LOSING MARTINGALE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 250, 12 January 1928, Page 7

LOSING MARTINGALE

TO SHOW A PROFIT PULLED THROUGH IN LAST RACE What seemed a good “system” looked like coming undone at Moorefield last week. It prevailed by half a head in the last race o£ the day. Mick Poison had Lilah, Pretty Bett, Lady Buckinbar and Boss Poppy engaged at Moorefield —their home track. A punter devised the scheme of backing the four of them in a “losing martingale” so as to show a profit if one of them succeeded. Lilah was scratched and Pretty Bett was among the unbacked and alsorans. Then came what looked like the piece-de-resistance, Lady Buckinbar in the Thousand. Down went Lady Buckinbar, and the punter was left with Boss Poppy to get out of it. He took three 50’s and awaited developments. But they weren’t quite what he and the public expected. The Matthews-Poison combination has, time without number, brought the stable’s candidates to get better elsewhere quotes, but the punting spirit didn’t seem to move them. Boss Poppy was unsteady in the market. He eased to fair odds, and when a follower of the stable who had backed Boss Poppy earlier was seen to go for Prairie Belle, Poison’s charge eased another half point. But he didn’t ease in the race. In a long drawn out duel Jim Pike on Boss Poppy beat off ,Ariedon at the judge, and got the verdict by half a head. t Prairie Belle, always favourite, couldn’t get a run in the straight, and finished up third. Punters who lost on her should grin and bear it and back her again.