{"id":221626,"date":"2025-10-18T02:05:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T02:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/221626\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T02:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T02:05:09","slug":"melbourne-and-sydney-prepare-for-massive-race-day-all-the-odds-predictions-start-times-and-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/221626\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne and Sydney prepare for massive race day; all the odds, predictions, start times and results"},"content":{"rendered":"

As racegoers are set for their first flutter of the day, on-course bookies accept a changing tide.<\/p>\n

Anthony Doughty has been an on-course bookie for 50 years, most of his clients are older and place their bets over the phone.<\/p>\n

\"Bookmaker<\/p>\n

Bookmaker Anthony Doughty at Caulfield on Saturday.Credit: Nicole Precel<\/p>\n

\u201cGo back 40 years, the bookmakers had 95 per cent of the market. No casino. No poker machines. If you want a bet you have to have a bookie,\u201d he said<\/p>\n

But now, they have less than 1 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like the titanic, everyone is dress up, the food is alright, but as an on course bookie – I know what\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the gambling market had changed, with the younger generation preferring tech.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday in broad terms the football has finished, the suns out. Those are the main two things for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have good horses – standard of horses this time is better, but that doesn\u2019t mean a thing to a lot of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he believed racing would always have on-course bookies.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompetition is good for any industry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mary Mulcahy flies down from the Gold Coast to work with bookies every spring racing carnival.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe suns out, the dollars are out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaulfield is steeped in tradition, which is good. Still standing. It\u2019s good to have a bit of a mix. There are other courses who people feel are their favourites.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Caulfield is steeped in history, it\u2019s good it\u2019s not overshadowed by what\u2019s happening in Sydney today so hopefully we get a piece of the pie.\u201c<\/p>\n

She said they didn\u2019t get 18-25 year olds, their clientele were older.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure there\u2019s an element of bookmakers – who put their hands in the air and say I can\u2019t collect any more,\u201d she said<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As racegoers are set for their first flutter of the day, on-course bookies accept a changing tide. Anthony…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-221626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}