Who is patrick veitch

But Veitch knew that wasn't his true showing. Unfortunately for the bookies, they didn't. Exponential's work at home had improved two-fold and the price the horse opened up at was too good to turn down.

His military-men on the ground - those used up and down the country to get his bets on in black-listed bookies - quickly went to work. As you'd expect for someone in his line of 'work', Veitch rubbed someone up the wrong way. But Veitch didn't play ball, he went to ground and eventually managed to take the incident to court.

These days you hear little from Veitch although he is supposedly still involved, very much behind the scenes. Here, plainly, is someone eager to be depicted as a shadowy, mysterious figure, who has found his own, inscrutable path to wealth. Sure enough, in discussing the book at Newmarket races last week, Veitch even declined to give his age though anyone who reads it carefully may surmise him to be almost, if not quite, The illustrations within, however, tell a rather more candid story.

Here is Veitch, with some decorative companion, flying to the races in his helicopter — one he had designed, as he writes with gauche satisfaction, in his own racing colours. Now the monarch herself is seen presenting Veitch with a trophy. For the one thing you will learn from Enemy Number One, if only from its tone, is that Veitch — to paraphrase Churchill on Attlee — is an immodest man, with much to be immodest about.

It's all there in the bottom line, in fact: the very last one in the book. For his closing flourish is to list his annual profits, over that eight-year period. It may seem incongruous that a man who cultivates such a secretive profile should suddenly prove eager to tell the world how clever he is. But you have to make allowances for Veitch. For the cornerstone of his whole career is the horrible episode that turned his life upside down in Veitch was enjoying a carefree bachelor existence in Cambridge, supplementing betting income with a telephone tipping line.

He had arrived 10 years previously, to read maths at Trinity, after submitting a precocious application, aged just He acknowledges that you are supposed to "hope" to go to Cambridge, rather than "decide", but then writes: "I have to be honest and say I decided.

Ultimately, he abandoned his studies altogether. Unfortunately, his success became known to a very dangerous man. Their paths had crossed peripherally, but one evening this villain appeared on the doorstep with a bulky "associate" and a tenuous suggestion that Veitch had cost him money. Being rather attached to his legs, and eager to stay that way, Veitch was terrified. But he did not pay. Instead, he went to ground. He asked the police to help. Eventually, he found himself testifying against his tormentor in court, in a bullet-proof vest.

In time, the extortionist would be imprisoned for nearly killing a policeman, but not before Veitch had endured terrible corrosion of his emotional and financial resources. Someone, he resolved, would have to pay for what had happened — and the bookmakers seemed ideally qualified. He began his furious redress.

In the Newmarket sunshine, he still has an air of dapper, youthful insouciance. But he says a decade of explosive punting would never have been ignited but for the way he smouldered then. But also I probably got better for that: I worked so hard, and learnt a lot. I couldn't have my old life back, so there was a feeling that I would have to build a better one.

He would happily have forgone the extra millions, to be spared that original ordeal. But the crisis certainly summoned those assets that would subsequently nourish his success.

He says that each factor is very subjective so it is no easy process to sort the wheat from the chaff. Veitch insists that there is no substitute for hard work and estimates that he devotes 80 hours per week to horse racing. Harvey is a horse racing writer with vast experience within the publishing industry. Join 19, fellow punters who are already betting smarter with free tips from our professional tipsters. To begin receiving your free tips, please click the confirmation link in the email we just sent you.

Don't miss another winner. Join 19, fellow punters who get free tips from premium tipsters every day. Back Who is Patrick Veitch? Patrick Veitch Patrick Veitch studied mathematics at Cambridge University but soon found himself devoting more time to the horses than to algorithms.

Exponential gamble at Nottingham Veitch has re-invested some of his winnings in racehorses and landed a significant coup with Exponential at Nottingham in Horse Racing Correspondent Harvey Mayson Harvey is a horse racing writer with vast experience within the publishing industry.

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