Infamous betting ring tales of Cheltenham Festival's most legendary bookie

14 March 2023 , 07:30

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One billion pounds. At least.

That is the amount expected to be wagered on races at this year’s Cheltenham Festival, a fair portion of it online.

But there was a time when the real action was in the ring, legendary punters armed with “bricks of £50 notes as ammunition” doing battle with legendary bookmakers.

There is no more legendary punter than JP McManus - the Irish owner who will have a host of runners over the next four days - and no more legendary bookie than Victor Chandler.

In the authorised biography, Victor Chandler: Put Your Life On It - released in paperback last Thursday - author Jamie Reid details some of the infamous skirmishes between McManus and Chandler and recounts the days when the Festival betting ring was no place for the faint-hearted. Here's an extract from the new book.

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Since 1999, the new company Victor Chandler International had revolutionised the UK gambling market by offering tax-free wagering online and by phone in a multitude of different languages, from English to Chinese and from euros to yen.

But no matter how big or far-flung his interests had become, the Cheltenham Festival remained the most important date in Victor’s calendar.

It was the OK Corral of gambling.

You could never quite pin Chandler down. One day, he was the bon vivant and old Soho bohemian with a fund of fabulous stories about the artist Lucian Freud, the next he was sponsoring a big race at Ascot, the day after, he was being accused of laundering money for the drug smuggler and gangster Brian Wright.

Above all else, though, Victor Chandler was a gambler. The biggest on the track.

Infamous betting ring tales of Cheltenham Festival's most legendary bookie

Victor Chandler: Put Your Life On It. The authorised biography by Jamie Reid. (Reach Sport)

Victor’s client list comprised many of the top owners and trainers in racing but he also laid bets to an eclectic mix of recreational gamblers, from painters such as Freud and Francis Bacon, to football managers, film producers and restaurant owners.

But at Cheltenham, the core of his business still featured a small group of big-hitting Irishmen.

There was Barney Curley, a hero to punters on both sides of the Atlantic and there was Noel Furlong, a carpet dealer and self-made millionaire who won the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas in 1999.

And then there was JP McManus, the Sundance Kid of racing legend, domiciled not only at Kilmallock in County Limerick but also in Switzerland and Barbados.

Victor was one of the few bookies prepared to look these gamblers in the eye and not flinch.

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In 1998, the year of Istabraq’s first tilt at the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham, his owner McManus had attempted to place a £300,000 bet on him.

Victor - who described McManus as having “a smile like Mother Theresa and the brain of Al Capone” - took £100,000 at 7-2 and when it romped home, faced a £350,000 payout.

Victor Chandler is one of the most legendary bookmakers to ever grace the Cheltenham Festival (ExpressStar)

Similar happened the following year but, in 2000, with Istabraq going for the hat-trick, JP kept his powder dry.

Instead, Furlong - Dublin Noel - stepped up.

Born JJ but nicknamed ‘Noel’ because he was born on Christmas Day, Furlong - a poker-playing, racing and greyhound-loving punter to his fingertips - had cleaned out the bookies to the tune of £500,000 in an epic gamble on Destriero at Cheltenham in 1991.

Nine years later, not many oddsmakers were prepared to accept his wagers, not even at the Festival.

Victor was the exception.

Furlong wanted £150,000 on Istabraq and Victor obliged. Istabraq completed the hat-trick.

But Victor was a good judge and, at that same meeting, took a £50,000 bet on the McManus owned hotpot Youlneverwalkalone in the opening race and got it beaten.

JP McManus (middle) is also a legend of the Cheltenham Festival (Getty Images)

The next day, he lost just shy of £110,000 on the Queen Mother Champion Chase. It was always a rollercoaster ride - at that Festival, Victor had less than a £50,000 profit to share with his staff, whereas at Royal Ascot in 1999, they cleared a million profit.

But win or lose, Victor - from a line of famous bookies - were shouted or swore.

When a result went against him, Bill Chandler had a catchphrase.

“Turn it over,” he’d say to his clerk, meaning the losing page in his bog bookmaker’s ledger. “Just turn over another page.”

His grandson, it seems, was similarly philosophical.

*Victor Chandler: Put Your Life On It. The authorised biography by Jamie Reid.