anyone ever had a race horse or been in a synd, page-24

40, you are right about mates telling mates.
To overcome this everyone agreed to pool betting money and collect the average price overall. This went a long way to stop people pinching your price for if you didn't get on you didn't win.
I recall once at a country meeting I had a decent bet on my own horse. I had a mate who was a good driver but he was a sly little bugger and used to get his dad to bet for him. Not getting the odds he wanted because I backed the horse I overheard him tell him tell his dad the price was no good. I then ripped up my tickets before the race and to this day don't know how he managed to make losing look so good.
I vowed never to let him drive a horse for me again.

Some years later I helped out in his stable and would get told this and that. They say revenge is best served cold so one day I sent in a punter and pinched his price. When this happened there was a means of letting the driver know. Somehow I managed to misunderstand this time and never passed the message on.

Owners and gamblers have the problem of greed. I recall two examples that illustrate this.
One owner of a fairly good horse was told by the driver before the race that a certain other horse was the one he should he should have a bet on as it was a boat race. Believing his horse to be the best he went and only backed his inspite of what he had been told. He then blamed the trainer for losing.

At a country meeting in late November a punter who looked like he was a refugee who had fallen on bad times produces $500 and gives to my mate whose stable was firing at the time. Have a bet for me the next time you think you will win and keep half he said. I felt sorry for this bloke but despite my best efforts I couldn't talk him out of this. My mate tells me Im stupid and to come and have a beer. At the bar he gives me a wad of money. What's that for? I asked.
He replied half is from the $500 we just scored as I know the next horse will lose. The rest ($400) was half of the winnings he cheated an owner out of earlier in the night.

Little wonder the trots was known as "the red hots"