SPOTTING THE WINNER.

Shannon News, 5 September 1924, Page 4

SPOTTING THE WINNER.

TURF TRICKSTERS’ METHODS. MEN WHO NEVER SEE RACES. “ You will perhaps scarcely believe me," said a London sporting writer lately, “when I tell you that there are men who* although they- have’ never seen-a race run in their lives, - make a comfortable living by ‘spotting winners’ for 1 credulous clients. And yet I know it to be an absolute fact.

“One man whose acquaintance 1 made some years ago, and who made several hundreds a year by racing tips, actually confessed to me that he had never seen a racehorse. He was, in fact, a chronic invalid who never left his house except in a bath-chair; and yet he knew more of the Turf than any man I have ever met. He had made a life-long study of it, and had every racehorse and its performances at his fingers’ tips. This man aws gifted, too, with remarkable judgment; and although he had no material more than is accessible to anybody in the daily papers, he spotted more winners than any other two prophets. But he was at least as honest as he was successful, and spared no pains to give his customers good value for their money, which is more than can be said of many other tipsters who make substantial incomes more easily than any other men I know. “One of these fraudulent prophets, whom I used to know casually, confessed to me in a moment of bibulous confidence that his tips never cost him more than sixpence a day for information although he rarely made less than £SOO a year out. of. them. His usual method was simplicity itself. He took in regularly a halfdozen daily papers which he considered most reliable in sporting matters then, collated their various tips, and gave his clients the benefit of sult: For instance, if three papers gave Ramrod as the probable winner of a certain race; while two others nominated Matchbox, he would plump for Ramrod, and, of course, his choice was not infrequently a good one. “But occasional he departed from this fairly safe method and trusted himself to chance, On one occasion, he told me, he wrote down the names of half-a-dozen horses he fancied most on separate slips of paper, put the slips into a hat, and drew one. As luck would have it, he drew Sir Hugo, and if his clients had the courage to follow his tips they must have scored heavily I —for, as you know, Sir Hugo, who fore the Derby was run —he dreamed that Jeddah got first past the post. Jeddah was the rankest of outsiders, and although my friend : had’more than once tipped a winner on the strength of a dream his courage failed him this time; and to his later grief started at 4 to 1, won the Derby. “On another occasion—a week beand annoyance he ignored'him. Jeddah, however, won, and at 100 to 1, the longest odds ever known in the Derby.

“But, at any rate, although a man is a donkey to pay a fee from 1/- to 5/- for a tip which he can obtain in his morning paper, the source of information is usually sound, and he may get his money’s worth. There aree however, some of the more unprincipled tipsters who do not take even this trouble for their clients. “One man I know of, unblushingly tips every horse in the race, so that he cannot fail to find the winner every time. He •will tip one horse to clients in a certain town or district, a second to those in another town, and so on until every horse has its following. By confining himself to the same horse for one district he reduces the risk of his trick being discovered. “However disgusted the majority of this man’s clients may be at the result, he is always certain of an enthusiastic minority who have drawn the winner in his lottery and who will sound his praises far and wide. This man works England in sections, advertising largely in local papers until the district is exhausted, when he takes another section, until he was been the round, Then'he'begins again under another name and address."