By Chris Roots
Bookmaker Eric Conlon shut his bag for the last time and was given a guard of honour off Canterbury on Saturday.
The 86-year-old walked, rather hobbled, off the track in the knowledge for 64 of 65 years as a bookmaker in Sydney he made a profit.
"I didn't get there this year, expenses got the better of me," said Conlon, who is known as Mo.
"I'm only stopping because of my health, my legs are gone. I don't know what I'm going to do on Saturdays now. I have been doing this since I was 21."
Conlon has been an ever-present at Sydney meetings and his colleagues in the betting ring mark the end of of era by giving Conlan a guard of honour. He remembers the glory days of the betting ring when the racetrack was the only place to be and bet.
"When I started there was millions of bookies and millions of punters. Now there's not that much bookies and no punters here," Conlon said. "Our holds are nowhere near where they were in the best days, which makes it hard.
"It is no good for me because I'm a percentages bookmaker that was my edge.
"They are all betting with the corporate bookmakers and you see them on their phones. I don't why they come to the races, other than get drunk.".
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