A crew of six with £6,000 each and an A to Z directory toured the capital’s betting shops in a fleet of Daimlers, placing bets of £5, £10 and £20 on doubles and trebles involving Gay Future and two other Collins horses running that day, Opera Cloak and Ankerwyke. The pattern was detected at midday and all bets involving the three horses subsequently refused.Bookies’ representatives were sent scurrying to each course, but when they arrived at Plumpton and Southwell, the venues for Opera Cloak and Ankerwyke, they found that both horses had been withdrawn. In fact, they never even left their boxes.That meant that all the multiple bets were rolling on to Gay Future at Cartmel. The timing and venue of the race had not been a whim by the plotters The Bank Holiday had bookmaker resources stretched. Of all the 12 meetings that day Cartmel was the most inaccessible and there was no blower (telephone) service.When Gay Future appeared before the Ulverston Novices’ Hurdle he looked in a terrible state He was covered in sweat.

However, the lather had rather more to do with the soapflakes that had been rubbed over his flanks and legs than nervousness. It was an unusually busy ring that day with several big punters wanting to back anything but Gay Future By the time he set off the price had gone out to 10-1. And by the time the man from Ladbrokes arrived he had won by 15 lengths The sting was complete.Yet not quite. The plotters of “Crock Of Gold” had forgotten the bookmakers’ first rule: “Thou Shalt Not Lose”. While many independents paid up, the big boys got quite upset. The team had invested just £5,000 of the intended £30,000 and collected £15,000 A total of £40,000 “winnings” was not paid The profit after expenses came to just over £10,000.

In addition, Collins and Murphy were warned off for 10 years. At Preston Crown Court they were found guilty of “conspiring to defraud bookmakers”.The Gay Future Affair remains a beautiful story attached to Britain’s most beautiful racecourse. Racing began here officially in 1865 and it is believed the priory canons raced on the site earlier still.Between the dry stone walls and the wooded hillsides we already have the incongruity of a huge television screen, while officials talk about the arrival of the Internet and interactive betting It may be necessary, but it seems an ugly juxtaposition. If tracks like Cartmel go, we can be sure the modernisers are right. There will be no room for the historic, the tradition or the charm of many of Britain’s smaller racecourses There will be room only for figures on a piece of foolscap It is a dispiriting thought..

Tour de France officials are hoping to put to use a new doping test to detect the banned hormone erythropoietin, or EPO, in urine samples, French cycling federation sources were quoted as saying in a news report today. Tour de France officials are hoping to put to use a new doping test to detect the banned hormone erythropoietin, or EPO, in urine samples, French cycling federation sources were quoted as saying in a news report today.
L’Equipe, a French sports newspaper, reported that a meeting was scheduled to take place in Geneva on Thursday to decide on measures to improve doping controls during the Tour, which starts July 1.A spokesman for the International Cycling Union in Geneva confirmed that a meeting was to take place on Thursday at the request of the French Sports Ministry and it would be “on subjects linked to doping controls.” The spokesman, contacted by telephone, declined to be named.The French news report said that the International Olympic Committee had not yet approved the test, but French sports authorities wanted it put to use immediately.EPO, which enhances endurance by boosting the production of oxygen-rich red blood cells in the body, was at the center of the Tour de France drug scandal two years ago and is believed widely used in several sports.Thursday’s meeting was to be chaired by International Cycling Union President Hein Verbruggen and attended by Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc. Others at the meeting will be French cycling federation president Daniel Baal and Jacques de Ceaurriz, head of the French laboratory working on the new test, the paper reported.. Greece’s culture minister pleaded for a truce to a public spat over the handling of the scandal-ridden Olympic flame lighting ceremony. Greece’s culture minister pleaded for a truce to a public spat over the handling of the scandal-ridden Olympic flame lighting ceremony.
The complaints and blame-trading over the May 10 event threaten to sidetrack 2004 Olympic planning at a time of intense scrutiny by the International Olympic Committee, which has put Athens on notice that swift action is needed to keep preparations on track.”I would recommend coolness,” said Culture Minister Theodoros Pangalos, whose office is in charge of sports.