davejb
Dam
I went to as many meetings at Blackpool as I could afford to - I didn't earn much at the time - and watched each race with a pen in hand, noting the order of the runners at each bend (4 bends in a normal 460 yd race) plus, where I could, little shorthand like squiggles to show where one or more got bumped and the like. This was something I read from one of the books, I think, a sort of basic form reading to allow running notes that were limited but better than nothing. I'd also note things like EP, railer, wide, slow away and so on - you'd not expect it but sometimes they'd program a railer into trap 5 (5 dog races) or a wide runner into trap 1.
In fact one of their so called open races (these often had the same dogs as any other night, but running under assumed names) was won by a dog called Cathy's Clown who was a wide runner but started in trap 1.... I accidentally backed the dog due to my step brother telling me it was a different, much better dog. (I trusted him far too often). Cathy's Clown came out, ran across the other four, the whole lot collapsed in a heap, and romped home in splendid isolation.
It wasn't really a sensible betting medium, NGRC dogs from preston would appear under different names, the occasional trainer at Blackpool was a bookie at Preston, if a dog was leading easily on the back straight you'd hear the whine from the wire pulling the lure drop in pitch - I swear some nights the leader almost had to double back to chase it - all sorts seemed to be going on.
I did make a few bob on Saturday mornings broadcasts from Hackney as I remember, although I don't remember doing a card file for the dogs there so goodness knows how I worked out the ratings. It's all nearly 50 years ago, funny how you remember that far back reasonably well but can't remember lunch yesterday....
Dave
In fact one of their so called open races (these often had the same dogs as any other night, but running under assumed names) was won by a dog called Cathy's Clown who was a wide runner but started in trap 1.... I accidentally backed the dog due to my step brother telling me it was a different, much better dog. (I trusted him far too often). Cathy's Clown came out, ran across the other four, the whole lot collapsed in a heap, and romped home in splendid isolation.
It wasn't really a sensible betting medium, NGRC dogs from preston would appear under different names, the occasional trainer at Blackpool was a bookie at Preston, if a dog was leading easily on the back straight you'd hear the whine from the wire pulling the lure drop in pitch - I swear some nights the leader almost had to double back to chase it - all sorts seemed to be going on.
I did make a few bob on Saturday mornings broadcasts from Hackney as I remember, although I don't remember doing a card file for the dogs there so goodness knows how I worked out the ratings. It's all nearly 50 years ago, funny how you remember that far back reasonably well but can't remember lunch yesterday....
Dave