Fitzdares Times | issue 3

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 • T H I R D E D I T I O N, C H R I S T M A S 2 0 1 5

Desp

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HIGH LIFE The day I beat the bookies

My record breakers and golden Brits for Rio 2016

OSCARS Favourites and long shots at the 88th awards

BY BARNEY CURLEY

BY DENISE LEWIS

BY JOE HODGSON

’t a ake, logic doesn st t a s n o li il m e ite th

t was 1998 and the young Dutch footballer Rody Turpijn was watching his career fall apart. His club, Ajax Amsterdam, was letting him go. Turpijn had only one thing going for him: he was represented by Mino Raiola, an aggressive Dutch-Italian former pizza restaurateur who was becoming one of Europe’s biggest agents. Raiola and Turpijn drove to a motorway hotel (the classic venue of football deals) to meet the chairman of the small club De Graafschap. Raiola kicked off by impressing the chairman with some gossip about Juventus’s Pavel Nedved. Then the chairman wrote on a piece of paper the salary he could offer Turpijn. The player was delighted: it was more than he had earned at Ajax. But to Turpijn’s surprise, Raiola shouted: “Do you know what he earns at Ajax? This isn’t a serious offer! Come Rody, we’re not going to waste our time on this.” Raiola stood up as if to walk out, so Turpijn

lways prevail

hesitantly stood up too. The chairman hastily persuaded them to sit down. Twenty minutes later, Raiola had negotiated a massive salary for a four-year deal. As Turpijn wrote years later in the Dutch literary magazine Hard Gras, that meeting secured his future “for just about the rest of my life”. There’s a moral here: salaries in football aren’t always rational. In general they are: as Stefan Szymanski and I showed in our book Soccernomics, the more a club pays its players, the more matches it will win. The rule of thumb is that the club with the highest wage bill finishes top, and the club with the lowest, bottom. Averaged out over a ten-year period, wage spending explains about 90 per cent of the variation in clubs’ league positions. In short, most footballers earn what they deserve, at least measured by their contribution to winning matches. And yet economists have shown that

Darts: practice makes perfect? BY BOBBY GEORGE & MICHAEL VAN GERWEN

mics, says Sim in football econo

startling irrationalities still survive in the market for players. In England in the 1980s, the number one irrationality was racial discrimination. Put simply, a black player earned less on average than an equally good white player. No wonder, because this was an era when pundits like Emlyn Hughes explained the curious absence of black players at Liverpool and Everton by saying: “They haven’t got the bottle.” Some clubs refused to field black players because they thought they weren’t good enough, or because they thought fans wouldn’t accept it. As Szymanski shows, the clubs with more black players did better – adjusted for their level of wages – than clubs with fewer. This discrimination disappeared by the early 1990s. Today, only black managers suffer discrimination. As of November 2015, the 92 English professional clubs employed just four black managers between them.

on Kuper

Here are some other irrationalities that persist in football’s job market: 1. Certain positions are undervalued.

Goalkeepers earn less than outfield players (according to a study by the German economist Bernd Frick), even though keepers have longer careers and make a very big contribution to results. By contrast, the highest-paid position is striker. In Italy’s Serie A between 2009 and 2014, forwards earned an average of €1.1m, midfielders €820,000 and defenders €700,000, says the new French book Sciences Sociales Football Club by Bastien Drut and Richard Duhautois. Perhaps this is simply because strikers are most likely to score and therefore end up on TV. 2. Compared with goalscoring, unseen work is undervalued. Bundesliga players

who ran more kilometres than others

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02 → didn’t earn more, a team of German economists led by Pamela Wicker has found. Wicker and her colleague Daniel Weimar showed, meanwhile, that running lots of kilometres increases the probability that your team will win. One manager who does know the importance of running around is Arsenal’s Arsène Wenger. He points out that if your player runs 12km and his opposite number runs only 11, the difference will probably manifest itself in the last 15 minutes of the game, and that’s when your guy might pop up unmarked in front of goal. Indeed, in 2004 Wenger signed the unknown French teenager Mathieu Flamini from Marseille based largely on the remarkable stat that Flamini was running 14km a game.

of Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler and Patrick Kluivert. That’s why the £50 million that Chelsea paid Liverpool in 2011 for the nippy 26-year-old superstar Fernando Torres was a worse investment than the basic £36 million that Manchester United recently paid Monaco for the nippy 19-year-old unknown Anthony Martial. If Martial becomes a superstar his fee will rise to £58 million, according to Monaco. If so, he will have been worth every penny. So many footballers still aren’t. Although football clubs have become smarter, they remain a lot less rational than agents like Raiola. n

4. Older players are overpaid, because clubs tend to be overly guided by players’ past performance. Fifa TMS (the bit of Fifa

that deals with international transfers) analysed the pay of footballers who moved across borders to England, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Argentina and Portugal in 2012, and found, remarkably, that the average man earned his peak fixed salary at the ripe old age of 32 – by which time he was almost certainly past his best. Seniority is a terrible rationale for pay in football (and probably in other industries too). As any smart club knows, a player’s past performance is irrelevant. What counts is his future performance. It’s particularly dumb to overpay older forwards. The average striker peaks by age 25, as Drut and Duhautois show – just think

£50m bust Fernando Torres scored just 20 Premier League goals for Chelsea

Simon Kuper is an award-winning author and writes for the Financial Times

3. Certain nationalities are overvalued.

For decades the most fashionable nationality in the transfer market was Brazilian. As Alex Bellos writes in Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life: “The phrase ‘Brazilian soccer player’ is like the phrases ‘French chef’ or ‘Tibetan monk’. The nationality expresses an authority, an innate vocation for the job – whatever the natural ability.” A Brazilian agent who had exported very humble Brazilian players to the Faroe Islands and Iceland told Bellos: “It’s sad to say, but it is much easier selling, for example, a crap Brazilian than a brilliant Mexican. The Brazilian gets across the image of happiness, party, carnival.” That image may not have survived Brazil’s 1-7 defeat by Germany in Belo Horizonte last year. Today the market’s most fashionable nationalities are probably Belgian and Costa Rican. Canny clubs will buy unfashionable nationalities – Bolivians, say, or Belarusians – at discounts.

SPECULATE TO ACCUMULATE Ride high into the New Year with one of our topical accumulators for 2016

TIME TRIAL Faugheen to win the Champion Hurdle

O U R T R I B U T E TO T H E B E S T B E T S A N D C O M P E T I T I O N W I N N E R S

THIS YEAR’S BEST BETS

COMPETITION WINNERS 2015

SATURDAY 13 DECEMBER (2014) INVESTED £50,000 SELECTION New England @ 4/1

MONDAY 18 MAY INVESTED £250 REVERSE FORECAST SELECTION Sweden / Russia

Super Bowl XLIX

Eurovision Song Contest

RETURNED £250,000

RETURNED £6,250

SATURDAY 17 JANUARY INVESTED £10,000 FIVE-FOLD SELECTION Man Utd @ 4/6

WEDNESDAY 29 JULY SOLD £75 AUSTRALIA RUNS @ 402 SELECTION 3rd Ashes Test, 1st innings

QPR vs. Man Utd Tottenham @ 4/7 Tottenham vs. Sunderland Chelsea @ 4/7 Swansea City vs. Chelsea Bournemouth @ 3/4 Rotherham vs. Bournemouth Swindon Town @ 10/11 Swindon Town vs. Chesterfield

USA to win the Ryder Cup

55/1

SATURDAY 1 AUGUST INVESTED £3,500 BY £2,500 SELECTION Magical Memory @ 14/1 Steward’s Cup, Goodwood

RETURNED £63,750

RETURNED £137,500 MONDAY 10 AUGUST INVESTED £8,000 SELECTION Jason Day @ 12.5/1

WEDNESDAY 11 MARCH INVESTED £16,000 SELECTION Don Poli @ 13/8

US PGA Championship

RETURNED £108,000

RSA Chase, Cheltenham

RETURNED £42,000

Germany to win Euro 2016 Novak Djokovic to win Wimbledon

Australia vs. England

RETURNED £19,950

FRIDAY 13 MARCH INVESTED £10 COMBINATION TRICASTS SELECTION Quick Jack Sort It Out Wicklow Brave Vincent O’Brien County Hurdle

RETURNED £19,001.80 WEDNESDAY 6 MAY BOUGHT £2,000 @ 289 TORY SEATS

FRIDAY 2 OCTOBER INVESTED £10,000 SELECTION Golden Horn @ 5/1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe

RETURNED £60,000 FRIDAY 9 OCTOBER INVESTED £20,000 SELECTION New Zealand –31 @ 11/10

MASTERS COMPETITION 1 The Tigers £23,595 2 Aidan Anglin £7,722 3 Pick Nine £3,003 4 Sidaz 2 £2,574 5 Jaggy Fizz 2 £2,145 6 Dietmar Hamann £1,716 7 Bubba’s Army £1,287 8= Peter Gardiner £429 8= Michael Keane £429

OPEN COMPETITION 1 John Prior £19,800 2 Studley Hackeroos £6,480 3 Danny Care £2,520 4 4ColinR £2,160 5 Hheath 2 £1,800 6 Yozza £1,440 7 Nicholls J £1,080 8 Minty 2 £720

FITZDARES WORLD SPOOF CHAMPIONSHIP 2015 CHAMPION Lewis Deyong

New Zealand vs. Tonga

RETURNED £42,000

UK General Election

RETURNED £84,000

SUNDAY 18 OCTOBER INVESTED £2,500 E/W SELECTION Fairyinthewind @ 18/1

SATURDAY 16 MAY INVESTED £30 YANKEE SELECTION Richter Scale @ 7/2 13.55 Thirsk Tupi @ 11/2 14.50 Newmarket Ginger Jack @ 11/2 15.40 Thirsk Night Of Thunder @ 3/1 15.45 Newbury

MOUNTAIN STAGE Vautour to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup Jordan Spieth to win the Masters B. Munich to win the Champions League Chris Froome to win the Tour de France

400/1

17.15 Bath

RETURNED £61,250

RETURNED £42,344.63

DESIGNED AND PRODUCED BY STEFANO ARATA AT GOOD COMPANY

·

GOODCOMPANY.LONDON

Congratulations on some fantastic picks in 2015, you all know who you are. · © FITZDARES

2015

B O O D L E S . C O M /A S H O K A

04 SPEAKER’S CORNER John Kelsey-Fry QC

T

CROSSED WIRES

his year’s st leger resulted in the Doncaster stewards demoting Simple Verse for interference caused to second-placed Bondi Beach. On appeal the British Horseracing Authority panel reversed that finding and reinstated Simple Verse as the winner. Inevitably, some have suggested that this reversal implied criticism of the Doncaster stewards. The suggestion is misconceived. The stewards and the BHA panel agreed that Simple Verse had twice caused interference to Bondi Beach in the final two furlongs. Both agreed that Bondi Beach had not interfered with Simple Verse. There was no suggestion of any procedural error by the stewards in their approach to the ultimate question of whether it was more likely than not that, but for the interference, Bondi Beach would have won. The Doncaster stewards concluded that the two incidents of interference probably cost Bondi Beach the 12-15 inches of ground represented by the winning distance of a head. The panel, on appeal, was not so satisfied. This divergence of opinion is unremarkable. The unenviable task of assessing the impact of interference on the outcome of a race is necessarily a matter of subjective judgement and includes an element of educated guesswork. It requires an assessment of the extent to which balance, momentum and ground have been lost. It requires a judgement as to how well the two horses were going relative to each other. It requires the assessor to imagine how the sufferer would have performed if allowed a clear, uninterrupted run to the line. Nobody could pretend that this could ever be an exercise in certainty. Opinions will differ. Consequently such decisions will rarely receive universal approval. Likewise the assessment by different stewards of different but similar races will give rise to cries of inconsistency, leading to calls for a centralised stewarding system. Short of relegating all interferers, accidental or otherwise, which would lead to absurd injustice, this uncertainty is inevitable. The BHA guidelines recognise the difficulty of the task faced by stewards: “One of the most difficult and contentious decisions a panel has to make is to determine the result following interference.” Later the advice is given: “Generally speaking, the longer the panel discusses whether the placings should be altered, the less likely it is that they should be. If the panel is unable to conclude one way or the other, the result should stand.” Hence one of the guiding principles is said to be: “The benefit of the doubt should go to the horse which finished in front.” These extracts recognise that in order to demote the interferer, the stewards have to be satisfied (on the balance of probabilities) that the interference improved the placing of that horse in relation to the horse with which it interfered; that that can be a difficult decision; that there will be occasions where it is really

Simple Verse cuts across Bondi Beach – but how much ground does Bondi Beach lose as a result?

There is one category of interference in respect of which the approach is at least arguably wrong: the deliberate foul.

too difficult to say one way or the other, and that in those circumstances the test for demotion has not been met and therefore the interferer has the benefit of the doubt. Consequently it is hardly surprising that there has been a widespread perception of a presumption in favour of the horse that finishes in front. An unfortunate consequence is that it may embolden the deliberate rule-breaker. In a previous edition of the Fitzdares Times, Sir Mark Prescott advanced a compelling argument for disqualification to follow excess use of the whip. The “Prescott System” would deter abuse of the whip rule and “punters and connections will not see their horse beaten by a rule-breaker. Simple, isn’t it?” said the great man. The attraction of so simple a rule is that everyone would know where they stood, a deliberate breach of the rules would no longer be worth it in pursuit of a major prize and, most importantly, there would be no question of stewards having to perform the impossible task of deciding whether the extra stroke(s) of the whip made the difference between winning and losing. A deliberate breach in order to enhance the chance of winning would, in itself, deny one victory. Interference during a race may be caused by accident, by careless riding, by improper riding or by dangerous riding. Only in the last category does disqualification automatically follow. For obvious reasons the emphasis is on deterrence and safety, rather than on ensuring fairness in the outcome of the race. In the other three categories the result will only be amended if the stewards are satisfied that the interference improved the placing of the horse in relation to the horse or horses with which it interfered, in which case the horse causing interference will be placed behind the sufferer(s). Thus in all cases of interference save that caused by dangerous riding, the rationale for demotion is identifying “the best horse” or “the right result” but for the interference. In most cases this is the right approach. Horses may cause interference for which the rider is blameless (eg jinking sideways inexplicably. as did Golden Horn in the Irish Champion Stakes). In other cases the rider may be culpable but has not intended to create interference. Horses may drift across the track and the rider may fail to take sufficient corrective action (eg Storm the Stars in the Great Voltigeur). A rider may make a deliberate manoeuvre, causing unintended interference by inattention or misjudgement (eg failing to use wing mirrors or misjudging the size of a gap). Although culpable and guilty of careless riding, the rider has not deliberately caused interference. In such circumstances it is right that the horse and his connections and punters should not suffer for the rider’s error unless the horse has profited from the interference.

H

owever, there is one category of interference in respect of which the approach is at least arguably wrong: the deliberate foul. Raceriding is, of course, inherently dangerous. When a half-ton horse is thundering down the straight at the business end of a race, deliberate interference so as to barge him aside – causing horse and jockey to become unbalanced – obviously exacerbates the danger to both. The BHA guidelines identify dangerous riding as encompassing “purposely interfering with another horse” and give an example of “deliberately barging his way between two horses”. However, in order to amount to dangerous riding suchconduct must have caused “serious interference”, which is defined as interference which “causes a horse and/or rider to fall or very nearly fall or the horse is severely hampered, eg up against the running rail, or is pushed or nearly pushed off the course”. In other words, the deliberate interference has to have resulted in the harm actually being occasioned or very nearly occasioned. The focus is therefore on the result of the deliberate interference, rather than the risk created by that interference. If the horse interfered with or his rider does not fall or nearly fall etc, the requirement for “serious interference” is not met and the offence of dangerous riding does not arise. One might think that in those circumstances such conduct would be dealt with as improper riding. Improper riding encompasses intentional interference that would be dangerous riding but for the fact that it did not cause serious interference (as defined). Bearing in mind that the rationale for disqualification in dangerous riding is deterrence in the interests of safety, one might also have thought that the same deterrent sanction would apply to the same deliberate conduct irrespective of whether the risk created materialised or not. One would be wrong. Firstly, improper riding does not result in automatic disqualification. Secondly, the BHA guidelines say that improper riding includes intentional interference which “is not intended to improve the interferer’s performance but continued on page 25

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06

Trainer Barney Curley went through trying (or even non-trying) times before one of his finest days On 29 May 2007 I wasn’t feeling myself. It was the one time in my life I was done for non-trying. I had run a horse at Nottingham and the Horseracing Regulatory Authority had accused me of a “deliberate attempt to conceal its true ability”. At the hearing the panel said the horse had “not been run on its merits” and was used in “a preparatory way for another day”. I remember I sat with my legs open and my head down. I’d been unwell for a while; I zoned out of most of it. The disciplinary notes confirm I was most definitely not thinking straight. I said that my horse was “coming to himself, but not just yet”. I admitted to being unhappy at Tom Queally’s use of his whip, which suggested that the gelding had been given too forceful a ride. I even told them that I thought the horse could win off his current mark but that he was only “8590 per cent sweetened”. Worse, I admitted I had not backed it. But as I say, I wasn’t myself, I’d had an operation the week before. I don’t blame the HRA’s Patrick Hibbert-Foy, who did what he had to do. I took my medicine – a £3,000 fine – and the horse was suspended for 40 days. In some ways the ban was good for Tom Queally. I told him: “Get your act together,

because you have a lot of talent. And put your best foot forward.” And he went away for five or six weeks. He called me after a couple of weeks and I said: “Where are you?” And he said: “Australia.” “What part?” He said: “I’m not sure. It’s a massive country this.” He came back with the impetus to ride the best horse in history. But back to the story: the horse in question’s name was Zabeel Palace and he won a lot of money for us. Not too many people know about this one, the horse has a place in my heart.

We’d got Zabeel Palace from Godolphin; he had glass legs so he did. Andrew Stringer, who was my head bottle washer, went to America to further his career and came back with these special bandages, having worked for Michael Dickinson. Dickinson is brilliant with injured horses, loves his techniques, his remedies. They call him the “Mad Genius” in America. So we tried Zabeel Palace in the People’s Race at Aintree in April 2009; I didn’t have much faith in him, to tell you the truth. But we tried him in these Dickinson bandages and he won and seemed to finish sound.

The winner’s prize was £50,000 to charity, which we put towards my charity Direct Aid for Africa.

Then in September, he went to a seller at Fontwell and I had really no faith in him. I didn’t back him. And he won. He won a seller. I was on the phone and I was bidding for him, and whatever he was bought for, that was my last bid. He came home reasonably sound from Fontwell and we had a talk, and Paul Moloney, who rode him, said if this horse cared he’d win another race. Important to find out if they care at that stage in their careers, when they’re coming back from injury. If they run well again, you know you can get more out of them. So we ran him in a weak race at Plumpton and he won. The minute he crossed the line we were looking for the race. With this kind of horse we knew he’d need about ten days to really get him right, keep him on a roll. We found the perfect race at Ascot, on 31 October, and the preparations began to get him spot-on. Schemes, coups, call them what you like. You need every-

YELLOW SAM BARNEY CURLEY’S FIRST MAJOR COUP On 26 June 1975, a slow but steady horse called Yellow Sam was entered to run in a National Hunt race at the small provincial track of Bellewstown in Ireland. Trained by Liam Brennan, Yellow Sam was targeted specifically at the race. Bellewstown had not been picked by Mr Curley for its scenery, but for its antiquated communications – just a single public telephone line connected the racecourse to the outside world. In the days before mobile phones, bookmakers around the country would use the telephone to lay off their liabilities, thus determining the starting prices of horses in the betting ring. Mr Curley reasoned that if he could block the telephone line then he would be able to back Yellow Sam

in small stakes all over Ireland without the horse’s price crashing. On the day of the race, an army of Mr Curley’s friends, acquaintances and paid runners were dispatched to a wide variety of betting shops, armed with sums between £50 and £300. Aware that loose lips sink ships, they were given sealed instructions to be opened upon receiving a call. Roughly 25 minutes before the start of the race, Mr Curley played his ace card, deploying his friend Benny O’Hanlon to occupy the phone booth. Mr O’Hanlon, described as a “heavy-built kind of fellow, a tough sort that you wouldn’t want to get into an argument with”, sat on the phone in tears, allegedly calling a dying aunt in

hospital. His act was convincing and those waiting to use the telephone were sympathetic. Meanwhile, Mr Curley called ten of his 100plus runners, who were instructed to open their envelopes, place their bets and call ten more runners. As the bets on Yellow Sam flooded in, bookmakers around Ireland tried in vain to reach the track to lay off their liabilities. The coup worked perfectly and despite Mr Curley investing £15,000 on him to win, Yellow Sam was sent off a massive 20/1. Now all he had to do was win the race, which he did by a comfortable two and a half lengths. Mr Curley won over £300,000 (equivalent to over £2m in today’s money), using the windfall to buy stables and set up as a trainer.

thing to go right for you, and I knew his legs were right and his attitude was right - he was no longer at war with the world. Zabeel's Palace was difficult to get fit but I knew I had him on fire. So we went in heavy. You don’t get many opportunities in racing, and because of his legs we were on borrowed time. This was his big day. These things can take three or four years to organise.

That’s why I’m careful how I put my money on. I have no favourites as far as the bookmakers go. It was spread around; any place. You have to change your tactics. Every day is different. You can’t use one man, you’ve got to use different people, keep changing. Because if you do the same thing mostly, you know the bookmakers will catch up with you. I suppose that’s what I’ve done well over the years: kept them guessing. I had a team ready to put the money on, different places. We backed him in to 3/1 and I got Timmy Murphy to ride him. He’d never rode for me in his life but he was a very, very good jockey. And being the professional he was,

he looked up the race at Plumpton and he said to me, I remember it well: “I want to come as late as Paul Moloney came at Plumpton.” I’m not a man who gives the gospel in the parade ring so I just said to him: “Come later.” And he just produced him in the last 100 yards there – right on the money, so to speak. We probably won six figures that particular day. Very few horses have days like that for me, despite what they say. 904 days after Nottingham, he was a miracle horse, coming back from legs like that. When he went to Ascot the next February, I remember one of the TV presenters asking: “How will he run?” I said: “I haven’t a clue.” He was on his last legs then, and he pulled up there with three to go. That was his charity fundraising done. n Barney Curley is a horseracing trainer from County Tyrone in Northern Ireland. In 1997 he founded the charity Direct Aid for Africa (DAFA), which helps underprivileged children obtain an education. www.dafa.co.uk

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Sunday 1 November To Delhi, and that rarest of things (rarer, even, than a Tote Trifecta), a decent lunch on a British Airways plane. As I spend most of my life either on BA or stuffing my ever expanding gut, you might think I’d have got used to the taste of mile-high disappointment. But no, each time that over-written menu appears, my heart sinks, as I see more ersatz, second-rate, ponced about and barely edible depression. Up in the air, I crave simplicity, spice and comfort. Not some half-witted approximation of ‘feen deening’ complete with tasting menus and some typically ghastly garnish. Our taste buds become dulled at altitude, so they need a hit of chilli, or blast of umami, to keep them thrilled. Which is why Singapore, Cathay Pacific and Qantas are unbeatable when it comes to tucker. Big bowls of noodles, serious soups and the occasional coconut-scented curry. But today, en route to Delhi and Travels To My Elephant, a slightly crazed tuk-tuk journey across India in aid of the wonderful charity Elephant Family, I eat like a plump maharajah. Channa chat with tamarind chutney. Then murgh musallam (chicken curry) with dal. Good roti too, and cracking pickle. Beautiful, in every way. I love everything about BA, save the food; this lunch, though, showed that it can be done. I still fell asleep halfway through some garish Hollywood blockbuster. Some things never change. Monday 2 Nov To Khajuraho, from Delhi. What with WH Smith, the Body Shop, Accessorize and Early Learning Centre, it felt very much like being on some drab British high street. Then my friend Henry arrived back at the gate in a huge state of excitement. The loos were apparently closed, but for a 100rupee, um, “tax”, he was allowed to slip in and have exclusive use. “All to myself,” he crowed. We’re definitely back in India. We arrive for a magnificent lunch, in the garden, at the Radisson hotel. Then we spend the afternoon haring around town, learning to drive the tuktuks in which we’ll be spending the next three days. Our instructors are seasoned pros and guide us around the somnolent cattle that dominate the roads. After 30 minutes I’m driving like Roger Moore in Octopussy. Or so I think. I pull up back to the hotel, in the wrong gear, and promptly stall. Then I am utterly unable to get the bloody thing started once more. I retire to my room, serenaded by the hysterical laughter of the local tuk-tuk community. Tuesday 3 Nov At 10 am we’re off, 500km across India, 42 tuk-tuks, filled with all manner of British and American adventurers. Our final destination, Kipling Camp in Kanha Tiger Reserve. There, we’ll meet Tara, the elephant

DIARY Tom Parker Bowles

Despite the continual danger (and those bloody cows), it becomes cathartic, soothing and immense fun. I love India.

once ridden across India by my late uncle, Mark Shand. Elephants were his life and he founded Elephant Family to ensure their survival, as habitats shrink and contact with hard-working humans becomes inevitable. Starving, petrified pachyderms rampage through villages and their crops, destroying their livelihoods in a few noisy moments. The money we raise will help provide crucial elephant corridors, through which these wonderful creatures have free run. It all seems like a jolly jape. Well, until we get on to the Indian roads anyway, and quickly realise that we’re not much above the cockroach when it comes to the pecking order. Vast trucks drive on the wrong side of the road, cars and scooters appear from nowhere and tend to overtake on blind corners. Add in the fact that these tuk-tuks are made for city driving and flip quite easily, the experience is rather more terrifying than first imagined. The Indians, ever generous and encouraging, watch on with wry smiles. But we still make it to Bandhavgarh, just before dark. Driving on Indian roads in the light is scary enough; after dark, it’s damned suicidal.

Wednesday 4 and Thursday 5 Nov By now we’re getting into our stride. My cousin and best friend Ben Elliot is my co-driver. We don’t race, rather gently pootle along, past shrines and bleating goats, grinning children, garish billboards, dead dogs, and tonnes and tonnes of rubbish. But despite the danger (and those bloody cows), it becomes cathartic, soothing and immense fun. I love India. We stay in the most incredible tented camp (loos, hot water, electricity, booze, more wonderful food), and the organisation of this trip (a combination of the brilliant Emma McCarthy of Quintessentially Foundation and the peerless Martin da Costa, the boss on the ground) is sublime. Friday 6 Nov At the start, most of us were strangers. By the time we reach Kipling, in a joyous and tearful convoy, we’re friends for life. Drums, embraces and icy Cobra beer, before wandering down to the Banjar river (just the family plus Tara and Mark’s best friend Aditya) to scatter Mark’s ashes. It’s a simple service, and deeply moving. The journey’s ended, and Mark’s ashes thrown where he was happiest, with the people he loved most. An extraordinary, unforgettable and uniquely Indian five days. There’s talk of doing it again next year, but how does one top perfection? Mark laid to rest and millions raised for the elephants. We’d like to think we did him proud. n If you’d like to help, you can find out more about the Elephant Family charity and donate at elephant-family.org

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10

IDOL CHATTER The Academy Awards are notoriously hard to predict – so Joe Hodgson is doing it blind

A

a mother and son who are held in captivity – has received the kind of plaudits that make industry people go weak at the knees, like Arjen Robben entering a penalty area at full speed.

lthough the 88th Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards – or Oscars – aren’t until 28 February 2016, Hollywood’s collective, tanned, surgically enhanced buttocks are already quivering with hypnotic excitement at the very thought of that special evening. As you read this, cigar-chomping movie executives across Los Angeles are deciding which of their films and actors will be supported with the most effective marketing campaign to increase their chances of bringing home the golden statues. Deals are being struck, backs are being stabbed, brown envelopes containing unmarked bills are being handed over in discreet, poorly lit coffee shops. It’s a bit like the general election, only far more entertaining. And the candidates are much better-looking. Despite not having seen a single one of the movies I’m about to mention, I will hereby channel my inner Mystic Meg and predict the winners. Unlike Meg, though, I’m not just going to waffle vaguely. No, I’m going in for specifics – real predictions featuring real films – which all of you can then use to appear smart and informed and possibly boring at your Christmas parties.

BEST ACTOR The narrative emerging in this category is that 2016 will finally be the year Leonardo DiCaprio gets to enter the winners’ enclosure. He plays the lead role in the survival picture The Revenant, and stories have appeared revealing that in order to prepare fully for the role DiCaprio slept inside dead animal carcasses – a strategy that is alleged to have helped David Cameron enter an exclusive club too. The Revenant shoot was rife with difficulties – apparently it’s quite cold in northern Canada – and at the time of writing the film has yet to be seen by any real people, but I strongly suspect this will be Leo’s time. Competition will come from Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs) and last year’s winner Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl).

BEST PICTURE

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS It’s often a very fine or even nonexistent line that separates a supporting performance from a lead performance – and it’s a line which current favourite Rooney Mara is walking. Her acclaimed showing in Todd Haynes’ sapphic drama Carol could land on either side, but she would stand a much better chance of victory in the supporting category. Alicia Vikander finds herself in a similar position for her notable turn in transgender picture The Danish Girl. Word has it that Jennifer Jason Leigh’s appearance in the new Tarantino western The Hateful Eight may also put her in contention for this prize; and, in keeping with tradition, Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs) will probably be hanging around here too.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR I’m delighted to announce that one of the frontrunners in this category is British theatrical institution Mark Rylance. After years devoted to the stage, Rylance has finally begun flirting with TV and film, and his performance in Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies represents the best chance of gold for the warmly received Cold War thriller. If he does

OSCAR RECORDS

It’s a bit like the general election, only the candidates are much better looking.

win, expect a suitably eccentric acceptance speech. The strongest challengers in this category are likely to emerge from the ensemble journalism drama Spotlight, where Mark Ruffalo and Michael Keaton, both also nominees at last year’s awards, will hope to go one better this time around.

Most awards won by a single film 11 Ben-Hur (1959) Titanic (1997) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Most awards won by a female Edith Head (costume design)

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BEST ACTRESS

Directing John Ford

4

Acting Katharine Hepburn (best actress)

4

The familiar, and always welcome, figure of Cate Blanchett (Carol) is likely to take her usual place at the best actress nominees table, where she will be joined by the equally familiar presence of Jennifer Lawrence. The latter’s performance in the David O Russell comedy-drama Joy is sure to generate the requisite levels of rapture and publicity to see her nominated. But the real buzz at the moment is emanating from the less established source of Brie Larson, whose performance in Room – a drama about

Most awards won by a male Walt Disney

Most nominations for acting Meryl Streep (female) Jack Nicholson (male)

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19 12

Big Five winners* ★★★★★ It Happened One Night (1934) One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) The Silence of the Lambs (1991) * Best picture, director, actor, actress, and screenplay (original or adapted)

A larger than usual number of potential candidates for this award (and consequently for best director) are being released at the last moment, meaning no one saw them at Cannes, Venice or Toronto – and no one therefore knows if they’re going to be any good or not. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant, Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, David O Russell’s Joy and Ron Howard’s In the Heart of the Sea will be expected to feature in this category based on the history of the parties involved, but at the moment only Spotlight looks like a guaranteed starter. There is also the (admittedly remote) possibility that Star Wars: The Force Awakens isn’t a colossal, Death Star-sized disappointment. If so, it enters the fray at the last second.

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o there you go. You have been duly warned and prepared. It will be interesting to see how the state of play changes over the coming weeks when all the reviews, accolades and bribes have been properly collated. I just wish I’d got round to finishing my screenplay about the raw-meat-eating, transgender, computer entrepreneur, single-mother journalist who gets trapped in a small room for years with a lesbian spy – it looks as if it might have been quite popular this year. n Joe Hodgson is a writer who blogs at

www.fitzdares.com and tweets @fitzdares

N ยบ 3 C L I F FO R D S T R E E T , LO N D O N , W 1 S 2 L F D R A K E S . CO M

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THE MERLOT MIST, WARWICK HASSLE AND A TURKISH SPAR Peter Thomas says luck is all a matter of perspective – even if your horse forgets to breathe

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hey say there are certain phrases you’ll never hear in certain circumstances, no matter how long you listen. At the Chelsea after a particularly humiliating defeat, there is scant chance of Jose Mourinho saying: “I fear that tactical ineptitude on my part, in no way exacerbated by the actions of the referee, have led us to this sorry state of affairs, my fine journalistic friend.” In a courtroom in the back of beyond, nobody has ever been known to utter the immortal words: “Actually, your honour, no matter what I said in my statement to the police, I’d have to confess the sheep didn’t back into me.” But surer, far surer, than these is the knowledge that if you stand outside a betting shop at close of play, you’ll never catch a departing punter saying to his pal: “Today, Colin, through a combination of my own poor judgement, lack of self-discipline and six pints of lager, I lost rather more money than I could afford to.” No. Everybody who leaves a bookie’s has been denied a satisfactory return by the actions of a crooked trainer, an incompetent jockey (universally known in the betting shop argot as “that useless ****”) or the great God almighty (who isn’t all he’s cracked up to be); or, by some miracle of creative accountancy, has “broken even” and is only going to walk home because he feels like the exercise, not because he can’t afford the bus fare. These are the unwritten rules of punting in public. As the last forlorn and crumpled betting slip hits the rim of the over-filled waste paper bin and lands in that sticky patch on the carpet, blame must begin to be apportioned and the absence of luck be ratified by all those still present. I’d have to say, I’ve never considered myself an unlucky punter. I’ve had my bad days, but in the final analysis I suspect that without all the good luck that we normally choose to pass off as

‘Actually, your honour, no matter what I said in my statement to the police, I’d have to confess the sheep didn’t back into me.’

razor-sharp judgement, I’d now be living in a soggy cardboard box under Waterloo Bridge and drinking paintbrush cleaner with Colin and his friend. Mostly I’ve broken even, which loosely speaking means I’ve never had to attend a bankruptcy hearing, rummage through the bins round the back of Waitrose or kill a man with my bare hands for the price of an Egg McMuffin. Lucklessness isn’t such a bad thing. A little good fortune here and there doesn’t go amiss, but too much and you’ll never experience the bracing pleasure of unendingly negotiating life’s slippery slope, like Sisyphus playing his joker in a mythical renewal of It’s a Knockout. Bad luck? There was that time when I thought I was unlucky to have placed a losing £400 bet at Ascot on a horse whose name I couldn’t recall the following morning. In fact I couldn’t even recall the bet the following morning – frankly the name of the racecourse was a bit sketchy, too – and I was only reminded of it when the credit statement arrived a couple of weeks later. With the twin benefits of hindsight and experience, I suppose the most I could claim is that I was unlucky to have attended a racecourse on the same day that it hosted a beer festival, and to have been overtaken by ale and backed so many losers that I’d plainly felt the drunken need to blast my way out of trouble with a tottering coup de grâce on a 9-4 shot in a 20-runner handicap. Whether that genuinely constitutes bad luck is a question of definition, given that there are always days when booze-addled fortune smiles upon us, even if we can’t remember it or choose to forget it as part of the process of claiming credit. One of those times came in 2011, when, attempting to get into the west coast mood for an evening of Breeders’ Cup action from Santa Anita, I was well into the second bottle of Californian merlot before realising the meeting was in fact

being held in Kentucky. Perhaps this was a merciful oversight, as it had kept me off the bourbon, but the end result was remarkably similar. When the time came to act on a suspicion that Drosselmeyer would outrun his colossal odds in the Classic, I was struggling with basic reflexes, well advised to steer clear of heavy machinery and 66/1 to retain a grip on internet betting. But in I plunged, regardless. The process seemed to go well, until it came to the tricky bit of clearing my bet slip and having a few bob each way on another long shot that had just announced itself through the haze surrounding the form page of the Racing Post. Click as I might, Drosselmeyer just wouldn’t go away. The machine defied me, mocked me, and by the time coincidence had come to my aid – working on the dubious principle that a million monkeys hammering away at a million keyboards will eventually hit the right button – it was anybody’s guess what punting madness had transpired. The other long shot ran as a long shot should, but its principal worth proved to lie elsewhere. As the euphoria surrounding Drosselmeyer’s unlikely victory began to subside, my feverish search for the website’s “settled bets” section and the account balance revealed an unlikely truth.

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runkenness and incompetence had caused me to fumble with more buttons than a man whose new girlfriend wears a cardigan over her blouse. They were the wrong buttons in a sense, but the right ones if you wanted to place the same bet again and again – and possibly once more again for good luck. So I profited enormously from over-indulgence and hopelessly impaired hand-eye co-ordination in a fashion that, even 12 hours later and with the benefit of clarity, I couldn’t claim as a triumph.

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It’s all swings and roundabouts, though. I couldn’t begrudge myself Drosselmeyer after the debacle of The Magic Blanket a couple of years earlier. I’d backed this seemingly progressive beast twice and collected handsomely and, buoyed by reports that he had always wiped the floor with 85-rated sprinters at home and was still able to run off a handsome mark of 66, I headed for Warwick with joy in my heart and £1,200 worth of online betting receipts in my coat pocket, along with a small wad of cash with which to inflict suffering on the on-course layers. I should have been forewarned by his patchy form figures, I guess, but he was on a roll, as was I, so 12th of 17 was rather less of an effort than expected. About £1,200 less, to be more precise. The drive home suddenly looked rather longer than it had 62 seconds earlier, but like all good punters seeking validation of their selection process, I was sure there had to be a perfectly sane explanation for this damaging reverse. And there was. Micky Fenton hopped off him and reported to the trainer that the gelding had broken smartly and travelled promisingly in a forward position. Sadly, his finishing effort was compromised by the fact that he “forgot to breathe”. Now, I don’t ask a lot of racehorse trainers, but I do at least expect them to be able to teach a horse to breathe. After all, it’s a fairly natural component of the act of staying alive, without which the sport of horseracing would quickly disappear – levy negotiations notwithstanding. Surely it isn’t too much to ask of any creature to master the art of drawing breath and give its red blood cells something to do? But apparently it was, and for once I counted myself unlucky, even while deducting the profits of his two earlier wins from my losses on the day and realising that sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between when the gods have smiled on you and

If there’s one thing a man dislikes more than another man trying to gain carnal knowledge of his wife, it’s the same man providing a duff tip in a major football tournament.

when they’ve sent the deceptively fluffy dog of disillusionment to urinate on the trouser leg of your happiness. By way of example, I can never resist harking back to my first meeting with the woman who would become my better half. It was at Southwark Crown Court, where we sat on the same jury panel and thus spent much time mooching around waiting to pass judgement on the unfortunate and the guilty. So much time, in fact, that I finally got round to chatting with the beguiling one about football, the impending 2002 World Cup and my betting strategy therein, which largely revolved around the hidden charms of Turkey, whom I saw as the dark horses of the tournament. I pointed out to her that if they were to do well, then Hakan Sukur, their prolific striker and national treasure, would be sure to bag a hatful of goals, which made him a steal at 100/1 to be leading scorer.

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he logic was irrefutable and she seemed impressed, even more so when Turkey qualified from their group and progressed seamlessly to the semifinals, scoring seven goals in the process. Less luckily, they were almost wholly unaided by Sukur, who remained resolutely unfamiliar with the onion bag until, to rub belated and ironic salt into the wound, he scored the fastest ever goal in World Cup history after just 11 seconds of the thirdplace play-off game against the hosts, South Korea. Understandably, none of this will sound in any way unlucky to you, perhaps until I tell you that the object of my desire had decided it would be a good idea to advise her husband of this once-in-alifetime money-making opportunity and he’d had a hundred quid on Sukur and had presumably been expecting rather more of a run for his money from the man hitherto known as ‘the Bull of the Bosphorus’, now revealed as ‘the Sloth of Seoul’.

I’ve found that if there’s one thing a man dislikes more than another man trying to gain carnal knowledge of his wife, it’s the same man providing a duff tip in a major football tournament. I recall our subsequent phone conversations containing mentions of shotguns and kneecaps, or some such, and not much philosophical debate on the nature of punting misfortune and the fickleness of serendipity. Then again, he only lost a hundred quid and I gained a rather expensive wife, so who’s to say who was lucky in the long run? n Peter Thomas is a journalist who writes for the

Racing Post

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World records are rare, but a select few athletes may just raise the bar at next year’s Olympics. Denise Lewis OBE, heptathlon champion at Sydney in 2000, predicts who will be faster, higher and stronger, while below she selects young British hopes to look out for in Rio...

TRIPLE JUMP

HAMMER

Christian Taylor USA

Anita Wlodarczyk POL

CURRENT RECORD

CURRENT RECORD

18.29m Jonathan Edwards (GBR, 1995)

81.08m Anita Wlodarczyk (POL, 2015)

RECORD t every olympics we speculate about the threshold for human physical achievement. Is it possible that one day world records will stand for ever? While there are some records which currently look unbreakable – Michael Johnson’s 400m and Jarmila Kratochvilova’s 800m, for example – I am sceptical of a time when records cannot be broken. Technological and training innovations will always help us run faster times and jump greater distances.

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In 2008 in Beijing, we saw 35 world records fall in various sports, followed by 32 at London 2012, so you can bet that records will be broken in Rio de Janeiro next year. Perhaps the rate of improvement in our athletic achievement has slowed down a bit, but athletes are still getting better. We certainly don’t have to worry about a state of limbo quite yet. Four outstanding track and field records are ready to be broken in Rio, three of them more than 20 years old. Two athletes have a

chance of toppling Jonathan Edwards’ longstanding men’s triple jump record: the USA’s Christian Taylor and Cuba’s Pedro Pablo Pichardo. At an IAAF Diamond League meeting in Doha in May, Taylor and Pichardo jumped 18.04m and 18.06m respectively – the first time two men have gone beyond 18m in the same competition. Then, at the World Championships in Beijing, Taylor took the title with 18.21m, just 8cm shy of the record. My feeling is that these two can

DINA ASHER-SMITH 100M, 200M, 4x100M RELAY

JACK LAUGHER 3M SPRINGBOARD DIVING

SANDY RYAN LIGHTWEIGHT BOXING

KAT COPELAND & CHARLOTTE TAYLOR DOUBLE SCULLS ROWING

Asher-Smith became the fastest teenager ever over 200m in Beijing in August. She clocked a time of 22.07sec, also breaking the British record, which had stood for 31 years. On the day her time was only good enough for fifth place in a final won by Dutchwoman Dafne Schippers in 21.63, the fourth fastest in history. Asher-Smith will have to raise her game to win a medal in Rio, but at 20 she is definitely one to watch.

Tom Daley may be the most recognisable diver in Team GB, but Laugher looks the more likely to star in Rio next summer. The threetime world junior champion is finally imposing himself on the senior circuit and has three World Series victories to his name this year in the 3m springboard, making himself the top-ranked diver in that discipline.

Nicola Adams lit up London 2012 and Derbyshire boxer Ryan will be hoping to emulate her feat in Rio. In the final of the World Championships and the semi-final of the European Games the 21-year-old from Derby has twice been edged out by world No 1 Anastasia Beliakova, who was just two strong for her. Another eight months’ conditioning will only be to Ryan’s benefit and we should expect great things.

Team GB has had great success on the water in recent Olympics, which looks set to continue. At the Varese World Cup in June, Copeland and Taylor set a new world record in the women’s double sculls semi-final. In the final they defeated the world champions New Zealand in a brilliant finish, putting them in a fantastic position ahead of Rio.

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HIGH JUMP

100m HURDLES

Mutaz E Barshim QAT

Brianna Rollins USA

CURRENT RECORD

CURRENT RECORD

2.45m Javier Sotomayor (CUB, 1993)

12.21sec Yordanka Donkova (BUL, 1988)

BREAKERS push each other on to break the record. The only question is who will go furthest? The women’s hammer record will always be in danger when Anita Wlodarczyk steps into the throwing area. The Pole is in a different league – in August she became the first woman to throw beyond 80m, with a stunning 81.08m. The next best thrower that day was almost eight metres behind her. At the World Championships she threw over 80m again, more than four metres

clear of the field. Wlodarczyk may not have a great rivalry to spur her on, but I think the sport’s biggest stage will inspire her to deliver an unprecedented distance. Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim and Ukraine’s Bohdan Bondarenko have delighted fans recently with an intense rivalry in the men’s high jump, and Javier Sotomayor’s 2.45m record is increasingly under threat. Both have jumped over 2.40m and they even attacked the world record at the same meeting in New York in 2014.

Bad weather at the Beijing World Championships in August meant the bar did not get above 2.34m. However, alongside Bondarenko and Barshim, Derek Drouin of Canada and China’s Zhang Guowei jumped well, with Drouin taking the title. So there is plenty of strength in depth in this event and I predict someone will perform well enough in Rio to have a tilt at the record. The USA has the three fastest women’s 100m hurdlers in the world: Brianna Rollins, Sharika Nelvis and Jasmin Stowers.

All three are at peak hurdling age so I am hopeful they can spur each other on to a world record in Rio. Rollins has come closest, running 12.26 in 2013, and she showed some signs of a return to that form in 2015. Nelvis and Stowers came close this year, running 12.34 and 12.35 respectively. At London 2012, Australia’s Sally Pearson raised her game and ran an Olympic record of 12.35 in adverse weather conditions. I believe one of the US trio will break the record in Rio. n

GILES SCOTT FINN SAILING

AMBER HILL SKEET SHOOTING

ADAM PEATY 100M BREASTSTROKE

Scott looks set to pick up Sir Ben Ainslie’s Olympic baton in the single-handed Finn class. Having narrowly missed out on selection for London 2012, he has won back-to-back sailing World Cups and was totally exceptional over the summer, ruling the waves in the all 12 regattas in which he competed.

Hill was named the BBC’s Young Sports Personality of the Year in 2013 after she became the youngest winner of a senior World Cup in skeet shooting aged 15. Last summer she claimed Britain’s first ever skeet gold at the European Games, and in October she went one step further and became the 2015 skeet world champion, winning the World Cup final. She is undoubtedly one of Team GB’s brightest hopes for a medal.

Peaty’s CV makes impressive reading, and he’s still just 20 years old. He has gold medals from the Commonwealth Games, European Championships and World Championships, so an Olympic gold would complete the set. He is also holder of the 100m and 50m breaststroke world records, so he will be favourite when he lines up in the 100m in Rio (there is no 50m breaststroke at the Olympics).

OLYMPIC GAMING GAMING TEAM GB MEDALS Under 55.5 10/11

Over 55.5 10/11

ATHLETICS WORLD RECORDS Under 1.5 5/6

Over 1.5 Evens

ACCUMULATOR Men’s triple jump, women’s hammer, men’s high jump, women’s 100m hurdles all to be broken 100/1. Any 3 16/1

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TWO OF A KIND Private bankers’ skills are as diverse as those of the amateur sportsmen of old, Dominic Elliott discovers rench-argentines, of whom Sebastian Botana is one, are a rare breed. They make up less than a fifth of Argentina’s population, and only a handful are household names. Footballers David Trezeguet and Gonzalo Higuain are two of the most instantly familiar, while Eva Peron, the Argentine first lady immortalised in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Evita, claimed Gallic ancestry via her paternal grandparents. However, being plugged into the languages and cultures of two very different countries can be an advantage – especially if, like Botana, you manage the wealth of a clientele that is increasingly international in both lifestyle and outlook. Botana works for Lombard Odier, one of Switzerland’s largest private banks with the equivalent of more than £100 billion in assets under management. For years, private bankers seemed to live a life of international mystery, brokering big deals for the rich and famous, with Switzerland at the centre, trading off its reputation as a safe haven where inconvenient questions were seldom asked. The clandestine nature of the industry was shaken in the global financial crisis, however, when a UBS whistleblower exposed his bank’s role in helping US citizens evade tax. But the industry has adapted and evolved. Lombard Odier, which was founded way back in 1796, booked a healthy profit in the first half of 2015 and recorded net inflows from clients. Over a pie and pint in a London pub that is expressly neither French nor Argentine, I ask Botana what it is that private bankers do. Their role, he explains, is to be a trusted consigliere and financial diplomat for their clients, who in Botana’s

F

case are split 50:50 between professional institutions known as “family offices” and individuals. The skills needed are diverse, so much so that each private banker is effectively a jack-of-all-trades – much like the amateur English sportsmen of old, who were able to switch seamlessly between rugby, cricket and football. In a world in which specialisation is relentlessly on the rise, it feels reassuring that at least one profession still values all-rounders. And reassurance is what Botana’s clients crave. “Many of the people I work for have a deep understanding of one area,” Botana says. “If they’ve made their money trading in financial markets, for instance, they will often know instinctively which investments to pick. But they may know little about how to structure their affairs, and inefficiency there could easily erase all their investment gains. A private banker can and should be the first line of defence. Our job is to take the whole picture. And clients who trust us implicitly across all walks of life stand to benefit.” Most of us feel much the same way about wealth: we want more of it, and we want the ability, at least, to pass it on to our next of kin. Botana thinks that where family money is concerned it helps to have a third party involved in the process, to keep decision-making appropriately

SEB’S TIPS FOR 2016 Germany to win Euro 2016

7/2

Serena Williams to win all

four grand slam events in 2016

ACCUMULATOR

25/1 300/1

Djokovic to win the Australian Open Nadal to win the French Open Federer to win Wimbledon and US Open

Sebastian Botana knows the price of most things, but some of his great loves are priceless, from Picasso’s Guernica to Fontana’s Concetti spaziali

dispassionate. He also likes the advice of the most successful investor of all time, Warren Buffett, who says we should spend what is left over after saving, rather the reverse. The basic point here is that compound interest is such a powerful force that we should try to be exposed to it as much as possible, rather than conveniently ignoring it to indulge our respective vices. Which brings us to betting. Most private banking clients, Botana says, consider putting down a wager to be a hobby that is separate from their investments, and it almost never becomes an issue in terms of wealth preservation. (One imagines that there are no current or former Premier League footballers on Botana’s books, though he is, of course, too discreet to confirm either way.) But that’s not to say

that Botana never asks hard questions: “It always helps to have as full a picture as possible, though I respect that some people like to keep their personal interests private.” Just as Botana doesn’t give stock-picking advice (he outsources it to fund management experts), he tends to steer clear of betting tips. But he likes accumulators and has occasional flutters on tennis and football. He reckons Germany will triumph at Euro 2016 and backs Serena Williams to complete a calendar year grand slam after narrowly missing out in 2015. And he thinks Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer will be winners at Melbourne, Roland Garros and Wimbledon, respectively – with a resurgent Federer adding the US Open title for good measure. Investing in sports memorabilia has often produced a better return than traditional financial assets over the past decade. What does Botana think of these socalled collectible investments, which include things like wine, stamps and coins? He loves fine art, and believes that tangible goods give you an additional emotional satisfaction that defies enumeration. The key here, Botana thinks, is to follow your heart. If money were no object, he’d snap up the tapestry copy of Picasso’s Guernica and the Concetti spaziali paintings by ItalianArgentine painter Lucio Fontana. For now though, money is not simply on Botana’s mind — it’s his business. And that is something for which the clients of this French-Argentine financial diplomat can be grateful. n Dominic Elliott is a columnist for

Breakingviews, the commentary and opinion brand of Reuters, where he writes about finance and technology companies.

IMAGINE A BANK Imagine a bank where your interests really do come first. Imagine a bank combining global reach with local expertise. Imagine a bank that’s been looking forward for seven generations. Imagine a bank that manages and protects your family’s wealth. Welcome to Lombard Odier.

All investments carry some degree of risk and investors may not get back all they have invested.

Private Bank since 1796 Geneva · Amsterdam · Bermuda · Brussels · Dubai · Frankfurt · Fribourg · Gibraltar · Hong Kong · Lausanne · London Lugano · Luxembourg · Madrid · Milan · Montreal · Moscow · Nassau · Panama · Paris · Singapore · Tokyo · Vevey · Zurich Approved for issue in the United Kingdom by Lombard Odier (Europe) S.A. UK Branch ŊÁ-- - Ó Ě Á - ˷ ̯ ļy) øÁ ye \¥ Œ¥ --¥ ˷ į ) ũ̬Œ ̯êø ˷ ŝ e¥-) ĭe \) Ř-y- b - ϝ̰​̰ ̮̫ ̯̮̫̲ ̲̫​̫​̫ ˷ č e ey- ϝ̰​̰ ̮̫ ̯̮̫̲ ̲̮̱̫ Řb- v e Á¥b e -) ) -\Áy ¥-) Ó ¥b- ùŒŒč e įÁÒ- Á \ ) e¥ b e ¥b- ŝĭ Ó ¥b- ň Á)- ¥e y Ŏ-\Áy ¥e êÁ¥b e¥Ó ) ¥b- če e y ù )Á ¥ êÁ¥b e¥Óˎ Ŏ-\e ¥- -) e įÁÒ- Á \ Ķ ˎ ø̵̬̲​̵̫̳

20

YOU LITTLE BEAUTY Elder Scouller recounts his emotional roller-coaster as the owner of Cheltenham Festival winner Bostons Angel

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RSA Chase and, if there was any race he was likely to run in at the festival, it was the four-mile National Hunt Chase. With options limited for Grade 1 winners our hand was forced towards the Dr PJ Moriarty back at Leopardstown. With the best of Ireland’s novices in the field and a drop in trip of three furlongs, Bostons Angel was again underestimated in the betting at 8/1. From flag fall to finishing post, Robbie Power delivered an absolute masterclass. Our initial worries about Bostons Angel being outpaced were soon quelled. Every time he was headed, he made the ground up at the next fence. There was carnage behind him as Quel Esprit fell when the going got hot, in the process nearly taking out his stablemate Mikael D’Haguenet, but we weren’t worrying about that as he came to the last neck-and-neck with Magnanimity. Once again Bostons stuck his head out, in his now trademark fashion, and toughed it out to the line to win by a head. There was no denying it now: next stop Cheltenham, we had an RSA horse on our hands! By a happy coincidence, I followed Bostons Angel’s second Group 1 win with a week on the slopes. To be honest I don’t remember a whole lot of the holiday other than a couple of hefty receipts in my wallet and some savage headaches. Bostons Angel was an overnight celebrity in Les Deux Alpes and everyone was quick to salute him and thank him for the free drinks at almost every establishment across town. My emotional attachment to the horse exponentially increased before he ever made Upon my return to reality, the build-up to the Festival had kicked into top gear. Previews the racecourse, when my dad, his breeder, passed away. A successful point-to-point jockey, up and down the country were seemingly tipping up every horse with an entry at Cheltenham – notching up over 120 winners, Dad was the reason I fell in love with this great game. From the except for the RSA chase, where the world and his wife were on Time For Rupert. On paper he day I could speak we’d either go racing every Saturday afternoon or watch on Channel 4. My certainly ticked all the right boxes; Paul Webber’s charge was early years were spent wearing fake jockey silks, imitating my a perfect 2/2 over fences and his Cheltenham record read 12211, hero Richard Dunwoody while on my rocking horse pretendincluding chasing home none other than Big Buck’s in the ing I was driving Desert Orchid home in the King George! previous year’s World Hurdle. However, there was a glimmer For added interest there were always a couple of free bets of hope as a bad scope had ruled him out of his intended prep thrown into the mix when Mum wasn’t around, so it’s no surrace, meaning he hadn’t run for three months. I travelled to prise I’ve ended up in the career I have. I fondly remember previews, watched them on TV, listened to podcasts and asked coining in the equivalent of 750 penny sweets after Comevery man and his dog on the street, and Bostons was being mander in Chief stormed home in the 1993 Epsom Derby. dismissed once again. “He’ll never cope with the better Sadly, Dad had no luck with ownership, but soon after his ground”, “He doesn’t have the class of some of his rivals”, death the fortunes of his horses took a dramatic upturn. Con“He’s just a mudlark”, and so the quotes continued. sigliere, our other great servant, improved by a total of nearly Despite winning both his Grade 1 races on heavy ground, two stone, winning eight times in his career at the likes of he had actually shown his best form over hurdles on better Ascot and Newbury. Meanwhile, Bostons Angel was beginground and relished it on his first two starts over fences. ning to show some promise, and at Down Royal on St Patrick’s While the RSA Chase has been won by some absolute topDay he signed off his first season in training with a win in the notchers (Bobs Worth, Denman, Florida Pearl, etc), in years bumper. I hoped the old man was having a few quid on him without a superstar it often falls to resolute stayers who can from somewhere high up above! cope with its gruelling demands as a novice. Bostons Angel Despite winning three novice hurdles at Navan, Cork and was never going to be a Denman, but what he had shown in Doncaster, it wasn’t until he saw a fence that Bostons really his races was an amazingly tenacious attitude in a finish, findshowed us what he could do. He started his novice chase seaing plenty for pressure when the others around him were wiltson with a second-place finish in what the Racing Post deing. In fact, I told all my friends that if he turned for home scribed as “a beginners’ chase with serious strength in depth” anywhere near the leaders he’d be hard to beat. and quickly followed it up by hammering a smart horse of Young Elder getting an early start with Dad Jim Dreaper’s by seven lengths back at Down Royal. It was back in that now familiar winner’s enclosure that our hopes and dreams escalated very quickly Luckily for us, the horse didn’t know he was being dismissed as a 16/1 shot. However, when Jessie suggested he was ready for a crack at Group 1 company! both trainer and jockey weren’t in the best of spirits after the previous race. Oscars Well had As it turned out, a trip over to Fairyhouse for the Drinmore Novice Chase was the sole disstumbled badly when jumping after looking set to land the Neptune Novices Hurdle. Despite appointment that season. Excitement levels couldn’t have been any higher as we walked down such a cruel setback, Jessie and Robert dusted themselves off and strolled out in the paddock to the paddock before that race but my hope that Bostons Angel would follow suit vanished as if nothing had happened. By contrast, although I never usually get too flustered, I could from three out as he was outpaced and finished a distant fourth behind Jessies Dream. feel my heart pounding a million beats per minute as Bostons cantered down to the start. The race itself couldn’t have gone any better had we planned it ourselves. Settled in the perfect spot just behind the leaders, Bostons jumped impeccably from fence to fence. The hot However, Jessie still thought he was worthy of another crack at the top. So at Christmas time he headed to Leopardstown for the Fort Leney Novice Chase, over a stamina-sapping favourite Time For Rupert was never at the races and was shoved along from an early stage. three miles on bottomless ground. Not feeling overly confident and lacking free time over the As the race hotted up the Willie Mullins pair of Quel Esprit and Mikael D’Haguenet again busy Christmas period, I ended up watching the race from my old office. As the runners set crashed out. When they turned down the hill for the final time, the shouts from our group in out on the second circuit, Bostons was jumping like a stag and just behind the leaders. As fence the grandstand grew ever louder. Turning for home Bostons was neck-and-neck with the strong after fence went by I thought he might run into the first three, but after the fourth last I started travelling Jessies Dream. Everyone else at the track would have thought he was a sitting duck, to dream of the impossible. As jockey Robbie Power got after the horse he kept on finding for but with two fences to jump as he hit the rising ground he stuck his head out and found more. pressure and, stride by stride, started to wear down the front-running favourite. As Bostons After jumping the last neck-and-neck, Bostons surged a length and half clear. However, winged the last, put his head down and galloped to the line, I was, without even realising, standthe drama didn’t end there as with 100 yards to go he began to tread water. Our hearts were in ing up at my desk shouting and riding out the finish with my pen in hand! Having laid buckets our mouths as commentator Mike Cattermole exclaimed: “Bostons Angel needs the line!” of the favourite, the whole office was cheering so loudly that if the phone had rung, we wouldn’t Thank God the next words he uttered were: “And gets there!” Our shouts and celebrations from have heard it.. I can’t remember much about the following ten minutes. I had to step outside the stands were so enthusiastic that we figured in several papers and made the highlights reel to let it all sink in, then phoned Jessie for a debrief on the race, which was probably the least for Channel 4 for the rest of the week. Unfortunately for my friend Steve, who had pulled a productive assessment of any race in history. All I could muster was “amazing” and “unbelievsickie, this wasn’t lost on his boss! able”, with a couple of expletives chucked in there for good measure. I’ve never experienced as many emotions in such a short period of time. After the nervousDespite now being the proud owner of a Grade 1 winning racehorse, thoughts of success at ness of the race, there was a sense of disbelief after he crossed the line, followed by the unbrithe Festival were still a long way off. In fact, we were still an unconsidered 33/1 shot for the dled elation of leading Bostons into the winner’s enclosure. I’m not ashamed to admit that soon s i walked into the royal box at cheltenham the spine-tingling sense of elation was unlike anything I’d ever experienced (and possibly ever will). Struggling to feel my legs, or speak, my first thought was that if I died there and then I would die the happiest man on the planet. 16 March 2011 is a date I’ll remember for the rest of my life. The day my horse, Bostons Angel, landed the RSA Chase at the Cheltenham Festival by a neck. On that day a huge crowd of family and friends roared him home after all availing themselves of some of the 16/1 on offer – but the whole occasion was about so much more than that. When Bostons Angel was born into the world seven years earlier at Glebe House Stud in Northern Ireland, no one would have thought he would end up anywhere near the winner’s enclosure, let alone the Cheltenham Festival. As a gawky and lanky foal, he certainly wouldn’t have won any beauty prizes and three years down the line he was far from straightforward to break in, preferring to clamber and jump out of his stable than do any hard work! However, as he grew up and strengthened into his frame he began to resemble a racehorse and was sent to Jessica Harrington to see what he could do.

21

CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL ANTEPOST after I was in floods of tears as I thought of how much joy my dad would have got from being there. Other than a couple of point-to-pointers, Bostons Angel was the first proper racehorse he had bred. I know people say that you can never match the joy of getting married or having a child, but I’m pretty sure they’ve never owned a winner at Cheltenham. The rest of the day very quickly turned into a bit of a haze. I was actually meant to be working on the rails but without a word being spoken, both my boss and I knew that wasn’t going to happen. So, after a drink in the Royal Box, friends and family headed to the owners and trainers bar for drink after drink. My car was then abandoned at the racecourse as we headed off to the nearest pub showing Racing UK. I woke up the next morning next to an empty champagne bottle, three hours late for work, with one of the most ferocious hangovers of all time,but still with a smile from ear to ear. Bostons Angel, you little beauty! n Elder Scouller is a broker and key member of the racing team. He joined Fitzdares in 2012

CHAMPION HURDLE TUESDAY 15 MARCH

GOLD CUP FRIDAY 18 MARCH

Faugheen 13/8

QUEEN MOTHER CHAMPION CHASE WEDNESDAY 16 MARCH

Nichols Canyon 6/1

Un De Sceaux 6/4

Don Cossack 6/1

Peace And Co 8/1

Sprinter Sacre 4/1

Coneygree 6/1

Arctic Fire 12/1

Dodging Bullets 13/2

Don Poli 8/1

My Tent Or Yours 20/1

Simonsig 14/1

Djakadam 10/1

The New One 20/1

Vibrato Valtat 16/1

Saphir Du Rheu 14/1

Windsor Park 20/1

Champagne Fever 25/1

Road To Riches 16/1

Sizing Granite 25/1 Special Tiara 33/1

Holywell 25/1

Vautour 4/1

Valseur Lido 25/1

Each way terms: ¼ odds, top 3. Prices subject to fluctuation, others on request.

22

TRAINING IN THE By Bobby George World Champ. finalist 1980 & 94

By Michael van Gerwen World champion 2014

i played football until i was 12. When I was 13 it was winter and we needed something to do inside, so we started a darts round-robin. There were three of us. One of the guys was really bad, but the other two of us had a real rivalry which got me going. Back then my dad organised a youth tournament; I came third and won a little trophy. I was the happiest kid in the world. I wanted 20 more trophies so I practised every day, and soon after that I began to realise I had a special talent. By the time I was 15, I was European youth champion and I won tournaments all over the continent. When I was little my parents could only afford to take us on camping holidays in Holland because there were six of us. But by the time I was 17 I was playing darts in Vegas and New York! I met Daphne when she was only 14, I was nearly 18 – they had a music evening and she was with her parents. I asked if I could watch a movie with her. It helps to have a good woman behind you as well as professional management.

Life has changed since then because darts has got really big. The sport has been associated with booze for decades, but there is a new breed of darts players. The old times of drinking are gone – it’s a professional sport now, it’s not about the pub and drinking. I look after my body seriously and take great care of it. After a match, I often have an hour’s physio to relax my throwing arm and shoulders. We play for very high stakes, so it’s only natural it becomes more professional. We have 150 days of darts each year, so I can be away from home for 250 nights. I like to get up late on tournament days and always have a cappuccino. I arrive at the venue three to four hours before a match to make sure I’m ready. Winning is very important to me. Of course you have to train hard to remain the best in the world. But equally important is the balance between work and home life. I don’t train every day and don’t have a dartboard in my house. n Michael van Gerwen supports Haven House Children’s Hospice, which cares for children and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions. www.havenhouse.org.uk

i didn’t start playing until I was 30 years old. I went sea fishing with some friends in Kinsale, Ireland, and it was so rough we couldn’t get out. So this fella Malcolm Ellis said to me: “Let’s have a game of darts,” and I thought to myself: “That’s a bit of a funny game, that.” I was more the physical sort. And I couldn’t count; it takes a while to learn to count on the dartboard. I had 86, so I said: “What do I want?” He said: “Treble 18, double 16,” and I hit it. He said: “How did you do that?” and I said I didn’t know. Malcolm was a good player in our area and immediately persuaded me to take it up. He said I should have a crack at the Super League in Hainault the following Wednesday. He picked me up and took me to a pub call the Maypole, and a fella with a clipboard asked how long I’d been playing. “Since Friday,” I said. “Well, we want the good players,” he said. “It’s the Super League.” Malcolm told him I was a good player, but he wanted to know if I could chalk a game and I said no. Luckily Malcolm told him he wouldn’t play if he didn’t let me in. Three weeks later I won the individual at the Super League, then a month later I won the Essex Masters and never looked back. What I liked about it was everyone was buying me a drink – they’d say: “You can play well, what you are drinking?” And I thought: “This is nice. Better than digging tunnels on the London Underground or laying granite floors; no one offered me a drink then.” I didn’t like to practise, to be honest with you – it was boring. These modern guys practice four, five, six hours at the board each day, they ain’t got much life. I know what you put in, you get out, but if you’ve got a natural talent, coming to it the way I did, practice wasn’t right, so I used to play matches. I’d go up the pub or up the social club and play someone; they didn’t have to be a good player. When you practise you throw three darts and walk back 7ft 9in and then you throw again. But when you play, you don’t actually do that. You’ve got about 16 seconds in between throwing. If you’re playing someone you’ve got the right timing: wait, throw, wait, throw. So I just used to play people. Some people need to practise properly, but not me. In my day you didn’t have the tournaments you have today. So I played in a lot of money matches, where you played a good player for money. You might have to travel on the plane, and so you had the

pressure of playing for money and your expenses. That was our apprenticeship. Today they’re spoilt, have everything done for them. The promoter really looks after you – all your drinks, food. I quite enjoy it when I go, but it’s a completely different game, a longer game. We played best of five or best of three legs, that’s all – you couldn’t make a mistake. The North American Open was best of three, 301, double in – now that’s a dangerous game. You had to be on your game straight away or you’d be out. Today you can lose a couple of sets and get back into it. I think there were more characters in the Seventies and early Eighties. Drinking might have had a part to play in that. I always say you can drink and play darts at the same time, but you can’t drink and then play darts. If you sit down and get a few beers down you, and then you try and throw a dart you won’t be very good. But if you’re playing and you’re drinking then your body doesn’t feel the power of the drink so much. I have seen a guy drink too much not long ago – a big guy, and he drank too much before he played. He was a big guy, he could drink, but he started too early, and when he got on stage that night and the heat hit him, he went to pieces. But that was just him. For me, beer and darts go together – you can’t take that away, y’know? n Bobby George supports the Woodbridge Gateway Club (part of MENCAP), a social club for people with learning disabilities. www.mencap.org.uk

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24

FITZDARES OBJET D’ART

The creator

The craftsman

The tools

A classic: the Fitzdares racecard holder, designed by Bill Amberg and hand-crafted in bridle leather

25 continued from page 4

→ rather to affect the performance of the sufferer” and give the example of “a rider intentionally interferes with another horse…but not with the intention of improving his own position”. This is difficult to fathom. Thirdly, the BHA panel in the Simple Verse appeal said: “Interference which can be seen as deliberate (such as Atzeni’s manoeuvre just after the two-furlong marker) is not treated by the rules any differently from interference that is a result of an accident or of a jockey’s inattention or misjudgement. Even deliberate manoeuvres are treated as falling within the definition of careless riding given by Rule B54.1 as they amount to a failure ‘to take reasonable steps to avoid causing interference’.” It might be thought inapt at best, if not bizarre, that intentionally causing interference to an opponent in order to enhance one’s chances of winning should be treated as failing to take reasonable steps to avoid the very thing one intends to achieve under a category designed to deal with inattention and misjudgement. The BHA panel went on to note: “There is plainly room for argument about whether a deliberate maneouvre falling short of dangerous riding should be analysed in the same way as misjudgements or accidents, but the panel must apply the rules as they stand.” It is reasonable to argue that such intentional interference should be in a separate category, and that the consequences should be more severe. Some have argued that it would be sufficient to increase the penalties for the rider without penalising the horse and his connections. However, while it is right that the horse and connections should not suffer for the rider’s error, can the same be said for a rider’s deliberate rule-breaking by interfering with an opponent in order to enhance his own chance of winning? Is it appropriate, and does it reflect well on the sport, for such deliberate rule-breaking to be no bar to victory so long as the stewards are persuaded that the rider probably didn’t need to break the rules because he would have won anyway – or, more accurately, that they can’t be satisfied he wouldn’t have won? Just as under the “Prescott System”, ought not a deliberate breach of the rules in order to enhance the chance of winning deny one victory? Is the answer not all the more obvious when the deliberate rule-breaking engages issues of the safety of horse and rider? With the rules as they stand, and with the benefit of the doubt in favour of the interferer, is it not obvious that a holiday for careless riding is insufficient to deter a rider in a prestigious race with a major prize from causing deliberate interference in pursuit of victory?

T

HESE MIGHT BE CONSIDERED LEGITIMATE QUESTIONS. There is a strong ar-

gument that in the interests of both safety and fair play, deliberate rule-breaking by intentionally causing interference should result in disqualification, irrespective of the outcome or what the outcome would otherwise have been. Many will say that such an approach is hopelessly draconian. When, some time in perhaps the not too distant future, one of racing’s larger audiences is watching one of our most prestigious races and such deliberate interference causes a horse and rider to go down, perhaps with serious consequences, will they say the same? In the event that automatic disqualification is nevertheless considered too extreme, surely deliberate interference cannot continue to be dealt with in the same way as careless interference when determining the result. In the Simple Verse case, the panel noted that “given the closeness of the race, the panel recognised the possibility that Bondi Beach could have won. But given the standard of proof, which required the panel to conclude that Bondi Beach probably would have won, that possibility is not enough.” In effect, the burden was on the victim to demonstrate that he probably would have won. Surely in the case of deliberate interference, this is unjust. At the very least, the burden must be placed on the deliberate offender to demonstrate that the outcome was not affected. As a result of the Simple Verse hearing, there is another reason why a deliberate breach might be considered worth it in pursuit of a major prize. Simple Verse found herself in a position whereby her rider had only three options: to sit and suffer and hope for a gap, to take a pull and come around to the stand side behind Bondi Beach, or to move Bondi Beach aside. In the event her rider admittedly took the third option, thereby getting daylight. The panel was invited to take into account the fact that, had Simple Verse remained within the rules and, rather than sitting and suffering, had chosen to come back around Bondi Beach, then that legitimate manoeuvre would have cost Simple Verse at least a length, which would obviously be significant when the distance at the line was only a head. This might be thought an obviously important factor when considering whether Bondi Beach would have won but for the interference and whether Simple Verse had improved her placing as a result of it. The panel, however, found that this approach “was asking the panel to apply a criterion which the rules do not require – ie what could have happened to Simple Verse if she had been ridden in accordance with the rules. The correct test stipulated by the rules is to look solely at the effect on Bondi Beach of the interference in question.” In other words, the panel was saying that in determining who would have won but for the interference, one does not take into account how the offender has profited from the offence, only the extent to which the victim suffered from

Surely deliberate interference cannot continue to be dealt with in the same way as careless interference when determining the result

the offence. The temptation for a rider in a major race to have a go must be overwhelming. It may well be that confusion has arisen between the rules and an equivalent entry in the guidelines. Rule 54.7 states: “In deciding whether the stewards are satisfied that the interference improved the placing of the horse, the stewards shall make no allowance for any ground the incident may have cost the horse causing the interference.” (My italics.) This is obviously right. A horse that carries another horse across the track cannot get credit for the extra distance he has travelled in causing the interference. In the guidelines two of the guiding principles are: “(f) the panel must make allowance for the momentum and ground lost by the sufferer by imagining that it had an uninterrupted run to the line. (g) the panel must NOT make allowance for any effect on the horse causing the interference.” This is surely no more than a reference to Rule 54.7 depriving the interferer of any allowance for ground lost in causing the interference. It cannot mean that the stewards ignore the extent to which the interferer has profited by gaining a clear run. The BHA may wish to revisit this interpretation. The interference rules will never be simple and are always likely to be contentious. However, at least in respect of deliberate interference there is a legitimate argument for greater simplicity and deterrence. n John Kelsey-Fry is one of the UK’s leading criminal QCs, specialising in corruption

and fraud. He also has great experience of sporting and regulatory tribunals

THE FITZDARES TIMES CROSSWORD PUZZLE C O R R E C T S O L U T I O N S W I N A M YS T E RY P R I Z E Take a photo of your completed crossword and email it to Harry@fitzdares.com by 1 January 2016

ACROSS

DOWN

1. 6. 8. 9. 11. 12. 14. 16. 18.

1. Famous steeplechase at Aintree (5,8) 2. Two letters of master of ceremonies written out in full (5) 3. Small and usually shabby cafe or bar (9) 4. Underground fighter (9) 5. ____ Hendry, snooker player (7) 6. Number of runs scored (5) 7. Long snowshoe (3) 10. Tour de France has finished on this avenue every year since 1975 (6-7) 13. Put tennis ball into play (5) 15. Group of geese in flight (5) 16. Act in a restrained way (9) 17. Annual championship game of US National Football League (5,4) 20. Very heavy steel-grey metallic element (7) 23. George ____, pen-name of Mary Ann Evans (5) 25. Slow movement of a czardas, a Hungarian dance (5) 27. Self-esteem (3)

19. 21. 22. 24. 26. 28. 29. 30.

Winner of 2000 Guineas in 2015 (10) Fling up at the start of a game (4) Royal racecourse (5) Circle not having the same centre as another (9) Impractical person (7) The Blues, London football team (7) The Gunners, London football team (7) Remove narrow strip of leather (7) ____ Hutton, 1916-1990, Yorkshire and England cricketer (3) Sluggish inactivity (7) Use up resources or materials (7) Another name for a skittle (7) In a rustic manner (7) Of the third book of the Old Testament (9) ____ Ardiles, midfielder in Argentinian World Cup winning team in 1978 (5) Joe ____, Yorkshire and England batsman (4) Winner of 2015 1 down (4,6)

26 4. My Sixty Years in the Ring: A Racing and Gambling Autobiography 1994 Geoffrey Hamlyn

A charming, courteous man who was the Sporting Life starting price correspondent for more than 40 years, Hamlyn knew all the great bookie punters from the 1930s to his death in 1999. He was a fund of stories and information and his short memoir is packed with thumbnail sketches of the likes of William Hill, Max Parker, Dorothy Paget, Percy Thompson and the gambles that made or lost their fortunes. 3. No Regard for Money 1988 Charles Benson

Benson, who died in 2002, was an incorrigible punter, boulevardier and bon viveur. He was also one of the funniest men I have ever met. A freeloader of Olympian proportions, he combined the role of the Scout on the Daily Express with more pressing duties as Robert Sangster’s best friend and court jester. The 1970s and 80s were the heyday of “Sangster’s Gangsters” and No Regard for Money chronicles those times irresistibly, along with a priceless account of Benson’s ill-fated foray into illicit bookmaking at Eton.

Jamie Reid’s top gambling books

2. Peter O’Sullevan’s Horse Racing Heroes 2004 Peter O’Sullevan

The Voice of Racing was not just a consummate broadcaster; he was also a razor-sharp punter who knew how to live and bet in style. Some of the best chapters here are about his great trainer friends Alec Head, Etienne Pollet and Vincent O’Brien – gamblers all – and some of Peter’s successful antepost vouchers, as they were called back then, on their horses are reproduced. No one else but O’Sullevan could describe a betting coup and add, nonchalantly, that “Aly Khan had asked me to back them both for him ante-post…” 1. Talking Horses 1987 Jeffrey Bernard

10. Casino Royale 1953 Ian Fleming

In Casino Royale, the first and best of the James Bond books, Fleming lives out fantasies of being a high-stakes gambler as 007 plays baccarat for Queen and country. The depiction of the casino conjures up a golden age of tactile glamour, but the opening lines are brutal: “The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning. Then the soul erosion produced by high gambling – a compost of greed and fear and nervous tension – becomes unbearable and the senses awake and revolt from it.” 9. The Education of a Poker Player 1957 Herbert O Yardley

A card-playing friend first introduced me to this small gem of a book when I was an undergraduate at Oxford 40 years ago. The author was a code-breaker for the American Secret Service during and after World War I and his autobiography is partly a poker playing and training manual and partly a record of the big hands and bigger fish he encountered in his colourful travels around the Far East and the transcontinental railroads of the USA. 8. The Honest Rainmaker 1953 A J Liebling

The corpulent, bespectacled Liebling was a comic writer of genius whose columns on racing, boxing and the way of the world graced the New Yorker from the 1930s to his death in 1963. One of his most memorable associates was a con-man called James MacDonald, alias Colonel Stingo, who masqueraded as a southern gentleman. Permanently short of funds, the “Colonel” devised a rain-making machine he Do you agree? Tweet @fitzdares or contact us on Facebook

if you think we have overlooked any gems. Jamie Reid is an award-winning author, lifelong punter and contributor to the FT’s How to Spend It.

claimed could fix the going at Belmont Park. When a socialite and a gangster simultaneously requested contrasting conditions, Stingo was in trouble. 7. The Hustler 1959 Walter Tevis

A brilliant, visceral novel before it was a film, The Hustler is forever associated with Paul Newman’s performance as the pool player Fast Eddie Felson and Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats. But equally memorable was the sinister professional gambler Bert (played with icy disdain in the movie by George C Scott), who stakes Fast Eddie and plots his route to the top. Along the way they go racing at the Kentucky Derby and Eddie likes the way the betting money feels fresh and clean “like a crap game in the open air”. 6. John Macnab 1925 John Buchan

Buchan’s novel is a matchless dramatisation of a wager. Three well-to-do men about town, suffering from ennui brought on by too much comfort and good living, are advised to place themselves in jeopardy to recover life’s vital spark. So they enter into a conspiracy to poach a stag and a salmon from three Scottish Highland sporting estates without being caught. Disguises and diversions are called for, as in all the best coups, and the result is a ripping yarn. 5. My Old Man 1923 Ernest Hemingway

A short story, this is the young Hemingway at his hardboiled, economical best as he depicts a flawed gambling jockey who cannot escape the sins of his past. So much is left unsaid and only glimpsed beneath the surface. The narrator’s father – the “old man” of the title – will put you in mind of a contemporary fallen weighing room hero. “He had it coming with all the stuff he’s pulled,” mutters a punter. A masterpiece.

Dostoevsky, author of The Gambler, may have been the man in the 19th century, but in my lifetime nobody has embraced the betting, racing and drinking lifestyle so wholeheartedly or described it better than Jeffrey Bernard. Basted in alcohol and toasted in tobacco, he heroically dedicated himself to going down, as he puts it, with ‘most flags flying’. Talking Horses is brimming with hilarious anecdotes and mordant insights, including details of the ludicrous 1986 court case when “Jeff” was charged with illegal bookmaking and evading VAT. You’ll find nothing earnest or bland here. n

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9/11/2015 @ Bellamy’s, 18 Bruton Place, W1

Channel 4’s Nick Luck presided over the event, in which Lewis Deyong beat heavyweights Ben Goldsmith and Wilfred Frost along the way to the title. The championship game, against Fitzdares CEO Guy Rogers, was cut to first to nine points after Lewis complained: “Eleven points? C’mon, I’m 82!” The real reason he wanted a shortened final soon became clear: “There’s football on at 1.30am.”