As way of expanding on the previous post, I’m now almost three-quarters through the well-received book Enemy Number One by Patrick Veitch. There no doubt he has proven to be a very successful professional gambler and literally ‘Enemy Number One’ when is came to bookmakers laying bets. There weakness, mostly they didn’t realise it was him placing the bets via his many agents.
It comes as no surprise, that most professional punters make good money for one reason – they bet astonishing sums of cash. In fact, Veitch is probably one of the biggest bettors with only the likes of Harry Findlay wagering more. He had some massive bets in his time, some over £1M. One such bet on New Zealand to win the World Cup proved very costly indeed when they were knocked out in the semi finals by France.
Vietch has had individual bets ranging from the small thousands to almost £100,000. His winning sprees were prolific and he made a couple of million a year. It is reputed he won over £10M in an eight year period.
But what were his favourite bets:
Single Bets:
The vast amount of bets were placed on singles and each-way wagers. They were definitely the staple. He wasn’t against ante-post bets and made a killing over many years.
Flat & National Hunt:
He was predominantly a Flat racing professional although he bet on both codes of racing often using tips from others on the National Hunt. However, he liked to rely on his own judgment most of all.
Each Way Doubles & Trebles:
He enjoyed great success with some outlandish each way doubles and treble, often paying tens of thousands. I think a few went close to winning hundreds of thousands.
Trixies:
Another bet he enjoyed a combination of 3 horses in doubles and treble.
SCOOP 6:
A few big pay days with the Scoop 6 coming in one or two in the hundreds of thousands. Nice work if you can get it.
Reverse Forecast:
Once again, not scared to place a bet that few punters who consider. A decent reverse forecast on strong markets gave the possibility of really striking lucky if the win single came in.
Ante-post Bet:
As detailed above, he wasn’t against ante-post wagers including the Classics although he did bet on big handicaps too.