OVER THE FENCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 560, 12 January 1929, Page 9

OVER THE FENCE

AND OVER THE ODDS, TOO THE CLEVER PUNTER!

At ©annevirke a couple of years ago a Wanganui trainer expected to bring off a big coup at a tall price, and all but succeeded. The horses had gone to the post, and the totalisator was on the point of closing. The trainer gazecl with, satisfaction at the twentyodd tickets against his horse’s number on the machine, knowing full well that he had nearly the whole of them in his pocket, writes "Moturoa.” He strolled off and mounted the stand. The race was run and the horse won. Then the dividend was posted up: £2 15s! “That's a mistake,” he said to a fellow trainer, “the horse is paying nearer fifty.” But he reckoned without a certain Wellington man who is connected “unofficially” with the betting side of the game. Hearing, per phone, that the horse had been “backed for a parcel” in the Empire City, this man rushed up to the course, climbed on top of the fence (he could not show his face on the course) and handed between two and three hundred pounds to a friend to invest on the good thing at the last moment. Hence the surprisingly small dividend. Caught! But the sequel to that sto»iy was told after the recent meeting at Tauherenikau at New Year. The same Wellington man was apprised of the heavy backing of a certain horse in the maiden race, which was set out in divisions in the “correct card,” and, glancing at the nag’s number in the book —call it No. 3—again handed a large sum over the fence with instructions for investment, and, at the same time, advised several friends to back it also. But, unknown to the would-be destroyer of large dividends, heavy scratchings on the course had done away with the necessity of divisions, and all the starters were sent off together. In the readjustment No. 3 was made No. 5, and the “outside’ investments were consequently planked on the wrong horse. The “good thing” came home singing ragtime, and the owner was agreeably surprised at the magnitude, of the dividend returned. It was not until he heard the groans of the clever gentleman and others who “fell” with him that l\e realised the reason of the fine “price” obtained.