My brother and I followed in the footsteps of our father, Colin. We all had a love of horse racing. In fact, from the age of 16 we knew more than most adults. There wasn’t a trainer we didn’t know. There wasn’t a two-year-old horse that we couldn’t detail its form.
We were obsessed with learning.
My Dad used to wonder why we didn’t bet. At that time is was about learning our craft. And make no mistake we did.
Every day we would have the Racing Post delivered to our door. Every Wednesday The Sporting Life Weekender. If we had a religion, it was detailed in betting odds. We simply loved everything horse racing and especially Nick Mordin who was well versed in the gambling arena with many titled books and his Systems.
Such was our interest in his work that my brother, Tony, detailed a 5-year study he had concluded about Group-entered two-year-old race horses. This was the largest study in the world. A mass of data about horses, trainers, racecourses, betting odds and more. A wealth of information that hadn’t seen the light of day. A secret that would soon be published.
A day or two after posting his letter there was a phone call.
It was Nick Mordin asking for a Mr Tony Coote.
The story continue…
After further conservations the article would be written by Mordin and published in The Sporting Life Weekender (Vol 10, No 43). The parting words of Mordin to my brother: ‘You don’t mind me using the information? Most people would want to keep it to themselves.’
That was 1994.
In many ways he was right, but he never regretted letting the info go public. I’m sure lots of readers enjoyed the piece.
It was slightly unusual that we had to buy the paper.
However, when it was delivered to our door, we turned to page 7 (Systems) and full-page spread titled – In a class of their own: How to spot and back potential top-notch two-year-olds.
It was, by all accounts, a claim to fame.
Mordin’s Systems were always very well received and he followed up the piece the following week with an update detailing more thoughts. I think you can safely say it was done because the previous article had been a flying success.
That was almost 31 years ago.
Time flies. My father has passed. Nick Mordin vanished from the public eye. No one knows where he has gone. But still to this day my brother and I are still doing what we love: horse racing and betting.
Thank the Lord somethings never change.
