“Shoot Me Down Punters!” – The Colourful Bookies Who Made Racing a Three-Ring Circus

Mark Read was the last colourful bookmaker, perhaps renowned more for showmanship than betting turnover which was hardly immaterial.

As oncourse bookmakers subside, the contribution they made to racing should not be overlooked and diehards who survived be appreciated.

Race going was a three-ring circus, possibly centred around the horses during a race but also prior and later in the enclosure with a resounding boom came from the betting ring.

By comparison Rosehill Gardens on Saturday will be a ghost town, with few punters surveying the odds, rolling round like tumbleweed doing their best on a program that lacks the vitality of the Flemington Final series at the dead-end of the season.

Still with most of the top jockeys absent Rosehill again gives the lesser lights, the chance to show prowess and the lightweight, Alysha Collett with heavyweight power, has key mounts, especially Accredited for Joe Pride in the Winter Stakes, the feature event.

Collett takes on Josh Parr, a money rider and always a match for the best, handles Bjorn Baker’s Robusto from the one gate. Parr cajoled three winners at Rosehill last Saturday including stablemate Thunderlips, but he is replaced by Anna Roper, the apprentice, against him and Collett in the Winter due to the gelding’s weight, 54kg.

Yes the Rosehill sprint is intriguing but overshadowed by the honour roll of the Saturday’s Creswick Sprint, the Flemington major, with three very strong winners Nature Strip (2020), Gytrash (2019), who later notched a Group one Lightning at Flemington, and Front Page (2018). Front Page? Well Front Page, a veteran bush cuddy, has accumulated over $3 million in prizemoney, and scored at Eagle Farm in June.

It emphasises the Victoria Racing Club doesn’t dismiss the off-season and makes the best of what doesn’t go north to the Brisbane carnival.

Once punters went to Rosehill to bet on the corresponding interstate meetings, particularly Melbourne, due to the strength of the betting ring where Read called the odds, chided other bookmakers and even declared Fine Cotton “a ring-in” at Eagle Farm before the Brisbane stewards took action.

No doubt Sydney had the biggest bookmakers, including Bill Waterhouse, son Rob, Bruce McHugh and Harry Barrett but they were mute.

Read followed the old style, entertainer or clown. During a racing program he presented Barrett with a new tie because he maintained there were soup stains on his regular one. The ceremony was was backed by a lively jazz band.

However, according to Bert Lillye, the great Sydney Herald turf editor, Jack Shaw was the standout when it came to a bookmaker with style and character.

“He was one of the last of the sideshow style spruikers who attracted hordes of punters milling around his stand even if they weren’t betting,” David Hickie recalled in “Legends Of The Racetrack”, in support of the Lillye view.

During the races Lillye recalled Shaw gasping for a cigarette and none was forthcoming. “A hundred pound to a cigarette,” the bookmaker called to nearby racegoers about a horse who had little chance. A punter accepted and the horse was beaten in a photo.

Shaw was very old when I kicked off and had lost his dash if not panache but Arthur Sing, with a Chinese pedigree, was in full voice and a personal favourite.

Sing had a strong likeness and delivery to Edward G. Robinson, the Hollywood actor, noted as a sparring partner with Humphry Bogart in Key Largo and played cards better than Steve McQueen in the Cincinnati Kid.

“Shoot me down punters,” Sing would chant when first-up with the odds for every race. Still operating when over 80 we know who filled the casualty list.

Beating the bookmakers, getting the best price, was part of the racecourse experience. The betting ring was the platform that could not be emulated even if you were getting the fluctuations off course from illegal starting price bookmaker sources.

Screens and mobile telephones have replaced it.

The colour and character will never return but the bookmakers, city, provincial and country should be given endangered species encouragement.