Oyster Maid

85 years ago yesterday - 13th of January 1927  

The story of the Oyster Maid affair as told by Brian Lee and published in 2004 in the Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales).

How Tenby 'fix' made horse racing a non-runner in much of Wales.

Byline: By Brian Lee

Before World War two, there were race fixtures galore in Wales at Cardiff, Newport, Monmouth, Wrexham, Pembroke, and Tenby to name just a few. Today, Welsh racegoers have only Chepstow in South Wales, Bangor-on-Dee in North Wales (Ffos Las can be added to the list now). But had it not been for the infamous fixed race in which outsider Oyster Maid beat his stable companion, the odds-on Bubbly, at Tenby races in 1927, things might possibly have been so very different. Former Welsh National Hunt jockey and best selling author Dick Francis said of the great gambling coup that, 'It was probably the biggest and most bitterly resented betting coup National Hunt racing has ever known'. One person who was actually at Tenby races that cold, windswept, snowy afternoon revealed to me some years ago now that, 'A certain publican in Tenby made between £60,000 and £70,000 as a result of backing the horse'... A tremendous amount of money in those days.

There were eight runners in the Licensed Victuallers Selling Handicap Hurdle over two miles worth just £44 to the winner. Three of them - Oyster Maid, Bubbly, and Fairy Light, were trained by local trainer David Harrison - The biggest trainer in Wales at the time. Oyster Maid, owned by Ben Warner, a professional punter and one-time bookmaker, was sent off a 16-1 chance, as was Fairy Light running in Mr Harrison's own colours. The trainer's third runner, 12-year-old Bubbly, owned by Mr Warner's great friend Ted Arnold, the England and Worcestershire cricketer, was considered a cert and was a very short priced odds on favourite at 2/5 with the legendary Welsh jockey Fred 'Dick' Rees in the saddle. Oyster Maid was partnered by soon-to-be five times champion jockey Willie Stott and Fairy Light was ridden by Mr Harrison's right hand stableman Tommy Duggan.

Although the race was run during a snowstorm, the Western Mail's racing correspondent was able to end his report thus, 'At the final flight, Oyster Maid drew away to win by an easy five lengths.' The race was hardly over when all hell was let loose by those racecourse bookmakers who had taken hefty bets on Oyster Maid, and some did a runner, claiming they had been 'done'. However, it was the starting price bookmakers that were hit hardest, as telegrams backing the horse had arrived at betting offices countrywide just a few minutes before the 'off'. Street corner bookies were also clobbered, their locked timing bags revealing bets large and small for Oyster Maid.

The full extent of the great gambling coup soon became apparent and the Western Mail's racing reporter wrote, 'In writing with reference to the last day's happenings at Tenby, I ventured surprise at the victory of Oyster Maid over stable companion Bubbly. 'A big starting price coup had been engineered and it transpires that several bookmakers in a large way of business will have cause to remember that Oyster Maid won when settling their accounts.'

It has been said that the race was fixed to help racecourse official and former amateur rider George Lort Stokes, who had fallen on hard times. All eight jockeys who took part in the race, as well as the owners, trainers and racecourse officials, were rumoured to have been in on the disreputable act and although the best odds about Oyster Maid on the racecourse were 8-1, the starting price reporter - also said to be in the know - returned the horse at twice those odds. The story goes that he was promised, just like the other jockeys in the race, that £50 would be placed on the horse for him at the odds he returned it.

In those days, communications between racecourses and betting offices were not like they are today, so that bookmakers had little chance to hedge their bets. One thing certain was that the Western Mail reporter was right when he said that the bookmakers would have cause to remember Oyster Maid. For few of them ever bothered to attend Tenby races again... Some off-course bookmakers even refused to take bets on horses running at Tenby. The town's name became a dirty word in the racing world, and the crowds and bookmakers stayed away. Race- goers who did attend had to put up with small fields and poor racing. The meeting that had once been likened to the Cheltenham Festival held its final meeting in 1936.