Charles Sale: Bookies lose their heads over a hat

Hat colour: Queen Elizabeth at Ascot

A spokesperson said: ‘Everybody rightly associates us with the Queen’s hat market as we were the first to launch the bet in 1988 in Ireland, well before we started opening shops over here. Any other firm with a hat market is just copying us.’

But furious rivals William Hill say it was their veteran PR spokesman, Graham Sharpe, who started the hat business in the mid-1970s.

Sharpe said: ‘It was definitely a Hills initiative. How can Paddy Power claim to have invented a bet that was on the market long before their firm had been formed, and the thought of any punters in republican Ireland in the 80s being remotely interested in betting on the colour of the Queen’s hat is just laughable.’

Spread betting firm Sporting Index also wanted credit for the Queen’s hat, saying they had resurrected the bet in 2000.

A neutral spokesperson from Corals said: ‘You can’t copyright such markets but William Hill started the hat interest long before Paddy Power or Sporting Index became involved.’

Meanwhile, William Hill have opened a micro website dedicated to the Queen’s hat with the address Queens-hat.com. The hyphen saves embarrassment all round.

Questions asked over horse-ownership

Questions have been asked of racing’s ruling body, the British Horseracing Authority, about whether Newcastle footballer Joey Barton, co-owner with agent Willie McKay of International Debut, is a fit and proper person to be registered as a racehorse owner while serving a prison sentence.

The BHA had no complaints as Barton’s six-month sentence for assault and affray was not racing related. The horse finished third at York last Saturday.

Newcastle finally start talks with Owen

England striker Michael Owen surprisingly had his first sit-down talks about a new contract at Newcastle with London-based recruitment duo Dennis Wise and Tony Jiminez while manager Kevin Keegan and owner Mike Ashley were nowhere to be seen.

FA's Hill interest in Arsenal and Fulham

Jonathan Hill, FA commercial director for whom Soho Square have restructured chairman Lord Triesman’s restructuring in order to keep him sweet and head of a department, is understood to be interesting both Fulham and Arsenal, who have vacant chief executive/managing director posts.

Meanwhile, Simon Johnson has become acting chief operating officer for the FA’s 2018 World Cup bid, which poses the question how chief executive Brian Barwick can cope. Johnson is nickamed Tonto because Barwick, presumably the Lone Ranger, relies on him so much.

Chandler backs staff

Bookmaker Victor Chandler was insistent yesterday that his 15 Malaysian employees, who have been held in custody in harsh conditions since the raid on Chandler’s premises in Kuala Lumpur last Friday, were not involved in any illegal gambling business.

A spokesperson said the jailed personnel were on duty in a customer support and IT development centre. No reason has been given for their arrest or why Chandler’s business was targeted.

The Gibraltar-based bookmaker was arrested at the Arc de Triomphe last October on suspicion of running an unauthorised betting facility but was released without charge.

Is that really cricket?

The choice of music after boundaries in the Middlesex-Surrey Twenty20 game at Lord’s this week was surprising, especially with so many children in the audience. It was Gay Bar by Electric Six, with the repetitive lyric: ‘You! I wanna take you to a gay bar, I wanna take you to a gay bar.’