Robin Oakley

Racing can’t survive without crowds

Racetracks are making redundancies, and the warning flags are fluttering

Grand National-winning owner Trevor Hemmings in 2015 with Many Clouds. Hemmings is having to sell off 50 of his horses. Credit Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images 
issue 05 September 2020

We all have weeks when every win bet finishes second and every each-way comes home in fourth. You begin to feel as though the Fates have something against you personally, as with the American punter who had lost his job, his wife and his home. Call him Fred Jones. On a seaside racecourse he invests his last ten dollars on a Tote jackpot.

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