Great Fortunes Were in the Air

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 631, 6 April 1929, Page 10

Great Fortunes Were in the Air

AND OUTSIDER ROLLS HOME HOW THE RING WAS SAVED There will be scrambling like the start of a four furlong flutter in the Sydney Cup betting market if one of the favourites wins the Doncaster Handicap. And the scrambling will be done by the big betting ante-post men. covering the huge liabilities they have entered into over the autumn double. Thus a Sydney writer on the eve of the | opening of the A.J.C. meeting last Saturday. No bookmaker individually has contracted for more than he can meet. But the ring has laid huge amounts—lso,ooo about Kalloni and Kidaides; £IOO,OOO about Sion-Kid - aides, and £50,000 about KarumaKidaides. All that money will have to be financed after the Doncaster if one of the three named should score. (The winning double proved to be Karuma - Crusio.—“Early Bird.”) The Rush What a rush there will be to get on Kidaides! It is prophesied that he will come to a Very cramped quotation, and no matter whether the books, who have to support him, believe that it is a fair quotation or not, they will have to accept it or take the risk of being left j lamenting if be should score. It is really remarkable the way these j combinations have come into popular : favour. ! There is no connection between any j of the stables, but by some queer dis- ! pensation of race form, the pairs ' named became popular at the same time, with the result that big backers coupled them for big amounts at long ! prices. When Kalloni people wanted to bet there was a substantial market in Melbourne. Just then Kidaides had run a good second in the Australian , Cup. and it was announced that he was coming here for the Sydney Cup. So the two were joined for amounts ofR £IO,OOO and £5,000 in several quarters. Sydney bookmakers were also canvassed, and one has confessed to having laid at that time £26,000 at a quotation which is just 20 times the odds now offering about the double. He is naturally in a pretty pass about it now, never dreaming, of course, when he laid the wagers, that, the two could come to such short odds as those against their names just now. Owner Gets In The owner of Kidaides is among those who have backed the KalloniKidaides combination for a substantial amount. He did this before Kidaides won the previous Saturday at Warwick Farm. Backers began coupling Sion with Kidaides before the latter won, and after Kidaides’s success there was a further rush to join the pair for big double wagers. The result is that upwards of £IOO,OOO has been written by the ring against this pair. One man has a liability of £20,000 against them, and another very nearly as much. And smaller sums taken from the numerous layers of doubles are legion. Boom on Karuma Most of the Karuma-Kidaides money < was taken in big parcels the previous Monday' by Karuma connections. It is said that the commissioner who went into the market had carte blanche to take whatever he could get at reasonable odds. Although Karuma was not fancied prior to Monday, the liability against the pair is already £50,000. Another now introduced with Kidaides is Gilt Edge—for £40,000. An outsiders victory in the Doncaster would bring a sigh of relief from these big ringmen that would be heard at Coogee. But should a favourite win, they will be busy financing their Cup arrangements over the week-end. A big market offers, and it will be possible to back some of the Cup horses after Saturday’s races for £30,000. But the offers against Kidaides will not present such a wide opportunity ,and it will be a case of first in first served, and then the price is likely' to drop to a cramped quotation. It is a strange thing that although autumn betting began quietly this y'ear, business has increased gradually to such a volume that even the books when they foregather and tell each other their various liabilities are astounded at the tremendous amount at stake. Great fortunes are in the air, and until their fate is known ringmen are beginning to rest uneasy.