Tuesday 19th August, 2008 An account of bookmaker Stan James' PR man Nigel Seeley's wild night at a Naas hotel to plug the firm's sponsorship of the King George Chase.

(The Observer, 12th Dec 2004)

'Leaving at 2am somewhat worse for wear, a disorientated Seeley joined the queue for taxis. Unable to remember his destination, Seeley told the driver to tour the hotels in the area until he saw the one where he was staying. Some 50 yards down the drive, he peered out of the rear of the car window and realised his error. He was charged 2euros for his pains.'

Tuesday 19th August, 2008 Flat jockey Robert Winston.

(Racing Post, 4th Dec 2005)

'I was drinking myself to death. I just couldn't control it, couldn't stop.'

Tuesday 19th August, 2008 Jessica Harrington when asked what was next following Moscow Flyer's win at Sandown in December 2004.

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'The plan now is to have lots to drink.'

Tuesday 19th August, 2008 Peter Thomas

(Racing Post, 30th Jan 2006)

'I'm the kind of bloke who thinks big bookmakers should be hunted with dogs just for fun.'

Tuesday 19th August, 2008 Joke told by Robin Oakley about a transplant patient who choses a bookmaker over an Olympic athlete when offered a choice of donor.

(The Spectator, 29th Oct 2005)

'I wanted to be sure I was getting a heart that had been very little used.'

Monday 18th August, 2008 Raymond Winterton on the day Desert Orchid won the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

(Independent on Sunday, 13th March 2005)

'All the punters wanted their money - and I knew what Custer felt like.'

Monday 18th August, 2008 Henry Cecil

(The Independent, 29th Sept 2005.)

'I wrote a book once and I pretty much pulled myself to pieces. I like doing that.'

Monday 18th August, 2008 Lord Vestey reminisces about David Nicholson

(Pacemaker, Oct 2006.)

'Cavalry Charge was sent off the odds-on favourite but was beaten by a short head. David was booed into the unsaddling enclosure - Frenchie and I hid in the weighing room!'

Monday 18th August, 2008 Irish Police spokesman Chief Inspector Sean Feehily.

(The Daily Express, 4th June 2006.)

'We keep getting reports about horses' bones being found, but to date we still haven't found Shergar.'

Monday 18th August, 2008 Robin Oakley on the late David 'the duke' Nicholson.

(The Spectator, 9th October 2006.)

'Few could give a jockey such a bollocking, but none was as loyal to their man when others sought to criticise him.'

Monday 18th August, 2008 Tom Malone ignored orders by front-running on Cheltenham winner Cantgeton in October 2005, but was forgiven by Martin Pipe.

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'That's another daft jockey I've got. He knew he was in for a bollocking if it went wrong, but he rode a great race.'

Monday 18th August, 2008 Tony Verdie on Derek Thompson's Channel 4 interviews with jockeys both before and after races.

Racing Post, 10th July 2005.)

'How would he like it if the door to the lavatory suddenly opened while he was ensconced on the can, and someone with a big grin and a foolish chuckle enquired of him how things were going, were conditions underneath a bit on the firm side and could they mar his chances of success.'

Monday 18th August, 2008 Racing Post writer Graham Green on why racing was cancelled in May 2005 at said venue.

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'Wild boars have ravaged the tiny racecourse at Gaberret in south-west France.'

Monday 18th August, 2008 Janet Street Porter sold horse meat to racegoers at Cheltenham in 2007 - the police moved her on.

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'We're too blinkered to see it as a fantastic tasting meat.'

Monday 18th August, 2008 Henrietta Knight

(Observer Sports Monthly, March 2005)

'He finished 13th and wore a pair of blinkers which I now think should be banned in that race. They are too dangerous on loose horses.'

Monday 18th August, 2008 Trainer Peter Bowen.

(Sunday Telegraph, 22nd Oct 2006.)

'I reckon that in any race, half the horses are hurting and a third of them are breeders.'

Monday 18th August, 2008 Kieran Fallon's take on Southwell - November 2005.

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'It's just too bleak there; the surface is too deep and the kickback too severe.'

Monday 18th August, 2008 French jockey Christophe Lemaire.

(Racing Post, 23rd July 2006)

'England is the birthplace of the sport, so to go over there and ride big winners is very special. The public in England are the real fans of horseracing and of the horses themselves.'

Thursday 10th July, 2008 Owner Robert Bailey on Currency's unusual friend.

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'One of the ostriches we've got is a bit 'tup' as we call it in Wales - a bit silly - and when we've got him turned out, she follows him around the field holding on to his tail. He doesn't seem to mind.'

Thursday 10th July, 2008 Trainer Enda Bolger commenting on Nina Carberry's win on Good Steo in Punchestown, April 2006.

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'She's some bird and just different class and she nicked that one.'

Thursday 10th July, 2008 Barry Dennis describing his feelings after taking an £80,000 bet at 6/4 from J.P. McManus on his Baracouda at Cheltenham's 2005 World Hurdle, where the horse was beaten.

(talkSPORT, 18th Aug 2006)

'I had to put my bicycle clips on to stop the runs going from my rear into my shoes.'

Thursday 10th July, 2008 Robert Lester, owner of Iris's Gift, on the horse's October 2005 win at Bangor.

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'I went to my mother's grave and I said 'Mother, we need some rain', and I can't believe the rain she sent us.'

Thursday 10th July, 2008 Alan Lee

(The Times, 23rd Sept 2006)

'Every time I enter a betting shop I am struck by the latent anger and vicious blame culture that accompanies the torn-up tickets from yet another losing bet by one of those to whom this shop is the centre of daily life.'

Thursday 10th July, 2008 Andrew 'Bert' Black, co-founder of Betfair.

(Telegraph magazine, 2006)

'I wonder if gamblers are people who don't take their chances in the real world? I have gambled much more in the betting shop than in life.'

Thursday 10th July, 2008 Shaun Holden, voted Betting Shop Manager of the Year on the appeal of his profession.

(Racing Post, 20th July 2006)

'You can have a doctor and a loo cleaner patting each other on the back, one bloke's got £100 on it and one's got 50p, but for that moment they're united in slagging off a jockey or celebrating a goal. That's what you don't get sitting at a computer.'

Thursday 10th July, 2008 Barry Dugard, a local from Witney, Oxfordshire, recalls the visits paid by an inmate at the local asylum to his neighbourhood betting shop back in the 1960's.

(Racing Post, 19th Sept 2005)

'Dressed in striped pyjamas, he would stand in the corner and urinate on the floor before leaving with a cheery, "Goodbye, see you all soon."'

Thursday 10th July, 2008 Guy Wright

(Guardian Weekend, 6th Aug 2005)

'Betting shops are where you pay money to guess wrong.'

Saturday 5th July, 2008 Steve Palmer

(Racing Post, 23rd July 2005)

'They let you into public houses for free as well, and you are guaranteed to leave them a lot happier than when you entered. The same can't be said of betting shops, I'm afraid.'

Saturday 5th July, 2008 Steve Palmer

(Racing Post, 23rd July 2005)

'In the past elderly people used to meet up in church to spend time with one another and organise such things as tea parties or coach trips to somewhere nice. Now they gather in betting shops.'

Saturday 5th July, 2008 R. Black

The Jockey Club and its Founders, 1891.

'Betting is the manure to which the enormous crop of horse racing and racehorse breeding in this and other countries is to a large extent due.'

Saturday 5th July, 2008 Wray Vamplew and Joyce Kay

Encyclopaedia of British Horseracing, 2005

'Other sports HAVE betting but racing in Britain NEEDS betting. It is because of this close connection that there is widespread perception of the sport as corrupt.'

Saturday 5th July, 2008 1945 racing writer John Betts.

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'It's the quiet bets that make the bookmakers noisy.'

Saturday 5th July, 2008 Japanese trainer Kojiro Hashiguchi, whose horse Heart's Cry was beaten in the King George at Ascot in 2006.

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'I do not have space in mind to think about betting.'

Friday 4th July, 2008 Writer Richard Morrison on the Queen Mother.

(The Knowledge, July 2006)

'She was famed for betting, boozing and hats.'

Friday 4th July, 2008 Admiral Rous in 1856 on betting.

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'A necessary adjunct to racing.'

Friday 4th July, 2008 Lord Palmerston issued instructions to trainer William Day, which Day recalls in his 1886 memoirs Reminiscences of the Turf.

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'Run them where you like and when you think best only let me know when they are worth backing or that you have backed them for me.'

Friday 4th July, 2008 1863 book Horse Racing: It's History and Early Records, by an anonymous author.

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'If betting were done away with, there would be very few noblemen or gentlemen found willing and many unable to keep and run racehorses.'

Friday 4th July, 2008 Owner David Sullivan

(Racing Post, 18th June 2006)

'If you win a race you're happy, if you lose you're depressed, a bet either way won't change that.'

Friday 4th July, 2008 Footballer Michael Owen

(The Times, 16th Jan 2006)

'I will happily confirm that I love the buzz from backing a winner.'

Wednesday 25th June, 2008 Yet somehow Ian Humphreys managed to win the Tote jackpot of £124,777 in Nov 2005.

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'It was really all guesswork - there was no intelligence or science involved. I only go racing about once a year and bet about £5 a race.'

Wednesday 25th June, 2008 Starcraft's owner Paul Makin used to use a computer system to select bets on the Hong Kong and Japanese markets, apparently to his great profit.

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'I was betting an average of about $80,000 a race. It's quite a bit when you don't know the names of the horses.'

Wednesday 25th June, 2008 Howard Wright.

(Racing Post, 21st Oct 2005)

'Universal recognition that betting is the overwhelming driver for British racing has been a long time coming. It's here now but so too should be the acceptance that the betting industry no longer owes the sport a living.'

Wednesday 25th June, 2008 Trainer Peter Bowen - a teetotal Christian.

(News Of The World, 3rd Apr 2005)

'I've never had a bet in my life. Even if I was offered 1000/1 about a horse I knew was a probable winner, I wouldn't chance 50p.'

Wednesday 25th June, 2008 Ken Jones

(The Independent, 18th Mar 2005)

'People who have never risked anything on a horse - and lost, and cursed - and gone back to the boards to bet on the next race - will never understand what makes the sport so fascinating, so thrilling.'

Wednesday 25th June, 2008 Sir Clement Freud tells it like it is.

(Racing Post, 14th June 2006)

'If you mind losing more than you enjoy winning, do not bet.'

Wednesday 25th June, 2008 Sir Clement Freud

(Racing Post, 23rd Mar 2005)

'Freud and each-way are not words that are compatible.'

Wednesday 25th June, 2008 Betfair legal counsel David O'Reilly on company employees being no longer permitted to bet.

(BOS magazine, 2005)

'That was quite painful and we've lost employees already as a result.'

Wednesday 25th June, 2008 Daily Telegraph columnist Paul Hayward, commenting on as he calls it the 'lost integrity' of sports gambling.

(The Daily Telegraph, Feb 2005)

'A trip to a football ground is already remarkably like entering a High Street betting shop.'

Wednesday 25th June, 2008 Footballer Paul Merson

(FourFourTwo, Nov 2005)

'I won £54,000 on a bet, and I've lost £30,000 on a single bet. It would have been on the horses. But I don't bet now, I don't enjoy it.'

Thursday 19th June, 2008 Trainer Barry Hills

(Pacemaker, June 2006)

'I don't think there's anything about racing that is better now than when I started.'