Press Cuttings

Recently in Raceform Update, an influential racing publication, James Willoughby wrote of Henry in his masterclass:

‘’It wasn’t until Henry Rix began his career with the now defunct Today in the late 80’s that a mainstream newspaper tipster embraced speed figures as a central plank of his approach.

Rix’s success, both as a tipster and punter, led to him being hired in 1996 by the Racing Post. Soon he began to write about his selections in such a spirited and confident fashion that he influenced a whole generation of punters to become fascinated by his methods.

……..I have come across half a dozen really successful punters over the years and it’s a recurring trend that they fit neatly into one basket or another.

Henry Rix – former Betting Bureau tipster for the Racing Post – might look at a race and despise it as a betting opportunity because it looks to have a ready solution. I have lost count of the number 20-1 winners of races like the Hunt Cup and Cambridgeshire Henry has encouraged me to support.’’

Racing Post - THE ONE-MAN BETTING TREND

When the master tipster sneezes the bookmakers dash for their morning tissues to prevent their chill worsening to a more serious malady.

Henry Rix troubles them like few have troubled them before. His heavyweight influence on the graph that sketches balance of payment between punter and bookmaker is best summed up by Mike Dillon, voice of Ladbrokes.

“We’ve reached the stage where all serious punters are required to take careful note of Henry Rix’s opinion,” states Dillon.

“There’s an avalanche of money for his tips. Any horse he recommends is likely to be halved in price by his loyal followers.”

David Hood of William Hill calculates that Rix has punished the bookmaking industry to the tune of “several million” over recent weekends with a succession of fancy-priced winners.

Hood states: “Henry is currently the most authoritative tipster around and what he selects sets the trend for the day. He has a huge following.”

In view of those screaming plaudits, it comes as no surprise to hear, and indeed sympathise with, Rix’s personal gripe. He is unable to get a decent bet on with the Big Three. It was all so much easier for the Suffolk coast farmer’s son when, at the age of 16, he had 33-1 about Fairy Footsteps, 6-4 winner of the 1,000 Guineas. His pre-winter bet was £7 each-way with PTS Racing, £5 each-way with Guntrips.

The teenager’s card had been marked by Henry Cecil’s work-rider Frank Storey, a family friend.

Rix’s mother Angela was a point-to-point rider and his father Bill has been a member at Newmarket for 40 years. At the age of six Rix was a regular racegoer there; by seven he was a punter. A winning punter.

When he joined the team at Raceform wages were puny and he needed to punt to throw a lifeline to the buoy marked ‘survival’. Paying the end-of-month tab at the local Café was a constant concern.

After a day at Raceform he would work shifts checking race results on the subbing desks of several national newspapers including the Sun, Telegraph and Today, and was offered a permanent Job on the latter.

By the time Today went belly-up, he was established as a reliable tipster with a forte for plicking winners at double-figure odds. He was approached by several sports editors anxious to sign him up. Rix’s most rewarding strike, in terms of cash netted, was Jo Mell, winner of the Tote Festival Handicap at Ascot. “I persuaded myself that this was the punt of the season,” Rix said.

While Rix has a personal preference for Flat racing, he has an excellent record in the winter. His speciality race is the County Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

Note: Henry has now recommended the winner of the County Hurdle five times from the last six runnings. Home Counties (20-1), Star Rage (33-1), Barna Boy (33-1), Sir Talbot (10-1) and Master Tern (15-2).

Excerpts from article in Himself magazine

"...Cheltenham is almost here. As well as being the highlight of the year for followers of National Hunt, its arrival signals the start of the flat season. To help you afford the lovely things contained in the pages of Himself, may we introduce a man who won over £100,000 in one day last year and who may get the bank manager off your back. If you stick with his system!

Henry Rix is the most successful racing tipster in the UK or Ireland.

His daily column in the Racing Post achieved a devoted following and, when you take a look at his success rate in tipping generously-priced winners, that cult status is easy to understand.

If you had backed every horse Henry napped during the 1997 flat season, (March-October), you would have made a profit of 74.31 points to a one point stake. In layman’s terms, if you had put a tenner on each of his naps (strongest tips), you would be sitting on a profit of £743 (before tax).

Had you put £100 on each, you would be sitting on a beach somewhere supping a pint of Guinness with a paper umbrella in it.

What is even more frightening to those who toil for a living is that, if you had followed all of Henry’s tips (not just naps), the profit a £1 stake would have been a staggering £819.

It’s hard not to get carried away with the maths. If you had put £100 blindly on each tip, you would have made almost £82,000 before tax. At that rate who cares if McCreevy makes you pay DIRT on your few bob in the credit union?

"Henry Rix is very, very good," says Stewart Kenny, managing director of Paddy Power bookmakers. "He is the first tipster we look at in the morning and inevitably we will cut his tips’ prices as he has a very loyal following."

Now, as anyone who has ever had the pleasure of swelling a bookmaker’s satchel knows, one of the sacred tenets of backing horses is that the goose that lays the golden egg is never for sale. That is – someone who has a profitable method of gambling, is not going to divulge it to everyone or who would be left to place losing bets?

"The tipping world is a world of villains really and an honest tipster is rare."

The gambling bug bit Henry (or should that be the other way around) while he was still in short pants.

His parents were active in the Suffolk point-to-point world and one of his dad’s best friends was Frank Storey, who rode Henry Cecil’s horses in training. Thanks to Frank, Henry managed to place some "very good, illegal, under-age bets" which kept him in lashing of ginger beer and macaroons at his public school, Framlington Hall, in Suffolk.

When in May 1981 Fairy Footsteps, under the masterful Lester Piggot, took the 1000 Guineas at odds of 6-4, Henry and some of his mates were on the winner at 33-1 since before Christmas. Henry himself had a total of £12 each-way on the filly.

More recently, Rix went to war with the bookies at the Ascot Festival last summer.

Having already won big on Elnadim and Air Express (tipped in the Racing Post at 25-1), Rix played up his winnings on Jo Mell in the Festival Handicap.

All told Rix made over £100,000 that day.

Such success has made Rix a bit of a celebrity amongst punters in the UK. Unlike Channel 4’s John McCririck, however, Henry Rix finds it all a bit embarrassing. He confesses that signing autographs isn’t really his idea of fun.

The accompanying table reveals Henry’s 20 golden rules of gambling and he says one of the most important is to stick to the best jockeys.

His two favourites for this flat season are Kieren Fallon and Olivier Peslier.

More unusually he says that if you were going to have, say, £50 on a horse you consider a 5-1 shot, and he is available at 20-1, you should, instead of scaling back your stake, increase it.

"You have to strike the odd time the bookies nod and get it wrong," he says..."

Article by Daire O'Brien for himself magazine.