CALLING THE ODDS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 101, 20 July 1927, Page 6

CALLING THE ODDS

NUMEROUS FREAK BETS TICKET THROWN TO BACKERS “WRITE YOUR OWN PRICE” Freak bets are the feature of the Melbourne betting, and the lucky punter who took £SO to 2s on the flat ai Flemington recently about Chariot, winner of the Myross Handicap for two-year-olds, is just one of many racegoers who at some time or other have profited by that feature. Melbourne bookmakers seem to specialise in laying ridiculously long prices about horses which, in tlieir opinion, and in the opinion of the majority of racegoers, for that matter, have no chance. But few have gone as far as did Sam Norman, the young bookmaker who laid the above fancy odds. £4,000 TO £1 The previous Wednesday at Moonee Valley he laid £SO to sixpence about Broamanus, who ran second to Zanzibar, but that bet was eclipsed by a similar one in the same race, which must stand as a record for a straightout price in an ordinary handicap. Pie bet £SO to threepence about Silver Bugle, the equivalent of 4,000 to 1. He got nothing out of that bet, for the duty stamp on the ticket on which it was written cost the sum invested. But the laying of big sums to almost mfiniiesimal amounts is not confined solely to the enterprising and smaller bookmakers. Three of Melbourne’s leading fielders, Wallace Mitchell, Mannie Lyons and George Shrimpton, have earned a name for that style of betting. MUST LAY THE LOT Mannie Lyons has a‘dislike of seeing a horse in his book without a wager against it, and will practically give a bet away to prevent that. In that way he has often laid the winner to a punter who has accepted a bet for the sake of the odds. It’s all good advertisement. for such tales spread. Though not to the sarhe extent, Syd ney has its examples of freak betting, and one outstanding figure in that regard is Joe Matthews. Calling the card at Randwick, —his usual method of opening betting—he has on several occasions written out a bet by mistake, and sooner than tear that ticket up, he has tossed it in the air for the crowd to scramble for. PRESENTATION BETS His latest example of that was in the Tattersall’s Stakes on May 21, when The deadly 'flu. Protect yourself. Keep in sound, vigorous health. K.P. Extract of Malt is flesh-forming, muscle-building.— l 6. _

he made a presentation bet otf £l4 on Gegla. Gegla, however, didirrt show up. Few Sydney bookmakers have anything on Charlie Howie, the '‘c<\niedian” of pony courses. On one occasion at Victoria Park, he wrote out a ticket for £25, offered it first at tcvi shillings, then in descending scale until he reached a shilling. There were no takers at that price, so he, too, threw the ticket to the crowd. A well-known pressman was the lucky one, and ho saw the horse narrowly beaten.

But such bets are common in Melbourne. So, too, for that matter, are ordinary calls of 100 to 1, a cry seldom heard against the greatest of outsiders in Sydney.