Eddie the shoe and patient dream

they call him bigfoot, he's about 7ft tall and has big feet

he is called the shoe because he can not buy a pair backing all theses "value bet"

he got that wrong, but eduardo has been a successful wagon for decades. he remains the only pundit ive heard put up a 100/1 winner

remember him 30 years ago backing 50 and 66/1 shots , he’d hit a winner about once every 6 weeks


sounds like a decent strike rate

What books would they be then ?

Two memories of Fremantle: one of him sitting in my living room after an evening meeting at Taunton, and emptying the contents of his pockets into a fruit bowl to count them up. The fruit bowl literally overflowed with readies, and that became the benchmark of a good day from then on.

And another memory of him fumbling in his trouser pockets for change to pay for a round and some toast in the buffet car on the way back from Plumpton or Fontwell, and what looked like several thousand pounds of cash going flying across the compartment.

Also, his second wife telling me how they'd been sorting out the contents of his wardrobe before moving out from his first wife, and being incredulous at finding a four-figure sum in a jacket pocket that he'd forgotten about.

So he definitely has backed one or two winners over the decades.

He does back some big price winners, but I’ve also seen him back more than 4 in a race.
But he’s a good old boy is Eddie.

no he wasnt. so he stopped. you seem a very begrudging type roberto.

size 13

youve clearly never had any munee. its not uncommon. i know others whove done the same for more. ive done it meself. mind you i was laggo

I'm surprised he went on to marry the snooping second wife.

I found a tenner on a grave in Eltham once.

Robo...why did your original post have to be so insulting? 'Dangerous guys' Absolute apes'. WTF is that about?

Eddie is employed as a pundit to observe and give a view. This he did and, in this case, what he said did not work out.

Like Screaming, I know Eddie reasonably well, although only from the past seven years or so. He has his own particular well-thought out way of doing things and I have stood next to him on track when the results have gone both extremely well and very poorly for him, but overall he turns a profit.

Even if he didn't, though, I can assure you he has an incredibly detailed knowledge of horses and the game in general. His knowledge alone makes your original comments pretty inappropriate but because he is a decent fella what you said is downright rude and offensive.

Try to be more of a gentleman next time you express a view about someone you do not know, eh?

I was having a terrible run back one year back in the 1990s, having done £27,000 in six months. I was at Windsor one afternoon, watching a race from elsewhere in the Tote Credit shop with Eddie. I'd backed some Ron Hodges creature, which did what all well-handicapped Ron Hodges horses do - find just that bit less than they look like they were going to find, and finish second. (You can see why I'd done 27 grand, can't you?)

"Oh Christ," I muttered. "I can't even pay the bloody bills now."

Eddie said nothing. He just took a grand out of his pocket and handed it to me.

A few days later it was Christmas, and I spent Christmas Day surrounded by form books and betting records, trying to find where I was going wrong, and put it right. Well, obviously, I was backing too many well-handicapped plodders at big prices, instead of young horses going up in the weights, but with a turn of foot to actually win races. A few more tweaks with the staking and so on, and I set off to Wincanton on Boxing Day with a bit of confidence. Things worked out, and I paid the man back early in the New Year.

"Thanks."
"'s all right."

The point of the story is that it was a different world back then. Yes, you did record all your bets (or at least I did). But it was a cash economy, and the important thing was to have readies to hand to keep that economy flowing. As long as you had those, you didn't really worry yourself with accounting for every last penny. There were more important things to do, and if you felt a bit light, you just assumed it was one of those things, and it would all work itself out in the end. The punter you'd lent a grand to would pay it back when things turned; that wedge you won when you had to wear a proper suit for Ascot on the Saturday would go missing when you were clad in raincoats and waterproofs for Plumpton on the Monday. But it would turn up one day.

It might have been less efficient than Betfair, but the memories were a whole lot better.

The knight , my point here is that people are guided by these guys opening their mouths , and in this case they are being misguided because I believe that Eddie the shoe , even though he may well be a decent fellow , is not any way qualified to make observations about the fitness and wellbeing of horses . The art of judging horseflesh is one that is very difficult to be proficient at , and requires that the so called expert is surrounded by horses and has worked with them from an early age . It is a talent that is very rare and to find a genuine judge is about as rare as hens teeth . Time and time again I hear people bluffing about horses needing the runs , knee actions , running up light , all this old bollix, just to give themselves an air of authority . The other day I heard Martin Dixon saying one hadn’t grown since last year ( from 2 to 3 ) , it was pure shiite talk . Firstly he wouldn’t know , and secondly he just threw it in to make it sound as if he’s an equine expert . A week earlier I heard him saying some horse would need the run badly in catterick , it pisssed in with a girl hanging off it , and he says after that “ I stand by what I said pre race “, what absolute nonsense . What I am saying is that the likes of freemantle and Dixon , while they may know pounds and lengths inside out , they haven’t a clue about horses as regards looking at them in parade rings , no more than the next bluffer . That’s where the danger comes in because people watching can easily be swayed by a so called expert , talking through his arrse.

the paddock 'expert' Ken Pitterson is paid to tell us every horse looks a nice horse and looks well.

Ken Pitterson wouldn’t know a horse from a chimpanzee.

The Dixon’s and indeed Freemantle are very good form book men , they have an in-depth knowledge of horses , they know the facts and figures , ground preferences, distance preferences of almost every horse . They have done their homework before they come on air . What they don’t have is the art of being able to tell horses condition by looking at them . That is a special art and it’s one that people brought up in a urban environment will never ever have

the dixons were raised on a farm. and not a phoney urban version. not that anyone cares, with the possible exception of you