I won a fortune on the horses
Mar. 18th, 2013 01:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dormouse1953I was reading an obituary in today's Independent of someone called Tommy Smith, an American amateur jockey who rode the winner of the 1965 Grand National. (He gave racing a year later to concentrate on being a heath care executive. A fall from a horse in 2001 left him a quadriplegic.) His name didn't mean anything to me, but then I saw the name of his horse, Jay Trump.
We had a family tradition back then for each of us, including the children, to have a bet on the National each year. Of course, none of us knew anything about racing, and I think I chose the horse Jay Trump because I liked the name, but I don't know why that attracted me. I won the grand sum of £1 2s 6d, if I remember correctly. Doesn't seem a lot, but to a 11-year old schoolboy it was a fortune. I can't remember what my pocket money was back then, but about a shilling a week sounds about right. My main extravagances were DC comics, which cost 10d, and Airfix model kits, which prices varied depending on the size. (New paperback books were about 2s, but I didn't start buying them for a couple of years.) My mother insisted I opened a Post Office savings account and put the money in that. (It was five years before I had a bank account.)
I can't remember how long this tradition went on, but it must have stopped by the time I went up to university in 1970. I've never bet on the horses since then. So let's say it went on for about ten years. The usual bet was a shilling each way, which I think means an outlay of 2s per bet. So, it's possible I've won more on the horses than I've bet.
We had a family tradition back then for each of us, including the children, to have a bet on the National each year. Of course, none of us knew anything about racing, and I think I chose the horse Jay Trump because I liked the name, but I don't know why that attracted me. I won the grand sum of £1 2s 6d, if I remember correctly. Doesn't seem a lot, but to a 11-year old schoolboy it was a fortune. I can't remember what my pocket money was back then, but about a shilling a week sounds about right. My main extravagances were DC comics, which cost 10d, and Airfix model kits, which prices varied depending on the size. (New paperback books were about 2s, but I didn't start buying them for a couple of years.) My mother insisted I opened a Post Office savings account and put the money in that. (It was five years before I had a bank account.)
I can't remember how long this tradition went on, but it must have stopped by the time I went up to university in 1970. I've never bet on the horses since then. So let's say it went on for about ten years. The usual bet was a shilling each way, which I think means an outlay of 2s per bet. So, it's possible I've won more on the horses than I've bet.
