Rule one is simple. Never believe half of what you hear and even then it’s probably not true. By the late 80’s I was pretty well known. Punters Choice had been started by an ambitious young man named Alan Rowland and in his recording of Ratings and tipping services he put out his first annual. The press release included the fact that I, Garry Robinson had the leading rating service in Australia for Sydney races.

Sam North, the chief racing writer for the Newcastle Herald received a copy and put together an article on me. Turf Monthly received a copy of the book too and shortly after I was approached by Arn Rogers, the owner of Turf Monthly to see if I would write for them and as readers would know, I had a long and successful writing career with them. I was paid $20 a page at first but as my writing became popular that increased to $30 a page.

I also had approaches from other media and was soon featured on the Saturday afternoon Racing program, giving my tips before I headed off to the races. In those days there were no mobiles so I often recorded my tips by phoning the radio station around ten a.m. so I could get to the races in time for the first race. It was the only place where you could bet and get the Tote price or a fixed price and where I learnt a lot of my betting skills They raced at Broadmeadow every second week and on the off week they raced at Beaumont Park Greyhounds which was across the road from the racecourse and it was where popular Newcastle League and Racing commentator Gary Harley learned how to call races. The bookie ring was just as strong there as it was at the races and there was never any trouble getting a substantial bet on.

I had many magical days at those two venues and a few good laughs too. I learnt a lot about racecourse rumours and was the subject of more than one of them. There was a bookmaker there, Ritchie Judd, who owned a substantial well known property in an upmarket part of Newcastle.  Everyone knew he was a millionaire and although past retirement age he loved the game so much he stood punters big and small for as much as they wanted.

He was keen to do business with me too because he was aware of the size of my bets which were as much as an average working man’s weekly wage at the time.

He was all business so although we spoke often enough it was mainly business. We never discussed anything other than betting. Wagering was mostly in cash and most bookmakers would take up to $100,000 to the course. Most of this would be deposited with the Tote, which held betting accounts for bigger punters and bookmakers and I regularly used an account myself so that I didn’t have a lot of the folding stuff in my trouser pockets to tempt any light fingered rascal.

The bookies bag usually held a float of $10,000 to $20,000 to meet any immediate needs and the Tote bank could be called on to clear any excess or on a bad day, put some more in.


The course in those days was packed and there was a Sydney betting ring that consisted of seven or eight bookmakers and one concession bookie.

I had just had a big win with Ritchie Judd one day and he had to pay me about $17,000 in cash. There were still a few punters about but most had left to watch the next greyhound race. As I tucked the last of the bundles of notes into my pockets one of the clerks said “that Garry Robinson, he’s cleaned us out.” It was intended as a little jibe at me but it was heard by a bystander.

The next week at Newcastle gallops races I was accosted by nearly every second person I met “I hear you sent Ritchie broke.” If that was not enough I was washing my hands in the toilet when a punter (who obviously had never seen me before said “Hey, you know that Garry Robinson who is on the radio? He’s sent that Ritchie Judd fella broke.”  Isn’t it odd how often you get accosted in the toilet at a racecourse to be given a tip? In this case a wrong one. Nobody wanted to explain to me how come Ritchie Judd was still on his bookie’s stand if he was actually broke.

I got to know the entire local and many visiting bookmakers quite well. In fact most bookmakers found it necessary to know their customers and I learnt a lot about bookmaking just by chatting in between races.  I found out it wasn’t easy getting a bookmaking licence as you had to have substantial guarantees and even then, you had trouble just getting into the local ring let alone the Randwick ring.

“The bookies bag usually held a float of $10,000 to $20,000 to meet any immediate needs and the Tote bank could be called on to clear any excess or on a bad day, put some more in.”

It was necessary to test yourself in a local ring like Newcastle and even then you had to be prepared to take risks to get your betting turnover up. Plus at Broadmeadow gallops you were in a fight to get to the rails where you could access the owners and members which is where a lot of the bigger bets were placed.  Offering 2/1 ($3.00) about a horse that was 15/8 ( $2.85) was a sure way of attracting turnover and lots of bigger bettors were offered better deals to attract their business.

Even though I was a winner, my business was sought after just to build that all important turnover. Bill Murphy offered me SP + 5% or a rebate of 5% of my losses but he said to me, with a bit of a grin on his face “as you expect to win, no doubt you would prefer to take the extra 5%.” Of course most bookies offering this would be expecting their client to lose.

You see once a bookmaker had my money and others, he could offer better prices about other runners to help him make a book. At that time I backed several runners in a race, betting all runners that were at odds calculated by my Winform ratings that were considered value or overlays. Anyhow, one quiet day at the Beaumont Park greyhounds I decided to have some fun with a bit of help from the bookmakers. The interesting thing is that, out of a ring of eight or nine of the Sydney fielders, only a couple were actually in on it.

I started with Bill Disney. His fortunes as a bookmaker fluctuated but he was a really nice bloke. I also used to have a bit of a dig with the retired bank manager who ran the Concession stand (this is where

you get a lesser price about a horse in return for getting your money back if the horse is placed). With the help of a third bookie at the other end of the ring I was ready to make my play.

I had to place about $100 in total on a horse that was close to 100/1 when the market was first broadcast. No one would hold that bet from me even though I didn’t really believe it would win.

There were only two or three punters in the ring at the time as when a greyhound race was on, the crowd headed off to the stand to watch it while waiting for the next gallops race in Sydney or Interstate.

I approached Bill and asked for $50 and I suggested to him that instead of dropping his price when I placed my bet, to wait until I got on with one of the others. That was fine. I did the same with my other bookie mate and then I told him to drop the price to 66/1 which he did. I then went back to Bill and said “now you can drop your price” and he went 50/1 and by then the other bookies had noticed that I was backing this horse and “followed the market”. A couple of punters noticed and one went off towards the greyhound section where people were starting to come back after the last race.

I then saw my mate on the concession stand and told him I had backed the horse and he should drop his concession price to 33/1 which he did. I then went back to Disney and said “make it look like I’m having another bet” and he promptly dropped his price to 33/1. By this time, most of the punters had returned to the Sydney ring and I over heard someone telling his mates “that Garry Robinson on the radio has backed this horse for a mint. He thinks it’s a “real good thing.”

Then a funny thing happened. The local punters, who knew absolutely nothing about this horse, got into the action and by race start time the horse was in to 16/1 with every bookmaker in the ring and then the  last fluctuation came over “200/1” and the horse ran like it. No actually it ran 4th but never mind. I did back the winner with a much larger bet. We all had a good laugh at how punters follow the money on rumour and speculation and even took a shorter price in their rush to get on a good thing.

On a much earlier occasion when I had just started punting seriously, I can remember backing a horse with Disney at 16/1 ($17) and wasn’t too happy to see it miss out by about three lengths. Before they passed the post I was on my way to the car park and quickly on the twenty minute drive home.

About half way there I heard that a protest had been lodged in the last. Second against first and I had thrown my ticket away, well torn it up actually. “It didn’t matter though I thought, the horse had been beaten three lengths.” And then they announced that the protest was for interference at the 800 metre point. Well that really blew it. What a joke. One frivolous protest fine coming up.

I was just about in the gate at home when the protest result came through. The protest had been upheld. I had a panic attack and quickly leafed through the pages of the phone book. I didn’t even know here Disney lived. An hour later I finally got the right Disney and he remembered me “ I waited for you till an hour after the last race and kept your winnings in the bag so don’t worry, it’ll be there for you first thing next week.” One novice aspiring professional punter was very relieved. Don’t believe all those rumours you hear about bookmakers, there are some great gentlemen among them.