The crumbling structures hidden beneath racing's grandstand are spread far and wide. You need to search for them but they are there, nuts and bolts visibly coming loose, if you care to look deep enough.
Germany has never been a major racing country. It has nevertheless always punched above its weight for the quality of horse produced in relation to the relatively small number of animals in training. It is likewise a nation that has had an impact on the equine breeding scene, with stallions having to fit certain rules to prove ability and soundness to be allowed to stand. Many successful pedigree lines have a German influence, including the bottom line of the pedigree of the best current progenitor in the world, Galileo.
On the betting front, it had aways been easy to find access to British, Irish and French racing in high street outlets. In fact, during the 1990's the Racing Post carried a piece from a writer reporting his visit to a Ladbrokes shop in Munich. He was impressed by the enthusiasm of the inhabitants chatting about the likes of Martin Pipes best chances at the forthcoming Cheltenham Festival.
The 1990's seems only yesterday but by God things have changed dramatically. You won't find any Ladbrokes offices in Germany anymore. In fact, if you are over there and try logging into any of your UK betting accounts you'll find that you are unable to put bets on racing back home. You are fine for UK football or other sports, but not the horses.
This is born from legislation taken to protect revenue from betting on racing and to ensure a cut is taken by the state. If you wish to get stuck into the novice hurdle at Hexham you will have to seek out an outlet with a licence to take bets on foreign racing but sadly many have disappeared, or show no racing at all.
One well known LBO has lately gone under. It was the shop (in picture) close to the main station in Cologne. It would show all the UK and Irish racing, even the UK greyhounds. I'd nickname it the ' Trabolgan shop' , as I once remember going in and being dismayed at the headline on the front of the Racing Post, announcing that the fast progressing Nicky Henderson trained gelding had sustained an injury and would be on the sidelines for a long period. I also watched Sea The Stars's Eclipse from there.
The last time I visited the shop it had followed the pattern of the UK shops by installing several FOBTS. Sadly, the premises where the shop stood is now a jewellers.
Close to the main station in rival city Dusseldorf lies a plush Bet300 shop. Inside a plethora of sports are available to wager on. Football at all levels in all corners of the world, basketball, ice hockey, tennis, handball, snooker, boxing, baseball, American football, and others too, but no horse racing.
If you go deep into the shop you enter a cinema type complex, massive super HD screens, and a seating area in the centre reserved for ' members only '. It is generally depressing to think that many get entertainment from entering a shop with screens showing in play live scores and place a bet on the likes of Mauritian second division football, no matter how seducing the facilities are.
Further on into Graf Adolf Strasse, I entered a Tipico shop. Some Tipico shops show British, Irish and French racing, this particular outlet did not, nor did the one down in the Altstadt. Just general sports. There was approximately half a dozen customers in each shop, most sat there watching the scores for the low grade in play football matches. Very, very depressing.
There was one particular LBO I needed to visit. Situated at Karl Rudolph Strasse 167, it had been an old fashioned betting office run by a firm called KG the last time I visited it a couple of years back. Then, they had a Racing Post on the wall, had live British, Irish and French racing, and there was even a customer wearing jodpurs and riding boots ! This area of course forms part of which may be termed as the heartland of German racing.
On a side note, Karl Rudolph Strasse is a continuation of Ostrasse, the scene of an incident engraved in Dusseldorf folklaw.
On Wednesday 6th September 1978, Baader Meinhof gang member Willy Peter Stoll walked into the Shanghai Restaurant which was situated at Ostrasse 156, sat down, then ordered a Chinese meal and a beer. Stoll was on the most wanted list; he had played a leading role in the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Hans Martin Schleyer in Cologne the previous year, where he was one of the gunmen who murdered Schleyer's bodyguards as the industrialist was snatched.
Stoll was instantly recognised by some in the restaurant. As the group had support amongst many far left leaning members of the public, not all who recognised him would be prepared to inform the police. However, one lady popping in for a takeaway was having none of it and immediately went back out and raised the alarm.
A single police officer entered the restaurant, Stoll stood up and went to draw his pistol but the policeman was quicker and shot Stoll dead. Reports of the incident appeared in newspapers world wide; perhaps the most curtly put description was one I found in the archives from a Canadian newspaper.
It showed a picture of Stoll with the the caption, " Willy Peter Stoll - too slow on the draw."
Returning to the nearby LBO; to my initial dismay, the shop had also been taken over by Tipico. But on entering spirits were lifted on finding that they had Racing TV and Sky Racing, in addition to the French racing channel. Strangely enough, although they had cards on the wall for Cagnes du Ser and the French trotting, they had no Racing Posts, and only basic cards for the British racing without any form or tips.
Leicester, Lingfield and Hexham were on, and they had the sound, plus the Racing TV and Sky Racing post race summaries, including the odd interview, such as Matt Chapmans with Danny Cook whose ride he'd been eulogising over. The French racing channel was shown without audio. Throughout the afternoon there was never more than eight or nine punters present, with roughly five or six of them betting constantly on the UK racing.
One pertinent point is that those betting on the British racing were all at the very least over fifty years of age and appeared to be ethnic German. This is a strict pattern I have noticed in betting offices up and down this country and must stem from the fact that this age group would have been introduced to betting when a multitude of LBO's existed, all showing UK and Irish racing, along with UK greyhound racing.
I have also noted that the ethnic minorities amongst the population, such as those from Turkish and African roots, tend to stick to football betting and you rarely see them in the offices where racing is the main fare.
One cannot help wondering how shops such as the aforementioned one in Karl Rudolph Strasse can sustain themselves, having to pay for British and French racing chanels with so few numbers inside and betting.
I would not be surprised if the days of showing British, Irish and French racing in German high street betting offices are numbered. And being left with no option than watching screens showing updated football, tennis, ice hockey and basketball scores, as opposed to a Carlisle novice chase, is such a soul destroying prospect to consider that I think I'd rather visit Baader Meinhof locations than have a bet !
image - taken by author
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