Reason behind alias: Well, this is a tale I like to regale my friends with. I left work on a still evening (May 22nd 2002) with £70 in my pocket – heading for the local bookie BET365. I had the feeling all day I was going to win £1000. I had studied the race, a trappy 22 runner sprint handicap at Thirsk no less.
I'm usually very decisive about the draw but on this occasion decided to take one from each side. The race was set up perfectly, I didn't fancy any of the top 5 in the market, and was looking for a couple of live outsiders. I settled on Sailing Shoes drawn 8, and Alistair Smellie drawn 17 both from the sprint king yard of Dandy Nicholls. Both were about 20/1 so I decided to do them on the Tote.
Now the thing with BET365 shops at the time was they allowed you to do Tote bets on normal betting slips and they paid you out at Tote odds, so effectivley my money wasn't going into the pool, which in turn would increase my payout if one the beasts won. 35 quid win was placed on each.
Well the race was a formality with Sailing Shoes making every yard up the far rail under Joe Fanning. I waited in anticipation of the tote returns, and I must admit to jumping around like a loony, when the announcement came "the winner pays 101 pound 30 pence". BET365 then changed their rules because of my bet and all tote bets no have to go through the tote machine. So I have one claim to fame!
So this betting thing then. Why? Moments like the above always help. Betting in general isn’t a huge interest to me, it’s everything that goes with it – the psychology, the social element.
How did you start? For as long back as I can remember on Saturday afternoons my father always had the racing on even though I wanted the football scores! I just started looking at the horses on the TV and picking one, with, I can only imagine a certain amount of success, much to the annoyance of dad! That led to my first ever bet at the age of 6, 20p E/W on Corbiere in 1983 Grand National. Do you know how many fruit salads you could get for £3 back in 83? The rest as they say is history….
What are you betting on now? I tend to hibernate during the winter months in reference to horse racing. I do a lot of form study during this time working on different angles and concepts.
Did you prefer Sophie Ellis-Bextor when she was a blonde or a brunette ? A difficult question , one I could spend a long time deliberating over, but as my other (and better) half is blonde I’ll plump for that.
Your finest bet: I’d like to think the finest bet is still to come. It’s going to take something special though to beat the Sailing Shoes effort.
Your worst bet: Ouch, this hurts, £300 on Liverpool to beat Barcelona a few years back in the Champions League, Owen scored first, and Barcelona and Rivaldo then went onto destroy us 3-1.
Best piece of betting advice you've ever received: This is a shout out really, to one my good friends Martin W, he drummed into me “discipline” and I think it’s slowly sinking in (after 10 years!).
Best piece of betting advice you can give: The people who win at the game that I have met have all had a very open mind. My advice would be “look at the situation from your point of view – then put yourself in the position of the person acting in the situation – and finally view the situation from an onlooker's point of view. This will give you three angles into the situation. This should help not only in betting, but in everything you do.
Best bookmakers: I loath them all but I’ve always found Stan James to have the most knowlegable staff and I won the Cheltenham champion tipster competition in a local William Hills shop, and they put a nice picture of me in their monthly magazine and a prize of £100, so I suppose they deserve a mention.
Worst bookmakers: Stanley Racing (only because the staff are useless beyond comprehension).
Name one thing that would most improve the quality of your betting life: A 1% poker site (calling Ian Davies!) and more time in general to put into practice what I know I can achieve.
Will you still be betting in 10 years' time? Do extremists sometimes go too far?
The worst thing about betting is: Being proved wrong – when you were damn sure you were right.
The best thing about betting is: The learning curve I’ve been on since my earliest betting memories – I regularly teach my friends more about horse racing in 30 minutes than most of the people who have frequented bookmakers for the last 30 years!
Any last words? If Alistair Smellie would have won that race at Thirsk – I would have been lumbered with that for a tag……. I got lucky twice.
BBC
