Racing: New bookies set for quick profit

THE FIVE men charged with doping-related fraud by police last week will not be at Cheltenham today - the Jockey Club made sure of that yesterday when it "warned them off" with immediate effect. Everyone else in the racing world, though, will be there, be it in body or in spirit. For the next three days, nothing else matters.

For many, the Festival has been an annual place of pilgrimage for decades, but this year there will be fresh faces at Cheltenham, too. It is just a few months since new rules in the betting ring allowed the bookmakers, many of whom were almost as old as the racecourse itself, to sell off the pitches from which they trade to the highest bidder. Young (or at any rate younger) bookies happily paid up to pounds 100,000 at auction for the chance to stand in Cheltenham's main betting area, where, as one old hand has put it, "the only limit to the amount of money you can take is how quickly you can shove it into the satchel."

Six figures is a lot of money to pay for a small patch of concrete, but the new blood in the betting ring will hope to get it all back, and more, over the next three days. Indeed, one of their number already has. On his first day as a Cheltenham bookie, at the course's last meeting, Freddie Williams took up residence in the prime betting pitch for which he had just paid pounds 90,000. By the end of the afternoon, he had taken three bets, worth a total of pounds 140,000 from the legendary Irish punter, J P McManus. All were losers, and Williams was immediately pounds 50,000 ahead on the deal.

McManus will be back again today, to see runners in his colours in four of the six races, and perhaps to take back some of the cash he left in the ring last time. Where McManus is concerned, such money is usually lent, not lost. In particular, he will hope to see Istabraq win the Champion Hurdle for the second year running. If he does not, Freddie Williams and his colleagues will need trailers to take home all the booty.

Racegoers who arrived in the West Country a day early yesterday did so in summer clothes, and continuing mild weather can only add to the Festival experience. The track, though, is still riding good to soft, after one of the wettest winters for years, and it will be a demanding test for the horses. Falls are inevitable; fatalities, hopefully, less so.

Jockeys, too, will be the centre of attention, and none more so than Tony McCoy, the champion rider over jumps but a man who has often been too free with his whip for the liking of the racing authorities. Only yesterday, McCoy was banned for two days for misusing his "persuader", and if he offends again this week, the penalty could be much more severe.

So popular has Cheltenham become in recent years that a crowd limit has now been imposed. It will not feel like it, though, in the cheaper enclosures, where getting a drink in less than 20 minutes is the longest shot of the whole afternoon. A winning favourite or two, though, particularly if it hails from Ireland, will make even the heaving ovens of the grandstand bars seem like the most hospitable places on earth.

Last year, no fewer than seven favourites came home in front, and for the first time in years, many bookies went home with empty pockets. Their wounds have been festering for 12 long months, however, and the law of averages insists that this year it will be the bookmakers' turn. Fortunes will be won and lost during three wild days in the natural crucible below Cleeve Hill, and as ever, the last thought of most racegoers as they leave on Thursday night will be how best to go about getting the money to do it all again next year.

Cheltenham preview,

pages 24-25

Terence Blacker, Review, page 4