The pong of the kerosine lamp, placed to advantage in Bubba Brown’s starting price bookmaking concession in a Kensington Lane garage near Randwick racecourse, still lingers.
A birth certificate was not required to bet with Bubba, only cash, and coins from kids were accepted.
Still in short pants when I started with Bubba — Friday night trots at Harold Park, never backed a winner. Even now a whiff of kero turns my stomach.
Ironically the first punt I had was successful: True Leader in the 1953 Doomben 10,000, Saturday’s major event, but it was part of a family inspired plunge.
Reared at the Doncaster Hotel it was a most stable atmosphere. Tipsters, urgers and hot mail were in abundance, even previous to me being eligible for the Public Bar.
Obviously I started younger than most, at least a decade before graduating from a shandy – lemonade tarnishing a good brew – to the Reschs, but did not need encouragement on either score.
Thus the explanation by Prime Minister Albo to curtail gambling advertising because of concern for children getting into bad habits triggered interest.
If experts figure this saves unfortunates, I support it. Like alcohol gambling has addicts – punt drunks, guilty as charged.
Educated on a doctrine of “the only time you are beaten is when you quit” and “money lost, nothing lost, confidence lost, everything lost” I learned the hard way, lessons that stood me in good stead, particularly rolling with the punches of misfortune.
Also never damage the line of credit, known in the good, old days as “asking for time to pay”, a service which Bubba Brown, like the Corporates and TABCORP, did not provide.
But find a way to settle. Taking the knock, doing a runner, will haunt you. Nowadays a losing streak breeds despair. Medical assistance is sought. Antidepressants are prescribed.
However very little if anything beats backing a winner, a satisfaction that tops Reschs on a hot day after 18 holes. We pursue the engrossing gamble, the situation for Saturday’s Doomben 10,000 the sprint that set me alight with True Leader.
James McDonald, rated the world’s best jockey, will handle Napoleonic, originally the second reserve who drew 10, a negative until scratchings which got him into the field, and down to the seven gate.
Other three-year-olds, Grafterburners, with the navigation of Zac Purton, and Beadman, loom large. Purton made his reputation in Hong Kong but anybody who rates him inferior to J-Mac split hairs.
At longer odds I am going for Beadman, launching from the one gate under Tom Berry, a saddle match for the super-stars, in the hope he gets a sweeter passage.
Beadman, a robust type, scored at the Gold Coast last Saturday after being wide under J-Mac and the assessment of Inside Running’s Dan O’Sullivan influenced connections to back-up in the Group One test.
“The late strength he showed suggests he could improve further with a more economical trip,” O’Sullivan explained.
O’Sullivan’s opinion, too, comes into play with the youthful import Accidental Bid in Doomben’s intriguing Rough Habit Plate.
Accidental Bid comes out of a Pakenham Benchmark 62, more cart horse grade than the Group 3 Packer Plate at Randwick in which rival Providence, was a bold second.
Providence races in the same silks as Beadman but with 13 starts, and being foaled on October 2, 2022, has a considerable maturity advantage on the import.
Still O’Sullivan stressed Accidental Bid’s “96 rating Pakenham win by 7.7 lengths makes him a leading chance”.
Accidental Bid and Providence have to overcome promising New Zealander, Solid Gold, an August 31, 2022 foal.
Alas Solid Gold, with Berry aboard, drew 17, another demanding start that confronts strong fancies at Scone where quantity appears to overshadow quality.
In the Yarraman Park for two-year-old fillies Moscatel from Tulloch Lodge drew 19 yet was $2.80 yesterday. A $1.6 million yearling, Moscatel bolted away with a Kensington Maiden. Best Bets warned “the Kenso form can be flattering to leaders”.
Many stables scratch from wide gates but Moscatel has the services of Rachel King, well tuned by Tulloch Lodge in get out and go tactics.
Pimlico, successful at his last two, will come in from 20 with scratchings so Zac Lloyd has a confronting situation in the Kia Ora Handicap.
Lloyd gets a better launch with Agarwood (eight) in the Denise’s Joy, where David Baxter’s Akaysha, with strong credentials, has to overcome 16. Confidentiality (20), Fairway To Heaven (15) and Raskol (19) have already been withdrawn.
The talented Golden Straand came up with the 19 marble in the Ortensia, presenting the capable lightweight Jay Ford a task.
In Bubba Brown’s era all a wide barrier did was make a good thing a better price.
It’s the gamble.
Winston Churchill once said: “I’ve got more out of alcohol than alcohol has got out of me.”
Put me in the same category at the punt. Starting young, neither won nor lost, but have enjoyed every minute in over 70 years, and will continue to do so.
Hoof-note: My mate Malcolm Ayoub, who kept Jim Cassidy a champion and pumping so long, has died in West Australia.
One of the most colourful racing personalities, Ayoub, part Lebanese and part Aboriginal, he lived up to the title in appearance and personality.
On a memorable visit Ayoub stood out at Otto, the flash Sydney eating joint, in his Hawaiian beach shirt, circa 1990, faded somewhat, in a straw hat that had weathered many a dust storm.
Waiters treated him with some disdain until they saw the colour of his money. Cash transformed their interest like bees to honey.
But Ayoub brought the best out in Cassidy, a wayward subject who often needed a lugging bit. Ayoub kept him fit applying the skill of an Aboriginal medicine man and personal trainer.
He rubbed and worked Cassidy, boxed and exercised, cajoled him constantly getting the best out of the jockey who, without him, would have been weakened with “wasting” – drastic weight and energy reduction with drugs.
“Cassidy’s brain and hands worked superbly in unison despite decades of hard labour,” I wrote regarding the Ayoub influence on Cassidy in “Good Losers Die Broke”.
Alas Cassidy’s toes, under the pressure of constant stress in the saddle irons, started to wilt and Ayoub applied the cure, goanna oil.
“I did it with Bart’s feet too” Ayoub related regarding the hooves of Bart Cummings.
Ayoub sold horses for Tulloch Lodge, first Tommy Smith and then Gai Waterhouse.
“I once sold a half brother to Red Anchor (a champion three-year-old) to North Queensland,” Ayoub related.
“I asked the trainer how he was going; ‘all right, he replied, apart from being attacked by a crocodile. After the stiches he still won a few races’”.
Ayoub was renowned for his generosity and would put on a barbecue at Tulloch Lodge for the strappers at Christmas.
Unshod he came from out Coonamble way, was apprenticed to Jim Barker, who had a penchant for diamonds and cigars. “Diamond Jim” also used the studded fingers as knuckle dusters. He was a hard taskmaster.
Ayoub left with a thousand stories and as many friends.
Good article Max. The pushing of mental health and the use of “depression” as a fashion accessory, has always amused. As victims of the punt, most of us are on suicide watch more Saturday nights than not.