in the opening race of the 2nd day of the 1962 Cheltenham Festival was extremely costly for two Irish Doctors, as were the other 17 losing favourites at that Fesival meeting. There was that old system doing the rounds, that said, just back the favourite to win £10 in the first race; if it loses, just back the favourite in the 2nd race to retrieve your loss in the 1st + enough to win £10; if that loses, back the favourite to again retrieve all losses + plus enough extra to win £10 on the day....and so on through the card - a favourite always wins one race, or does it?
The doctors took this system to its ultimate conclusion and operated it over the 3 days at Cheltenham, as if it was a single racecard. No favourite won over the whole 3 days, with a good few bankers going down, amongst them was Rupununi, whose connections were sure was doped - an expensive doping for the doctors, if it was true. No favourite won on the first day, so £84 was placed on Rupununi @ 6/4 in the first. All 6 favourites were beaten on this second day. On the third day £1703 had to be staked on the opening race to retrieve losses + win £10. The first 5 favourites lost, so £5,222 went on the last fav @ 9/4. It lost, so, accumulatively, almost £17,000 was lost trying to win £10. That`s around £250,000 in today`s money. They were greatly helped by the great inflation of the 1970`s but the two doctors were still paying off the debt to Ladbrokes 25 years later. There was of course nothing the bookmaker could do if they refused to pay up, as bets were not legally binding then, so they were obviously men of principle.

Relko won the 1963 Derby for France by 6 lengths and 3 lengths. The 2nd horse home was very useful, and the 3rd, even more so - Ragusa won the King George by 4L and the St Leger by a cantering 6L. Relko`s next race was to be the Irish Derby, for which he was heavily backed ante-post at odds on. However, he was found to be lame at the start at the Curragh and was withdrawn.
Two weeks later it was announced that Relko had tested positive after Epsom. The police became involved. The enquiry was a lengthy process, but in October it was declared that "no evidence could be found to justify a disqualification of Relko under Rule (66c)". So the Entente Cordiale was still intact. Still it gave the press some nice pictures of the glamorous Madame Dupre, who attended the hearing.

On the 1st October, 1965 at Devon and Exeter, 3 horses collapsed and died after finishing their races. In the selling handicap hurdle, 2 horses - including the odds-on favourite - collapsed and died after passing the winning post : they were both well beaten. In a later race, the favourite, Templeorum, died after finishing last in his race. Even though most people suspected foul play, no tests were carried out on the 3 dead horses. Not much fuss was made about it in the press because those all-time great horses, Arkle, Flyingbolt and Sea Bird II were putting in spectacular performances during 1965. A good year to bury bad news.

The old Schweppes Gold Trophy, now known of course as the Totesport Trophy, used to be extremely valuable and so an incredibly competitive handicap hurdle of huge field sizes and became renowned as a big gambling medium - especially for one man : Ryan Price!
The inaugural running of the race took place at Liverpool in 1963. The value of the race was 25% more than the Champion Hurdle, and so drawing a field of 41 runners. The tight turns at Aintree proved unsuitable for such a big field and so it was moved to Newbury. Also, the buildings had become delapidated and the sponsors were not enamoured by the old dried paint flakings fluttering down onto their guests` dinner plates. This first running was marred by the severe injuries suffered by Stan Mellor, whose mount Eastern Harvest, came down while up with the leaders. He was kicked around like a football. After a long stay in hospital he got married. The race was won by the Ryan Price trained, Rosyth.

During the following season, Rosyth was beaten in a string of races, most of them by wide margins. In the 1964 running of the Schweppes, he was set to carry just 2Lbs more than the previous year. Rosyth beat the most competitive handicap hurdle field in history by a comfortable 2 lengths. The 4th horse home was Magic Court who won the following month`s 24 runner Champion Hurdle by 4 lengths. Rosyth was followed home by Salmon Spray and Sempervivum, who were to finish 1st and 2nd in the 1966 Champion Hurdle. Salmon Spray would have won the 1965 Champion Hurdle but he fell at the first. Rosyth`s stable companion, Catapult II, the favourite, made the running, but faded out of contention.
Catapult II had been favourite for the Triumph Hurdle two years earlier in its final running at Hurst Park, but was beaten by stable companion Beaver II, who cantered home by 6 lengths, much to the anger of Catapult II backers.

After Rosyth`s win, Ryan Price was summoned to the Steward`s Room. Major General Sir Randle Fielden, who refused to accept Price`s explanation of the huge improvement in running, referred the matter to the National Hunt Committee who withdrew Price`s licence to train until the end of the season, and Josh Gifford`s licence was revoked until March 31st. Chief Security Officer, Colonel Blair reported that there had been considerable ante-post interest in Rosyth, especially from owners associated with the Ryan Price stable.

The following season`s Schweppes was won by Elan, trained by former Ryan Price assistant, John Sutcliffe. It landed the most enormous gamble. There was a steward`s inquiry into Elan`s improved form - it had a row of duck-eggs. The explanation was that it had had five different jockeys on board, but only David Nicholson got on with the horse, and it was wearing blinkers for the first time. This was accepted. Of course punters were suspicious of the Price/Sutcliffe connection and couldn`t understand how Elan`s improved form had been accepted.

1967 was to be not only the most controversial running of the race, but the most controversial race of the decade. Hill House, trained by Ryan Price and owned by Len Coville who had once trained the horse himself to win 3 races. Coville had trained under Permit, then public licence for over 30 years. Price aimed Hill House at the Schweppes Gold Trophy. The horse ran 4th in the Mackeson Hurdle, but then mysteriously disappeared to Coville`s Gloucestershire farm until mid January, when he was returned to Price. His next race was the Lonsdale Hurdle at Kempton. Just as the tapes went up, a horse lashed out at Hill House and he refused to start. He then ran at Sandown, a week before Newbury, where he finished 4th of 9 runners. The big race now seemed a forlorn hope and Josh Gifford said he would be riding Burlington II at Newbury; only to change his mind mid-week. It now became a race of intrique.

In the Schweppes itself, the usual big field ensured a strong pace. As they turned into the home straight, Hill House could be seen moving closer to the leaders. He took it up after jumping the second last; then as he started to come away from his field, the crowd started booing and jeering. Hill House came right away to win by 12 lengths. The jeering from the hostile elements among the spectators reached a crescendo as the horse passed the post. They then went to the winner`s enclosure area and gave Price and Gifford the most hostile reception anybody on a racecourse could remember.

As had happened after Rosyth`s second win, Price received a tap on the shoulder from the Steward`s Secretary, asking him to report. It was known as the " General`s Day " as Price, a mere Commando Captain during the war had to explain things in front of three Generals : McReery, Dempsey and Randle Fielden. They found Hill House`s improvement in form to be abnormal and ordered himself and Gifford to appear before the National Hunt Committee. They also ordered a dope test.
The dope test returned positive for the steroid, Cortisol. This was to prove the central factor of the inquiry. With the agreement of all parties, Hill House was sent to the Equine Research Station at Newmarket. Here the urine samples were found to contain five times the amount of Cortisol normally found in a sample from a horse. The Cortisol levels came down over the following month, but at the end of testing, were still found to be above normal. It was concluded that the horse produced abnormal amounts of Cortisol naturally.
Ryan Price was cleared of any wrong doing and in August the case was closed.

The horse was sent to Doncaster Sales where he was knocked down to bookmaker John Banks for a then record NH sum of £12,700 guineas.
Punters however still didn`t believe it all and were asking, "where was this rocket fuel Cortisol at Sandown 7 days before the Schweppes, and how come it just happened to be there on the big day? ". It had also been remembered at that previous week`s Sandown meeting, Scarlet Cloak had won a handicap hurdle at 100/8 after being unplaced at Kempton the week before. The explanation to the stewards that the drop of 3 furlongs in distance made all the difference. Price and Gifford were heavily barracked from around the Winner`s Enclosure by a very hostile crowd - many of whom turned up at Newbury the following week and felt that they had had enough.

Peter O` Sulleven did not do the Schweppes commentary as he was on holiday. Before leaving he advised his readers to " keep an eye out for Hill House in the Schweppes ". He and Clive Graham, the two most influential journalists of the day, and both of the Daily Express and also the BBC paddock and racecourse commentators were the most read and listened to voices in racing. No doubt the O` Sulleven followers were grateful for the tip; Clive Graham however, even though a friend of Price said, " Racing cannot afford Ryan Price ".
No doubt the Hill House affair forced Price`s hand to a degree, in him changeing to the Flat; but not before he trained gallant old What a Myth to win the 1969 Cheltenham Gold Cup for Lady Weir. Price had sweetened up the fading 12yo by taking him out in the hunting field.

Ryan Price went on to train two Classic winners and many other Group winners on the Flat but reckoned his greatest training achievement was in winning the Cesarewitch with the broken down 8yo Persian Lancer. Another satisfying win was with the Piggott ridden Major Rose in the Chester Cup, who got home narrowly from Frog, owned by none other than Gen Randle Fielden, Price`s old adversity from Newbury. Major Rose went on to win the Cesarewitch, then finish 2nd to future triple Champion Hurdler, Persian War in the Schweppes. Also it should not be forgotten that Price trained the winner of the 1966 Schweppes Gold Trophy winner in Le Vermontois, who ran away with the race, despite being barely out of the novice stage. Sadly he was fragile and never won another race.

If a young jumper entered Price`s yard as an entire, it stayed that way : he hated gelding horses. He retired from training in 1982. He kept many of his old warriors, such as, Kilmore, Hill House, What a Myth, Le vermontois, Persian Lancer, Charlie Worcestor, Major Rose etc and allowed them to wander around the Sussex Downs to the end of their days. He used to visit them every day.
After a turbulent and controversial life, Henry Ryan Price died on his 74th birthday in August, 1986.

Lester Piggott said that horses by Ribot were temperamental and quirky : " One usually had to sit and suffer and would stop if you touched them with the whip - which didn`t please the riders in the stands ". However that didn`t stop him from achieving a notable double-double when Ribocco and Ribero both won the Irish Derby, then followed up in the 1967/8 St Legers. Piggott had another Ribot to look forward to in Ribofilio. The horse had won the 2,000 guineas trial at Ascot very easily and so all were looking forward to the Classics themselves. In the 2,000 Guineas, Ribofilio finished tailed off. " The horse was listless going to post and in the race I had to start pulling him up 2 furlongs out as I thought he was going to fall over : he was like a dead horse ". Piggott was convinced Ribofilio had been got-at, but there was no sign of this in the dope tests. The horse was beaten in all the four Classics he ran in and was favourite for all four...... a tremendous benefactor to the bookmakers.

In October 1970, Michael Kane, who trained about 25 horses from Howwood, Renfrewshire was disqualified indefinitely and his son, also Michael, disqualified for 10 years after 3 winners from their stable were found to have been doped:-
Golden Duck 5/2, at Hamilton on May 11th; Jynxy 11/2, at Ayr on May 29th and Sontana 100/8, at Teeside Park on August 11th. A stimulent had been administered to all 3 winners.


In 1976, the French trained Trepan came over to Royal Ascot to contest the Prince of Wales Stakes. The previous month he had won a handicap at Longchamp, so it was a huge step up to Group One. At Ascot Trepan went by them as if they were standing still to win easily. He was brought over again the following month for the Eclipse Stakes and handed out a thrashing to impressive 2,000 Guineas winner, Wollow. In both races he broke the course records. Trepan was routinely dope tested after each race - both tests proved positive for a banned substance. He was automatically disqualified. Trepan came over to the UK for a third time to contest the Benson and Hedges Gold Cup at York : he finished last. He ran twice more and was well beaten both times.
Veteran French trainer, Francois Mathet said, " Horses are being doped all over Chantilly; I know what they are using, and I know how it is being done.

Alan Aylett who trained from his base at the Isle of Wight, had his licence revoked for 2 years after his gelding Stand Clear, won a race at Plumpton in October, 1976. It had tested positive.

In 1978, Vincent O` Brien and Lester Piggott were looking foreward to a great year with their 2yo champion, Try My Best. After a smooth win at Phoenix park in the trial, the horse went to Newmarket a raging hot even money favourite. However it was Ribofilio all over again for Piggott - he was again on a hot 2,000 Guineas favourite that was lifeless and beaten a long way out. Nothing showed in the tests except the onset of a slight virus, but Piggott said the run was too bad for that and the soft ground couldn`t be blamed either as it had been soft at Phoenix Park. It remained a mystery and the horse never ran again.

Also in 1978, French trained middle distance champion, Acamas, who had been 2nd in the King George, was diqualified and placed last after a banned substance was found in the post-race urine test.

In 1981, the French trained, Aga Khan owned Vayrann tested positive for anabolic steroids after winning the Champion Stakes and so was automatically disqualified. However, he appealed; the appeal was successful and so the disqualification was overturned.

The French trained Lashkari (4th) and the Stoute trained Shernazar (6th) were both disqualified from their 1985 Breeder`s Cup placings after the stimulent, Etorphine was found in Lashkari`s urine sample - Shernazar was tested clean, but under NYRA Rules they were coupled, (both owned by the Aga Khan), so both were thrown out.

In 1989, the Aga Khan`s Aliysa won the Oaks at Epsom, but was disqualified after post race urine samples revealed she was positive for a banned substance. In retaliation, in December of that year, the Aga Khan resigned his honourary membership of the Jockey Club, stating that he was dissatisfied with the administrative and scientific methods used by the Jockey Club and its Forensic Laboratory. A few day`s later he announced he would be pulling all his horses out of Britain. Shortly afterwards, 90 horses left the stables of Luca Cumani and Michael Stoute, bound for Ireland and France.

To be continued............

Another great write up Henry,please keep them coming.

Great to hear those stories of the 60s Henry. 1965 and we get the two best horses of my lifetime in the same year Arkle and Sea Bird 11. The world and his wife seemed to know about Elan in that Schweppes and I recall being told about it weeks before and getting 9/2 on the day.
Ryan Price was some trainer but took too many liberties and who will ever forget the booing when Hill House won his Schweppes.
I had a friend who worked for Alan Aylett in the 70s and told a few tales about that experience.

I was at Newbury the day Hill House won sparrow. You could have cut the atmosphere with a knife. Before the race, there seemed a certain inevitability about the result as Price had won three of the four running of the race, although I backed Burlington II and had just a saver on Hill House. Friends of Ryan Price had told him that if Hill House won, then he would be warned-off indefinitely. Winning by 12 lengths must have shocked them.
As for Elan, there was no way I could back the horse at such a skinny price in such a competitive affair. By the way, the 2nd horse home was none other than Rosyth, now trained by Tom Masson at Lewes with a stone more in the saddle than when he won the Schweppes which got Price banned. The horse was unplaced in his 3 races prior to Newbury, so if Elan had not won, then it might have been Tom Masson who would have been hauled before the stewards.

Did Aylett eventually get Anji, who'd won the Bessborough and Ebor for John Sutcliffe? Or am I imagining that? If so, the horse would have been with two of the ultimate 'job' trainers.

I remember Aylett having a home-bred chaser called Lumparita, who won first time out at Plumpton in the mid-80s in quite a competitive event. It was a big price too - all very unlike AR Aylett, or so it seemed. Inevitably it was then a beaten favourite twice in a row in races it looked a certainty for.

screaming - yes - Anji won a selling hurdle at Folkestone in Nov 1981 for him as a 12yo, ridden by M Harrington. (J Francome rode Doon Silver for A Davison in the same race). Final race I can find for the horse is one at Plumpton, last day of March 1982, ridden by G Jones, one of the bottomweights in a 16-runner 2m hcap hurdle, won by Private Audience. 5yo Sanhedrin was the unplaced fav.

Many thanks for taking the trouble to look that up and confirm it, ged. Brings back all sorts of memories of the time and place.

Funny you should mention AR Davison in this context, because it was the administration of a prohibited substance which actually led to him finally getting banned for six years. The problem wasn't so much the Procaine given to Will I Fly to land that claiming hurdle at Leicester in 1994 after a four-year absence, but the fact it prompted an investigation, which revealed the fact that the horse had very little to do with Anne Jermy, who was listed as the trainer, but plenty to do with Albert Davison.

The ban didn't seem to bother Davison much. He never reapplied for his licence, but his horses (and owners) continued to pop up in a variety of other yards, including those of Rod Simpson, John Long and Mo Long.

Quiet Sailing, A Aylett job horse, his brother Joe always had farmers stick in his hand at the races

Thanks, kingofthebop. I was trying to remember the name of that mare.

He actually had some very decent horses. I was out of the country in 1981/2, and was a bit shocked when I came back and discovered how many races he'd won with that novice hurdler Du Maurier. Ended up winning at one of those late-spring meetings they used to have at Ascot, I think.

On further looking, I see that he won the same Folkestone seller with Anji the year before, ridden by Peter Haynes. (I think they were the only races he won with him, and I think Sutcliffe won just one hurdle race with him as a 6yo), though most racegoers who were at Folkestone on that Monday in 1980 would be more likely to remember the winner of the previous race - Silver Buck (at 2/7 in the Whitelaw Gold Cup), and the one before that, 4yo Acarine (at 8/13 in the Haig Whisky novice hurdle).

Folkestone my fav racecourse ever, never heard any jockey, trainer, bookie or punter who disliked it.. hope the bad brothers who closed it down, go skint

One day in August 1992 at Yarmouth, a horse called Flash of Straw was backed from 25/1 down to 4/1. In the race he was already beaten at the 2f marker. Post race tests revealed he had been doped with a tranquiliser. This doping was withheld from the press and public deliberately and not revealed until early February in order to protect the good name of racing.
The pitfalls of sweeping bad news under the carpet were never better exhibited than in the case of the Brian Wright scandal.
Dermot Browne is of course the best known modern-day doper of racehorses, claiming to have doped 23 horses to lose between 1990 and 1993. Strangely enough he was warned-off for 10 years, not for doping, but for selling information. When the 10 years was up he was warned-off for another 20 years.

He became known as " The Needleman " and doped horses to lose on behalf of drugs baron, Brian Wright for a fee of £5,000 a time.
Dermot Browne co-operated fully and admitted everything. Not only this, but he also handed the Jockey Club a long list of people involved in doping and corruption, some of them very well known to the racing public.
Ex army major Roger Buffham, former bomb disposal officer and one-time head of special military intelligence in Northern Ireland, handed in a file to the Jockey Club, naming 24 jockeys and entitled : " Brian Wright, Corruption in Racing ". A few were investigated and punished, but not many.

Racing closed ranks and went into full damage limitation mode. This included getting rid of Roger Buffham, of whom some in the press mocked and ridiculed, nicknaming him, Inspector Clouseau, after the bungling French detective, as played by Peter Sellers. This had the opposite effect; the BBC got hold of the story and did a Panorama expose, which could not have been worse for racing`s image. Two High Court challenges, which attempted to stop the program being aired, failed, and it was broadcast in 2002 to racing`s detriment and embarrassment. Roger Buffham certainly didn`t hold back and told everything as he saw it.

During the 1990`s and into the new millenium, forensic laboratories were facing a stiff task in finding procedures for identifying, so called, Blood Doping, or EPO, because it is a naturally produced hormone secreted by the kidneys, and which, via the bone marrow, carries oxygen to the blood. If a synthetic EPO hormone is injected into the system, extra oxygen carrying cells will transport additional oxygen to the muscles, so giving the animal extra strength and endurance.
More than one trainer admitted to its use a decade ago and said they had to do it just to keep up with the others, or fall behind.
Another problem was with the use of Milkshakes. Thick bicarbonate of soda is pumped into a horse`s stomach to soak up the lactic acid which is produced when the animal comes under pressure and causes it to slow. It doesn`t make the horse go any faster, but enables it to keep going when others are beginning to tire in the closing stages of a race. One trainer gave milkshakes to a horse of his that had lost the winning habit, with amazing results. Fortunately, neither EPO nor Milkshakes do any damage nor cause distress to the horses, only to some punters. The forensics people have made a lot of progress in recent times with these problems.

Other countries have also been battling hard with the drugs problem. Australia has had its EPO and Milkshake problems too in the past. Until recently, steroids were allowed to be given to horses in training over there providing usage was ended a certain number of days before the race was due to be run, but that has now been stopped. At one time there was a major problem with the use of Etorphine, or " Elephant Juice " as it became colloquially known. It is used to sedate large circus animals and render them docile; however, in small doses it acts as a stimulant.
One of Western Australia`s greatest races is the Perth Cup. In 1987 there occurred the " Rocket Racer Scandal ". The horse was owned by the infamous Laurie Connell. On being entered for the race, he was available at 50/1 in the ante post lists. The money gradually came for him; this then became a flood, so much so that he started at 2/1 on the day. He had the right name and Rocket Racer won by 9 lengths and couldn`t be pulled up; in fact he kept running for almost a further complete circuit. Owner Laurie Connell collected A$500,000 in winning bets.
After finally being pulled up, the horse could hardly get back to the Winner`s Enclosure, so exhausted was he as withdrawal symptoms set in. It then took seven handlers to get him back into his box. He was deemed too ill to be tested and was quickly hooked up to a saline drip. A few months later Rocket Racer collapsed and died.
Trainer George Way lost his licence after two Connell owned horses tested positive for Etorphine.

Of course drugs affect horses in different ways, but are often very damaging in their after effects. Fortunately illegal use of drugs in Britain is now comparatively small, thanks to a lot of investment in the integrity department. Of course this can all seem trivial when one considers the attritional use of horses in the theatre of war over several thousands of years. The Great War was another where the equine loss was enormous, almost certainly far more than in any other war.

On March 30th 1918, General Jack Seely, riding his horse Warrior, led the Canadian Cavalry in a 1,000 horse charge into the German lines at Moreuil Wood, after the Germans had broken through a part of the British 5th Army formation. They were supported by the Royal Flying Corps who dropped 190 bombs and fired 17,000 rounds into the enemy. A quarter of the cavalrymen were killed and half the horses were lost, but they succeeded in halting the offensive and securing the strategically important River Arne.
Warrior was also at The Somme, Ypres and Cambrai, where 27,000 horses were utilised. General Seely said, " Wherever I went, he went ".
He was Brough Scott`s grandfather and both wrote a book about Warrior and Steven Spielberg a film.
In 1922, 4 years after the horse came home, he won a point to point at the age of 14......on March 30th, the same date as the charge at Moreuil Wood, and the same race his sire won in 1909.
Warrior lived to be 33 years of age, dying in 1941, fittingly enough, during another war. He was the original war horse and became known as " The horse the German`s could not kill ".
In one of his last letters home before being killed in the carnage that was Verdun, Franz Marc wrote : " The poor horses! In one day, 7,000 horses were killed by long-range French and German shelling; 97 from a single shell fired by a French naval gun ".

The early flickering silent era Western movies attracted good audiences to the cinemas; but they eventually also attracted the notice of animal welfare groups. By the time WW1 had begun, Bronco Billy Anderson had made over 300 one-reel Westerns in Montana, Colorado and California. Then one of the great epics producers, Cecil B de Mille, got in on the act.
All this meant there was a huge demand for horses - over the years, many thousands of them. Unfortunately, many of them did not see out the end of the movies they appeared in. They experienced heavy falls, usually with a black-hatted bad guy or a redskin aboard. They also had to carry Arabs, Bengal Lancers, Mongolian Hordes, Atilla the Hun etc, often over hostile terrain.

Crude methods were used early on, such as a length of rope pulled by a crew to trip the horse and bring it down. Later, better and more humane methods were utilised, such as a flexible cable tied to the saddle, then to a stake behind so that the rider could bring the horse down in a controlled manner. Many of the stunt men were rodeo riders, but some were just cowhands.
The horses also had to be used to explosions, fires, gunshots, leaping over chasms, jumping off bridges etc, for this is what drew the audiences. Some producers and directors however, went too far.

In Cecil B de Mille`s `Northwest Mounted Police`, made in 1939, a Gatling Gun is heaved over a cliff into a river. Two brandy-filled stunt men on horses went over with the gun : the stunt men came out of it badly bruised, but neither horse survived.
Also in 1939, shooting began on Jesse James (no pun intended). A stunt man, Cliff Lyons, was paid a record fee of $2,350 to jump 2 horses off a cliff into the lake below. It was a very long drop and the two horses were terrified. Chutes were then built and the horses pushed over and Lyons with them. He survived but the horses did not. There was an outcry over these incidents and politicians were compelled to get involved.

Initially, cruelty in film making hit the headlines after stories began to leak out from the making of the 1925 silent version of Ben Hur. After making several changes, MGM handed the job of directing the film to Fred Niblo. The chariot race scene was made independently under the 2nd unit director, B Reeves (Breezy) Eason, a director renowned for caring nothing for the welfare of people or animals. He had been at Hollywood since 1913. He was also known for getting things done on time and under budget, as well as bringing exciting scenes to the audiences; even though it was always at the expense of the stunt men and horses.

It has been estimated that as many as 150 horses died in the making of the chariot race; including practice, trials, rehearsals and the in race itself. No lame horses were treated : they were all shot immediately.
The race is on Youtube - Google : 1925 silent film, Ben Hur. There is a chariot crash just before half way in this clip, which lasts around 9 minutes in which none of the 4 horses could have survived; and an x-rated pile-up involving several chariots after about 7 minutes.

Breezy Eason was also 2nd unit director to main director, and equally ruthless, Michael Curtiz in the making of `Charge of the Light Brigade` in 1936 where at least one stunt rider was killed and many injured and horses dying on a daily basis throughout its production. The official death toll of horses was put at 25, but some who were there put it as high as 200.
Eason placed trip wires all over the charge and battleground areas to bring the horses down. The main star, Errol Flynn was so appalled at the carnage that he attacked Michael Curtiz and had to be pulled off him.
The film was never officially released by Warner Brothers. The charge is on a 4 minute Youtube clip, accompanied, rather strangely, by  a rock music number. Google : charge of the light brigade - 1936. Like Ben Hur, it`s not for those who are easily upset by this sort of thing.

Gina Rarick, a former American trainer, now living and training in France, feels that drugs are ruining the sport in her home country. She says, " Every horse in America starts its day with a shot or two in the neck. I`m sorry, but it`s wrong, it`s just wrong. You give a horse a shot of Lasix, and then watch what happens.......it gives the phrase : "pIss like a racehorse " a whole new meaning. It will lose 30Lbs of bodyweight fluids : it`s a tremendously powerful drug. Horses are then so dehydrated after a race that other drugs are needed to help them to recover - it`s a vicious circle. There are 14 different medications allowed in America`s top horse race, the Kentucky Derby. Critics argue that those legal drugs mask a raft of illegal substances ".

Dr Alex Harthill, The Doc or Mr Fix It, as he was sometimes known, was a 4th generation American veterinary surgeon/chemist, based at Churchill Downs, Kentucky. He had something to do with the Kentucky Derby from 1948 until the late 1990`s.
Billy Lee, a racing journalist who wrote for the local Courier wrote : Harthill has treated an astounding number of early Derby favourites who were either withdrawn just before the race or ran the worst race of their careers on the first Saturday in May, including such future champions as : Sir Gaylord, Graustark, Damascus, Devil`s Bag, AP Indy and Holy Bull.

Alex Harthill had 3 wives who were all listed as owners of horses that he actually owned. Racing Commission`s began taking a lot more interest in their ownership, as plenty of those runners were returning positive dope tests.
At various times in the 1950`s, 60`s and 70`s he was charged with illegally injecting horses with Amphetamines, bribing public officials and conspiring with trainers to fix races. He lost licences in Louisiana and Illinois and was kicked out of stable areas in Kentucky and California, and withdrew licence applications in New Jersey and Michigan when racing authorities began asking too many questions. He was investigated by the FBI in Texas, the IRS in Kentucky and the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau everywhere. He was arrested in New Orleans in a case that eventually crossed the desk of the District Attorney.

In a 1968 interview, Dr Arthur Davidson was asked why Dr Harthill wasn`t a member of the American Equine Practitioners Association. He replied : " His record is questionable; he`s gotten out of several scrapes by the skin of his teeth.....he`s always got to be fixing something up ".
Alex Harthill didn`t have a licence to practice on the New York tracks. State Steward, Francis P Dunne told Lynn Simross in a 1969 interview :  "He`s a very difficult person. I don`t want to have my phone taken out, but I could have for saying what I really think about him; they don`t like those words on the phone.

In 1972, an investigative journalist, posing as a gambler, infiltrated the `Underground Class` at Churchill Downs and was told by an illegal bookmaker that 2 races were going to be fixed on Kentucky Derby day, which was more than a month away. Neither Scotch Thorn nor Postal Milagro had form good enough to win their respective races - the 2nd and 10th on the card, and yet in such competitive races, were hammered on the Pari Mutuel. Bruce Pronesti was down to ride both horses, but he reported sick. His last minute replacements, John Rotz and Jimmy Combest(who never had a booked ride that day, but just happened to be hanging around in the jock`s room with his tack). Both horses won. The first name investigators stumbled on was Alex Harthill, who had treated both horses and claimed one of them on behalf of Californian steel magnate, Al Levinson, a friend.

In 1997, Jimmy Croll, trainer of Holy Bull, who ran the worst race of its life in the Kentucky Derby said : " They got to my horse...can you imagine how much money is to be made if you knew for sure the hot 6/5 favourite was going to run off the board ". Despite coming in 12th, no dope test was ordered.
A sensation was caused in 1968 when Dancer`s Image (attended to by Harthill) became the first horse to be disqualified after winning the Kentucky Derby. He was found to have Bute in his system in sufficient quantities to merit being thrown out and placed last. The 2nd horse home, Forward Pass, beat Dancer`s Image next time out in the Preakness. A generation later, Bute became legal.

Northern Dancer was given an illegal drug prior to winning the Kentucky Derby by a nose. In a very unusual and frank interview in 2001 to Jay Hovdey, Harthill explained : " Security was following me, so I got a vet I knew out of town to come along with me. I told him I was going to drive straight on and he was to turn to the right and take this little syringe down to barn 24, stall 23 and give this to that horse. There would be a guy there named Will; he`d be waiting. So he did it while the Gendarmes followed me ".
Many in USA think that Northern Dancer should have an asterisk next to its name for that Kentucky Derby win.

In his youth, Alex Harthill was keen on bareknuckle fighting - this ensured that this, combined with his hot temper, ensured that some people, including investigative journalists, ended up on the floor.
In 1996 he was charged on 102 counts of ordering large quantities of drugs. The suit sought $2.5 million in penalties. The case was settled out of court.
Another race he was involved in and caused uproar was the 1957 Kentucky Derby. With perhaps the strongest field in its history, Harthill treated several of the leading contenders. On the morning of the race he advised trainer Ben Jones to withdraw the favourite, Calumet Farm`s Gen. Duke on account of a bruised foot, which he did. This was the Futures Books` (ante post) biggest loser. Calumet then won the race with their second string, by default.

Willie Shoemaker, riding Gallant Man, committed one of the biggest and most publicized gaffs in racing history, when, with the race won, he stood up in the irons and pulled up Gallant Man prematurely. He said he had mistaken the winning post for another post.
The horse`s trainer, Johnny Nerud thoght it was crooked. Shoemaker was Best Man at Harthill`s second wedding and always stayed with him on Derby week. Nerud said, " That horse$hit is why I will never take a horse back to the Derby ".

Dr Alex Harthill was probably the most controversial vet of all time. Some thought him a complete rogue, other said he was a genius. He died in 2005. After the cremation, a portion of his remains were flown across the Atlantic and scattered at Harthill, Scotland, the land of his forefathers.

Horatio Bottomley was born in St Peter`s Street, Bethnal Green, London on March 23rd 1860. Before he was 5 years of age, both his parents had died. After 4 years of being fostered, he was inducted into Sir Josiah Mason`s Orphanage at Erdington, Birmingham. Having completed his formal education years there, the young Horatio moved around from one odd job to another, ending up in London, where, aged 20, he quickly got married to a girl he loved, but was constantly unfaithful to for the rest of their 50 years of married life together. He kept a never-ending string of mistresses : mostly young working class cockney girls - shop girls, waitresses, actresses etc.

It has been written that as he grew up he bore a strikingly similar resemblance to a close friend of his mother - Sir Charles Bradlaugh M P, a secularist, who, when elected, caused a stir by refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance. (They say it`s a clever child that knows its own father).
Despite a brief orphanage education, Bottomley was a naturally intelligent man, possessing enormous energy, self confidence , bravado and vanity.

Initially he began training to be a lawyer, but then decided to go into the Stock Exchange and publishing. One of his greatest successes was, together with James Sheridan, founding the Financial Times in 1888. Four years prior to that he had founded the Hackney Hansard. By 1886 he had bought his own print works. By a combination of luck, persuasiveness and connections, Bottomley secured the contract to print and publish Hansard, the in-house parliamentary chronicle which details all business and debates.
However, this lasted only 2 years, 1889 - 1891, as rumblings of discontent surrounded Bottomley`s business dealings. Reuter`s Telegram  Company took over publication of Hansard.

His head was always full of ideas : the problem here was that many of these ideas were converted into fraudulent schemes. His dealings in shares of suspect companies which he himself had promoted, via his publications, brought him in a great deal of money and he became a comparatively wealthy man. He was now able to rent a smart apartment in London`s Pall Mall. He breakfasted on kippers and champagne, had another bottle of champagne for lunch, another for tea, and at least two more in the evening.

Horatio had a partner in his printing and publishing businesses, but the partner left, taking the publishing side with him, leaving Bottomley with the printing business. He floated this business but eventually was unable to pay the shareholders a dividend because he had siphoned off £100,000 (£6.5 million) for himself. He filed for bankruptcy : he went on trial in 1893 on a fraud charge, but against all the odds was acquitted. He repaid much of the investment money and his bankruptcy was discharged, which meant he could perhaps still achieve his ambition of becoming a Member of Parliament.

It was not long, however, before he was plotting another dishonest scheme. In 1892/3 there was a gold rush in Western Australia. He invented names of gold fields and mining companies out there. He was soon floating these companies on the Stock Exchange, and via his publications was able to issue fictitious bullish reports of rich seams of gold being found. Investors piled in and the share prices rocketed, along with Bottomley`s finances. Of course, it was later reported that the seams were low grade deposits and the shares collapsed; Bottomley had of course long since cashed in.  One investor lost £40,000 (£2.6 million).

Horatio Bottomley was now riding high in the world of finance and decided that what he now needed to elevate himself even further was a country home. He purchased Crossways House at the Sussex village of Upper Dicker. He had it knocked down, greatly expanded the property and a brand new residence built, which he named, The Dicker. He kept horses there and a small stud. He became chairman of the village cricket team and had the only telephone, which he allowed anybody to use; this of course made him a popular man.
He would later dodge between London and Upper Dicker, depending on which, and how many creditors and wronged ladies were searching for him. Strangely, Upper Dicker is one mile south of Lower Dicker.

As well as making a lot of money in floating dodgy or fictional companies, he also made a big gains by purchasing struggling and failing businesses at knock-down prices, asset-stripping them, then selling the profitable part that was left for a good return on his initial outlay.
Not every deal, purchase or transaction was a success however. In 1902 he bought an ailing newspaper, to which he contributed a column : `The World, the Flesh and the Devil`. The paper failed and was liquidated. In 1905 he floated (no pun intended) a canal company : `London and South Western Canal Company`. It also failed and investor shares were rendered worthless.

He had for some time been drawn towards horse racing; he found the chance element very appealing and thought there was a lot of money to be made. He quickly became a prolific owner and a gambler on a huge scale. He became seriously involved on the Turf when, in 1897, he paid a total of £13,000 (£900,000) for 3 horses : a Dewhurst winner, a dual Goodwood Cup winner and a very useful chaser. He wanted to win the Derby, the Grand National and the Grand Steeplechase de Paris. It all ended in failure. Hawfinch and Count Schomberg were well beaten at Epsom and Auteil and Gentle Ida fell at Valentines on the first circuit.

Harry Batho was engaged by Horatio as his private trainer. He had served his time with Tom Leader Snr and then was head lad to William Jarvis - great grandfather of the present-day trainer of the same name. While there, he leaked information to Bottomley - what was going to win, and what wasn`t - to such success that he was made Horatio`s private trainer.
Batho trained Northern Farmer to land a huge punt in the 1899 Steward`s Cup at 20/1. Bottomley had backed it to win £50,000 (£4 million). Another huge win was with Wargrave in the 1904 Cesarewitch. Two years earlier, the horse had won the Ebor easily at 20/1; he then ran in the Cesarewitch, finishing 6th. Two years on and Wargrave had tumbled down the handicap, being given just 7st 4Lbs to carry. A boy was engaged to ride, so with the claim, Wargrave had just a featherweight. Backed down to favourite, he pulled off another £4 million gamble for HB.

Despite these huge big handicap successes, Batho and Bottomley concentrated mostly on winning selling races, and not always honestly.
One trick was outside Batho`s remit. Just before a small-field selling race was due to be run, Bottomley would buy all the runners, instruct the jockeys in which order to finish, and then help himself in the betting ring. Of course this only happened in a minority of races, but was very profitable. There was one horse, Aldansi, that he was particularly fond of. It won 17 selling chases between 1901 and 1907 and was bought-in every time; the total buying-in cost was £3,175 (£210,000).
The biggest races which attracted the greatest gambles were the Cesarewitch, Cambridgeshire, Lincoln and Manchester November Handicaps. Although handicaps, the turnover was huge. However, in terms of types of races, selling races were greatly used as mediums for pulling off gambles. One of the best jockeys of the last century was Harry Wragg. He said that during the inter-war period, the usual pre-race instruction from the trainer before getting the leg-up in a selling race was, " Twenty-Five pounds for you if you finish second, nothing if you win ".

Horatio Bottomley had joined the Liberal Party and fought an unsuccessful election campaign in the 1890`s. He espoused a public health service, a state pension and a basic 8 hour working day. He again stood in 1906 for election to the South Hackney seat. This time he was successful. At about the same time he founded the penny scandal sheet, John Bull.
In 1908 he was arrested and summoned to appear in court on account of his now-bankrupt `Joint Stock Trust Company` in which he stood accused of re-issuing the same set of shares as many as six times.

Despite a lot of adverse publicity, Bottomley stood again in 1910 for his South Hackney seat, this time as an Independent Liberal : he won, and now thought he was untouchable; so much so, that he dubbed himself, " England`s Superman ".
Just as all seemed well, an investor in the `Joint Stock Trust` sued for £49,000 (£3 million). Horatio claimed he couldn`t pay and was bankrupted to the tune of £233,000 (£13.5 million) and, because an undischarged bankrupt cannot sit in the House, in 1912, he had to resign his seat. His dream of becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer had now evaporated. Financially it wasn`t the end of the world because he had been astute enough to legally transfer his most valuable assets to his relatives.

Horatio needed cash to continue his luxurious lifestyle of racehorses, girls and champagne; so, together with Birmingham businessman, Reuben Bigland, he organised sweepstakes, lotteries and raffles in his magazine, John Bull, whose circulation had by now reached over a million. These competitions, which were operated from Switzerland, proved very popular. However, when the £25,000 (£1.3 million) first prize winner of the 1914 Derby result became known, the Anti-Gambling League proclaimed that most of the winners of the John Bull competitions were either employers of the magazine or relatives of the editor (HB). Bottomley sued them but received minimal damages. Years later it transpired that 99% of that £25,000 first prize ended up in a Bottomley bank account.

War broke out in 1914 and Horatio was filled with patriotic fervour, as was the nation. He styled himself as " England`s Orator ", travelling the length and breadth of the land, giving over 300 rousing patriotic and anti-German speeches between 1915 and 1918, imploring young men to " Enlist Now! ". He attracted large crowds; photographs were pinned up showing him visiting troops in the trenches.
His gung-ho rhetoric knew no bounds; he called Germany " a debased civilization "; he called German`s " Germhuns " and Austrians " Austrihuns ". In John Bull, Bottomley called them, " Unnatural Freaks " and even called for the ethnic cleansing of all ethnic Germans living in Europe. Not only this, but he urged British people to attack ethnic Germans living in Britain.
Prime Minister Asquith called all this, " shallow jingoism ".

Bottomley had a surprising competitor for anti-German public rhetoric in the form of Bishop Winnington-Ingram, the Bishop of London. His favourite spot was Trafalgar Square, where he was regularly tub-thumping, while wearing his ministerial robes. He urged all men of fighting age to enlist and even implored young clergymen to become combatants. He was a favourite with politicians because of his valuable earlier work in helping the poor of the East End but they thought he was going too far when calling for, " The Great Crusade " and " Kill them, lest civilization of the world be killed ". He received awards for his war efforts, especially from overseas, where he was given, `The Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer` (Greece) and the `Order of St Sava` (Serbia).

One central european priest took things a stage further. A private soldier, who had been the last survivor of the Austro-Hungarian armies during that war was, in an obituary, quoted as saying, " I was sickened when a priest came over to our battalion and blessed us just before we went into battle. He then walked over to the stockpile and blessed the ammunition ".
Large crowds were being whipped up into such a frenzy by such powerful and emotive orators as Horatio Bottomley and Bishop Winnington-Ingram that King George V decided to change the surname of the royal family from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor.

Bottomley called out two founders of the Labour Party, Kier Hardie and Ramsey McDonald to be tried for treason - they both opposed the war. He asked that they should both be thrown in the Tower, tried for treason and then shot at dawn.
McDonald hit back, saying, " Bottomley is a man of doubtful parentage who has lived all his life on the threshold of jail ". This remark backfired when Bottomley published McDonald`s Birth Certificate, which showed he was illegitimate himself. Bottomley said, and wrote, " Ramsey McDonald was born the illegitimate son of a Scottish serving girl.

By the end of the war his reputation had not only been redeemed, but, in the eyes of the general public, enhanced. He had been discharged from bankruptcy and once again stood for his his old South Hackney seat, which he won.
He then began the John Bull `Victory Club Bond`. Investors would receive no interest or dividends, but instead would be given the chance to win cash prizes - smaller ones on a monthly basis, larger ones annually. These prizes would be paid out of accrued interest.
These Bonds proved very popular, no doubt due to the patriotic fervour instilled in the nation after victory over the axis powers. Over time they became a kind of pyramid scheme as more was being paid out than coming in. The real problem was that much of the cash being paid out was going into Horatio Bottomley`s bank account in order to enable him to return to his former lifestyle of racehorses, gambling, girls and champagne. Of course he had long ago discovered that the way to riches was ......OPM (Other People`s Money - for the use of).

He could no longer operate his selling race ruse as the Jockey Club had changed the rules, and so shut it down. He used some of the money stolen from the Victory Club Bond scheme to buy two newspapers - they both failed. He even floated a business which, it was promised, would be able to turn water into petrol. He had become a large scale mug punter in the betting ring and described walking in to settle his debts on a Monday morning as, " Akin to walking through the Garden of Gethsemane ". He was used by professional punters and others in-the-know to place bets for them, as bookmakers welcomed Bottomley bets.

A former partner, Reuben Bigland, became involved in a dispute with him, which deepened. He described Bottomley`s war bond scheme as his " Latest and greatest swindle ". Things were now closing in on him; it took a long time, but now his fraudulent activities were now out in the open. In 1921 John Bull management paid him £25,000 to leave (£280,000). That same year he was summoned to Bow Street. Fraud charges were read out and he was committed to appear at the Old Bailey.

In May 1922 he was up in front of the judge to answer 24 counts of fraud and of converting Trust Funds into cash. He was found guilty on most counts and sentenced to 7 years penal servitude. During the trial, Horatio frequently asked for breaks in proceedings so that he could drink some champagne in order to combat the effects of withdrawal symptoms. For around 40 years he had lived in a haze of alcohol. With his oversized head, rotund, squat body, he was now, in appearance, a frog-of-a-man. Now, no more lovely young cockney girls to pamper him; and for them, no more Botty, Horace or Skipper, as they called him. " England`s Superman " had been brought low.

At first he was sent to Wormwood Scrubbs, then transferred to Maidstone, where he served 5 years and 2 months. Whilst serving his Time, he took a leaf out of Oscar Wilde`s book (The Ballad of Reading Gaol) and wrote The Ballad of Maidstone Gaol by " Convict 13 ", which was his actual prison number and was sown onto his prison uniform and cap. One day a regular prison visitor uttered a passing remark as he was sewing mailbags, " Ah Bottomley, still sewing? ". " No " he replied, " Reaping ".

On release, he was paid the huge sum of £12,500 (£400,000) by the Weekly Dispatch for a series of articles on his life in Maidstone prison. Inevitably he used the money to fund a return to his old lifestyle; it seemed he just could not help himself. He started up a new magazine called John Blunt. The public mood however had changed while he was Inside and it was an expensive failure. It closed as he was on a lecturing tour throughout the British Empire in late 1929.......just as the great financial crash began.

In 1930 his wife died, he had lost The Dicker and was hard up again. He was very fortunate that one of his old girl friends, an actress called Peggy Primrose, took him into her flat in Tottenham Court Road. No doubt due to her theatrical experience she was able to organise dinner-jacketed monologue lecture performances from him on various subjects, including.....fraud, and how to avoid being caught out. It was not a great success. His excessive and turbulent lifestyle had now caught up with him and he became very ill.
Horatio Bottomley breathed his last in a public ward at the Middlesex Hospital on May 26th 1933. After cremation his remains were scattered over the Sussex Downs. He had died penniless.

That`s the last of these long postings from me. I no longer have the time nor inclination to do any more of them. Thanks for reading.

Many thanks to you for posting.

Thank you very much for your efforts Henry, they have been much appreciated.

I loved that Harry Wragg quote about finishing 2nd and South Hackney would have been my constituency as a youngster.

HENRY the Seventh.

I thought you would have been on the ... 'Anybody remember Albert Dimes' - thread ... that was brought back recently.

'Just your cup of tea' - with respect

I have brought it back to the top of the Menu, for you to read - in case you missed it.

Absolutely wonderful stuff, HENRY the Seventh.

Not just a glimpse of a lost world, but a complete immersion in it. Maybe it just shows my ignorance of social history, but in every paragraph of these posts there's been something which makes me think, "Well, I didn't know that."

My mother, born in 1921, grew up off the Walworth Road in SE London, where she spent the first 20-odd years of her life. I feel I know that world in which she grew up, and how it framed the person she was, just a little bit better now.

Many thanks.

I hope you have a change of mind and post further when you have an opportunity to do so Henry
All of it is great reading and worth a few moments of anyone's time

Thanks for all the compliments men. Hackney dogs didn`t exist in Horatio`s time, otherwise there would have been some fun. Frightening to think he wanted to be Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Geordie, I have no time to research and write out these types of postings for a good few months but I`ll try and post, say, one per month, starting in November - eyesight permitting. I`ve become a bit slow - it took me five and a half hours to type out this afternoons offerings. Then there`s all the researching to do - I like to take my time and give facts, not what might have happened. Next winter I`ll probably stay in the Bottomley era for 3 or 4 stories and then go back even further in a couple of postings - to the days when young aristocrats inherited too soon and would lose the family estates on the racecourse.

Look forward to anything you are able to post in the winter Henry but grateful that you have researched and typed all you have.
The inter-action betwen the aristocracy and horse racing with the added bonus of understanding the effects of gambling on society in the 19th and early to mid 20th century has been fascinating.

Very interesting reading thanks for posting.

Terrific thread this, and recently I've very much enjoyed reading Graham Sharpe's book about the incredible Dorothy Paget.

Quite a tale. They don't make them like her anymore.

She wasn't 'made', though ... she inherited.

Although - Members of the Lesbanian Society would argue that they DO make them, nowadays - and in much more abundance.

She reputedly 'hated men' - and called her staff by colours, instead of their name

Wiki is somewhat enlightening ...

'Her many trainers, seventeen or eighteen in all, included Basil Briscoe, Owen Anthony, Frenchie Nicholson, Fulke Walwyn, Walter Nightingall (under both codes), Henri Jelliss, Sir Gordon Richards and, for a brief period, Fred Darling. She was considered a notoriously difficult owner, often phoning her trainer in the middle of the night.

She famously, and very publicly fell out with Basil Briscoe after Golden Miller's repeated failure to win a second Grand National, despite it being very clear that the horse despised the Aintree course.

She also threw a screaming fit at Fulke Walwyn after the trainer could 'only' deliver five winners of a six race card.

However these rantings were as much dealing as she had with any man, claiming that the very sight of men made her physically sick.
Some society commentators of the day noted that her deep hatred towards men may have been due to the fact that, despite her immense wealth, her plain, bordering on ugly looks and huge, at times 20 stone frame ensured that no man ever attempted to win her affections.

I didn't know Walter Nightingale trained for he. I was a big fan of his stable in the 60s.

"trainer for her.  Not a freudian slip