Should have known you’d be an emu OneOne! 

I made a visit to Sydney with a mate one Easter about 20 years ago. Doncaster/Derby Day on the Saturday. I remember he forgot a tie so we went down the road from our hotel to Paddies Market where he managed to find one with cartoon cows in different sex positions for $5 or $10. Got out there and straight onto it big time. We ended up climbing over the approx 50cm gap between the public and members stands up on one of the upper levels. No idea how but no one said a word and we just continued on the booze in one of the members bars. 

Had a handy day out on the punt despite Sunline going down a neck to Over so we ended up kicking on at Wenty Park for the Golden Easter Egg. I couldn’t believe the betting ring. There would have been dozens of bookies fielding. Was a great night. I remember they had one of those motorised miniature car rides for some off track entertainment which of course we had to have a go of. My mate got on no problem but I was told to piss off. Too drunk. Probably a good thing as I ended up falling over, slumped in the big inflatable tube around the outside.

Good times!

As he checked them on his way to the ring he’d discard them.

They were all $10 r2r doubles on the same combination.

1st leg won, 2nd leg beaten in photo.

Just as he threw the last ticket away, came the announcement...hold all tickets!

He scrambled back, could only find 6/10 tickets.

Protest upheld, each ticket was worth $120.

It was more money than he’d ever seen in his life!

Ipswich Cup I’m not surprised when you consider the demographics of the area. I remember a story of maybe 15 years ago they had that huge inflatable “Mr Forex” mascot in the infield on Ipswich Cup day. Air taken out at the end of the day but was pinched before someone could come and collect it the next morning. 

& a few Melbourne Cup Cruises 

There'd been a series of teleprinter odds delays at previous Canberra meetings, causing bookies to get burnt.  The suggestion being that people involved in the printer service were deliberately delaying transmission until after their associates had got on big shorteners at inflated prices.

As the trainer gave his instructions, jockey Ted Doon simply looked at us all and said "It's not your turn today" and nodded in the direction of another runner.

We rushed back to the ring and took unders on the "pea" given those in the know had already gone on, but we did manage to break near enough to square when it duly saluted.

I cannot remember the value of all the tickets but think it was in excess of $10,000.

A fairly common occurrence, SC, and a commendable courtesy by the jockey to steer you the right way. I knew a bloke who told much the same story, "Your horse isn't fancied, but make sure you back x " Too bad he had already backed his horse, but a winner is a winner.

It sounds like you were "the fox" long before Addo-Carr  

I was at Doomben one day in the early 2000s with a couple of mates when a late scratching came through. Favourite was out at x:xxpm, bookmakers rule a line. Well one of them just kept betting. 5 minutes later and the favourite was still in. Well that was enough and we jumped on a few that we liked one of which won. He tried but the reminder about the betting steward was enough for him to give up any deductions fairly quickly. 

 

Some bookies would almost always bet each-way, at competitive win odds, to keep faith with a clientele of each-way punters. One bookie told me the each-way bettors "lasted longer", meaning went broke more slowly I suppose, as there would be races where the place portion of the transaction was at losing figures for the bookie. I once saw a bookie betting on a Wenty dog race, each-way, where there were two dogs totally dominating the market, and the rest were 33/1 to 100/1. most were 66/1, from memory. A quick calculation and it was realised you could stake the remaining six to be winning, no matter what happened. You might even get two of the roughies into a place. 

but, but its not bred to run the distance Baghdad - & it gets bogged down in the wet  

I remember a fella telling me he attended the Albion Park races as a young fella, probably the 60's, and placed everything he had left in his pocket, on the last race of the day. No return. He then had not even the bus fare home, which forced him to walk all the way to Cribb Island, a now extinct suburb that was swallowed up by Brisbane airport extensions. That would have been a 10 kilometre walk, and the exercise convinced him to quit betting thenceforth.

Sounds like a quitter to me! 

We might have to depend on Bob to explain how that would work. in a tote setting, it isn't immediately obvious to me.

I don't recall any chairs in the early TAB shops.

The doubles pool was simply split, 70% to winner and 30% to second.

First time we went to Chantilly with a group of about 10 of us.   Got ourselves all set up with tables and stools next to the rails, bin, and bar.   But we didnt understand the French way, and I still dont.  But something along the lines of.  If an owner has more than 1 runner in each race, and you bet on 1 of them, but the other one wins, you get a collect.  Now, at Chantilly the Aga Khan nearly always has at least 2 and sometimes 3 or 4 , in  a race.  Towards the end of the day and our bin overflowing, we were finally told about this.

Here were 10 very well dressed Australians sitting on the ground going thru the bin !  Think we didnt get some looks.

That would depend on whether a dividend is declared for the runner up in the second leg or there is a simple refund of the bet.  

Separate Dividend for Runner Up: Once the rake is taken from the gross pool a certain percentage , say 25%, of the net pool may have been allocated to those who backed the runner up and the remaining 75 % of the net pool would have been distributed to those who backed the second leg winner to declare a dividend.

There'd be thousands there of course, and perhaps 50 bookies divided between the members and the public area.  When something was backed in the members there'd be a beg-no-pardons stampede for the public area to try and get on before the word got out there.  Blokes would fall @rse over trying to hurdle the fence to avoid the crush at the entry gate.  All to get an added point or two.

That's true because all of my betting was done only after I accessed that sheet outside the tote and because my staking was based as close as possible to SP price I only bet in the last 5 minutes before a race.

that sort of thing did happen with detached separate rings, I suppose less so today, but I know of people being black-balled for running between rings, bowling people over in the process. Or at least warned to desist, or be banned. One bloke got into a huff and didn't come back to the races after being warned. just common sense, someone will get hurt sooner or later, I believe this is the reason betting on photo finishes was stopped, people would camp on the finish line, then dash to the ring, in the event of a photo, which in those days took a little while to be judged upon. And of course, the crowds were big in those days.

max manewer wrote: OK horlicks, so you got a div for running second, not a refund. Could it be less than the stake ?

I never saw it happen Max but I suspect it was possible.

Apprentice Louis "the fly" Toth had his indentures transferred to (Jack Barling?) at the 'Bool.  Was shown to a tiny room with just a small cupboard and an iron framed bed.  No reticulated water at the stables, horses being hosed down on-course. 

Louis' first comment: "suppose a bloke's gotta join the local footy club to get a decent shower around here."

No, I cannot see where there is any value. When I went on track the on course market most reflected the probability of horses winning, it was the more efficient market, and the TAB had more mug money and was the less efficient market. By going on track to some obscure meetings the variance in those two markets was even more apparent and I took advantage of that.

Today as far as I am aware there is only one market , the fixed price corporate bookies and the tote market, which by the time a race starts they are no different. With syndicates using computers to directly download thousands of exotic bets into the TAB computers any advantages that was previously in those markets has now been eroded . I believe those syndicates are happy even to loss a small percentage on their turnover, which of course I would be little different, to pick up the rebates on their turnover so betting for me would be a waste of time as the mathematical advantage I once had does not exist.

Over a year or so I graduated into the Paddock and then became aware there was more money to be made betting on the interstate tote in the Paddock ( the interstate tote house was only in the Paddock )  where the odds variance between the tote odds and the odds coming from interstate were more in my favour than betting on firmers with bookies.

Just think, if I had been any good at football or cricket I would never had ventured to the Flat on a Saturday afternoon and I wonder how my life would have turned out. As they say, life can be fortuitous being in the right place at the right time.

I don't know SC, anything that wins, is fun, and this is for "funny" stories. 

People would do well to listen to the bolder section above. Totally correct and goes for any form of betting really. You do not need to know form to win - just the maths. I mean, I’ve barely watched MMA in my life but I was more than happy to bet on it this morning when it became apparent I could profit off it!

98.2 % you certainly would have to empty a few accounts even to make a small profit, then again you could not lose.

Well I did say “small” 

I made about $50 from it. Small but then if you saw a $50 note on the ground you would certainly bend over and pick it up. 

The Ladbrokes arb was a much bigger score over a few months. 

But you gotta go at least once in your life

yes it was a major employer, high running costs, and the take-outs were less than today, a real contradiction.

Those were the days when the only Chinese you saw were in China Town. But the thing I noticed there were heaps at the greyhound races with wads of cash, they loved the dogs

Gov owned.

No shareholders 

1+1.  when I first started punting on the overs I only bet on the win & place and the last race quinella and over those years the value slowly but surely fell away on the win and place as other punters realised there were overs . As the TAB grew they introduced trifectas which were a gift from God as most punters had no idea how to stake individual combinations ( even the smarties boxed up runners ) whereas I knew if I staked individual bets I achieved huge overlays, especially at the short end of the market. Over a period of years I , like other overs punters, was able to download hundreds of bets directly into the on course totalisator, which in the long run was to my detriment because we all began to correctly stake all combinations which ultimately meant the value in trifecta betting ultimately evaporated. It is about then around 1999  that I gave it all away, although for a few more years I exploited overs on WA Trebles on the Queensland TAB.  

Re Bad Spells: Of course I had bad runs but by the end of every calendar month I always showed a profit.

No,  I never chased losses as I always knew the odds were on my favour.

To be fair though, it was little better with the govt ownership, punters got zero benefit from computerization of the TAB. Oh wait, you got the "spinner" 

Nothing wrong with privatisation, CBA, CSL, ALL 

No actually, I find BB's and others betting strategies very interesting. Also the discussion about changes in TAB's and betting strategies  Since when has any thread stuck to the title 

You know what they say, if you don't like it 

AA, as 1+1 started this thread and has posted ,like myself, a bit about punting in general, do you suppose he should come in line with your request ?

No actually, I find BB's and others betting strategies very interesting. Also the discussion about changes in TAB's and betting strategies  Since when has any thread stuck to the title 

You know what they say, if you don't like it

Oh fiddlesticks,,,,this thread is about funnies.   You know ??     Laughs .  Funny things .    But what do you know about funnies ???   You boring old gelati.