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It is the bleak mid-winter down here in the summer hemisphere and, although we were treated to some first-class racing from Queensland just recently, we find ourselves immersed in the year’s most barren month in terms of quality racing action.
No doubt many of you will have retreated to your desk in the study, poured yourself a brandy from the drinks’ cabinet and settled into a comfortable armchair so that you may ruminate on the Australian racing season of 2006/7. Or perhaps you retreated to the outdoor dunny and reflected on your year of outrageous profit or soul-destroying loss.
How much do bookies really know? How good is their grapevine? How come they always seem to know when a well-fancied horse is 'off'? How do they maintain an edge over the punter?
All these questions are asked on a regular basis throughout Australia for the simple reason that even in their years of financial decline the bookmakers still hold a powerful grip on the fortunes of Aussie horseracing. There may be fewer of them these days but betting figures continue to revolve around them, and basically flow from them.