THE PAY-OUT

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 173, 12 October 1927, Page 12

THE PAY-OUT

EPSOM AND METROPOLITAN OWNERS’ BIG PLUNGE £40,000 IN TWO BETS The wagering ori the first two clays of the A.J.C. Spring Meeting, as shown by the settling that took place on Wednesday last, was extraordinarily large. Totalisator betting at Randwick is popular among small backers, who are partial to having three chances of winning. The amount that was put through the machine on the two days was £127,652. This is nearly £70,000 less than the sum invested on the corresponding two days last year, but the attendance on Monday was only a little more than half that of the 1925 Metropolitan day. The investments averaged about £1 a head. Most of the wagering on the races is done with the bookmakers, and notwithstanding the small attendance on Metropolitan day, money seemed to be plentiful, and one bookmaker, who is accustomed to laying large amounts, was astonished at the size of a couple of his course bets, having laid £5.000 to £l5O about one winner and £4,000 to £2OO in cash about another. HUGE WINNINGS It is conservatively estimated that the success of Vaals in the Epsom Handicap and of Murillo in the Metropolitan meant a loss of £IOO,OOO by the bookmakers. They were probably the two heaviest-backed horses at the meeting, and half of this amount at least was taken out in doubles, which means that the bookmakers’ liabilities were all the more heavy, for a large amount can be won for a comparatively small outlay by the backing of a double. The longest price laid about the pair was into four figures, but more than half that was the general early Quotation. After Mullabawn and Murillo had each won at Tattersall’s Club spring meeting, they were greatly sought after for the A.J.C. handicaps, and Murillo’s performance evidently being the most impressive, he was taken with almost every horse engaged in the Epsom Handicap. Most of the doubles ending with Murillo were quoted at less than three figures. At the final prepost meeting regarding the Epsom Handicap on Friday night, Vaals was supported to win £7,500, and his quotation then was firm at good double figures. On the course he was backed from that price to equal favourite. On the Saturday night £11,175 was written against Murillo. £40,000 FROM ONE FIRM Sydney’s leading firm of bookmakers had to meet enormous betting obligations. The firm had to pay out two wagers amounting to £40,000, for Mr. E. Moss (ov/ner of Vaals) had taken £15,000 to win about his horse from them, while Mr. E. A. Connolly was accommodated with a straight-out wager of £25.000 to win about Murillo winning the Metropolitan. . The leading member of the firm said that it was one of the worst settlings they had experienced, although neither owner had backed the winning double.