Marten Julian’s Weekly Roundup 29 September 2025

Hi there,

With the passing of time I find myself looking back more and more to my earliest days on the racecourse and recalling, some with affection, the characters that used to be around.

One who never missed a local meeting and seemed to be a standing dish at any social event was Jimmy The Wig.

Seldom clean shaven, he wore a hairpiece so ill-fitting that when it rained it started to slip forwards. On one occasion at Newbury a couple of us watched him during a heavy shower take it off to pass to the man in the Turf Newspapers booth for safe keeping.

Jimmy turned up everywhere. Later that week he appeared at a charity event which John Dunlop used to organise at Wimbledon Greyhound stadium.

Jimmy always had a tip, allegedly from a well-placed source, but the regulars that I was keen to know were the ones who were close to the jockeys, trainers or yards.

There was a chap who always stood at the same spot by the paddock at Sandown who was apparently Pat Eddery’s chauffeur. These were the days before mobile phones, so I imagine some valuable insights were shared on the journey back home.

Then there was a guy who also had links with Pat Eddery, who used to stand at the exit of the paddock and Pat used to nod his head to him if the horse was fancied.

Jimmy Scott, travelling head lad to Sir Michael Stoute, and Alan Bailey, top work rider for Peter Walwyn, were greatly revered and beyond my reach at the time, although Alan later trained for me. I was told plenty of people went broke following Jimmy’s tips.

Things have changed these days, with many of the big players working from home, but one person that I would like to resume contact with is Andrew ‘Sammy’ Stringer, now travelling head lad to John Gosden. Before that he worked for Barney Curley, and he probably has enough spicy material from both those jobs to fill a book.

In his younger days he was a useful jumps jockey, and following the untimely death of Tony (PA) Charlton in a car accident, he took over the horses and trained for about five years from 1989 to 1994.

I managed the majority of the horses in the string when he started,  and he did well for us before taking a job as Jamie Spencer’s agent.

Sammy has been close to some of the shrewdest operators in the game but he would not have held on to those jobs if he were the type to open the door to their inner sanctums.

I don’t know who the best ‘judges’ are these days. I’m not even sure that the circuit has ‘faces’ any more.

With more transparency in the betting markets and pre-race and post-race interviews with connections there is so much now that is released in the public domain.

The strange thing is, despite the endless flow of information, data, analysis and live footage of racing punters don’t seem to be winning more than they used to. Or perhaps the handful that do can’t get on any more.

Bye for now,

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