ABSTRACT
Face A face is a backer who is well-known in the betting ring: usually one who is ‘in the know’ and prepared to bet heavily – but not always, as this analysis of one way of finding value shows:
The size of the bet is no criterion in ‘betting to faces.’ There are certain backers whose fiver is more significant than the monkeys of others … One trainer who very rarely backed his horse would occasionally go up to a Boardsman and have a fiver on one of his runners. This bookie was indeed fortunate provided he ‘knew the face’ – the horse was virtually past the post as he struck the bet. The layer could obtain value from such a situation by extending the prices of the other runners or by hedging the trainer’s runner. (Sidney, 120)
