'Don't bother coming back if you get beat' - Albert Davison's Leicester words

From 10 to 1, our countdown of the greatest gambles of all time. A new instalment will be published every weekday for the next fortnight. Today – No.10: Great Things and the 1978 Christmas Opportunity Selling Handicap Hurdle

The background

Albert Davison was a master at landing gambles, spotting loopholes in the rules and exploiting them to the full.

He knew the key to any plot was secrecy. Letting as few people as possible know what was going on reduced the risk of word getting out and spoiling the price.

His shrewd yard at Caterham in Surrey may have had the bookmakers running scared but precious few of those who worked there, or owned the horses, had any idea what was planned. No jockeys rode work. No journalists were spoken to. And if a horse needed to do a key gallop in readiness for the big day, Davison would make sure most of the staff were elsewhere, often telling them the cows had broken out and they had to go round the forest to look for them.

He was also a very patient man, one happy to wait two years for a horse with dodgy legs to come right and land a coup.

The build-up

Davison often targeted selling or claiming hurdle races – the worse the company, the less the chance your gamble will be foiled by an unexpectedly talented rival.

On December 18, 1978, his sights were set on the Christmas Opportunity Selling Handicap Hurdle at Leicester and he had two runners, to put the bookmakers off the scent.

Minigold was the apparent first string, with stablemate Great Things looking hard to fancy as he had a history of leg problems and his form figures coming into the race were 00/0-PP0.

But great things were indeed expected. That much could be seen by a string of small bets, reckoned to add up to nearly £3,000, placed in the 15 minutes before the off in betting shops in Ireland, well away from the course so as to make sure a bumper 33-1 starting price was returned.

No rider had been declared for either horse, so to keep the bookies in the dark Davison borrowed two jockeys from Josh Gifford, put Richard Rowe on the fancied horse as he had ridden the more winners and told him: "Don't bother coming back if you get beat."

The race

The tale of the race is not easily told due to the thick fog that made it difficult to see what was going on, even for those riding in it.

But Chris Kinane carried out his instructions to "go as fast as you can for as long as you can" on Minigold, while Rowe had no idea where he was on Great Things. He said later: "Halfway down the back I'm all on my own. I've not a clue if I'm fifth, tenth or where I am."

However, turning for home his mount started picking up. He overtook horse after horse and caught three more on the run-in to pass the post in front, although visibility was so bad his jockey admitted he wasn't certain he'd won.

The aftermath

As the money had been placed off-course, people did not realise what had happened until shops in Ireland began reporting huge losses.

The coup was believed to have earned £100,000 – the equivalent of around £500,000 today.

Davison went on to land further gambles before giving up training in 1993 after he was found to be using his land as an unofficial dumping ground for building waste.

He was warned off for six years in 1998 when he was found guilty of conspiring to defraud the betting public in the case of Will I Fly, another winner at Leicester, and he died at the age of 73 in 2011.

The scores

Audacity A selling hurdle is not exactly the Wokingham. 3

Ingenuity Not many would fake bovine escapades in the name of a coup. 10

Ease of win A close-run thing. 3

Money won The equivalent of £500,000 in today's money – a hefty sum, though dwarfed by others to come in our series. 5

Gamble marks 21

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