It just didn’t sound right when Chris Waller described himself as a punter playing the media scrum last Saturday at Caulfield.
Punter has been mangled since its origin from faro, a 17th-century French card game played, amongst others, by Wild Bill Hickok in the American West.
The player pointed to the cards and from pointer came punter in English, or gambler, now distorted into consumer.
Safe bet: Trainer Chris Waller holds the trophy after jockey James McDonald rode The Autumn Sun to victory.Credit:AAP
Waller was harangued by me on ABC News Radio’s Hoof On The Till for usurping the title, particularly after withdrawing the highly talented three-year-old The Autumn Sun from the upcoming Cox Plate for what would have been the race of the century.
Punting is about backing horses and winning, but the great trainers preceding Waller, particularly Tommy Smith and Bart Cummings, would have started The Autumn Sun at Moonee Valley and had their money on him.
And the Caulfield Cup has been a great hunting ground for horse players, being the first leg of the big double with the Melbourne Cup, Australia’s major gambling target, which is where Lloyd Williams has left his mark, not only on prizemoney but with bookmakers.
Williams is much involved in the Caulfield Cup activity this week due to the scratching of favourite Yucatan, which created an outcry on social media, particularly when this most astute turf student opined that playing the Caulfield Cup early, before acceptors and the barrier draw, is a sucker bet. Be warned: Williams will have plan B involving his other acceptors – The Cliffsofmoher, The Taj Mahal, and Homesman.
Williams spent time under the influence of Smith who, with Cummings, applied their skills with insider trading on the doubles market long before acceptors.
Smith backed the champion Tulloch to win both 1957 cups. Because Tulloch was only a three-year-old and had bolted away with the Caulfield Cup, tremendous media torture was bought to bear on Smith about running a colt so young in the Melbourne Cup.
“If anything happens to him in the Melbourne Cup they’ll hang you from the Harbour Bridge,” Smith was told, according to his biographer Kevin Perkins.
For the only time in his life Smith succumbed to pressure.
“Tommy scratched himself from a fortune," Perkins wrote.
Cummings had a better result in 1991 with Let’s Elope, a New Zealand mare who was gifted in the Caulfield Cup with 48.5kg. The week prior, The Master introduced her to blinkers and she took flight. Folklore maintained Cummings had a considerable serve of the cups double at a time when his cash flow was depleted with a High Court action over a failed syndicate involving millions. The 2.5 kg penalty for taking the first leg proved mere ballast when she triumphed in the big one.
If your binoculars aren’t shaking when the horses are lining up you haven’t had enough on.
Like Williams, they were punters whose patron saint was Eric Connolly, involved in plucking a fortune off bookmakers in the 1930 Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double with Amounis and Phar Lap, made easier when Phar Lap was sensationally scratched from the first leg. He decreed: “If your binoculars aren’t shaking when the horses are lining up you haven’t had enough on.”
Of course Waller couldn’t qualify here, as his hands are full with a voice recorder most of the afternoon. Yes, he admits betting, but never on his own horses, which limits his action.
Attempting to stir up some doubles anticipation, it was put to him what about Youngstar, his strong chance in the Caulfield Cup on Saturday, doing a Let’s Elope and taking the two cups?
Lack of maturity, which never strayed into Smith’s dialogue, was mentioned, but he did warn about Finche, an import who will make his Australian debut in the Geelong Cup on Wednesday in regard to the second leg.
Obviously, Waller is more St Francis of Assisi than Wild Bill Hickok.
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