Sport

I’ve been asked if I ever win money betting on horses. There’s a straight (boring) and a tongue-in-cheek (entertaining) answer. Both are true. The boring answer is, in the long term, nobody wins betting on anything. The “House” always wins. Totalisators ensure this outcome by fixing the system so...

We’re a week away from the season’s biggest racing weekend as, sadly, the Diamond Mile has replaced the Superstakes as the year’s championship race. How was this illusion constructed? As usual, it’s all about the money as the Betting Gaming and Lotteries Commission has, on at least suspect authority,...

An article that appeared in the Sunday and Monday edition of the Gleaner has reignited discussion on the topic of the future of the racehorse industry in Jamaica. Ainsley Walters, a veteran racing journalist and host of his own radio programme on the local racing industry, in a two-part...

Jamaica’s brainless, unoriginal, sycophantic horse racing media “analysts” are at it again. From as far back as July this year, one excitable radio commentator announced that Anthony “Baba” Nunes was the 2019 Champion Trainer and has been applying that prefix to his name ever since. He made that identical...

Over the years, I’ve done my best to encourage punting fanatics to spend time learning the fundamentals of the horse; of picking winners; AND (the most crucial skill) the fundamentals of bet selection. The first and most important no-no is listening to public tipsters. By and large, they’re ignorant...

Doping in sport is once again in the spotlight, as last Tuesday word came that “Super Coach” Alberto Salazar has been found guilty after a 4-year investigation by the USADA, led by the indefatigable Travis Tygart. Readers may recall that Travis Tygart is the man who led the investigation...

In so many areas of life, Jamaica seems comfortable with easy-going, laid-back, “no-problem-mon” archaic circumstances. The separated but related industries of betting, gaming and lotteries are no exception. In the 1980s when the remarkable Dennis Lalor ruled both the Jamaica Racing Commission (JRC) and the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries...

BY THE TERRIBLE TOUT I can’t believe this is my 50th column for Public Opinion. Or that you’ve allowed me to bore you to death for so long. Ah, well, once more onto the breach…… So the racing promoter has a new website. Nice idea; horrendous execution. The navigational...

It’s that time of year again when the fillies, dull and listless all summer, tend to pop up as unappreciated long shots and reward faithful punters committed to clear thinking with huge returns. Of course, public hypesters (o/c “tipsters”) do not fall into the above category as their thought...