The Plunge: Mark Read details the day his horse won a Sydney maiden and he cleaned up

Bookmakers across the land were left shell-shocked after a confident young Melbourne man named Mark Read orchestrated one of the biggest plunges in Australian racing history. NEW PODCAST: LISTEN TO THE FAMOUS PUNTING TALE

Thirty seven years after orchestrating an Australian-wide betting plunge that netted well over $1 million, Mark Read still says the actual exercise beats the money.

“The exercise” was a meticulously-planned sting that saw a moderately performed colt named Getting Closer taken from Flemington to Sydney in absolute secrecy in December, 1981, to hopefully win a maiden on New Year’s Day.

BELOW: LISTEN AS READ REVEALS HOW HE PULLED OFF HIS MEGA BETTING PLUNGE

At the time Read was a dashing 32-year-old who had gone from a science and then economics degree at Melbourne University to bookmaking, and like a 1973 Oscar winning movie titled The Sting, he thought he had left nothing to chance.

A maiden on New Year’s Day at Randwick was the perfect setting for the sting he and his private trainer Henry Davis had set-up, but as US novelist John Steinbeck observed in 1937, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry”.

Such was the case for Getting Closer when the horse got balloted out at Randwick, but more of that later.

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Getting Closer would later go on to win some big races.

THE TRAINER: HENRY DAVIS

Read was looking for an astute trainer for his Flemington operation where he had 30 horses in work at stables once occupied by Bart Cummings.

A bookmaking friend recommended a young man in Brisbane named Henry Davis who had quickly built a reputation as a fine conditioner of horses.

The actual description of Davis was “reclusive, not someone who speaks too often and if he had a good thing, he wouldn’t sleep with his wife the night before the race”.

Read was confused as to how Davis’s sleeping arrangements were relevant to a betting plunge, until it was explained the trainer was worried that he might talk in his sleep. “This is the man for me” declared Read.

GETTING CLOSER’S ORIGINS

Read bought the Long Row colt in New Zealand for $20,000 which was an average amount at the time. He knew very little about the horse, but like every other piece of equine flesh that entered Read’s Flemington stables, if he could gallop then a betting plunge was on.

“We could win more money in a maiden by betting than in prize money for winning the Melbourne Cup,” explained Read.

“Prior to Getting Closer we had pulled off four or five plunges but they were all with first starters so the market was onto us, meaning we had to change our method by giving a horse a couple of runs before backing it.

“So Getting Closer was taken to Warrnambool for a maiden on November 18, 1981, where without the aid of a fast gallop or even a jump-out from the barriers, he tailed around behind a moderate field to finish 11th.

A week later he travelled to the city where he again ran 11th, this time with stable jockey Greg Hall on board who after the race said despite Getting Closer’s lowly finish that the horse “wasn’t hopeless”.

Jockey Greg Hall knew Getting Closer had some ability.

Bookmaker Mark Read in 1982.

THE STING IS ON

The stable started to think they might have a horse hopefully capable of winning a maiden somewhere, a view that would rapidly change after a barrier trial up the 1200m straight at Flemington.

”We put six up the straight including Getting Closer and a Group class sprinter from New Zealand named Our Prestige. Our Prestige, with Greg Hall on board, and Getting Closer cleared out from the rest and went head and head, the difference being Getting closer was ridden by track rider Michael Fraser who was a stone heavier than Hall,” said Read.

Our Prestige then stepped out at Caulfield a week later and bolted in by three lengths. Shortly after Our Prestige and Getting Closer again worked together, with the latter stunning everyone in winning by three lengths.

Naturally all and sundry wanted to know who the horse was: “I was caught on the hop but quickly explained it was Cold Chisel, a good-class sprinter we had in the stable. He and Getting Closer were reasonably similar in colour. When Cold Chisel ran shortly afterwards he was backed from 3/1 into 7/4 despite having no hope because he was half-fit,” said Read.

THE WORD IS OUT

While the Cold Chisel deception had fooled a few, those within the stable knew exactly who Getting Closer was, which presented a problem because loose lips have sunk many ships in the racing world.

Enter Read and Davis with a move worthy of a chess opening: “After he trounced Our Prestige it was a matter of ‘just what have we got here?’ But we had to throw everyone off the scent so we created an image that the horse was shin sore, with Henry treating him for a couple of days before we announced in a downcast manner that he would have to be spelled,” said Read.

Because he didn’t trust any of the float carriers, Read got his float driver from his Toolern Vale farm to pick up Getting Closer from his stables, but instead of heading for a spell he went straight to Sydney via the Hume Highway.

Read was a big name in the betting ring.

PLAN B

After a couple of weeks in a low-profile Sydney stable where Michael Fraser helped Getting Closer become accustomed to the Sydney-way of going, and where the horse did his fast work around the back of the track, New Year’s Day at Randwick was going to be D-Day.

Then disaster struck with the horse balloted out. As Read now explains, it was a gift from heaven: “The race we had entered him in was won by six lengths by Neville Begg’s horse Dalmacia, who ended winning the Epsom later that year, and we wouldn’t have beaten him, so we entered him at Canterbury the following Saturday.”

It was a strong maiden with leading trainers such as Tommy Smith (four runners) Mal Barnes, Jack Denham, Ray Guy and Brian Mayfield-Smith represented.

Hall returns to scale on Getting Closer after winning the St George Stakes.

JANUARY 9, 1982

With his wife Shari to initiate the plunge, Read also organised 20 footballers from Broadmeadows Football Club to place $1500 each on a horse he considered “a good thing”, given the odds of bumping into another Dalmacia were extremely unlikely.

Hoping for 20/1, he was stunned to see plenty of 100/1 on offer and even one 200/1. With patience being a virtue in such adventures, Read and his crew waited until the third call came through before beginning some frenetic betting that saw around $60,000 bet on the track at an average price of 13/1.

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With “Miracle” Malcolm Johnston typically riding with aplomb, Getting Closer jumped to a perfect position from barrier 1 before rounding them up to win going away by two lengths.

As the first leg of the Daily Double, Read also collected $100,000 from that medium, plus some very healthy wages at other tracks around the country.

The actual win? Read estimates around $1,270,000, but as he said earlier, it was the pride associated with the whole exercise rather than the money. And Getting Closer? He went on to become a very good 1400m-1600m horse, winning Gr 1 races in the Railway Stakes and Doomben 10,000.

Originally published as The Plunge: Mark Read details the day his horse won a Sydney maiden and he cleaned up