When u was offered the  credit they didn't expect to wait 4 years

Know a couple guys who work in the Hove HQ the Star company which consists of a commercial property estate agents a company dealing with planning appeals and of course betting shops and on course bookmaking and on line bookmakers.

Apparently they have several well known footballers as customers who don't bet in 'bus fare' sums.Presumably because they can have a grand or so on without too much trouble.

They have the funds to still be adding good on course pitches which would still command a decent price.

The headquarters is a very large tall building in Hove not that far from the old small buildings in an industrial estate they used to rent when they started out just down the road.

So overall the company has done well from the days of a one man band betting at tracks like central park.

As regards Michael Tabor I remember him having a pitch at Hove dogs in the distant past but in his book Patrick Veitch stated that Tabor used to pay Veitch for his horse racing advice.

Mr Vietch is now on Tony Blooms horse racing team using his data approach methods and was on t.v.with him last week at Royal Ascot when Venetian Sun won.

This horse won a group one as a 2 yo and also as a 3yo which cost them just £252,000 but has won more than £800,000.

They purchased the horse at the Tattersalls Book 1 sale in October 2024 where Kia Joorabchian spent over £25 million and Sheikh Mohammed splashed out £23 million.


Who's the clever one Tabor or Bloom?

I was at Ascot that day and Pat and the other jocks definitely not busy and allowed Frankie to dominate

If you're taking the one big bet which is 99% of your turnover on the race, you can't really bet to figures, since i assume hedging big sums back will mean shortening it taking a lower price to back it, meaning loss on the race regardless. Their USP is to take the big bets.

And i don't think Tabor is at the same level as Bloom/Veitch. Assuming Tabor is the big backer, the money seemed to come in for every single Coolmore shortie, rather than a selective approach.

Seeing as most of the horses which Star took a pasting on last week were out of Ballydolye, it seems highly unlikely that the firm did NOT know it was Tabor and co. they were laying!

No, my guess is that Star operate a policy of laying  to big sums when they think they can lay under the odds (under the odds as they see it). In other words, when they have the value - or believe they do.

Trouble is, the ability of Ballydoyle's horses are so well known to the trainer and owners that they will probably know more when value exists than Star do. I do not recall that stable leaving it behind too often when a gamble has taken place.

Now, of course, Star may well hedge away some of the big wagers to reduce liabilites - even when they have to take lesser odds than they laid at. This is something that Stephen Little used to do so he would not have to turn down his big hitting clients in the beiief that when the value, in his view, was with him, he would be OK.

There is also some merit, I suspect, that Star treat these reversals as loss leaders because it is good publicity.

Having said all that, though, the point is still valid that if you keep betting against people infinitely rcher than you it will end in tears. They can absorb their losses better than you. I also suspect that last week, even Star took to chasing a bit. Well down, they thought they were due a result or two and kept laying to big money - but it went againt them this time. Be interesting to see how they play the next few weeks of the season.

Now, as to the bookie at Walthamstow who quit the track because Wiltshire did him, and then took on Tabor in the horse racing rings. Yes, the bookie that Screaming Beneath the Waves mwentions, T and F were, I believe, taken out by Tabor on the horses. But it wasn't them at Walthamstow. They began betting there some time after the bookie I am talking about had quit. 

For the life of me I cannot recall that bookies name but they used to bet at the other emd of the grandstand between Hutchinson and Murell. The guy was grey haired and a well established Tatts bookie.

The night Wiltshire did him for the £16k, he packed up his joint but left the tripod stand there with a white hankerchief tied to it! It was after that he was put out of business at the horses. I hope someone one here eventually reads this and knows the name.

BTW, it was said of T and F that one of the two lads on the joint had a very wealthy father who had made huge sums in the USA. The rumour was that when T and F had experienced a bad run,they would ask the father for a bale out and he would wire tham 250K! If all of that was true, then eventually even the father must have called time!

Lastly, I think Ronniw Rails is correct and one of the two lads on the T and F joint used to be a cabbie. If memory serves me correctly, they always wore smart caps (T and F, not cabbies).

Whatever the truth behind Star, Ballydoyle and T and F, these were great days where the non-betting members of society left us alone and did not sneer at 'gamblers' while, at the same time, trying to save us from ourselves!!!

Ben's money