14.25 Ascot

** God's Window could sneak a place imvh and may do the first three place on here.

Speaking about the shops I did a bet With Billys today. 100 win 50 place on a later race. The manager told me that wan't possible as the win/place had to be the same. After 5 minutes of me trying to explain to him the rules he reluctanly phoned head office. Eventually he sheepishly took my bet but no apology.

That was sweet to watch. Well done winners and ****** who sent me a PM before the off.

well done stewy

'stewarty', that's the issue with the staff in the bookies these days. Most do not have a clue about horse race betting; the staff are mainly custodians of fobt these days - little clue of horseracing betting.

Indeed 123. A few months back I put a few quid on a double. I was well aware they would both go off odds on. As not to atract any attention I put FAV on all my tickets. One Manageress asked me if I would like to take the prices. 10/11 and 4/7 at the time. I tried my hardest to convince her I couldn't take any price when just named FAV.


I got on but she still didn't have a clue as to why I couldn't take the prices. As it happened they both won but had I taken the prices on these two particular horses I'm sure the bet would have been voided.....all because of poor training.

Nice one.

Poor training? I doubt if there is any training these days.

If you’re writing out bets then it’s wise not to make things complicated for anyone. Most bookies don’t to place betting so it would have been far wiser to write the £50 win and £50ew that you wanted. Zero point in trying to bamboozle some cashier.

It's a different era now. They can't get staff, so people are pushed into positions they shouldn't be, with the minimum of training. Epos means they don't need to be able to settle, apart from maybe a few times a year.
Knowledge is very limited, mainly woman and students these days.

Don't forget though stewarty, you didn't know what the OR was a few months back and you've been punting for years

Zero point in trying to bamboozle some cashier.


Indeed but this was the manager not a cashier.

There is virtually no difference

Maybe a quid per hour.

The manager in my local knows a fair bit. I don’t think she’d even look at the bet you wrote out, just the stake. Could cause unnecessary problems later on though if you have returns to collect. I still think it’s wise to make things as simple as possible.

If even that, not forgetting they only work 37.5 hours a week and the shops are open over 80, so 50 odd hours manged by those that aren't managers, supposedly

There are some really knowledgeable and nice people left, I agree with sk, simpler the better for most.

I don't think they deserve the criticism, it is an industry with a tremendous amount of rules on 100's of sports.

I think the newbies learn as they go along. None of them have an interest in gambling, it’s just a job to them. If they are still doing it six months later then they become capable. Seeing out the first six months is the stumbling block.

Definitely the staff turnover is huge

Horse a. goes favourite due to lots of money being put on. Horse b. the original fav, drifts alarmingly in the markets. The original fav is held up and left too much to do and the gambled on fav is allowed  a big lead by the ex fav and wins. Of course racing nots crooked.

I know of two Hills in Aberdeen that closed within the past few years. As it happens they were in the top four for taking bets. Each were less than a 100 yards from a pub. You have to ask why and imo they are just not interested in taking bets, only stick your money in our machines.



A sad state of affairs but that's the way it is unfortunetly. More or less the same as online 'betting'.

** If you want a decent bet on nowadays it's either on here or go to the course. I prefer here unless I'm willing to visit a few shops and basically drip feed.


A day at the races is fine but if you fancy one strongly there's only 2% charge on here.