RACING Bookmakers Pay Out Twice

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30109, 18 April 1963, Page 5

RACING Bookmakers Pay Out Twice

(N^J’A.-Reuter—Copyright) : LONDON, April 17. Bookmakers all over Britain were today lamenting yesterday’s betting mix-up caused by A. Breasley’s mount, Perkin Warbeck, being wrongly placed first in the last race at Newmarket. A spokesman far the Bookmakers’ Protection Association said: “We are carrying out an immediate investigation. This has cost our members a small fortune.” A spokesman for a big Leeds bookmaking firm said: “We have Jost a packet.” The president of the Scottish Starting Price Bookmakers’ Association, Mir William King, said: "It has cost us thousands and thousands.” The race, the Stuntney Maiden Stakes, resulted in a photo-finish between Perkin Warbeck and Rodolphus, joint 5/2 favourites. But as the judges deliberated. the ticker-tapes chattered into the betting shops:

Perkin Warbeck 1, Rodolphus 2, Cradle of tbe Deep 3. For eight minutes, clerks paid out on Perkin War beck —‘ and those swift-fingered men could part with a lot of money in eight minutes,” said the “Daily Express." Then the judges gave the decision t» Rodolphus by a head and the ticker-tapes chattered again with the correction. In the confusion in the betting shops,, punters who had thrown away tickets on Roddlphus scrambled around the fioor looking lor them while many who had collectedj on Perkin Warbeck refused to hand their winnings back. At Doncaster, Yorkshire, one man who collected on Perkin Warbeck was chased into the street by a clerk but got away, said the “Daily Express.” The owner of two London betting shops, Mr Paddy Gray, said: “We paid out three times. We paid out on Perkin Warbeck after trying to cover ourselves by betting 5/2 against Rodolphus on the photograph. Then we still had to meet the original bets on_Rodolphus.”

The “Daily Express” quoted a police spokesman as saying: “A man who was paid in error did not get the

money unlawfully. A bookmaker’s only course is to take civil action.” An official of the Exchange Telegraph news agency said: "It appears the error was ours* but we are inquiring into it”