When the gamble was the game

The trainer took no chances when his big-race runner turned in a sensational training gallop.

A stable apprentice jockey jumped off the horse and couldn’t stop yammering on about how fast the critter had travelled. The trainer realised that if the talkative appy went around shouting his mouth off it would ruin the betting odds for the connections. So, the wily gent simply “detained” the young man for a few days, locking him up in the stable feed-room to ensure word didn’t get out about the “good thing”.

I’m assured this incident actually took place in South Africa in the 1960s and it illustrates the vital role that gambling played in training yards in days gone by. Indeed, most trainers relied on betting proceeds to keep their heads above water.

Race stakes were proportionately far smaller than today, as were training fees. With no legislated prize-money cut, trainers had to hope owners would dispense gratuities.

The late great trainer Terrance Millard – winner of six Durban Julys and six Mets – spoke candidly of how he spent years as a struggling young conditioner “setting up” horses for wins at decent odds and using his winnings to cover ongoing expenses such as rent, feed and new yearling acquisitions.

Of course, punting is still part of many training operations, but it’s an “add-on” nowadays and not nearly as integral as before. And a fair number of trainers eschew all betting, arguing that it has a deleterious effect on their professional judgment.

Stable “information” is always a precious commodity. But it was even more so in the 20^th century, closely guarded to ensure an extra few points on the bookies’ boards – or sold for profit.

The late Stanley Greeff, Port Elizabeth’s greatest trainer, was steeped in the tradition. As a battler in his early days in Cape Town he supplied information to big punters for commissions. Later, at the top of his profession, inside stable knowledge was kept strictly under wraps and he made passing on tips to outsiders a sackable offence for his staff.

A present-day trainer says it’s difficult to set up a horse for a big gamble today.

Reasons include: all horses generally being racing fitter now, with nutritional advances, so one is never sure what the opposition might throw at you; more racing and more horses competing, making the placing of a horse for a sure-fire win trickier; the merit-rating system preventing trainers concealing horses’ abilities for long, and trainer-jockey working relationships not being as tight as before.

He reckons preparing a horse for a Grade 1 win today has taken the place of the big-punt set-up. Higher stakes in sponsored races and a greater number of prestigious features mean less reliance on wagers.

Here’s an ancient stable betting coup story from the UK:

In 1836 Lord Bentinck owned and trained a champion called Elis at Goodwood in southern England. He entered him for the St Leger in York, 350km away. Back then racehorses walked to wherever they might be running and the bookies figured the long journey would take it out of Elis, so priced him up at 12/1.

M’lud claimed those generous odds, then invented the horse box, a wheeled contraption drawn by six carthorses. Elis was conveyed in luxury to York and “hosed up”, as we used to say in the old days.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.