'Better than Denman and Kauto' - Findlay hails Shishkin-Energumene the best ever

Harry Findlay says he has fallen back in love with racing and thinks last month's clash between Shishkin and Energumene at Ascot was the best race he has ever seen.

Speaking to the Racing Post for an interview in Sunday's newspaper, the legendary gambler recalled the dark days that followed a series of blows around a decade ago, when he was warned off by the BHA for six months (later rescinded) for lay betting – a decision he describes as "pure evil" – and then lost £1.7 million in a failed investment in greyhound racing at Coventry.

Harry Findlay: 'It was, and always will be, the easiest £33,000 I've ever won'

However, he explained: "I was out of love with racing for a while but I was out of love with everything at the time. Now I win more on the horses than I do on sport and I watch all the good racing and any race where we've had a bet.

"I'm a punter, so getting a job has never been an option, because it would have to be one that let me watch a lot of live sport, and there aren't many of those about. I'm not cut out for a day job."

Harry Findlay (black shirt) is ecstatic alongside Denman and Sam Thomas in the Cheltenham winner's enclosureCredit: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)

Findlay was a part-owner of Denman at the time of the 2008 Cheltenham Gold Cup, in which his pride and joy famously beat Kauto Star, but even that could not match Shishkin's narrow Clarence House Chase verdict, he says.

"Unlike a lot of things, racing gets better and better as you get older," he said. "I think Shishkin and Energumene at Ascot was the best horserace I've ever seen, better than Denman and Kauto, I really do, and like everyone else I can't wait for the rematch at Cheltenham next month."

Findlay will be hoping for more luck at Cheltenham than he had last year, when he was one of many on the wrong end of Envoi Allen's fall in the Marsh Novices' Chase.

"I was on the Envoi Allen-Shishkin-Monkfish treble for telephone numbers last year," he said, "so Envoi Allen's fall was a sad day in this house, but I'm on Bob Olinger at 3s for the same race this year."

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