According to twitter Cubone

As CuBone on here he brightened the days up no end with his stories. He always said his book would be called, "Fiddler On The Hoof."

R.I.P. Don Butler.

Is that Don (Cubone) - Stood up at the back - Betting on 'The Aways'

1961 - Birmingham Racecourse .... 1.01 He was there.


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He had a sense of humour alright. Don Butler named one of his sons Rhett

He was a laugh.
I came across him in his later days on here and at one point he agreed to accept me as his interpreter.
A bit later he got caught up with the scammer Mr Lucky. Never quite clear to me whether Don was accomplice or victim.
R.I.P.

Around the same time as when CuBone was in full flow Gamble swapped stables from The Racing Forum to this place. They were a great team and the source of much hilarity during that period.

A funny tale about Don... Oadby funny....

Micky Fletcher was standing at Leicester & Don was his clerk. The irascible Fletcher was p!ssed off doing his dough on the first, and took his anger out on Don. Don took the ledger to the kharzi and filled it up with some freshly brewed ''pony'' ! Handed it back to Michael, and told him what to do !

R I P Don, apart from Dr Carl Chinn nobody knows ( knew ) more about the bookmaking over the last hundred years plus !

I remember him always having a go at the Grimster on here.  A real character no less.

As CuBone he possessed the two qualities vital for winning internet battles - unshakeable self-belief and a total inability to spell.

As Don Butler the underpriced aways bookie, he was sometimes a little less sure of himself. He was forever claiming to be proud of his roots in what he always called the Birmingham gutter; and he couldn't abide anyone making fun of those roots. One afternoon he was standing at Worcester, on a day when all the UK away meetings had been abandoned, and Eddie Fremantle walked up and stood beside his joint and started shouting: "Thair goan be'oind at Toorfontaaaayyne!"

Butler completely lost it and spent the the next couple of decades in a relentless feud with Fremantle.

Anyway, my condolences to his family. The man was part of the glory days, and you can never take that away from anyone.

A very entertaining, passionate and unique fella.  Fondly remembered.

May 23, 2023 -- 8:51PM, salmon spray wrote:

He was a laugh.I came across him in his later days on here and at one point he agreed to accept me as his interpreter.A bit later he got caught up with the scammer Mr Lucky. Never quite clear to me whether Don was accomplice or victim.R.I.P.

Also remember that ss, thought they were in cahoots, you never truly know who's who here, could be having 5 way conversation with one other .

Loved his stories on here and elsewhere. A great name from the earliest days of the Forum.

some great stories
RIP Cubone

With Sammy Nixon...

' they're under de orders ! '        Ten minutes before off....   

They were certainly under the odds.

Butler and Nixon made it hopeless for any punter wanting an away bet at the Midlands tracks in those days. You either paid 6% tax in the course shop at SP only, or took several points under the show price on every single horse in every single race with Butler and Nixon.

They were a blight on the sport.

What was interesting about Don Butler is he handed back his licence in order to trade on Betfair without incurring an income tax liability. Maybe he was wrong about the law but if he was right, one suspects there are a lot of racecourse bookmakers chancing their arm with HMRC.

I looked back on here, and ironically found this early post from him on here in 2005.
A name I will always remember from earlier days posting on here...


A RECORD YOU LIKED FROM YESTERYEAR THAT NO-ONE ELSE PROBABLY DID
By CuBoNe. on 28 Jun 05 19:12
I have actually decided to play YMCA at my funeral and have 52 names on a short list to play the part of the Cowboy,and Fireman.

Jesus, 2005 was 18 years ago...

I feel old, like Cubone some days...

screaming could u bet SP or did they tell u to feck off ?

That's very sad to hear, he was rightly a legend on here and permanently tangoed on the racecourse, long before David Dickenson made it a trademark. I'm of the opinion that Cubone and Mr Lucky (Michael Crawford, some mothers do have them) were one and the same and was one almighty long p1ss take, reference his humour. His tales of days gone by and his dad keeping 75k in his wardrobe were very informative and entertaining.
As previously said, no one with any inkling of a clue would ever bet with him on the "aways", his prices were a joke, but again as he said he wasn't going to stand outside for 3 1/2 hours in the rain or biting wind freezing and give money away. I liked him and condolences to his family, RIP Don, you'll be missed.

howard, you could apparently bet SP on the aways with Butler and Nixon, but win only and not too close to the off. The question is, why would you?

When the pitch regulations were loosened, and the likes of Dave Clinton and Martyn of Leicester began betting on the aways in the Midlands, it turned out that bookmakers didn't have to treat racegoers with the contempt that Butler and Nixon had for so long. Suddenly punters could bet tax-free at show prices, and each way too. And be treated with civility and respect.

It was the pitch regulations that were a disgrace and contemptible.

Very sad news. Don was irresistible on here with his stories and huge knowledge of the game. His anecdotes on the early days of bookies were great reads and what a book he could have written...though the spellchecker would have been overworked !
Most will have forgotten, but he had the original idea for a Betfair Users Group when me and five others met Alistair Black at BF headquarters. Nothing came of it, but it showed the respect Betfair management had for Don, his ideas and experience.
RIP Cubone...you were a genuine one off, condolences to his family.

Andrew Black...not Alistair

i liked don and his postshe did get some stick but never from me, he seemed to get to know boards on rails were coming before most did and bought some, i tried to buy one off him was 9500 no bid i offered him 9k, just give me a hour he said as don would do, im off see you don, rip don

There was a thread one year,a while back,with a list of people who had died that year,like the Oscars.

Maybe there could be a ,no longer with us thread,updated 6monthly,yearly by Betfair.

April May 1981 circa
Bank Holiday Monday at Warwick.
Busy afternoon, late in the day , Butler or Nixon were late scrubbing the prices for a hurdle at Haydock.
A pal of mine saw Jugador jump ahead at the last on cctv down a few stairs in The Crudwell Bar, strode to sunlight and saw 6/1 on offer.
His deadpan quote was I nearly had the cheek to back it each way. 
He copped… eventually!

^  Good story - Each side always trying to outwit the other.

Now it is  ......... Same Prices everywhere - and the Computer says whether you can have a Bet .... or Not.

yep it was a war, punter and bookie - though sometimes a friendly war. Always fair, as it was a war.

I've tricked bookies a few times in the past, backing footie teams at 2-0 up when they got their times wrong - that was even in a bookies!

They got most of it back off me in the old days of course, I was young and stupid. And they milked people like that.

Now, it's just 'no bookie' almost all the time, and 100% exchanges. They were exploiters in the past, now they can't even be bothered to do that properly anymore and will instead try to steal people's money/winnings. A closed door to me.