From Bicycle to Bentley

A Bookmaker's Story

Stephen Little

• Publisher: White Owl
• Year: 2023
• Topic: Business
• eBook ISBN:
  9781036101954
• Subtopic: Business Biographies
• Index: Business

Stephen takes the reader from his earliest school days when it became clear he was academically bright, especially in math, attending prep school, winning a scholarship to major public school Uppingham where he won math prizes and, aged 16, passed 3 S (scholarship) levels. By then he had decided to be a bookie. He attended an interview for Cambridge University only because it was on his bicycle route to Newmarket races! Unable to work in any gambling job until 18, he set about visiting racecourses by bicycle, staying in youth hotels (17½p per night), eventually cycling to all racecourses in the UK, including several now-defunct courses. At 18 he found employment with Beresford & Smith in London; aged 24 he got his first bookie's license in 1971 and by the age of 40 in 1986 was betting big on the rails at major meetings such as the Grand National, Cheltenham, Derby, Royal Ascot and Glorious Goodwood, often laying bets to lose £100,000 or more - when money was worth nearly twice today's value - one of the few bookies who happily stood "toe to toe and traded blow for blow" with big hitters like JP McManus, Barney Curley, Michael Tabor and Harry Findlay. In 1998 changes in pitch administration prompted early retirement, and he sold his pitches, worked for a few unsatisfactory years for Corals and then departed the big time - with a Bentley as well as a bicycle, a house in Georgian Bath and a satisfactory bank balance.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Chapter 1 Early days and schools, and first race meeting
• Chapter 2 Gap year on a budget
• Chapter 3 Gap year continues
• Chapter 4 First job and first coursing meeting
• Chapter 5 Back on the road, first racecourse job, every course on a bike and photofinish betting
• Chapter 6 Apprenticeship, on the dole, first licence and pitches
• Chapter 7 In at the deep end and early policy decisions
• Chapter 8 Getting known and rule 4
• Chapter 9 Cyril Stein, other leading bookmakers, and keeping warm
• Chapter 10 Owning horses and dogs, night in a police cell, breathalysed, and backgammon
• Chapter 11 Computers and mobile phones
• Chapter 12 Increasing turnover and a new Bentley
• Chapter 13 Another house move, more large bets and a suspect race
• Chapter 14 Bookmaking politics and the threat to the betting ring
• Chapter 15 They know not what they do
• Chapter 16 Notice to quit and joining Corals
• Chapter 17 Redundancy and retirement to stud
• Chapter 18 Looking back
• Coursing Appendix
• Betting Appendix
• Clerking before computers
• Plates