PICKING WINNERS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 106, 28 January 1939, Page 10

PICKING WINNERS

System Versus Lack Of System TRENTHAM HIGHLIGHTS Following Number v Four; The Sale Of A Lucky Ticket Some take a pin and stick it into the race book and back the horses the impression indicates; some get “inside” information from the relatives of friends through their friends; some back greens others yellows, and still others other colours; some believe the racecourse maxim, “Last into the birdcage is first into it after the race ; some follow jockeys; some follow the tip from a laundryman or from a milkman ; some study form; some follow the newspaper; and all are wise after the event. But all of them, and a hundred and one other types, contributed part of the £232,0UU which passed through the totalizators at Trentham during the meeting just concluded this week. ' Unquestionably racing lias its liglitei side -entertainment value, or call.it what you will and this undoubtedly contributes toward its popularity. In the colloquial .'terms o£ the time, all the ‘•"•ood oil’’ doesn't come from lersia, and racegoers have weird and wonderful ways of securing information calculated to bring home a winner. Everyone who enjoys following racin'’- can recount at least one classic instance of the “hunch” of quaint origin that resulted in a dumping dividend In just the same way as efforts have been made to find a “system by which the bank may be broken at Carlo, so there is that section of iace--oers > which follow systems with or • without the backing of other mtelli»euce. Following No. 4. Perhaps one of the best stories from the recent Trentham meeting is of the woman who had been to see Sing You Sinners,” starring Bing Crosby, at a Wellington theatre. In the picture Crosby says that he picks winners the "Australian way—Number 4 in the racebook.” The woman stuck to her allotted task of “Number 4 in the racebook” over the first day, and secured just under £5 in return for-flb invested. The second day was half a crown better, and she commented strongly on the silly nonsense of following theories. She forsook the "system” on the final day, just when it would have shown a return of £27/12/6! . Into definite groups backers inevitably divide themselves. They are either “guessers” or “assessors, mat is to say, the first group merely guess, and the second group merely access the value of a guess, hazard, estimation, observation, or deduction. -Assessors” include a niuch smaller but very confidential internal section ’who have the added asset of "being in ■ the know'.” As a horse has difficulty in conveying its personal opinion of -chances, and since most people have ceased to believe in the “horses mouth” stories, just as they ultimately do in Father Christmas—more is the pity, perhaps—those "in the know” have to claim widely diverse sources fot their -‘information.”'

The Source of Relatively. A relation of a most distant variety would be more closely connected than most of -those in the know” with their alleged sources of information. It is sufficient to have a friend of a girl ' who is walking out with the friend of an insurance man who insures the car j of a jockey to have the necessary peg on which to hang a “sitter” for a race somewhere or other. When tips like this miss they are distinguished by .their regularity with which they are injured going to the track, badly interfered with in the running or upset by over-reaching themselves in a lilial secret gallop! For some reason barbers have earned the reputation its being men well up in their knowledge of sport on the turf- after all it may be reasonable deduction since all men have to have their hair cut and many horses have a trim and a tail clipped. One baibei in Wellington became so tired of being sounded on his knowledge of reliable information” that he hit upon a plan. To every customer who probed him he tipped one horse in the main event of the programme concerned and by working through the list entered found that he was certain to make someone happy.

“Not All the Way for Nothing!”

One woman at Trentliam >vho backed the Winner Gold Glare both ways—win and place—was asked tor her reasons for being so brave since Gold Glare was one of the outsiders of a big field. ‘’Well, I .thought that he (meaning either the trainer or the horse, or both) would not have come all the way from Hgwera for nothing!” It would have jieen useless co have pointed out to th/ fortunate possessor of this type of mental deduction that in the same race were horses from Riccarton, Fordell. Wingatni. Dunedin. Hastings, Awapuni, Marton, Woodville, Hamilton and Opaki I Such is the reward earned by a mind of single purpose.

Sold The Winning Ticket. There must be hundreds of similar tales each meeting among the thousands who patronize the sport for the fun of a day’s happy speculation. There are instances of fortune and ill-fortune: of judgment and lack of judgment. Of the ill-fortune one story will suffice. On the first day a queue was still filing into the totalizator window near closing time A woman dashed up to the line and said: “Is anyone intending to hack Rakahang.t. I’ve got the wrong ticket. I asked for 7 for a win and got 11.” A man stepped forward immediately and took the ticket from her - Rakahanga for a win. The woman stepped into the queue and battled to secure “Seven for a win.” Rakahanga won and paid—well, newspapers are forbidden to publish dividends but it was nearer £5O than £2o—and number seven Alunga, ran third and paid a handsome dividend in which the woman would not share because she had backed straight out.

All of which has no moral but indicates that there is much in the old English tradition that “the game’s rhe thing.” and after all. the man who pores over turf notes, and who carefully peruses weights, ages, breeding and form has information that is as good, if not better, than the next man’s.