Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

The recent death of legendary Australian bookmaker Bill Waterhouse, at 97 years of age, closed the chapter on the life of one of the most colourful and controversial characters to step on to the race tracks of Australia.

'The Gambling Man', written by Australian investigative journalist and author Kevin Perkins nearly 30 years ago, chronicled the life and times of Australia's biggest bookmaker Bill Waterhouse.

The Gambling Man has it all - greed, power, wealth, intrigue, love, hate, conspiracy, corruption, scandal and revenge in the Australian thoroughbred industry in the twentieth century.

The chapters encompassing ‘The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse', describe the leviathan battles between Waterhouse and the several of the biggest punters in Australia in the 1960s.

What is known on this side of the Tasman, is that a Kiwi racehorse trainer who sat on the sidelines of the biggest betting duel in Australia between bookmaker and punter half a century ago, trained at the Gate Pa course in Tauranga in the mid 1970s.

Jack Hayes makes his entrance into 'The Gambling Man' as the trainer for the ‘Hong Kong Tiger' Frank Duval.

Hayes kicked-off his training career in Te Awamutu, before crossing the ditch to train horses in the hotbed of Australian racing in Sydney, finally returning home to semi-retirement in the Western Bay of Plenty.

Hayes' first winner came in the long-ago days in October 1946, when Frontier Mac saluted the judge at Te Aroha.

He also trained a multitude of winners in Australia, including Group 1 winning mare Chantal who numbered the 1966 Epsom and George Main Stakes at Royal Randwick.

The first skirmishes between Waterhouse and Duval took place on Sydney tracks, before both bookmaker and punter headed for Victoria to engage in a betting duel at the 1966 Melbourne Cup Carnival, which would capture media attention throughout Australia.

Duval had set his filly What Fun, trained by Jack Hayes, to win the Oaks - the main race on the Thursday of the 1966 Melbourne Cup Carnival, at Flemington racecourse.

'The Gambling Man' picks up the tale of the biggest bet in Australian racing history.

Hayes reported that What Fun had trained on well after an encouraging run on the first day of the carnival on the Saturday.

With the Oaks start fast approaching, Duval headed towards The Bill Waterhouse stand.

Duval stopped to study the other bookies boards, told himself that he had hoped for better than 5 to 1 from Waterhouse and began walking the last 20 metres to where the tall bookmaker stood, pencil in hand towering above his two clerks and bagmen.

"A hundred thousand to twenty, What Fun". "You're on," replied Waterhouse - he turned to his board reducing What Funs odds to 9 to 2'.

‘Duval walked back and stood a few metres away. "Would you like it again" Waterhouse called out throwing down the challenge.

"Yes" he shouted back, 'I'd like it again, ninety thousand to twenty". Duval studying the boards from the back of the Members enclosure, decided that 4 to 1 was still good value, he pushed his way to Waterhouse's stand. 'A hundred thousand to twenty five" he said'.

In the space of a few minutes, Duval had outlayed $65,000 to win $290,000, the (then) biggest official bet recorded by one man on an Australian horse race.

The enormity of the bet is shown in today's money, being something like something like eight hundred thousand dollars to win $3.4 million.

History will show that the unfancied Farmer Daughter beat What Fun into second place.

Jack Hayes returned to New Zealand in the early 1970's, from the pressure-cooker atmosphere of Australian racing, to train a small team in semi-retirement at the Gate Pa track.