Mauled by a tiger or stripped to the bone by soldier ants?

 

Phar Lap and Tommy Woodcock (Movietine)

Mauled by a tiger or stripped to the bone by soldier ants?

 

“Schemes are like fruit, they require a certain ripening.” ― George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings

 

Around the same time, Phar Lap and Amounis were thrashing it out at Warwick Farm, horses started preparing his horses for the Aspendale Park Handicap. If ever Lou Robertson were to have a home ground advantage this was it. Robertson trained his horses exclusively at John Crooke’s Aspendale Racecourse in an isolation, not even Jack Holt enjoyed. It allowed him to spring a continual parade of first-up winners and betting plunges upon bookies who remained on constant high alert for his stable’s next assault. Lou Robertson’s private training effect on a race was best summed up by the Truth article.

“Right throughout his career, Lou Robertson has shown himself to be a regular wizard at getting horses fit without racing them in public. Whenever Lou Robertson produces an “unknown” it generally starts favourite. One of the strongest betting stables in Australia. Lou Robertson is a bit of an enigma to punters and books as his horses are trained privately and many a surprise he has sprung on the public.”*

*Truth, 26 February 1928, page 3

While horses made their way around to the starter, bookies fielded a late plunge on Frank Shillabeer’s black gelding Shadow King, starting at 3 to 1. Lou Robertson’s stable displayed little interest in backing Soulton at 4 to 1 in his first-up Victorian run. Even though most of the bookies suspected Lou’s goal for this horse would be the Caulfield Cup, they still half suspected his commission to launch a last minute onslaught. Some punter’s backed Robertson’s horses regardless but despite sporadic bets on Soulton, it appeared there would be no eleventh hour plunge. Still, bookies refused to let his price drift.

Soulton started well, leading Limber Up and Shadow King, passing the stand in this nine furlong feature event.* By the seven furlong post, the field started moving around Soulton, first Limber Up then Shadow King. Into the straight, Shadow King displayed his favouritism only to be run down while Soulton struggled to finish fifth in an ordinary field. Far from being annoyed, Lou Robertson ruefully pondered Soulton’s race as Harry Winten’s Queensland gelding return to scale. Soulton was still seven weeks away from a Caulfield Cup and Robertson knew Winten’s horse would show a continued improvement. The real question at the back of the trainer’s mind, was that improvement going to be enough to beat Amounis in the Caulfield Cup? For even then, Robertson fully realised neither Phar Lap nor Nightmarch would be running. Maybe a very fanciful yes but in reality, probably not. Time for plan B. When Eric Connolly returned from Sydney, they would discuss it further.

 *Sporting Globe 30 August 1930, page 1

To set up any plan you need to ask a few questions. In the case of this double, what was really required was balls not brains as all the answers were self-evident.

Question 1: What if Amounis won the Caulfield Cup instead of Nightmarch or Phar Lap?

Answer: You would receive far greater odds on Amounis in both a straight Caulfield Cup win and in the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double. Seems simple enough but…

Question 2: How could you be sure of Amounis beating both Nightmarch and Phar Lap?

Answer: By not having Nightmarch and Phar Lap compete in the first place.

Question 2: How would you then score the longest possible odds on an Amounis/Phar Lap double?

Answer: By keeping Phar Lap and Nightmarch in the race for as long as possible, especially Phar Lap.

Question 4: How would you do this without raising the suspicions of the stewards?

Answer: Create a logical story – Phar Lap is too good for Nightmarch so Nightmarch goes home. Then Phar Lap does not want to attract any more weight for the Melbourne Cup so withdraws from the Caulfield Cup…at the last minute after an agonising, soul searching decision that is finally reached by Telford.

Question 5: How else can you achieve this huge double without raising suspicion?

Answer: Do not place any large single bets that would alert the bookies. Opt for a 1,000 small bets rather than one large one. Also, lay your bets steadily over time and all over Australia.

Question 6: When they do accuse somebody, who is the most likely person they will blame?

Answer: Australia’s most notorious punter – Eric Connolly.

Now here is the real trick. It has always been reported this 1930 heist on the bookies was really the sole work of Eric Connolly. He dreamed it up, organised everyone involved, mainly through the Phar Lap stable, pulled all the strings, roped in the Amounis stable and hey presto, everyone shares in the £200,000 windfall. Well simply put, I have serious doubts it went down that way. The mythology of this double is Connolly convincing Davis, who was forever desperate to make more money out of his champion racehorse, to withdraw Phar Lap from the Caulfield Cup. David Davis in turn cajoles a reluctant Harry Telford to go along with the pair's dodgy plan. Logic dictates this could not be the whole story.  Remembering Phar Lap was the certainty while it is the Amounis’ leg of this double that needed the group’s real focus. So in achieving this huge sting, not only was it important to manipulate who was running, it was equally vital not to alert the bookies something was afoot. Had any of the major players, particularly Eric Connolly, walked up to a group of bookies and plastered £10,000 on an Amounis – Phar Lap doubles, this whole thing would have shriveled and died on the first contact. For such a simple scheme, it still had a few moving parts requiring very close attention. 

When Amounis managed to beat Phar Lap by a half head, The Sporting Globe in Melbourne ran the headline – “Amounis Narrowly Beats Phar Lap: Soulton Unplaced at Aspendale”. While most would see these as two very separate results, they are in fact part of the same setup. It is much more likely this scam emanated from the Amounis camp than from Phar Lap. It was also more likely this scam to have come from Lou Robertson as from anybody in this group. Robertson’s Soulton started looking very much like the lynchpin to all this. And from Robertson's track record of preparing horses for a betting plunge, this started showing all the hallmarks of just that. The worst Soulton performed, the longer the odds, and the more he would be flying under the bookie's radar. Robertson and Connolly could, along with Cragford, have genuine savers placed at 100-1 if they were coupled with Phar Lap.  If by some miracle, either Cragford or Soulton beat Amounis in the Caulfield Cup, Robertson and Connolly would still make a fortune from the race.  However, all those involved realised the main game was still with Amounis winning the Caulfield Cup to provide the most lucrative return. 

The scheme was perfectly legal, although ethically, especially during a Depression, was never going to be seen as kosher. For the average punters, many of whom were struggling at best, jobless at worst, it would be they who were ultimately being swindled. It is interesting to note in the memoirs of Frank McGrath, Eric Connolly, Tommy Woodcock, Ken Bracken, Jim Pike and anyone else in this group questioned later on this double, there is not a peep out of anyone. You can immediately believe they were not involved yet we know they were. Eric Connolly may come across as reserved yet he still hauled around an ego you could hardly fit onto a semi-trailer. Of all the descriptions applied to him, shrinking violet was never one of them. Yet not once does Connolly refer to this monstrous double in any subsequent interviews. Not once. This is at odds against both his personality and his memoirs published after his death where he explained in great detail most of his inside trades and crowed about his successes. What is more, he was incredibly open when some of his bets crashed and burned.*

*Eric Connolly’s Turf Adventures with JM Rohan 

For good reason, Eric Connolly was the master of his racing and betting domain. On a racecourse, he was a rockstar receiving a mixture of adulation, fear and a sense of wonder from the ordinary punters and racing community alike. It is little wonder he viewed himself as something special. In 1921 Eric Connolly fronted the VRC stewards on charges of having surreptitiously placed a bet on behalf of jockey Ron Inkson. The jockey stated it had been against his knowledge and his wishes so not surprisingly, it was being construed as a bribe. In defending his dubious actions, the stewards gave Connolly an opportunity to clarify this sticky situation he now found himself in. If they were thinking somehow Connolly would be serving up some humble contrition for what he had done, that was never the nature of the man. The VRC stewards instead inadvertently gave him a soapbox on how he believed the world viewed him. And quite frankly, from Eric Connolly vantage point, his gift of himself to humanity was a glorious thing to behold.

 

“I am a good law abiding citizen. There is nobody in Australia or in the world that has anything against me, nor any idea that I would do or lend myself to do anything wrong.  I am a well-wisher for the best interest of racing and had no motive or intention of wrongdoing... The suspicion of doing anything wrong never entered my mind, in fact I never gave such a thing a thought. I thought it was a kind of pleasure to tell the boy I was putting £10 on for him in consequence of the horse winning at Caulfield.  I never go behind fences or places to discuss things with anybody. I have been successful at racing and would have been successful in any walk of life. Successful people are always criticised. If I ran a goat in the Melbourne Cup it would be favourite!  I have never told lies and I am not going to try and screen myself by telling lies now.” VRC enquiry transcript in to Eric Connolly bribing jockey Inkson, 1921  

 

Short of touching the hem of his own garment, it is fair to say St. Eric was not lacking in either confidence or self-belief. It is the same Eric Connolly who openly explained to journalist J.M. Rohan how he won £30,000 with The General from the 1904 Grand National Hurdle,* £100,000 on his sprinters Rostrum and Sunburst,** his very lucrative backing of Spearfelt in the 1926 Melbourne Cup,*** £180,000 on Nightmarch in 1929,**** and even openly telling the journalist how he managed to lose £40,000 in 1935 from backing Marabou for the 1935 Caulfield - Melbourne Cup double.***** However there is not a peep about this double. In later years, everyone from the gregarious David Davis, Frank McGrath and all the jockeys when asked on this 1930 double all played a similarly straight bat on the matter. Then there was Robertson and Telford. Quite frankly journalists had given up years ago trying to pry out the secrets of Lou Robertson or engaging the taciturn Harry Telford in a conversation. The only one who was later revealed to have made money was Maude Vandenberg. And this information only surfaced because Madame X had been put under oath in a taxation trial.****** And hers remained one of the very few large single bets to be revealed. Most of these bets were small and being more spread among bookies and SP operators than fertiliser in a paddock. This method of placing bets also kept the odds under control, especially while Nightmarch and Phar Lap remained in the Caulfield Cup field.  

*Connolly, Eric with J.M. Rohan “£100,000 from Two Sprinters” Sporting Globe 3 March 1945, page 4

**Ibid

***Connolly, Eric with J.M. Rohan “Huge Plunge of Spearfelt” Sporting Globe 17 March 1945, page 4

****Connolly, Eric with J.M. Rohan “The Nightmarch Drama” Sporting Globe 7 April 1945, page 4

*****Connolly, Eric with J.M. Rohan “Lost £39,000 in One Year” News 8 September 1945, page 5 

****** Daily Examiner 16 September 1933, page 5

No bet in itself had been laid that would completely torpedo a bookie. Many bets were laid at 10 to 15 to one to sometimes as much as 30 to 1 for an Amounis and Phar Lap double and were accompanied by a very small 7 to 4 bet backing Phar Lap for both Cups.  No bookie was going to be straight out slaughtered and devoured by a tiger. Instead, they were going to be overrun by thousands upon thousands of soldier ants. It would be death by a thousand cuts. What the bookies failed to understand until it was too late, many of these bets were being placed on behalf of the Amounis, Phar Lap, Soulton and Cragford stables (i.e McGrath, Telford, Robertson and Quinlan) in a carefully coordinated effort. As these bets increased in Sydney and Melbourne, some bookies were even foolish enough to encourage the Amounis – Phar Lap bet, falsely believing Phar Lap would be running the Caulfield leg.

What confused many of the bookies, this multitude of bets appeared to be coming from ordinary punters. That many of them were picking up a little bit of money placing commissions for larger syndicates was only revealed later. Also muddying the water were the growing bets on both Soultan, Cragford along with the continuing presence of Nightmarch and Phar Lap in the Caulfield Cup.  To the bookies, this carnival gave every indication of being just another spring racing carnival.  

 

Not many people were having fun in the middle of 1930, especially Lou Robertson whose training career had plummeted from chocolates to boiled lollies in what seemed like a blink. From having the best three-year-old (Strephon) and best miler-sprinter (Gothic) in Australia during the 1928-29 season, giving Robertson his first trainer’s premiership, winners had all but dried up. Before Sol Green left for his annual trip to England in the middle of 1930*, as the Depression started to be felt, Wren, Green, Connolly and Lou Robertson were all experiencing what could only be described as a very ordinary year. Wren’s finances had been dragged down with falling shares, shrinking property prices and both his boxing and racing venues contracting dramatically along with his subsequent betting and bookmaking turnover. Sol Green, despite losing thousands of pounds in the Depression was more concerned over the lack of progress from Strephon in England. This was coupled with him being roasted alive by his own pride and continuing hubris in both the English and Australian press as he kept pumping up Strephon’s chances until it became truly embarrassing.

*The Charleville Times 10 October 1947, page 20

Green knew full well just how successful 1929 and 1930 could have been having not decided to cut off his nose to spite his face over My Lady Gay and the VRC steward’s neutral ruling in that case. After his gi-normous dummy spit from the stewards not completely exonerating him, Green suddenly quit racing for three years. Considering most of Robertson's success was coming through Green's stable, this sudden departure left him high and dry. What really annoyed and damaged Lou Robertson beyond having his training rug pulled out from under him, there were other horses in Green’s stable beginning to come through.  These would have worked well in plunges and doubles. Many of those were later leased but not trained by Lou Robertson who in the meantime was experiencing drought conditions around the winner’s circle. It did not seem to matter what he did. While 1929 may have given a glimmer of hope with Isocrates picking up the Aspendale Plate in early 1930, for Robertson, this period was a disaster by any other name. Cimbrian late in the spring took out the Williamstown Cup.  By the time of the 1930 spring carnival, Lou Robertson had experienced the worst year of his racing career. Eric Connolly was still an invalid in May 1930 and only shuffling around in June and July. His betting falling into guesswork as his losses continued to mount. Their situation was now being further exacerbated by Robertson having such a tough time producing a winner.