R E Q U I R E D R E A D I N G F O R T H E D I S C E R N I N G G A M B L E R • F I T Z D A R E S. C O M • F I R S T E D I T I O N, C H R I S T M A S 2 0 1 4
LOW LIFE Why the dogs and dating don’t mix
HIGH LIFE The day I beat a tennis pro
The changing face of rugby training
Singles to win – ten top gambling songs
BY DENIS MANN
BY LEWIS DEYONG
BY BUDGE ROGERS AND SERGE BETSEN
BY NICK ANGEL
FEAST OF SPORT Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Fitzdares Times – by Balthazar Fabricius
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HANKS TO A TRADITION picked up from my father, I have long enjoyed reading The Spectator’s Christmas edition and it dawned on me that there was no sports equivalent, let alone one that was gamblingorientated, that one could dip in and out of throughout the holiday season. This is strange, given December hosts some of the best sporting action of the entire year, be it horse racing, the arrows, a bumper Premier League fixture list… and in 2022 maybe even a World Cup?
Gambling is a habit most of us have picked up from our ancestors. On a visit to Telford for the UK Snooker Championship I found out that my late grandfather used to play backgammon with Clive Everton. My great-grandmother loved to follow Sir Peter O’Sullevan and Clive Graham’s selections in the Daily Express. It was with our fathers that we most likely went to our first racecourse, football or rugby match. Father and son connections run deep at Fitzdares. I was pushed around racecourses in a pram, first at Lingfield, then
Goodwood. Guy Rogers, our CEO, was born with a rugby ball in his hand on account of his father being an England captain. (You will be fascinated to read Budge’s account of training in the Sixties compared to the modern-day training methods talked through by Serge Betsen.) Ed Churchward, our COO, has polish DNA – that is to say his father Patrick captained the England polo team. And my co-founders Ben and Zac Goldsmith’s father famously bred and coowned Montjeu, one of the greatest racehorses and stallions we will ever see.
Not to be outdone, Ben has already bred his own superstar in the 2012 Melbourne Cup winner Green Moon. So sport is in our blood, together with a passion for service – a combination we felt was lacking in the industry when we founded Fitzdares in 2005. It is hard to believe that 2015 will be our 10th anniversary. So many memories… of friends made, courage shown, staggering wins, unlucky losses. Adrenalin coursing through your veins. We have been there with you. Every. Step. Of. The. Way. →