{"id":885,"date":"2022-09-28T03:37:19","date_gmt":"2022-09-28T03:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bfhubprod.wpengine.com\/hub\/?p=885"},"modified":"2024-08-21T17:02:22","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T07:02:22","slug":"barry-cook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betfair.com.au\/hub\/education\/punter-insights\/barry-cook\/","title":{"rendered":"MEET BARRY COOK"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bookmaker Barry Cook is just on the wrong side of 70. Old enough to have seen extraordinary changes in the way we bet.<\/p>\n

But not so old in his thinking to have shunned new betting technology.\u00a0Not too old to have embraced Betfair<\/strong>\u00a0despite conceding a degree of \u2018computer illiteracy\u2019.<\/p>\n

Amazing really for someone who first worked at the races before his teenage years. Before the Beatles had recorded their first song; before Tulloch had begun his illustrious racing career and 35 years before the advent of the World Wide Web.<\/p>\n

A time when a five bob (50 cents) bet was the equivalent of at least ten dollars now on any general inflation index. About $50 if you equate it to the price of cigarettes.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n

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THE CHANGING FACE OF TECHNOLOGY<\/h2>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n \n \n
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He\u2019s lived through the two eras of horse racing and punting which might be loosely classed as pre and post portable computer age. There\u2019s arguably been few industries revolutionised as much by the electronic, digital, internet age and in Barry\u2019s case it was adapt or perish.<\/p>\n

You know the stories of pre-computer punting. No videos; no official placings beyond the first three; no accurate margins; scant form guides. Good heavens, even the newspapers recorded the form by hand writing on A4 cardboard. Holy heck, jockeys could be declared (read switched) half an hour or less before a race.<\/p>\n

Mind you, we were still bitten by the bug. More so if family was involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy old man Rod and Uncle Laurie were bookmakers and I grew up knocking around racetracks,\u201d Cook said.<\/p>\n

And back then, the sophistication of punting, let alone dissemination of the form, was so far removed from the intricacy of Betfair it is almost unimaginable. Not for Cook, though. Like me, I hasten to add a little later, he lived it and remembers it well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere weren\u2019t even bookmakers\u2019 betting boards. Most bookies called the odds or some may have had the old chalk boards, like you saw in England. Scribbling the odds in chalk and wiping them off with a duster,\u201d he said<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t at Royal Randwick but around Northern New South Wales \u2013 coastal and inland \u2013 from major meetings at Newcastle or the Grafton carnival or from Inverell to Glen Innes to the once-a-year Walcha Cup meeting which is where it really began for Cook.<\/p>\n

He was 11 years old, good at arithmetic and dad had him taught to \u2018pencil\u2019. Cook senior\u2019s clerk was ill and what else was there to do but drag young Barry out of school and have him record the bets, after being granted permission by the gruff old, bush stipe Norm McFarlane.<\/p>\n

Having done some pencilling in my time, I\u2019d have thought this would be quite a daunting task for an 11-year-old. It\u2019s one thing to record 30 to 20 in the ledger; another to quickly figure out $2.50 each way the 15-4 chance (you probably bet them 4\/1) and yet another to be on top of the total hold and the liability of each horse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was bloody nervous but got through and I remember dad had a good winning day,\u2019 he said. The die was cast \u2013 especially as his father managed to survive working Saturdays only apart from the odd midweek Cup meeting. \u201cI recall that he seemed to play a lot of golf or bowls or go duck shooting quite often,\u201d Cook said.<\/p>\n

Another of young Cook\u2019s tasks was, on a Monday, to cut out the local area race results which were published in the Northern Daily Leader and paste them in a book.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was about all the form you had and that wasn\u2019t much. Often it would show first, second and third and just list the rest as others. No finishing order for the unplaced horses. There was no form in the race books which just listed the runners. A sharp memory was your greatest asset in knowing the form.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hard to frame a market on local races<\/strong>, you just put up a market at a high percentage, hoped you weren\u2019t too wrong with the likely favourite and felt your way,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n

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WORKING UP THE LADDER<\/h2>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n \n \n
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His first gig at Royal Randwick was on Boxing Day 1968, on the flat \u2013 the least desirable enclosure in the middle of the course. As an aside, there was quite a kerfuffle in the early 1900\u2019s when a local councillor pushed for free admission to the flat.<\/p>\n

The then AJC secretary Thomas Strettel Clibborn responded by saying he was happy to keep the \u2018riffraff\u2019 out. \u201cThere are only two classes of people who have any right on a racecourse; professional men, who are making their living, and those who are enjoying the sport and can pay for it. If a man cannot afford to pay a shilling he cannot afford the luxury of racing, and he would be much better employed earning money\u2026\u2019 Clibborn told the press.<\/p>\n

Plenty of people went to the races on the \u2018flat\u2019 in all states. It was a time, through to the 1970\u2019s when big crowds attended run-of-the-mill meetings which provided a great atmosphere and the opportunity for bookmakers to do exactly that \u2013 make a book, lay every horse with a percentage in their favour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t recall how many were there that Boxing Day but at that time\u00a0you might have had 30,000 plus at the races; 15,000 at the trots and eight to 10,000 at the dogs.<\/strong>\u00a0I thought it was huge and it was but the older bookies were telling me \u2018you got here too late, son, the games gone,\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That call was not wrong, just premature. \u201cThe game wasn\u2019t quite gone then. Going to the trots on a Friday night was like going to the Easter Show. Flashing lights and big crowds,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

Cook recalls that the trots would have a winter recess and that the punters would be flocking to the gates when the racing resumed. Sounds like Hong Kong racing today. Might be a less-is-more lesson there for racing administrators<\/p>\n

\u201cI was there early enough to enjoy some good days.<\/strong>\u00a0My staff were my mates and it was still that way through to the 80\u2019s. The crowds were good and you could make a book but you still had to have your wits about you. There\u2019s always clever punters and you had to know which punters to take on, which to avoid and which to sometimes follow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

At 28, Cook had managed to find his way to a coveted rails position in town. \u201cI was the youngest bookie to get on to the rails,\u201d he said, \u201cbut Terry Page was the one who got all the publicity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave Dominic Beirne his first job. He was pencilling for me at 18 before Page pinched him off me. Dominic was a mathematical whizz, his father Keith was a bookie and his brothers Paul and Greg were smart too. Greg worked for me as well.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They were heady days with racetracks abuzz with punters. \u201cI remember winning $4,000 in one day at Tamworth back in 1967 and that would have bought you a house in the country then.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, what went wrong? As the candidly risk averse Cook, who survived by making a traditional book and who\u2019s still fielding, concedes he could well have given it away but for the advent of Betfair.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were several factors although the advent of the TAB wasn\u2019t really one of them as the on-course tote was never that strong. Computerised betting boards were no advantage for bookies like me who had an arithmetic advantage. But really the end of it was TV coverage, Sky Channel\u2026the punters, even the smarter ones, didn\u2019t have to go any more.\u00a0The smaller the crowd the fewer horses you\u2019re going to lay<\/strong>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n

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SO, WHAT\u2019S CHANGED SINCE? THE ANSWER IS BETFAIR.<\/h2>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n \n \n
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\u201cObviously the most important advantage with Betfair, for me, was that I could now lay horses which I couldn\u2019t lay on track. Even though I had no idea about computers,\u00a0it\u2019s become my most important tool.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cLook it\u2019s probably had one downside as well given that bookies now often have to push out to Betfair prices and in some cases, we might barely have a margin betting down to 102 or 103 percent but I wouldn\u2019t go to the races without it (Betfair),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cook says\u00a0Betfair allows him to have more control over his business<\/strong>. \u201cI can afford to take a bigger bet now, most of which you\u2019d never get off at the races these days. You can bet overs the place, laying a short priced favourite to place at small risk and, as I said, you can lay the horses you can\u2019t lay on course and 99 per cent of those you\u2019re left with don\u2019t win,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cook says he\u2019s a lousy punter but has one piece of advice for those taking him on. \u201cMoney finds the winners. I couldn\u2019t pick a winner in a pink fit but good judges aren\u2019t necessarily good bookies,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

On-course bookmakers remain an integral part of the racing experience according to Cook and Betfair has played a part in maintaining their viability. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t want to go the races without bookies<\/strong>. Bookies really add some atmosphere and are important part of that exciting race day experience which you hope encourages the next generation of punters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cook has loved his time in the game, from competing with SP bookmakers when their hold was so huge it depleted on-course turnover, to taking on smart punters like various members of the so-called Legal Eagles which included Don Scott, Michael McHugh (later a High Court Judge), Bob Charley (AJC Chairman) and Clive Evatt (barrister and NSW member of parliament).<\/p>\n

\u201cThey (the Legal Eagles) were very smart. They\u2019d price up a market to 80 per cent and bet strongly on the overs but I think the biggest bookies eventually figured them out,\u2019 Cook said.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n

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\n\n \n \n \"\"\n \n <\/a>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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