Punting Profiles: Perc Galea
Perc Galea was sucked into the punting game from a young age. He never left, even as he breathed his last breath, needing not only the rush that comes from laying down a heavy wager but the knowledge that comes with being right. From both sides of the ledger and both sides of the velvet rope, Galea was a gambler and at the high end of gamblers that both Sydney and Australia have ever known. And unlike most heavy rollers who ride the road until left destitute by frazzled nerves, bad instincts and no bank, Galea left this earth much better off than how he entered it, leaving a considerable estate.
It was a wild ride for Galea, who traveled from the slums of Woolloomooloo to the title of “Prince of the Punters”. He came into the game wide-eyed and hopeful. At his peak, he struck fear into every bookmaker, business competitor and welsher in Sydney. In his final days, he still had that winning touch.
It was 1934, and the Melbourne Cup of that year, that would prove defining to Perc Galea as a punter. As a kid, he had dabbled on the horses, winning and losing and all the rest that goes with playing like a mug. After the 1934 Melbourne Cup, he took the game very seriously, realizing the money that could be won and the thrill that could be had.
Working as a milkman, trying to find his place in the world, Galea would encounter fate for the first real time. Doing his rounds, he was tipped a horse with the moniker Peter Pan for the Melbourne Cup by none other than the horse’s owner, Rodney Dangar. Having ₤10 on at 14-1, Galea collected the not inconsiderate sum of ₤150, a collect that would set the foundations for his future.
After knocking about in the milk game and on the wharves for a while, marrying and having children, Galea tried his hand at bookmaking, while earning a few quid teaching Baccarat. While legally registered to stand at the Wentworth Park dogs, he took plenty on the side as an illegal SP operator for race meets across the country. He was quickly enamored with racing and the punt, his energies and thoughts increasingly focused on same.
By the late forties, Galea had entered different circles and different company, getting his first taste of the illegal casinos that were beginning to flourish in Sydney’s east. After a raid on the Roslyn Social Club in 1953, which followed a run in with the law in regards the purchase of illegal liquor, Galea soon realized that the only way to operate was to pay off the law. He did, and his business escalated as a result.
Running clubs such as the Victoria Club in Kings Cross and the Bridge Club in Double Bay, Galea became renowned as the kingpin of illegal gaming in Sydney. His joints were fitted with high grade roulette wheels and plush layouts, were frequented by the a-listers of the social scene and were protected by payoffs to the powers-that-be and hard nosed fighters there to keep the peace.
From 1957, when Galea won ₤12,000 pounds on the lottery to escape some financial difficulties, the Perc Galea tale was on the up-and-up. He mixed in high circles and dealt in large numbers. One of the most famous photos of the era was Galea, donned in tuxedo, flanked by Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies and the Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal Norman Gilroy, at a benefit function. He would regularly pay large tributes- estimated to be as high as $100,000 per year- to New South Wales Premier Robert Askin. Galea had become to Sydney what John Wren was to Melbourne at the turn of the century. He mixed shadiness, the underground and a taste for cash with philanthropy, high society and religious values.
While it was in the illegal casinos that Galea made his name and his money, it was on the track where he received his greatest fame and it was there that he became The Prince of the Punters.
It was a sleek black colt that took him to those echelons. A colt by the name of Eskimo Prince. He had owned other good types- Sugarfoot the best of them- and he had made other large wagers but it was the mix of money, stature, beauty and generosity of the 1964 Golden Slipper victory of Eskimo Prince that catapulted Perc Galea into the forefront of mind and heart of the racetrack punter.
Eskimo Prince was brilliant from day one, cleaning up the early season two year old events with ease. He looked a future superstar. And come Golden Slipper day 1964- a race that had become a feature of the Australian turf in less than a decade after brilliant wins by the likes of Todman and Sky High- he proved just that with a dominant victory. The most pleased man at Rosehill that day was Perc Galea, who had not only achieved a feature race win but had been successful in orchestrating a mass plunge on his champion horse, reportedly winning ₤33,000.
As he climbed the steps for a celebratory drink in the STC committee rooms, another immaculate suit on and with a smile stretching from ear to ear, Galea looked down when a punter called out, asking for something for a drink. Galea reached into his pocket, pulled out a wad of ₤10 notes and dropped them on the crowd. The crowd went into frenzy, clamoring for the cash and newspapermen were similar, gushing at his generosity. He had become the Prince of Punters.
Eskimo Prince was not all strawberries and cream for Galea. While he won a nice sum in the 1965 Rosehill Guineas, his failure in the AJC Derby of that year cost Galea over ₤40,000 pounds. Eskimo Prince also reputedly cost Galea over $100,000 when losing in a Stradbroke Handicap.
Galea ignored doctor’s warnings of giving up heavy gambling after his first heart attack in 1962. He bet large until his death in 1977, not surprisingly of heart problems. When his funeral was held, his popularity and reach was no more evident as his funeral patronage stretched out over 3 kilometers. He had bet wisely, on both life and horses, taking calculated chances and more often than not, coming up trumps because he looked after the details. Despite what many see as a vice dominated existence, he left both a healthy legacy and a fit inheritance. Galea left a winner. Like all good gamblers do.
This article first appeared on Punting Ace in 2007
Thanks to The Big Australian Punter for the photo
