Top Gold Coast bookies Noel Smith and Vince Aspinall reveal nerves when the big bets come in

GOLD Coast bookies say they can be beaten - but you better spend time studying the form.

Noel Smith and Vince Aspinall are considered the first movers of the Gold Coast bookie crew. Picture: Mike Batterham

VETERAN Gold Coast bookie Noel Smith is always a very nervous man come Magic Millions.

At the big track meet of the 10-day horse racing, sales carnival and luncheon-athon there’s a lot of the line for a guy like Noel.

He probably shouldn’t be nervous – he’s been a bookie at every Magic Millions since its inception in 1987. The guy can still remember when Snippets won way back then.

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Noel, with a background in engineering, has also been taking bets from punters for 30 years after falling in love with the game in his teens: “A good mate of mine’s brother took him and I to the races when he was 16 — I won 28 pounds and I’ve been hooked ever since.”

He’s pretty much seen it all.

Gold Coast bookie Noel Smith has been putting his prices on the line for 30 years. Picture: Mike Batterham

The 64-year-old has taken big bets on long odds from ballsy players who think they can beat him – and would have left him with a six-figure hole in his pocket if they had.

“I’ve had some of my worst and best days on Magic Millions so I always go into it with a little bit of apprehension,” Noel says.

“Every favourite might win and we bookies get wiped out. Or we might have a few results and have a good day. But you go there with a little bit of trepidation and hope you come out ahead.”

Noel knows all about trackside nerves. The biggest bet he’s ever agreed to take was from a Gold Coaster (he won’t say who) who shelled out $2000 on a $200-to-one shot to win a race in Sydney.

Noel Smith says he’s had some nervous moments during his career as a bookie. Picture: Mike Batterham

Noel clearly recalls the brazen flutter from about five years ago by a regular private punter who put the “the bickies” – as he calls them – on the nose of a horse Noel had chalked up as a total donkey.

The payout, if it’d won, would have been more than $400,000.

“He used to bet with me and wanted me to give him a price for this horse. I was crapping myself because by the time the race was about to start it had turned into a 50-to-1 shot.”

Thankfully for Noel, the horse wasn’t a winner.

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Good luck finding a bookie at Bundall who’ll accept that kind of sizeable wager these days, given the amount they ending up holding throughout a regular Saturday is generally a lot less.

Stiffer competition from the myriad of competitors like corporate betting firms and websites plus the TAB, which can now all offer fixed odds, has eaten into the bookies’ slice of the pie.

“Six or seven years ago before the corporates (betting sites), I’d hold a million for Melbourne Cup.

Veteran bookie Smith once took a bet from a punter which would have left him with a $400,000 hole in his pocket if the roughie had won. Picture: Mike Batterham

“These days you might end up holding $50,000 on Saturdays. I’d be disappointed if I didn’t hold $150,000 to $160,000 (today).”

A fellow respected veteran of the local bookie scene, Vince Aspinall – who’s been calculating odds for 39 years – adds: “It’s harder nowadays and you can’t take as big a bets as you used to take because you can’t cover them with all the other bets so you have to appreciate that change in the times.”

But when it comes to putting the odds out there first, it’s generally Noel and Vince who are considered among the market leaders of the Gold Coast bookie crew.

Noel Smith and Vince Aspinall are considered the first movers of the Gold Coast bookie crew. Picture: Mike Batterham

“I’ve been putting my prices up first for years ... because I’m a gutsy arrogant prick and think I’m better than everyone else,” Noel says, laughing.

One racing industry insider tells Coast Weekend plenty of others tend to wait for Noel and Vince to make the running on the odds for each race: “A lot of the other guys will sit back, they always wait for Noel or Vince to put up their prices.

“It’s important to have a strong bookmakers ring to keep those prices up and it’s important the other bookies accept the challenge and bet the same prices,” the insider says.

Gold Coast Turf Club chairman Brett Cook agrees with the sentiment that having a good range of bookies on course willing to have a go with healthy odds on offer for the punters is an essential part of the race day atmosphere.

“That’s why having a strong bookmaker’s ring on course does help. If you get people to go down at the course to bet at the bookmakers, they will also bet at the tote.”

Bookie Noel Smith and his clerk count up at the end of another race day at the Gold Coast Turf Club. Picture: Mike Batterham

Brett is also very happy with the prices the bookmakers have been offering of late.

“I don’t know the statistics but from a club point of view, there have been very good prices which is pleasing.

“Four to five years ago bookmakers all over Queensland were copping a lot of stick for not betting the right percentages but the past 12 months our on-course bookmakers have been offering the highest percentages I’ve ever seen. They’ve been trying to supply good prices to the punters.

“If they bet good percentages it puts pressure on the corporates and the tote and everyone else to compete and that’s what it’s all about — getting as much competition as possible for the punter to get the best pricing.

“The bookmakers only enhance us so I hope they hang around. From an Australian point of view they are part of the fabric of racing.

“We will do everything possible that we can to keep them involved for as long as they can,” Brett tells Coast Weekend.

Vince reveals Racing Queensland now cover the cost of the stand fee payable to the turf club to be at the track for the day and also the small percentage of their take that’s set aside as a bookie levy.

Veteran Gold Coast bookie Vince Aspinall gave up a career as a teacher 39 years ago to try his luck on the horses. Picture: Mike Batterham

“Racing Queensland have been very good to on-track bookmakers. They have really tried to help us along. Corporates can work seven days a week, 24 hours a day, Racing Queensland have tried to help the on-track bookmakers whenever they can.”

Vince adds the waived stand fees – several thousand dollars – would be a decent chunk of what’s earned for the week.

If they still had to pay that, he says: “I would survive but at the end of the day that’s probably going close to half your profit for the day. It would be 30 to 50 per cent of profit. So it's a big factor that we pay in levies.”

Brett adds: “From the club point of view we don’t make a lot of money out of on-course bookmakers but they definitely add extra flavour and give us traction with some of the punters who might normally go to the pub. We’re not here to profit off them — we’re here to make the punting experience better for the ones who come on course. It’s a point of difference from the pubs and clubs — and you have colourful blokes like Noel, they certainly entertain the crowd.”

On a normal Saturday race meeting there are about 10 to 13 bookies plying their craft.

For today’s Jeep Magic Millions Raceday, Cook says more than 30 will be on deck, with some in the normal spot inside the main stand while others will be in a specially-erected marquee area.

Noel hopes to be in his usual position — leading the way.

Brett says admiringly: “He’s an old time bookmaker, loves taking on the punter, loves taking on the individual, he’s not scared.”

Veteran Gold Coast bookie Noel Smith: ‘He loves taking on the punter’. Picture: Mike Batterham

Does Noel still get a rush after all these years?

“You do on the big days but there’s not so many big days any more, it’s a dying game. It used to be like being in the bullring in the stockmarket.

“I remember many years back a young fella come up, it was one of the big days. I had three to one odds on a horse and this bloke said how much do you want on that mate? And I said as much as you’ve got in your pocket little fella’. He pulled out $10,000. I crapped myself because all the other bookmakers put it up odds on.

“I was giving three back for every one, every one else was two to one. But when the horse got out in market it actually went out to $2.80, so I wasn’t far off.”

Noel pauses cherishing the memory: “It ran second, I got the bickies.”

So, on that note — can you beat the bookies, particularly these two guys who have 69 years of experience punting and setting odds between them?

Noel and Vince both reckon you sure can — but then they would say that because they really do want you to head down to the track and have a go at taking them on.

“The professional punters beat us. There’s a group of about 30 of them,” Noel says.

“They watch the race videos, there are some very smart ones out there who will say a particular horse can’t win and they will back all the horses around it.”

Vince feels to beat the bookies a punter really needs to be putting a decent amount of time into studying the form of a horse and past results.

“Yeah, they can still win if some-one has done their form really well.

“We still make mistakes every now and then, no one is perfect. But you learn from your mistakes when you do money in a race.”

Vince, who was a schoolteacher with a knack for numbers before giving the career away to be a full-time bookie, says: “There’s not as much money as there used to be but I enjoy doing it. If someone asks me to fix their car I wouldn’t be able to do it but I do have a bit of a gift for this kind of thing.”

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