Bookmaking and betting firms are getting a bad rap since they came out of the closet, as it were, and started advertising their products loudly and garishly. This is what Bernard once observed about bookies – unusually at the time:“I spent a day at Sandown Park once and lost money all day long on all six races. “He was a good man. I said to my then wife, ‘What a marvellous man Victor is. That crate probably cost you £5,000’.”