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Bill Waterhouse Dies

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What a legend in the true sense of the word

 

Legendary bookmaker Bill Waterhouse - who once engaged in betting duels with some of Australia's biggest punters - has died three years short of his 100th birthday.

The bagman’s son Robbie Waterhouse said his 97-year-old father “left us peacefully with his family by his side”.

"Very sad that we have lost my father, Bill Waterhouse," Robbie tweeted.

"He left us peacefully with his family by his side. He was in great spirits till the end. He enjoyed a great day with all his great-grandchildren last Sunday."

Waterhouse was the patriarch of a family of bookmakers. Robbie, who is married to champion trainer Gai, followed his father into the game, as did his grandson, Tom.

Even in his last few months, Bill, one of the biggest bookmakers ever to field in Australia, was involved in the family business.

He made cameo appearances in video ads for his grandson Tom's tipping company.

A can of Fanta was all the enticement Tom Waterhouse needed to convince his grandfather Bill to become one of the stars of the advert.

In his heydey in the 1960s, Bill Waterhouse rose to be hailed by some as the world’s biggest bookmaker and gambler.

Waterhouse was famous for his betting duels with some of the biggest punters Australian racing has seen, including the "Filipino Fireball" Felipe Ysmael, the "Hong Kong Tiger" Frank Duval, Ray "Hoppy" Hopkins, Peter Huxley and Kerry Packer. 

He also took what may have been the first $1 million bet on a horse race when Ysmael challenged him with the wager on a race at a small Victorian country race meeting in 1968.

"That was the biggest single bet I took, the day Felipe Ysmael had $1 million on a horse with me in Melbourne in the '60s," Waterhouse told The Daily Telegraph in 2010.

"$1 million in those days would have taken you a long way in a tram!"

Ysmael's bet won as a $1.50 chance but the story goes that the punter's $1.5 million collect still left him owing money to Waterhouse that afternoon.

Waterhouse also waded through his share of controversies, including the 1984 Fine Cotton ring-in scandal.

Waterhouse and son Robbie were warned off racecourses for having alleged "prior knowledge" of the incident and Bill Waterhouse did not regain his bookmaker's licence until 2002 at the age of 80.

He retired from bookmaking in 2010 after he had first worked as a bookmaker more than six decades earlier.

RIP Bill Waterhouse.

 

 

Racenet

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1 hour ago, Boss Hogg said:

J J   Great book with all Bill's gambling  called The Gambling Man by Kevin Perkins a great story.  He was fearless when it came to punting .Cheer BH

Agreed, one of racing's great reads. The Felipe part in the hotel was simply outstanding

 

Greg

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On 11/23/2019 at 7:56 AM, Trump said:

Warned Off.  That would make a good epitaph on his Tombstone. 

Other possible epitaphs are:

Here lies

or Mr 200%.

The NSW Bookies lobby kept the TAB out of their state for as long as possible to allow them to keep raping punters.  The entire cartel would be 200% on Melbourne Cup morning. They were not so much bookmakers as they were thieves.  I spoke to a regulator who asked one bookie, who had all hands writing bets on Melbourne Cup Day, how he could keep track of his position whilst no-one was recording the bets?  “Don’t worry - we’ll make money” was the reply. 

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There’s a great article in today’s Qld SUNDAY MAIL newspaper. Titled, “A LIFE ON THE MAKE”, it describes what a draft dodging, lying, thieving, conniving, horse nobbling person he was. A briber or blackmailer of Politicians and Police. Involved in the 3 most appalling scandals in Aust Racing history. The one about the doping of Big Philou and Bart Cummings “get even” is a classic. Cummings hated Waterhouse and was so incensed to see Big Philou scouring uncontrollably less than an hour before the Melb Cup, the horse twisting in agony and exploding with Diarrhoea. The prime suspect, Les Lewis, a sacked Cummings stable hand, confessed on his deathbed in 1997, no longer afraid of Waterhouse’s pet gunman, Bertie Kidd. Waterhouse was a known nobbler. Bart got his revenge in 1974 when Waterhouse arrogantly assumes the Big Philou outrage was history and asked Bart for inside info on Leilani’s MC chances. Cummings deadpan, assured Waterhouse Leilani was unfit and could not win. Waterhouse rushes to exploit this info, luring a gold rush of punters to back Leilani. He filled his bag with “mug” money. Leilani won easily and Waterhouse approached Bart, quivering with rage and hissed, “What was that for?” Bart answered, “That was for Big Philou”. The article sums up by saying that big Bill’s son David never spoke to him for 27 years and won’t be at his funeral. He said, “No one loved Bill - good riddance!” What a lovely person! 

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