WOMAN BOOKMAKER

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 20, 23 April 1947, Page 7

WOMAN BOOKMAKER

FAMILIAR FIGURE AT RACES FEW FORTUNES MADE NOWADAYS Britain has only one woman bookmaker. Mrs Helen Vernet has been 27 years with Ladbrokes, the bookmaking firm; since 1928 she has been a director, writes an English correspondent. She astonished her friends when she first took her place "on the rails." Now her figure is familiar at all the leading race meetings. Mrs Vernet is a slight, sliverhaired woman, invariably smartly dressed. She says she has about 1400 clients, and a list of them would read like pages of Debrett. Asked why there have been so few women "bookies," her explana-

tion was that it is hard work. She gets home only about three days a week during the flat racing season. Every morning she has to be up early to travel to the course—by train.

Although she is a wealthy woman, she denies that bookmakers make fortunes nowadays. "Many of my clients win year after year," she says. "They are the careful ones, who study racing and.do not plunge" Mrs Vernet usually takes her stand about half-way, down the rails, where bets of £2OO or £3OO are not exceptional. But she does not own racehorses. "I once did," she confesses. "It was many years ago. And it taught me a lesson."