"He has been a professional footballer, an FA Cup-winning manager and the King of the Jungle over the storied course of the past 60 years, but as Harry Redknapp talked about The Jukebox Man, his King George VI Chase contender, at Ben Pauling's stable last week, he was the East End kid whose nan was a bookie's runner and would be astonished to see where life and luck have taken her grandson."
"She wouldn't believe it, Redknapp says, suddenly back in Poplar in the 1950s. It's a far cry from the East End of London, [when she was] getting slung in the back of a police van every other day for collecting the bets. People forget there were no betting shops, betting was totally illegal, so the only way you could have a bet was through an illegal bookmaker. Cyril the paperboy, he wasn't a boy, he was about 70, but everyone still called him the paperboy."
"He is not a celebrity racehorse owner, dabbling in the game until something else takes their fancy. He is a racehorse owner who happens to be a celebrity, a lifelong fan who has done the hard yards in ownership for the past 40 years, swallowed the disappointments and bounced back for more. He now has a horse that is good enough to line up for one of the most famous steeplechases in the calendar."
Harry Redknapp grew up in Poplar, East End London, where his grandmother collected illegal bets for a local bookmaker because betting shops did not yet exist. Small tuppenny bets and radio result calls defined that era, with local figures like a long-standing 'paperboy' bookmaker handling wagers and payouts. Redknapp maintained a lifelong passion for racing and committed decades to racehorse ownership, enduring setbacks and rebuilding repeatedly. His current horse, The Jukebox Man, has achieved a level that allows entry into the King George VI Chase, facing a strong field and carrying roughly 6-1 odds.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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