Punter pulls off great greyhound sting but is denied cashBrent Zerafa
c/ Daily Telegraph
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/superracing/punter-pulls-off-great-greyhound-sting-but-is-denied-cash/story-fn67rc85-1226252805641THIS sting hadn't been planned for months, it was a spur of the moment stab at winning $150,000.
After gazing at the form for the twilight meeting at Horsham early yesterday, it immediately appeared the perfect race to pull off the plunge.
Despite the race being a handicap with dogs starting from staggered boxes, Stack 'Em Flat and Echelon looked head and shoulders above their rivals in the opening race. They would start from the two inside boxes, there was three scratchings and in the opinion of the punter, the three remaining rivals were hopeless.
Having been a part of the Lucy's Light sting from 2005, the punter - a high-profile greyhound owner who also works for a bookmaker - had the perfect blueprint to once again get plenty of bang for his buck.
The plan would be to manipulate the place pools of the NSW tote and UNITAB by having calculated amounts on the three dogs which he gave no chance.
This would dramatically reduce their place price and as a result, inflate the price of the two dogs he thought would fight out the finish.
From there he would back both dogs with four corporate bookmakers who offer "middle tote", paying the middle dividend of the three totaliser pools in Australia.
With the accounts loaded, the bets on Stack 'Em Flat and Echelon were placed at 4.02pm, exactly two minutes before jump-time so that the bookies would not be alerted to the sting.
Just before the bunny rolled in to action, the button was pressed to place the bets on the three other dogs and the stage was set.
The result couldn't have been any better, Stack 'Em Flat won by just over a metre from Echelon, with their rivals 13 metres away in third.
In Victoria, Stack 'Em Flat's official winning dividend was $2.00 while Echelon started $1.80 favourite.
But the perfect ending wasn't to be with the bookies smelling a sting.
With the Lucy's Light sting still fresh in the minds, safe guards were established in the terms and conditions of bookmakers to prevent liability of paying out bets that are results of tote manipulation.
"I am just very disappointed in the corporates (bookmakers), they want to take your money and if the dog gets beat or breaks down they would be happily taking my money," the punter said.
"We invested $20,000 hoping to win about $120,000, clear that figure at least.
"We've won, but not too much about, $20,000 or something."
Sportingbet bet originally paid the full amount of $66,000 but reduced the pay-out to $30,000, Centrebet returned $16,000, Betchoice $8,000 and Betstar suspended the bets. Tabcorp have previously raised integrity concerns with corporate bookies offering tote products as they believe it carries the risk of tote manipulation.
