Doped: The Real Life Story of the 1960s Racehorse Doping Gang by Jamie Reid

Author:Jamie Reid [Reid, Jamie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Raceform
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

16

THE YARD STEPS IN

ON SUNDAY 19 November Micheline went back to the flat she had bought at 27 Park Road, near Regent’s Park, and which she was planning to do up and sell. Bill went to Mill Hill for another of those strange, outwardly normal encounters with Doris during which presumably certain subjects were never mentioned. Bill wasn’t the type to stick around to do the gardening or a spot of DIY and, by late evening, he was back at Stafford Court for a meeting with Charlie Mitchell.

Some of the results had been good. Hiawatha. Indian Melody. Scarron. Especially Scarron. But there had also been blunders and mistakes, too many of them to suit a man like Charlie. If Bill Roper couldn’t get Steward and the others to do the job as instructed, Mitchell would sort them out and find others who could. Roper tried to explain that, as far as he could tell, doping was an inexact business, depending on the weight and constitution of the horse. What worked with one might not work with another and the gang was still learning on the job. But Charlie Mitchell didn’t want excuses. He wanted to know whose stable they were going to hit next. Only five weeks to Christmas, he reminded Bill, and he was still at least 30 grand shy of his target. It would be a shame if, after so much effort, he missed it. A shame for Bill and an even bigger shame for Miss Micheline Lugeon, or was it Mademoiselle Laumaine or Brouillon?

Roper told Mitchell that the gang were going out again that night to Chris Nesfield’s yard at Charing. To dope the Fontwell winner, Caca Dora, who was due to run at Plumpton on Monday, the certain favourite in an eight-horse race. And one day soon they’d get at one of Cazalet’s runners, one of the Queen Mother’s in a nice televised chase on a Saturday afternoon.

Just do it, Bill, said Mitchell. No more non-runners.

The next day Roper went to Plumpton. He left the black Ford Zephyr in the garage behind Stafford Court and took the train down from Victoria, sharing a first-class compartment with the usual Monday Club collection of bookmakers and faces. It was a fine November day with plenty of sun and a good crowd. The punters always enjoyed Plumpton, drawn back again and again by the sheer excitement of steeplechasing despite the ungilded surroundings and the modest card.

Bill was intent on laying Caca Dora in the three-mile Scaynes Hill Handicap Chase and backing the second favourite, Cameron’s Kid, but as soon as he got to the racecourse, he heard that Caca Dora had been withdrawn. His boys had screwed up yet again. But if there was nothing much else of betting interest at Plumpton, Bill discovered that the racing press were buzzing with rumours and stories. Doping stories. Captain Ryan Price was in attendance, Plumpton being one of his local tracks, and he was in a choleric mood. He’d informed the

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