There is a German proverb that suggests that luck sometimes visits a fool, but it never sits down with him. If you, like the rest of us battlers, are a loyal supporter of the lifestyles of the pseudo rich and infamous bastions of the game through your commitment to tote betting, then you probably really cannot cry foul when you get nailed six love.
Show me an owner that has put more into this game than Peter Punter. All this ‘he is so good for the game’ stuff that we get shoved down our throats on a daily basis is nauseating at times. It’s surely all relative?
You can buy horses for R1 million if you are worth R100 million, but when you only have R40 to your name, then a R38 place accumulator is a serious act of great bravery and a play of passion. Or maybe even plain bloody stupidity, through the eyes of a woman.
I have never been a chicken when it comes to sticking my neck out. But after forty years of non accumulation, zero jackpots and being hit for a six, one would think I would have chucked in the towel.
But now that I have established this rather paltry, or poultry, theme of crying foul etc, I am also reminded of the desperate teachings of an old gambling mate of mine . He was selective, always preaching after his Pick Six had gone due west that nine gamblers could not feed a single rooster.
That surprised me, because he was Indian and the guys in Durban call it Nandos. Weirder still was that the proverb has its origins in Yugoslavia somewhere. After this past weekend, I somehow wished that I had taken all that well intended advice.
Sweet Spot
But we punters are always looking to hit the sweet spot somewhere , and we never learn. Take Saturday afternoon last. A supposedly routine bloody day at the orifice of hope. Within ten minutes on a sleepy Saturday afternoon, exotic punters were dealt two body blows courtesy of two unforeseen highly fancied late withdrawals 2000km apart. And we can’t blame the popular scapegoats like Clyde Basel or Ken Rutherford, or even Vee Moodley or Rian Du Plessis for this.
These were acts of other gods. The first happened at Kenilworth in the sixth race, where the well fancied ‘banker’ Victorian Secret was withdrawn at the start. Funny how punters invest their tom but are always the last to know exactly what happened.
All I saw was an obviously peed off Glen Hatt waving his arms and moaning at some obscured person. We were told that his mount Victorian Secret, you know the one, the best bet of the day, had been kicked and that we would get five minutes to restructure. For an exotic punter, that is tantamount to jumping off Table Mountain with your hang glider in the boot of your jammie. It is a hopeless case.
I had a look at the Stipes Report, as I was eager to know who was behind this senseless boot. How a valuable horse that is probably worth over a bar, could just be kicked in broad daylight in front of thousands of people (the Cape Festival Of Prawns remember…) Was she kicked by a handler, a horse or another jockey, I wondered?
The Stipes Report was not helpful:
VICTORIAN SECRET (G Hatt) was kicked at the start and subsequently withdrawn by the Veterinary surgeon, causing a delay. The field was unloaded and the race re-scheduled to start at 15h30 to allow the Betting Public to restructure their bets. Accidents happen, but surely those that did their money in cold blood need to know if anybody was negligent, responsible or otherwise for the trauma? No enquiry, zip.
Sugar Rush
Then a few minutes later at Turffontein, we received the death blow. The favourite American Storm was observed to be ‘some way off the starting stalls’ by the commentator, who subsequently announced Spike Lerena’s colt’s withdrawal.
The Stipes reported:
AMERICAN STORM – lame R/F (NHA / 15H36) (Rule 53.5 applies) Betting 22/10. The start of this Race was delayed due to an Operators request and the late scratching of AMERICAN STORM by the Veterinary Surgeon. Interesting, different rules in Gauteng? The operator’s request? That is not mentioned in KZN or the Cape. Of course the story ends badly again, with the substitute tote favourite Tiger Flash still running.
Friendly
I approached Phumelela’s 24 hour man Vee Moodley, on the issue of these customer friendly withdrawals, particularly of tote favourites. In fact while I was speaking to Vee about the Saturday afternoon double tragedy on Sunday afternoon, the very same thing happened at Greyville. Just to digress for a moment.
The fourth race was the opening leg of the Greyville Pick Six and here the Duncan Howells trained tote favourite Duchess Of York chose to bring her bipolar worst behaviour to the track. After messing around for a good few minutes, the KZN starter ripped his radio out of his belt and barked that she had been withdrawn.
While with fourteen fractious fillies in the stalls, we cannot blame the starter for exercising his option not to give punters a restructuring opportunity, this one thankfully ended happily, thanks to Kevin Shea who cruised in on the substitute tote favourite, Lady Bianca.
Horror
But back to Saturday. Withdrawals of any tote favourite is a horror story waiting to happen for Saftote on non exotic bet types like quartets and trifectas and the win and place pools. For exotic punters, the risk is limited to the performance of the substitute tote favourite. We saw on Saturday how they often don’t come up trumps.
Vee Moodley explained that his worst nightmare was the late withdrawal of a tote favourite: “We have so many linked cancellations of bets and we have lost up to 40 percent of our turnover on races at times,” he explained.
“We have implemented the five minute delay rule in tandem with the NHA where it is feasible to allow punters time to restructure their bets, in all our best interests. Obviously with that large field of fillies on Sunday, the KZN starter decided to rather let them go in the best interests of safety for horse and rider.” On the aspect of withdrawals affecting the exotics, Vee said that a better option other than the tote favourite had been investigated at length.
“I would welcome a workable feasible suggestion to avoid the disappointment of the exposure to the tote favourites as we had on Saturday. We have looked at the possibility of substituting the entire field, but this comes with its own drawbacks and negatives. We are having another look at the possibility of a back up facility of the punter declaring an alternative or substitute runner as is practiced in some jurisdictions. This is not a simple process and has all kinds of system and practical implications,” he said. Sweet. See you at the races.
Happy Days
On a brighter note, Vee Moodley pointed out that TAB is offering a feast of opportunities for horseracing fans to win on this Saturday’s Guineas race meeting at Turffontein, which features the start of both the SASCOC SA Triple Crown and the Wilgerbosdrift SA Triple Tiara.
For starters there will be Place payouts on the first five horses to finish in both the Betting World Gauteng Guineas and the Wilgerbosdrift Gauteng Fillies Guineas. Normally there are four Place payouts if 16 or more run, but in line with its policy of offering value to customers and ensuring that as many people as possible win on major races, TAB will offer five Place dividends on Saturday’s two topliners.
This is the reason there are three reserve runners in the main two feature races. TAB will also operate two Jackpots on the meeting – Jackpot 1 starts on Race 5 as normal and Jackpot 2 on Race 7. They will thus overlap.
TAB betting on the Gauteng Guineas and the Gauteng Fillies Guineas is already open since Monday and TAB customers can take an All To Come on any race meeting until Friday 1 March (excluding France, Italy, Macau, Sweden and Turkey) and make the last selection either a Win or Place bet on a horse of their choice in either of the Guineas on Saturday.
The All To Come bet form must be filled out in the normal way except utilise the FUTURE OPTION 1 section at the bottom of the form to indicate your choice in the Wilgerbosdrift Gauteng Fillies Guineas and whether a Win or Place bet is being selected. Utilise FUTURE OPTION 2 for All To Come bets into the Betting World Gauteng Guineas.
