BIG BETS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9450, 21 May 1909, Page 6

BIG BETS.

In a recent issue of the London Sporting Times Mr John Corbett writes interestingly on the late Joe Thompson and his bets:—“We have read with considerable Interest an article appearing in the Sporting Life on the late Mr Joe Thompson, in which it Is stated that he once laid u bet of 150.000 to 1000 in one hand against a horse that won and paid it, as indeed he wonld do if snch a bet was really made. This in the way of betting goes far heyoni anything we have ever heard of that we should like to knoyr something more about it. The leviathan Davies laid D’Orsay Clark 100,000 to 1000 against each of his three horses for the Derby, Yandermnlin, who started a good favonrite, being one, and these we have always looked npon as the biggest ‘onetime’ bets we ever heard of. There was, however, not a winner in the lot; bnt in the case of Joe Thompson the horse, it is said, was a winner, and the amount half as much again. In two bets Davies laid the odds to lose £90,000 against Daniel O’Ronrke for the Derby, £50,000 going into one quarter and £40,000 into another. The 50,000 to 1000 that Mr Steel returned Mr James Smith as the first instalment of the Rosebery commission when he won the Oesarawitch formed the total of many bets, and it was the same when Mr Smith returned Mr Gretton 66,000 to 1000 against Sterling for the Cambridgeshire. Billy Wright’s cheque for £70,000 to the Marquis of Hast-s Inga when Lecturer won the Oesarewitch was on the same lines. Stephenson many times laid £IOO,OOO against a horse ; bnt never, so far as we "know, against a winner, and certainly not in one bet. The Sporting Life also tells os that Joe Thompson lost £45,000 and a double event bet of £IO,OOO on La Flecba’s Cambridgeshire—total £55,000. We did not “hear much of this at the time. What, however, concerns ns, inasmuch as, if correct, it forms a record, is the 150,000 to 1000 lost and paid. What we should like to know is the name of the horse, the race, and the man who won this gigantic bet.” ‘lt always struck us that Jce Thompson mast have been the gamest of the game, or he wonld not have gone on betting as he did at times when he mnst have been suffering the greatest agony. He was a terrible martyr to gout, and we recollect once seeing him at Goodwood when he could scarcely pat his foot to the gronnd. He may have died a millionaire, and he may not; hot on this occasion we both of ns journeyed up to the course in a half-crown char-a-banc. The nature of the vehicle at Goodwood, however, does not always proclaim the importance of the man. Thus did Horatio Bottomiey take the box-seat, we with three others being' inside, on a “three-bob a nob” landan on the very afternoon that he had won tl\e Stewards’ Cup! But, harking back to Joe Thompson, with his toot swathed in bandages, he groaned as he alighted from the ohar-a-ban«, and made his way to the ring, and there, to onr amazement, he took bis place "next the rails and went on betting. “Joe Thompson once told ns of a rare little plant that was got up for him, and to which he fell a victim. He was sitting in his office when the owner of a horse engaged in a big handicap called on him. ostensibly for a little ohat. In the course of conversation there came? a tinkling at the telephone, to which Thompson at once responded. Turning to his visitor, he said: ‘This is curious. Here’s——,’ mentioning the name of a big commissioner, “wants to know whac 1 will lay him to £IOOO against your horse? What shall I do?” r What odds does he ask tor?’ replied the visitor, and a large sum was mentioned, twenty thousand to a thousand, we think. ‘Lay it him, and I will stand in half, or as much more as you will let me have.’ ‘This sounds good enough, an owner laying twenty monkeys against bis own horse,’ thought Thompson, and the bet was laid. Notwithstanding this, however, the horse gradually crept up in the quotations and started a hot favonrite. Joe Thompson was not long before he tumbled to the fact that he [had been nicely got for a bet of twenty monkeys, the 30,000 to 1000 in which the owner stood half having been laid to his own commissioner. Joe also fell a victim to the telegraphing of the 119th Psalm from a little country post-office, and starting price telegftnns came in all night and next morning for a horse that had won at 10 to 1, but duly timed. It was. if we recollect rightly, a race at Folkestone. * Double event betting we always looked npon as a flat’s game; but there can be no doubt that Joe Thompson made it a very popular form of speculation He poshed the business well, and, attired in even* ing dress, he wonld frequent the fashionable promenades, and ueve| fail to pall out a card giving particulars of ‘playful doubles. ’ The money always sounded large ; but on the odds being analysed, it would as a rule, he found that they were small. “Daring the last two or three years death has made sad havoc amongst the leading members of the ring, It has taken from it no more popular member than Jce Thompson, who for years fairly ‘called the game.” Many faces will next season be missing from the front row, and we doubt whether there is one left who is worth a quarter of a million sterling, as George Cooper was. With that exception, about one hundred thousand pounds is high-water mark. It was thought that Mr Millard would [exceed this, but be did not. Aleo Harris probably stood nest to Cooper. Everyone wondered when little Irish O’Connor—Skin the Goat, as he was called by John Forsyth—left £IOO,OOO behind him. Joe Thompson did a ver> big business, but it remains to be seen what the profits were.”