MILLION POUNDS DOUBLE

Waipa Post, Volume 49, Issue 3553, 4 December 1934, Page 7

MILLION POUNDS DOUBLE

BOOKMAKERS RECEIVE STRANGE REQUESTS. -,"I want to bacjc a double for a million pounds!" Such a statement might easily have had its origin in the imagination of some writer of racing fiction, but it was made a few weeks ago by a sane and sober racing man of Melbourne. Stranger still, the bookmaker to whom the. proposal was'made treated it seriously (wrote Frank Dexter in s the Melbourne Argus on November 3). V This bobkmaker, Mr. E. ("Mannie") Lyons, had considered many strange requests by backers in his long career but never had he been called upon to discuss a wager of such magnitude on the Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup double. At first he thought that the backer was joking, so to maintain the joke he gave the stock reply: "Yes; we shall be able to accommodate you." To his amazement he found that the backer was serious. The names of two horses were mentioned ' —two of the rankest outsiders of the fields—and the price of the combination was quoted at 50,000 to 1 in. the lists. Consequently the backer's expenditure for his million pounds double would have been only £2O. But consider the risk of the bookmaker! If by some queer chance the first of these despised outsiders had won the Caulfield Cup the bookmaker would have been forced to spend an enormous amount backing the second iiXeg' 'of the double in an attempt to reduce • his liability to a reasonable figure . At first he might have obtained very long prices against the horse, but so much money would he have been compelled to invest that he «. would have exhausted the market in every State before he had backed the horse for anything approaching the desired amount. So ultimately weight of money would have forced a horse with practically no chance of success into an almost prohibitive position among the favourites of the race. That would be the climax desired by a highly imaginative writer, but racing in real life is much more pro : saic, and in this instance a sudden attack of pessimism by the owner of the Melbourne Cup "leg" of the proposed million-pounds double frustrated the backer's intentions. When entries for the Melbourne Cup closed in June this owner had optimistically imagined that his horse was another Phar Lap, but as the weeks went by he realised that his goose was really a goose, and not the swan of his imagination. So, sadly, but wisely, he

withdrew him from the Cup. Since , . then the horse has started in a hurdle Jkrace. He finished, last, so, the only claim to fame he is ever" likely to have is that once he was nearly coupled in a million-pound double. Every year when the spring racing fever begins to affect the community freak bets are proposed and freak bets are made. Some are made innocently, but some are inspired by sharp practice. Some are wise, but most - are foolish. •

Shilling Each Way. Contrast, for example, the magnitude of .the million-pound double with 1 .the request received in 1920 by Mr. George Shrimpton from a station" hand in the back country of New South Wales. This man asked for Is . each way on Poitrel in the Melbourne Cup, and he ; made the request by means of a reply paid telegram, which cost him 2s Bd. Still, doubtless, the backer considered that the 2s 8d was well spent. He was making his annual bet on the Melbourne,Cup. That was the >only thing that mattered. The telegraphed reply which he -received was the same as that received by men who wager in hundreds of pounds: "Commission executed." That wager cannot be placed under the heading of freak bets, but it . >erves to emphasise the lure of the Melbourne Cup as the means of a . mild gamble. Similar strange requests come by cable message from outside Australia. Recently Mr. Lyons received a message from an inhabitant of a small island in the South Seas with the request that £5 each way should be invested on the topweight in. the Melbourne Cup. The I request was cabled in code! There will be rejoicing in the South Sea if Peter Pan wins. Of the less innocent requests received by bookmakers this year one from a man who, soon after the publication of the weights, wished to take a 33 to 1 against his selecting the number carried by the Melbourne ' Cup winner. No bookmaker obliged him. Backing each number from Ito •:. 25 at 33 to 1 with different bookI makers, he could have shown a hand- ' some profit with very little risk — ni)";. risk now that only 25 horses remain in the Cup. Help From The Stars. Another man from whom bookmakers have heard this year is the student of astrology who has informed them that on November 6 the stars will be in such a position that it will be impossible for a certain horse to - suffer defeat. Realising that this in|.'"formation "would be of great value Wcbpokmakers on Melbourne Cup Day," the astrologer has kindly offered to impart it for a certain comparatively small consideration. Appareritly! this student of the stars has a very soft spot for bookmakers. Most I men in possession of such information would say nothing, but would invest everything they possessed on the cer- , mr . . .'" ' ■:" "

tainty. A remarkable feature of the Melbourne Cup this year has been the faith of many backers in the ability of Shadow King to add to his list of placings. Immediately after he finished second in the Melbourne Cup last year Mr. Lyons was asked to quote' a price against him for the race this year. At first he was amazed, but that was only the forerunner of many similar requests. In fact, the requests continued from the day after the last Melbourne Cup until Shadow King was withdrawn from the race. Possibly the record for attempted foresight is held by the man who two weeks ago wished to be laid a price against his selecting one horse to win the A.J.C Derby, the Victoria Derby, and the Melbourne Cup of 1935. The bookmaker was "sorry, but he could not execute the commission." Still, he was curious, so he asked the name of this prospective champion who was to equal the performance of Hall Mark in 1933. It was Golden Promise, a colt which won a division of the A.J.C. Canonbury Stakes last month. Since then he has been sold at a high price, so his new owners will be pleased "to know that one backer is confident that he will earn many times his purchase price. '

Jockeys' mounts, numbers, colours, barrier position—all these play their part in the making of freak bets on the Melbourne Cup each year. Some are the result of good judgment, some Of bad dreams, and some of sheer stupidity, but the bookmakers who receive such requests aie always tolerant. They are often the bright moments of a day's stern struggle with figures, and as such they are treated.