commonrail:
We’d probably be holding approx 2k per race,in the silver ring,back then.all small money…so £25 e/w bets on rank outsiders,didn’t fit in the book.
Our tactic was to keep the rags under…and have them running for us.
True skinners 
Take more in tatts,of course…but we only got in there for the mackeson meeting.
You mentioned short prices at dog tracks.
This is to offset the amount of sharp practice,carried out…especially at unofficial(flapping)tracks,like Chesterfield…where I worked 3 nights per week,until it closed.
A good example of this,was when a dog called Some Picture was entered into an open race,one night.
This dog had recently won the Nottingham eclipse stakes…in some style and was being touted as a derby favourite.
Obviously he ran under a different name,that night(connections kept out of sight)and duely broke the track record.
He then won both the English and Scottish derbys.
However,non of the opposition owners knew of the dogs true identity,either…so large sums of money were invested on every runner.
So then,due to the fact,we had about 200% on the board,we still copped a few quid 
even though Some Picture was our bogie.
Some proper scoundrels frequent dog tracks,but you’ve got to admire a well executed"job"
I’ve heard tales of skullduggery at Canterbury track, which I visted only the once, only to see 7/2 the field on boards, and a tote pool so thin that putting a fiver on a dog - would have halved the price!
I understand the “Fiddle” being operated was for on-track bookmakers to VERY SHARPLY push the prices of ALL dogs out, just before the off - so that the book was actually “SP OverBroke” meaning that someone in a betting shop able to bet on that particular track - could bet on ALL dogs and come out on top, regardless of result… Betting shops - never had any trouble when it comes to taking SP bets, which facilitated this, of course…
If you walk up with a big wedge bet on a big priced horse, and write SP on the ticket, they won’t see it’s a 4-figure liability, and tell you “You can have £1 each way mate” which they’d do if you asked to take the price…
The Shops - simply stopped taking bets on Canterbury Dog Track as a result, to fix “The Leak”. “Suspicious activity in the betting ring” they’d say…
In fact, there was no reason this fiddle couldn’t have been ongoing, everywhere - BUT for the fact the Canterbury Dog Track Crowd - was doubled by me and my girlfriend turning up one afternoon to “check out the venue”. It was crap, and we never went back, needless to say…
I also heard a tale of Hackney where some other fiddle was going on, involving again, bookmakers with hardly any punters present, only opening to provide a BAGS service to SIS… Having never been to Hackney track myself though, I’ll let you fill me in on what happened there, if you heard the tale…
My nearest track would have been Rochester, which was noterious for “Fiddles” going on, but that was before my time. (my first shop bet was in 1990, first track bet in 1992 back in the days of 10% betting duty before Gordon Brown abolished it)
I think the track was closed down when I was a kid, and was near what is now the Aerospace site off the Maidstone Road.
I used to attend the Horsted College nearby, where I learned how to code computers and type fast in this very building, now demolished for the housing estate that is there today…
