OLD BOOKIE LOOKS BACK

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 238, 7 October 1932, Page 11

OLD BOOKIE LOOKS BACK

BET IN THOUSANDS. COSTXY RACEHORSES. ST. MICHAEL-CRUCIFORM DOUBLE. Basking in the sun yesterday, a man of leisure if ever there was one, but one who has experienced life at both its brightest and dullest, Mr. Dan McLeod, or "Dan, as he is known throughout New Zealand, related some of his experiences "with the bag on." Dan is now leading a quiet life in a local home for the indigent, and says ho has nothing to do but eat, sleep and be of good behaviour. At liis. age this is not very difficult. In his palmy days Dan McLeod was recognised as one ofr'the gam est bookmakers New Zealand has known, but with him it was "easy come, easy go," and lie might have been a very wealthy man to-day had he confined himself to bookmaking instead of, as he himself says, mixing it with gambling and owning horses. As a young man he was engaged in bushfelling in Mercury Bay and JNorthern Wairoa, taking contracts and making what was considered big money. He also worked at gumdigging, at which he considers he was a champion. Often his earnings averaged £2 a day for weeks on end. But the work was too dirty, t and though bushfelling did not bring in so much money he preferred swinging the axe. His First Big Bet.

But it was as a bookmaker and racehorse owner that he became widely known. When working at Mercury Bay he had a fair amount of money, and at a sports meeting he entered for the mile run. Nobody considered his» chance seriously and a man, who afterwards became a partner, offered Dan £100 to £8 about his chance. Always a gambler, Dan took the bet, and to his own surprise as well as that of the crowd, he won easily. It was then that he came to Auckland for a trip and getting in with poker and hazard "schools" he soon lost his money, and went back to the bush.

s Two years later lie was again in the city e This time he set up as a bookmaker. There c were plenty of "big men" those days. Dai: was a "small" man, but he would take any r risk so long as he had the money to pay y Luck favoured him and he soon was classed r with the biggest betters, and instead oi B betting in single sovereigns he was bettinj f the odds to hundreds. He laid one bet oi r £7500 to £625 about a horse called Double i Event for the New Zealand Cup one year, i but, of course, did not hold all the bet, and d spread it among others. The horse broke - down and never reached the starting post On another occasion a backer put £10 or 1 Dormer all up Jabber with him and did £ the same with "Bob" Cleland, then one oi 1 the biggest and straightest bookmakers - New Zealand has known. With a third 3 .bookmaker, "Jimmy" Beckett, the backer j put £5 on the same two horses all up t Both paid the limit (£10) and the backei . was paid £2500 for £25. " One Bet Of £1000. "I remember on one occasion," said J Dan, "a man coming to me and putting J £1000 on Gold Medallist at tote odds. As the horse was a screaming hot favourite r and was .paying only three or four shillings over the 'quid,' I took the bet. Gold ' Medallist won. On another occasion the same, man put £500 on Multiform and J won, but a couple of races later he lost ' the lot on Gold Medallist. This sort ol thing happened frequently. The greatesl knock 'the ring' in New Zealand gpt in my time was when Mr. G. G. Stead won the [ Auckland Cup and Railway double with St. Michael and Cruciform. That cost the " books thousands, and sent many of us | broke. But it was not the only time ] went broke. In Australia. "When Advance was taken over to Mel bourne for the Newmarket - Handicap ] was there and had a £10,000 book on the race. To one man I laid £2250 to £22;: each of two—Wakeful and Advance, and they finished first and third. I also laid Fulminate, who ran second, for £10,000. ] intended making my book for Advance, but the wager of £2250 to £225 caused me to field properly and I got almost round on j the) race. Advance jumped the track on tho course which horses used to cross on to the training tracks each morning, but lie would not have won in any case, as Wakeful was a wonderful galloper. Costly Horses. "I raced many horses, and though I had three real good ones in Miss Delaval, Record Reign and Scotty, I also had a couple of others that cost me a fortune. They were Jewellery and St. Helen. This pair must have cost me the best ipart of £40,000. That seems a lot of money, but I lost thousands on thpm. Of course, in racing you have your good and bad luck, and mine wasn't all ba'd. Take the win of Miss Delaval in the; Great Northern Derby. 1 sent her to Christcliurch for the New Zealand Cup and she was beaten, and later at the meeting it took her all her time to wm. the Oaks in a poor field. She came straight back to Auckland and at the Cup meeting won the Christmas Handicap the , " a J r - I "'SP thought lier unbeatable in the Summer Cup on the second day and backed her all along the line. She finished last but two, and dog-tired. After George Absolum, her trainer, had taken her home she was a sick filly, anel we decided not to race her again at the meeting. Before the meeting 1 had taken a sporting wager with a friend of £50 to £20 about her for the >i 7' 2 nd , 1 sl !BSested the bet should be called off when it was decided not to start i e i r ; ,'I Y ould not a B rGe > 80 1 offered him £14, but he wanted £19, which was only £1 less than the bet I had made. I felt that he was being a little hard taking my money without giving me a run, so I went to the trainer and told him the filly would have to start, sick or not. He simply laughed at me, but I was determined not to lose my £20 without a run. She did not appear to possess a thousand to one chance, but I was determined to start her.' Seahorse, owned by Major George, had won the New Zealand Cup and New Zea- /' 1 n . d was a llot favourite. I •put £200 on him. To my amazement Miss JJeiaval won, but the greatest pleasure I had was in collecting the £50 over the bet! had made on the race before the meeting. |

A Challenge. r P -^■ no ' ; l ier experience I bad was at a iakapuna meeting. Among the horses 1 was then racing was Scotty, trained by rrank McManemin, now the liandicapper. bcotty was m a small race, and another ox the runners was Gatelock, owned by one of my best friends, Mr. Donald Mcivinnon.. Before the race I mentioned to mm that I did not fancy Scotty, aud advised him to have a bet upon another horse—Xisshng, I think, was the name of it. Again it was shown how little owners know at times, because Scotty won easily, which I backed, nowhere. Old Donald s horse, Gatelock, nearly ran off the course at the home turn, but that didn t worry him. What did upset him was my teiling him not to back Scotty, and lie did not hesitate to tell me what he thought of -me. We had a rare old argument, and the upshot was he offered to race Gatelock against Scotty for £1000. I accepted the challenge,, and then offered to bet him another £25 that when 1 pnt up my £1000 lie would not cover it. The incident created a great sensation among racing men, but friends of ours induced us to cry the match off and shake hands. Only One Wire. "I remember once, when I was in a bookmaking partnership, going to a Taranaki meeting, my partner remaining in Auckland. On the first day of the meeting I got hit badly, and that evening before dinner I sent a wire to my partner saying, 'Lost £650.' I hadn't finished dinner at the hotel before I had a reply from him reading, 'Surely it cannot be true.' Back I wired, 'Yes, only too true.' Next day I went to the course, and in the first race was Red Lancer. He was only paying about £18/ on the tote, and I' held £500 or £600. I also held about £100 of another horse in the race, and neither of thom finished in a place. Then

I turned punter, and put a couple of hundred on Kanaka in the Hurdles, and he won. At the end of the day I cleared about £1500, so I sent a wire from the course to my partner in Auckland, saying, 'Won about £800 on meeting.' I didn't get a reply this time 6aying it couldn't be true." Champion Hurdler. Mr. McLeod also owned Record Reign, conceded by all to 'be the greatest hurdler to race in New Zealand. Record Reign was raced on the flat by the Pukekohe sportsmen, the Messrs; Roulston Bros., and proved himself a great handicap horse. Bought .by Mr. McLeod, he was put to hurdling, and trained by J. Thorpe. At his first start he won a minor hurdle race on the first day of the C.J.C. Grand National meeting, and then the Grand National Hurdles with 12.12 in the saddle. It was then decided to send him across to Melbourne for the V.R.C. Grand National Hurdles. He finished fourth in that race, carrying 12.12, but, notwithstanding his defeat, the handicapper next weighted him at 13.5. The owner was so disgusted that he at once put the horse up for sale, and at 850gs he was purchased on behalf of an Indian Prince, and the horse went to India, to eventually find his way to France, where he fell and broke his neck in an important steeplechase. And so we leave Dan McLeod contented with the -world. A man who has won and lost fortunes. He has no regrets.