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Horse Racing Talking Betting With.....Jon Franklin
Jon Franklin has over thirty years working in the betting industry, spending ten years working for William Hill before shifting focus, literally, and becoming a horse racing photographer for the last twenty years. He adds author to his resume with his debut novel ‘Shouting the Odds’ now available. Today we talk betting with Jon Franklin.
How did you get involved in betting?
I got into betting purely by chance really. There was no history of betting or racing in my family. In 1987, after returning home to northwest London after six months abroad, I found myself in urgent need of a job. I applied for two jobs locally, one at the betting shop and one at Safeways. The betting shop was the first to get back to me and offer me an interview. I was offered the job and started the following Monday. Not sure if or when I would have discovered The Sport of Kings had Safeways offered me a job first!
I loved the betting shop from day one; the vibrant atmosphere, the larger than life characters who used to come in. Then after a couple of months, on my day off, I thought I’d try my luck on the other side of the counter.
Do you remember your first bet?
The first bet I ever placed was at my local Arthur Prince shop. It was a speculative one-pound each way treble. All three selections won and I made 154 pounds. That was quite a lot of money thirty-four years ago. I would like to claim the credit for unearthing these three winners myself; truth is, all three selections were tipped up in that day’s Racing Post, two in the Pricewise column and one elsewhere.
What sports do you like to bet on?
Nowadays I bet almost exclusively on UK and Irish horse racing and occasionally on football. It’s about a 90/10 split. I bet mainly on the weekend racing. Any football bets would be ante-post ones on the top leagues and on latter stages of the Champions League.
What bet types do you focus and why?
Bookmakers don’t like people who place single bets, because your chance of a return is better. I like having each way single bets (mainly on the flat) in high-grade handicaps with field sizes of between eight and ten runners, where bookmakers are paying out to three places. If I think there is value to be had, I’m not averse to betting in larger fields, with so many bookmakers offering place terms on the first six or seven places. I’m not averse either to dutching, that is to say, betting two against the field.
What bet types do you avoid?
Avoid all multiple bets such as the Lucky Fifteen, Lucky Sixty Three, Heinz and Goliath. Who consistently finds four or five winners in a Lucky Sixty Three bet? I know I don’t.
As I say, most of the money I stake is on each way single bets. If I have more than one selection that day and want to combine them, I do so to smaller stakes where I can choose the unit stake and number of multiple bets myself.
When it comes to finding value, what is your process?
One method I use in order to find value is to go through the races with field sizes that fit my criteria and then see if I can identify any false favourites. Why does this horse take such a large percentage out of the book? Is it because it comes from a big yard? Are there faults you can find in his or her recent form? Course, distance, going, jockey bookings can all affect my judgement as to whether or not I am looking at a worthy favourite. If I conclude that the favourite is the favourite for a good reason, I move on to the next race until I find what I consider to be a vulnerable one.
Which bookmakers do you regularly bet with? Why those?
I bet with Betfair and Bet365 who offer best odds guaranteed and extra places. Bet365 have some good concessions, such as paying first passed the post. Not all on-line bookmakers in Sweden offer odds for all the British and Irish racing, but Betfair and Bet365 do, so they usually do for me.
What was your biggest win?
I am more of a recreational gambler than a serious one. My biggest win was when Evens and Odds won The 2010 Stewards Cup by at 20/1 for Dandy Nicholls. I won around one and a half grand. I’ve won between six and eight hundred pounds many times on large placepot perm bets down the years. My best ever ante-post bet was on Alderbrook to win the 1995 Champion Hurdle at 33/1, which he did on the day at 11/2. It wasn’t the biggest win I’ve had but it was a very satisfying one.
What was your most devastating loss?
A few winters back, I placed an each way perm bet on five races at a jumps meeting at Newbury. The bet consisted of each way doubles and trebles and an each way five fold. I had the winner of the first four races, all at good odds, so I ended up with quite alot of money running onto the last leg of the bet, a two-mile hurdle race. As I say, it was a perm bet and in the last race I was doubled handed, having the first two in the betting at 9/2 and 11/2. Philip Hobbs, who had a great record in the race trained both horses and had his stable jockey Richard Johnston booked on the market leader. I stood to win around seven grand, more if the second favourite obliged. Before the race I hedged my bet by backing the third and fourth favourites in singles. Needless to say, neither of Philip Hobbs’s runners placed, nor did the other two! I don’t know whether I was devastated, but I was certainly disappointed.
What advice would you give to anyone just starting out in betting?
The best advice I could give to an aspiring tipster would be this: be selective. Specialise your area of expertise, whether it be in two-year old nurseries on turf or on certain types of races on the all weather. Look to find ‘an edge’ in a particular type of race and refine it. There is simply too much racing in the UK to be competitive and profitable in every type of race across every card. Narrow your field of specialisation and stick to it. Usually, the results will follow.
You’ve written your first first novel ‘Shouting the Odds’ ? What is it about?
Shouting The Odds is a classic coming of age novel based upon my years working (and punting) in the betting shops of nineties Britain. It is a retro 90’s genre novel, playing out before the arrival of the World Wide Web or mobile phone, a Britain where if you wanted a bet on the horses or the dogs, a visit to the betting shop was for many people the only option.
What was the inspiration for the novel?
Though as common on the average high street as banks, supermarkets and pubs, I believe that betting shops and the people who frequent them have always been stigmatised by the wider British public. My inspiration was partly to challenge this stigmatisation by writing about a community of betting shop regulars who indirectly help Andy, the book’s troubled protagonist, through a challenging period in his life. My aim in writing Shouting The Odds was to write a book for the tens of thousands of people like myself who enjoy betting and racing as a pastime, without glorifying it. Whether or not I have succeeded is, of course, down to you the reader.
You’re also a professional horse racing photographer. In your opinion, which is the most photogenic racecourse you’ve been to?
Chester is a unique racecourse, where you are very close to the action. I can’t think of anywhere better to be in England during May than at The Chester May meeting and Cheltenham during festival week picks itself. Being a Londoner, I was very proud to work at ten consecutive Derby meetings on behalf of their marketing executive. The view over the racecourse and the Downs beyond from the Queen Elisabeth Grandstand roof is in my opinion one of the finest racecourse views in the world let alone England. Happy Valley Racecourse on Hong Kong Island is as spectacular as it is surreal, surrounded as it is by skyscrapers. However the most photogenic of all racecourses in my experience is Goodwood during the Glorious Goodwood Festival.
Any photos that have a special place in your heart?
Many. But a couple of favourites one I took of Frankel in 2011. Was privileged to see Frankel race in both of his Sussex Stakes wins. As a photographer, it was fascinating to witness arguably the best thoroughbred racehorse of all time up close as he strode around the pre-parade ring looking as though he owned the place.
Another favourite from the same year is of Tom Queally weighing in. This is another reportage style picture that I like a lot. The weighing room of any British racecourse is actually the jurisdiction of The Jockey Club of Great Britain (not the individual racecourse itself). Therefore I required permission to take photographs from them rather than Goodwood. This is Tom Queally weighing in after Frankel’s second Sussex Stake win.
