Profile: Alex Bird
Alex Bird was Britain’s first professional gambler and was earning an incredible two million a year thanks to the generosity of bookies. What’s more incredible is that this was in the 1940s. Alex Bird is revered as one of the greatest horse racing players that ever lived. He died in 1991. Before doing so he left some tips. So what can the old pro teach us?
Advice from Alex Bird
Never bet on ‘first show’ prices, always wait on ‘second show’ price. Over the course of a season, the yield is 10% higher.
Changes on the road mean not gambling. A change in gait means changes in form, and that makes the outcome more random.
If a jockey is new and shows potential, follow his career. As he bags winners, you will pocket profits.
Never bet on handicaps
Choose your races and take advantage of each route. Races with 8-10 runners and few fit horses are ideal. Returns to the 2nd and 3rd favorites in the combined bets each way.
The early life of Alex Bird
Alex Bird was the son of a bookie. After learning the trade, he decided that he could make more money gambling than he could with the odds. If someone said this to you or me, we’d think they were a few runners short for a race. How wrong can two people be?
Bird became famous for betting on photo finishes. In the early days of racing, he would take five minutes to develop a photo. During this time, betting on the result of a photo finish would be intense. Bird realized that an optical illusion was taking place that made the horse on the other side of the image appear to have gotten there first. Bird made a small fortune this way.
However, that was not the end of his abilities, as he would often sway the odds on horses that he felt were undervalued. To do this, he would deploy a network of agents who would act on his behalf. Betting on off-course bookies, between them they would bet around £50,000 on a horse. He would then leak the information that he had been behind the endorsement of this horse and subsequently the prices of the horses would be drastically altered. Often the horse Bird wanted to back would drift out on the market. So his agents would endorse this horse for Bird.
mill reef
Bird discovered the potential of this horse early on. He was a devout believer in the importance of race times, and saw the horse win in the mud and on dry land. Bird backed him at 4/6 for £60,000. Mill Reef won the race by four lengths. Bird again supported him in the Derby and again Mill Reef won. That marked Bird’s seventh Derby victory in 8 years.
In many ways, Bird was the architect of the professional game, using systems to make a fortune. So far in our profile series, we have seen two successful horse racing players. They both have systems rather than instincts and that speaks volumes for their success.