“He’s a great horse,
in fact he is the best horse Australia has ever seen and I doubt if they will
ever see a better one. If they could breed them with wings and get
Kingsford-Smith to ride them and I’ll doubt if they’ll beat him them.” Jim Pike 1930[1]
The
nights Phar Lap spent at St. Albans, Tommy
Woodcock hardly had a wink of sleep with a very diligent Guy Raymond on night
patrol. With a long military background, Raymond took the protection of Phar Lap very seriously. Never really
known for his easy going ways, Raymond marched up and down the hard floor,
footsteps echoing through the stables like a drill sergeant on high alert all
night. Phar Lap ran a few times at nearby
Geelong racecourse with apprentice Bob Parker travelling three furlongs in 33
seconds the morning of the Cup in the early hours. While at St. Albans, he was
also being ridden by Guy Raymond’s son Michael.[2] Amazingly,
just as Tommy Woodcock rode Phar Lap
around Albury without anyone noticing, no one appears to have cottoned on at
Geelong.
In
what would have been one of the greatest ironic snafus in racing history, the
morning they were to bring Phar Lap
to Flemington for the running of the Cup, saw a huge downpour. It supposedly
dampened the engine of the motor float and for hours, with a full police escort
waiting around, no one could start the motor. Time ticked away with every
frantic effort. Before panic started to take hold, finally the motor kicked
over. They raced up Geelong Road with police motorbikes clearing the way. Lachlan
Mackinnon, who probably wanted to start the race at midday if he had his way,
delayed the start of the Cup until after 3pm. Phar Lap eventually roared late into Flemington with an arrival
befitting a movie diva. While this is the accepted story, Bob Parker tells another
where they simply drove around the back streets of Flemington killing time
until they arrived fashionably late. On the course, Phar Lap, with more protection than a Russian oligarch, was led quickly
to the mounting yard accompanied by two detectives and ten uniformed police.
Horses
paraded around the birdcage waiting for Phar
Lap to join them. The crowd began looking at their watches and asking where
he was when at the last moment the champion was led out to the enclosure to
thunderous applause. For the other trainers, this is what it must feel like
sharing a red carpet with George Clooney. Once in the Flemington mounting yard,
there was little time for Harry Telford to prepare their horse. The gales,
which swept over Melbourne the night before carrying a huge cloud of red dust
followed by the cold sweep of rain that morning, had eased by the time of the
race.[3] The sun started poking through while Telford
and Jim Pike frantically prepared Phar
Lap with the assistance of Woodcock, Parker and Stan Boyden. The only calm
member of this group appeared to be Phar
Lap, who relished, as usual, being the centre of attention. People crowded
around the mounting yard in a desperate bid to catch a glimpse of the most
famous horse in Australia. From the gangly pimpled covered thing first lowered
onto the docks, which so horrified David Davis, now stood this magnificent glowing
red chestnut, touching 17 hands. Phar Lap
was the most commanding of creatures. Telford lent into his jockey as he legged
him up into the saddle. There would be no nonsense of the year before of
travelling at the pace of the field. Nothing of, “…if they walk you walk…” This year, if the field walked, Phar Lap would win by the length of the
Flemington straight.
Phar Lap’s 1930 starting price of 11/8 on is
still far and away the shortest price ever offered by bookies, or tote, on a
Melbourne Cup horse.[4] This is despite still
having to lump nine stone twelve pounds around the two mile course (138 pounds
or 62.59 kilos for 3218 metres or 3.21 kilometres). Being about as certain as
one could be of winning, like any sportsman before a big event, Jim Pike still
had butterflies. Up to this point of his extraordinary career, despite his
brilliance throughout all those years, Pike never rode home a Melbourne Cup
winner until Phar Lap. And to do so,
and avoid interference, he would need to lead from virtually start to
finish. Other than the thousands of
punters throughout Australia who had their pennies and shilling on the
favourite, and those in this doubles scam waiting on Phar Lap to deliver his coup de grace to some soon to be
impecunious bookies, was Sam Whitehead from Greta in country Victoria, east of
Benalla. He was particularly anxious. Having been the lucky one to draw Phar Lap in the Tattersall’s Sweep,
Whitehead had already refused a combined effort from a group of bookies to
purchase his ticket for £8,000. Whitehead waited patiently for the start,
trying not to think how a Phar Lap
victory could provide his family with a £20,000 payday.[5]
Many
punters descended upon Flemington up to five hours before the race. Scrambling to
gain some vantage point in the anticipation of seeing history about to be made.
The Depression was clearly having an effect, reducing attendance by over 20,000
from the year before. Vice regal parties even arrived earlier than usual,
including Lord Somers and his wife, one of Australia’s most active race going
Governor-Generals, Sir Alexander Hore-Ruthven and his wife, Governor of South
Australia, Earl Beauchamp, former Governor of NSW, who remembered seeing Merriwee win in 1899 and Sir William
Irvine and his wife, the Lieutenant-Governor. There at Flemington were the
Australian cricket team mingling with famous footballers of the day, Melbourne
and Sydney socialites and the who’s who of the commercial world. The only thing
the VRC could not control was Melbourne’s intractable weather, letting loose a
quick pelting shower followed by what felt like an Artic blizzard whipping in
off the polar caps. It was not only the crowd culled by the Depression, so too
had the Melbourne Cup field atrophied by the spectre of Phar Lap. Horses made their way slowly on to the course and around
to the legendary VRC starter Rupert Greene about to start his 16th
and most famous Cup.[6]
Lining
up, Jim Pike’s only concern was accidently riding onto another horse’s heels or
they ride onto his. He was determined to be clear of the field most of the way,
so if any horse were to crash, Phar Lap would
be nowhere near the accident. He would be carefully avoiding those scenarios at
all cost. Other horses shuffled nervously around him waiting for Greene while Phar Lap stood relaxed and seemingly
unconcerned. Pike kept talking to him, patting him until suddenly it was show
time. The barrier shot up. Passing the
stand for the first time, Phar Lap
cruised to the outside with First Acre,
Australian Cup winning mare Nadean,
Adelaide Cup winner Temptation, 1930
VRC Derby winner Balloon King, Shadow
King and 5-1 second favourite the AJC Derby winner, Tregilla. Even though the pace was slower than Pike may have
preferred, Phar Lap comfortably loped
along outside with the field. Temptation
moved out three lengths on the field at the mile and Pike kept Phar Lap under control and resisted the
urge to fly out after the gelding. By the six furlong post the small field was
starting to separate with Temptation
still a half-length in the lead with Muratti,
Phar Lap and VRC chairman Lachlan
Mackinnon’s prized Carradale joining
them. Even at this stage most people recognised that Phar Lap was cruising as those horses with him on the turn started
to falter. As soon as Phar Lap hit
the straight, there was no more to be said as Pike pushed his champion into top
gear to an increasing roar from the crowd. They shot straight as an arrow down
Flemington’s long straight to the easiest of victories with New Zealand bred
Western Australian St. Leger winner Second
Wind followed by perennial placegetter Shadow
King. Phar Lap’s win was one of
the most popular as Telford accepted his Melbourne Cup from Governor General
Lord Somers. Telford later told the press,
“There
is not much to tell. I was always confident of winning. The preparation was
uneventful until the cowardly attempt to maim the champion last Saturday. I
cannot say enough about the way Pike handled him.”[7]
Even
on the day it was reported the Amounis-Phar
Lap double would be probably costing the bookies upwards of £150,000.[8]
Unfortunately for many bookmaker fraternity that combined figure would turn out
to be much, much higher. The Depression was starting to bite and along with
falling race attendances so too were the money being wagered through licenced
bookies. For £100,000 to be taken out of the Melbourne ring and another
£100,000 out of Sydney there was plenty of separate bets making up that
figure. Reports started pouring in almost the moment Phar Lap roared past the post that the bookies were going to find
this day particularly bleak. No real mention was made of the SP market.
“One
Melbourne man laid the double for £40,000 and the biggest single liability was
£5,000, which was taken by a sportsman in Melbourne. The same fielder laid the
double 400 times. Sydney punter will take £80,000 from bookmakers on the
Amounis-Phar Lap double. Many weeks ago, this backer fancied Amounis and Phar
Lap for the two cups and organised through agents the execution of the
commission in all states. The odds were approximately 40-1”[9]
There
were enormous sums taken from the bookies in Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart. The
reality of this plunder, by the time the Caulfield Cup started, jockeys,
strappers and many, many ordinary punters had also invested into this
double. According to some estimates many
years later, as many as 100,000 small punters had invested into this double by
the time the Caulfield Cup started.[10]
What was not known was just how many of these small punters turned out to be
commissioned agents for Connolly and Co. There were of course some hefty bets
being laid. Sydney professional punter Maude Vandenberg picked up £10,000 with
her usual straight bet on Amounis in
the Caulfield Cup but also picked up £20,000[11]
in this well planned double.[12] When
it came out under cross examination during Ernie Vandenberg’s 1934 taxation
trial, the size of these humongous bets being waged by the Vandenbergs on Amounis during this period, Justice
Halse Rogers stated, from the viewpoint of mere mortals, “I should suffer from heart failure, I think, if I had such bets…”[13]
Connolly,
Wren and Sol Green would have been very pleased to see some bookmakers and old
adversaries being taken to the cleaners. Because both Maude Vandenberg and Eric
Connolly were close friends of Sydney bookie Gentleman Jim Hackett, by the time
the dust had settled, he was one of only a handful of bookies who remained
relatively unscathed. That is not to say he avoided an expensive afternoon all
together. But was not hit like bookie Tom McLaughlin writing out more than 500
cheques. Manny Lyons was still signing cheques six weeks after the Cup was run while
Bob Jenson stood outside Victoria Club with a queue of happy punters half way
down Queen Street waiting patiently to be paid out.[14] Without
even taking into consideration all the other bookies around Australia, just Bob
Jansen paid out £40,000 from the Cup result.[15] It
was a nightmare for the established bookies who couldn’t just hightail it into
the ether. While some may have had deep pockets, it took many of them years to
recover from the experience. Some never recovered. Considering on Melbourne Cup
Day there were over 400 bookies operating at just Flemington and there were
special race meeting being held simultaneously in every major city and large
regional town throughout Australia. There were hundreds of bookies paying out
on this one race, and this double.
“Bookmakers paid dearly after most of Amounis’
wins. When he and Phar Lap took the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double in 1930
bookmakers all over Australia went broke. They still remember it as one of the
most calamitous results for bookmakers in the history of Australian racing.”[16]
It
will never be truly known how much was paid out or indeed could be paid out as
some bookies went belly up and others simply vanished. While it was a black day
for licenced bookmakers, there were also hundreds of SP bookies around
Australia faring just as badly if not worse. It ripped an enormous hole out of
the SP market from Townsville to Perth. And as an SP bookmaker, it was an
extremely dangerous manoeuvrer to try and just disappear because there was
every chance your next transaction would be done at the bottom of an abandoned
mineshaft. One of Sydney’s leading bookmakers, the very flamboyant “Coogee
Bunyip”, Andy Kerr, was sent stony broke by the scheme and never recovered,
along with many other impoverished bookies having to hand back their licence.
However in Kerr’s case, he brought much of the calamity down upon himself by
offering 10-1 on the Amounis-Phar Lap
double along with up to £10 credit as a start-up. Having taken Rufe Naylor to the cleaners the
year before, Connolly saw yet another opportunity emerge, this time at Kerr’s
expense. Eric Connolly in cahoots with Maude Vandenberg snapped up many of the
£1 bets with Kerr on this double on credit at 10-1. Many of these were placed
through of all people (my enemy’s enemy is my friend) Rufe Naylor laying their
multiple commissions.[17]
It turned out to be a financial torpedo from which Kerr never recovered.
A
reason so many bookies were cleaned out is that in more prosperous times there
would always be a huge number of punters simply throwing around good money on
frivolous betting and long shots. This does not happen when there is a Depression.
Every penny counts as the money tends to go onto the favourites and very few
others. Therefore the bookies had even less cash floating around. The other
significant problem compounding this plunge, bookies usually lay off their bets
with other bookies. A saver. Like an insurance company reinsuring their risk
through another underwriter. Sol Green was a master at being able to do this
profitably and it is said that some days he would make just as much money from
his laying off of bets as he would from his punters. With this double, because
every bookie and SP were in the same boat, there was nobody you could lay off
your bets with. It was like bailing water out of your lifeboat while another is
bailing water into yours. It was, and
still remains, one of the bleakest days in the history of Australian
bookmakers. Yet as the full ramifications of this double came to light,
strangely there was not a peep out of the VRC who had no intention of looking
in to it. I would suggest if the TAB’s, internet gambling sites, bookies and
SP’s collectively lost $100,000,000 or more in a Cups double today with two fit
favourites being conveniently withdrawn at the last moment, it would just about
be grounds for a Royal Commission never mind it being limited to a VRC inquiry.
[1] Movietone
[2] Jennifer Mackay
[3] The Daily
News 4 November 1930, page 1
[4] The Sun, 8 November 1944, page 10
[5] The Daily
News 4 November 1930, page 1
[6] Wool
merchant Rupert Greene started
the Melbourne Cup from 1914 to 1944. He died in 1949 Courier Mail 9 September
1944, page 4
[7] The Daily News 4 November 1930, page
1
[8] The Daily News (Perth, WA: 1882 -
1950), Tuesday 4 November 1930, page 1
[9] The Register. 6 November 1930, page 4
[10] Sporting Life, November 1947, page 10
[11] Referee, 22 October 1930, page 4
[12] In court for possible tax evasion Eddie and Maude Vandenberg explained
they had made £17,000 in four years (1926 – 1930) and much of that had been
backing Amounis. The Tax department were after £4,000 of that – Truth, 24
September 1933, page 23. It was stated in the Referee the couple had picked up
£50,000 in the same period.
[13] Daily Examiner 16 September 1933, page 5
[14] Sporting Life, November 1947, page 10
[15] Daily Standard, 19 June 1935, page 10
[16] Lillye, Bert “Backstage of Racing”
[17] “The Coogee
Bunyip” by Tom Ellis – This Sporting Life
No comments:
Post a Comment