Cornish Racing
O
Services By Chris Pitt
Cornish Racing Services betting shop. It’s the sole survivor of what was, at one time, a seven-shop chain. Originally a barber’s shop, it was
converted into a bookmakers by a Mr & Mrs Vian, who ran it until selling to Cornish Racing Services, for whom it opened for business on 7 July 1986. The business was founded by Brian and
n the opposite side of the road from St Blazey’s football ground, adjacent to the free car park, stands the
Judy Skirton, who had met when working for Timeform in Halifax. Brian had moved from his home town of Bath to join the renowned racing publisher, while Judy, a native of Yorkshire, was secretary to the general manager. In 1972 the couple returned to Brian’s
l to r, Cornish Racing Services’ Ian Mansell, Steve Johns, Mark Rudge and Tracy Freeman Picture: Mary Pitt Hurdle.
west-country roots and joined forces with Jimmy Dingle, who had two betting shops, one in Looe, the other in Bodmin, under the banner of Cornish Racing, which had been established in 1965. When the partnership ended and they
went their separate ways, the business was split, with the Skirtons taking the Bodmin shop as Cornish Racing Services while Dingle retained the Looe office in the name of Cornish Racing Turf Accountants, which continues to operate successfully today.
and Judy gradually built up Cornish Racing Services portfolio, opening shops in Liskeard, Launceston, Tintagel, Padstow, St Blazey and Perranporth. During the 1980s and 1990s, they had
Using Bodmin as its head office, Brian
Graduating to fences, Avro Anson won the Grade 2 Dipper Novices’ Chase at Newcastle, finished runner-up in Aintree’s Mildmay Chase, third behind Jodami in the Peter Marsh Chase, and, with ownership having been transferred to The Mirror Punters Club, ran a fine race to finish sixth in Lord Gyllene’s 1997 Grand National. Sadly, Brian suffered a brain hemorrhage in 1998 and deteriorating health nowadays confines him to living in retirement. Judy, however, continuers to have a hands-on role and takes care of the book-keeping side of the business. All of the shops apart from St Blazey
several horses in training with Malton trainer Maurice Camacho. They included Lanhydrock – named after the Cornish town’s cricket club, with which Brian was passionately involved – who was successful for them over hurdles and later won several more races when trained by Oliver Sherwood.
Avro Anson, so named because of Brian’s interest in military and aviation history, whose career spanned the 1990s. He won three times on the Flat but it was in the National Hunt sphere that he really excelled. His five victories over timber included the Northern Champion Four- Year-Old Hurdle and the Billy Bow Hurdle, both at Newcastle, and he was placed in the Imperial Cup, the Lanzarote and Haydock’s Premier Long Distance
10 July/August 2010 BOS Magazine But their best-known was undoubtedly
have been sold off one by one, the most recent being the one in Perranporth to Totesport four years ago. The day-to-day running of the St
Blazey office is handled by Steve Johns, who has been there since its opening day 24 years ago, along with Ian Mansell and Mark Rudge and also Tracy Freeman. Steve, Ian and Mark operate a flexible working schedule and share the evening opening hours between them. During the summer months they open 10.15 Monday to Friday (10.00 Saturday) and close after the last race at night, but come September 1 they revert to closing at 6.30. Sunday hours are 11.30 to 6.00. Says Steve: “During the day ten years
who work in the local restaurants. They’ll bet on the racing, the virtual and put money in the machines.
“It used to be almost 100 per cent horse racing years ago but now the youngsters tend to do more football and more machines, numbers and virtual betting.” Adds Ian: “There are people now who only bet on virtual racing. They have no interest in horse racing whatsoever. It seems a strange situation whereby a diminishing share of your business is to do with horse racing, yet you are expected to make more money for double the service. That’s why the split between SIS and TurfTV hasn’t helped us at all. We haven’t taken on board TurfTV. Mark comments: “We have no pictures
but what can we do? We can’t justify paying £18,000 for both services when we’re not turning over enough money on the racing. The product SIS does is good but when you haven’t got pictures, it’s a bad service.” Continues Ian: “I think you could safely
ago you’d have had about a dozen people in the whole time but now it’s just a trickle, mainly regulars, or semi-regulars who you might only see once a fortnight. We have more evening customers now. We have a few Chinese punters that come in
say that if it hadn’t been for the changes in the industry which brought about the introduction of AWP and roulette machines, on top of the development of virtual racing and numbers betting, we’d probably be out of business because we couldn’t survive on racing alone.” The firm’s telephone business, which at its peak had between 300 and 400 clients, has inevitably declined in the face of stiff competition from the internet and attractive alternative offers. “What we do accommodate,” says Ian, “is people who want a little bet. You can’t imagine those people phoning up one of
Please mention BOS Magazine when replying to advertisements
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32