Count Your Winnings

  It was common practice in 1930 for trainers and jockeys to be backing their own horses. What was less common but nonetheless regularly practiced, trainers, jockeys and even owners backing other horses as well. As a consequence, without any intention of necessarily fixing the result of the Caulfield Cup, by the start of October, Connolly, Robertson and the jockeys all had money on the race at reasonable odds. However the Amounis team, right for the get-go, was particularly focused upon their champion with very little thought, or money, being placed on any other horses they may be competing against. Not even taking this double into account, Frank McGrath’s stable, including Maude Vandenberg already had between £20,000 and £60,000 riding on their horse’s Caulfield Cup victory. Some of this money also belonged to Eric Connolly and his groups. Much had been placed at odds not longer than 20/1 before Nightmarch and Phar Lap were withdrawn. Amounis was never entered into the Melbourne Cup.

Connolly used a network of commissioned agents, as did Sydney based Rufe Naylor. Most of these commissioned bets started being placed months in advance, all the way up to the running of the Caulfield Cup. While much of Connolly’s betting involved Soulton/PharLap and then Cragford/Phar Lap, the majority of doubles being quietly laid around Australia were for either Amounis/Phar Lap or just Phar Lap for both Cups. No bets were really substantial, but there were so many scattered throughout the country, they soon started to become a significant amount when seen as a whole. Lou Robertson, Jim Pike, Billy Pearson and Frank McGrath’s money were part of these syndicates.

 

Over the years, the notion of Eric Connolly as the mastermind of this scheme has been cemented. In reality, the result of the Caulfield Cup set up such a shellacking for the bookies around Australia, someone needed to be held responsible for it. Most in the press and public assumed this double was the crafty work of Connolly and none, who were equally as involved, saw any need to dispel that opinion. Telford would not be owning up to anything. He had few friends at the VATC and VRC. If it was discovered he orchestrated a scratching for no other reason than to manipulate a double would have caused a very ugly scene. By suddenly withdrawing Phar Lap, the public were already baying for Telford’s head on a pike. This sounds like an awful pun, but many punters were ropeable having backed Phar Lap in straight bets on the Caulfield Cup, never mind the double that was now kaput. Struggling punters across Australia and New Zealand lost their hard earned cash with the horse’s sudden and unexplained withdrawal. In fact, it was this huge pot of money placed on Phar Lap’s Caulfield Cup win and double that saved many bookies from total ruin. It gave them just enough extra cash to payout on Amounis and later the double. For the average punter, Harry Telford became as popular as plague.

 

David Davis has always been linked with Eric Connolly to this double and there be no doubt he was involved and well served by it. But having actually devised this double in cahoots with Eric Connolly, as portrayed in the “Phar Lap” film is another matter entirely. In reality, both men seized upon an opportunity and invested in it. While people happily pinned the construction of this double on Connolly being Australia’s most famous punter, they equally roped in Davis because many Australians did not like him. Even more damning were the inherent anti-Semitic prejudices on display against David Davis. Firstly he was American but more he was Jewish. And many were quite ready to believe this was some stunt one would expect a Jewish foreigner to come up with. Especially one who made his money as a door-to-door salesman of picture frames and cutlery. It is almost as neat as making Lee Harvey Oswald the lone assassin. It creates a very straightforward narrative while completely excluding any others involved.

 

Those in the wings, who knew about this double and very likely profited from it, remained well hidden. Sol Green housed both Phar Lap and Amounis at Underbank during the 1929/30 summer break. Already unpopular with the VRC, and now with Strephon running like Francis the Talking Mule in England, Green was working out how he could slide back into favour with the Victorian clubs without egg all over his face. Probably not the best of PR exercises being associated with this double. But with his son Bob running Underbank, a mad gambler and very likely part of this scheme as well, it would have been highly surprising for Sol Green not to know about this double. It would have been even more surprising for him not take advantage of it.

 

John Wren, like many of his dealings, often constructed schemes and did deals at such an arm’s length as to appear nowhere near the action. Yet it would have been highly unlikely for him not to be aware considering who was involved. Nor vice versa as Wren had a huge network of employees often acting as commissioned agents and would be equally surprising if some of these players did not take advantage of Wren’s network. Apart from Maude Vandenberg, no one in the Amounis camp was really putting their hand up to take ownership of this double. Maude Vandenberg initially denied any major involvement or having profited mightily until it was discovered she had earned over £20,000 from it. McGrath and Pearson were all playing a straight bat and deflected their involvement. The question of Lou Robertson has never reared its head. Why would it? For all intents and purpose, he lost. Soulton’s Queensland owner Harry Winten was paranoid of his horses being doped. He would have been homicidal at the thought of the great Lou Robertson deliberately scuttling his chances of a Caulfield Cup. Everything about this Caulfield Cup looks absolutely normal. It was much easier and safer having all the bets going through Connolly but it certainly did not automatically make Connolly the “mastermind” or the originator of this plan. And it certainly did not make Lou Robertson innocent with him almost the linchpin to this Amounis/Phar Lap double being successful.

 

Despite circumstances placing Robertson right in the thick of it, who exactly came up with the idea is really anybody’s guess. The real answer is more likely no one and everyone for this double was an obvious reaction to Phar Lap’s low odds. If you were laying bets, just as easily as it was Eric Connolly it could also be Lou Robertson, Harry Telford, Dave Price and Frank McGrath who were all great mates and the ones best able to properly orchestrate this. John Wren, David Davis, Billy Pearson, Maude Vandenberg, New Zealand friends Ron Cameron and Maurice McGrath and jockeys Jim Pike, Billy Cook and Ken Bracken. It would have been discussed between Robertson and Eric Connolly. Lou Robertson must have had full knowledge and therefore benefited just as handsomely as anybody from it. Especially with your main patron, Sol Green, having just left you high and dry from the year before, Connolly, your best friend and partner in plunges and schemes with whom you talk with every day and a lifelong family friend in Telford at the centre of it. It would have been a treacherous bit of “white anting” for Lou Robertson not to know. Also, with his nickname, “Oyster”, of all the people Connolly and Telford could entrust a secret, it would be Robertson. If indeed he did not dream this up himself.