I worked on the banana plantations in Queensland, well Cardwell to be precise. Up at 0600 to be picked up at 0645 to commence work at 0700-1600. Great life that was. I never backed horses during the week, well no internet betting for starters. So every Saturday morning I would spring out of my bed, take a walk to the Milky Bar (convenience store) to purchase a copy of the Courier Mail. Then sit down and have a look through. Racing started early as they took in NZ racing who are a couple of hours ahead. I usually made my way, by foot, down the road to the TAB. Under one roof they had a TAB on one side and a pub eitherside of a dividing wall with wide open entrance between.
Everytime i was there this huge bloke and I mean muscular huge used to sit in the corner minding his own business playing the horses ignoring everyone. A lot of the time he would win a nice bundle. Plenty of Green and Orange notes (100s and 50s). I needed to get onto his action. So i strolled over with an extra Tooheys in hand and handed it over to him. He looked at me and thanked me and ordered me to take a seat, which I gleefully did. Turned out that he was from Sydney and knew a lot of trainers and jockeys from there. He would then go on and explain to me how the next race at Randwick would turn out. He was right. I left the TAB with around $600 that day, double what I earned in a week on the banana plantations. From that day on I knew that in a way racing was a bit bent. I also learnt that if you see a bloke winning dont just go up to him and ask him for a tip. Pull in the other string and buy him a bottle of his favourite tipple. You wont go unrewarded.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Tigershark, Craig Pienaar, TNaicker
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