Phil Bull

Phil Bull (1910–1989), born West Yorkshire, England, was a professional gambler, racehorse owner and publisher, who founded the Timeform private handicapping system for British horseracing. Since 1948, Timeform have produced performance ratings for every racehorse in Great Britain and, increasingly, internationally. Timeform ratings have become adopted as the British horseracing industry's unofficial, but authoritative, measure of racehorse performance. It was said of Bull in 1976 that "there is no more familiar figure on English racecourses than the stocky, bearded one of Mr Phil Bull". Many racing aphorisms can be attributed to Bull, such as "at the racecourse, keep your eyes open and your ears closed".

Phil Bull was born in Hemsworth, West Yorkshire, the son of a miner and a schoolteacher and was educated at the local Grammar School. In 1931 he graduated from Leeds University with a degree in mathematics. This mathematical grounding, as well as his interest in horse racing led him to develop his own technique for time-based evaluation of racehorse performance, from which the Timeform handicapping system developed. Although his first career after leaving university was as a teacher in London, he quickly gave it up to become a professional gambler.

Bull had started betting as a schoolboy and could recall a winning bet on Caerlon at 25/1 in the Derby. By the 1940s, Bull was betting in earnest using his self-devised time ratings which he also sold under the pseudonym of the Temple Time Test, becoming in the process a well-known figure on British racecourses. His circle of friends included other significant betting and racing figures of the day, including bookmaker William Hill and celebrities from beyond the world of racing such as Bud Flanagan and The Crazy Gang.

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