Hi I’m Anthony Gilbert and I first started following horse racing about 13 years ago when I ventured to Kempton park with my Grandad to watch the king George on boxing day and I can still remember it as if it was yesterday. Kicking king won the king George and Harchibald amazed me winning the Christmas hurdle beating Rooster Booster. I remember the buzz I got from that day and it was like nothing I had ever felt before, I wanted to go racing again as soon as possible.
The next time we got to the racetrack again was for the Cheltenham gold cup in March where I watched the King George winner kicking king win the gold cup beating take the stand. After hearing the Cheltenham roar the sport had drawn me in even more than it had at Kempton on boxing day. I returned to Kempton for the second time in 2006 where I watched Kauto star win his first King George, At this stage I was Hooked as I watched Kauto star plough through the last fence to power away from exotic dancer and Racing Demon.
From then on I was going to the races at any possible moment and was a regular at Nottingham and Southwell during my younger years. As soon as I turned 18 my interest grew more in the gambling side of the sport I started placing lucky 15s on a Saturday afternoon whilst watching them on Channel 4 racing. After landing a 25p lucky 15 with winners of 25/1, 9/1, 6/1 & 4/1 paying over £3500 on what was only my 4th week of gambling it drew me in even more as the buzz I got from picking 4 winners on a big Saturday afternoon was second to none. That point onwards my stakes started increasing and even though not every Saturday was a profitable one I was easily holding my own.
I began going racing at Nottingham and Southwell practically every fixture providing I had the day off from work and soon started building contacts within a few racing stables. After a few weeks of getting to know them and building their trust I soon started getting texts from a number of them regarding horses that were going extremely well at home. I started throwing £20 singles on these horses and after the first month 9 out of the 11 horses I had received texts about had won. At this point I decided it was time to start increasing the stakes on the horses I had received information on and started placing single bets of anything up to £100 depending on the odds.