SIMON NOTT BETTING BLOG: Royal Ascot Friday

Sadly, The Queen was a predictable non-runner again today as was Star Sports’ enigmatic head-honcho Ben Keith.

This left the team as yesterday. Friday always promises to better the big volume but small staking Ladies Day. Early action augured well for the day. The Tatts pitch laid a bet of £40,000 – £12,000 Meditate, it was a hedge bet from another bookmaker, as was the £10,500 – £3000 the same horse on the rails pitch. The bookmakers in question both apparently concerned that the money was from an extremely lively source. Another punter came in with £4400 – £1600 the same horse. With 10 minutes to go Lofty told me that the firm had taken just a tenner out of the favourite Mawj, Meditate a 5/2 shot.

2:30 – Albany Stakes (Fillies’ Group 3) (Class 1) (2YO only) 6f

At the off Meditate lost £44,000 in the Tatts book. Meditate won.

There were some shell-shocked bookies looking a little bewildered after the first. Fortunes had been taken out of the ring.

 

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3:05 – Commonwealth Cup (Group 1) (British Champions Series) (Class 1) (3YO only) 6f

Dusted off, the ring, packed more than it’s ever been this week, got to work getting some back. Lofty, rather pessimistically said I could have 20/1 the firm winning on the day. Probably accurate but with six races to go there were plenty of opportunities to claw some money in their hods at least.

It was going to be tough going though, but laying another hedge bet, this time £32,000 – £8000 Perfect Power would go some way to easing the blow or finish the day depending on if it obliged or not. The 20/1 with Lofty was no longer available. Flynn’s partner Esme came to the joint to say hello, it’s always a pleasure to see her.

At the off, Perfect Power lost £33,400 in the book. Perfect Power won. The 20/1 with Lofty was now hawking.

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3:40 – Duke Of Edinburgh Stakes (Handicap) (Class 2) (3YO plus) 1m 4f

There was a sombre air about the joint as Flynn and team started betting on the third. The day was now surely beyond recall, it’s not all about each day of course but it’s nice to win. Tony on the front of the joint has not only rugged good looks and years of experience but the patience of a saint, replying with a smile to the multitude of questions posed to him. ‘What’s going to win?’ being popular today. The answer so far was easy, the bogie! There was barely £2000 in the hod as they went down the start, some hill to climb, not the horses, Star Sports.

Candleford winning at 11/2 ( 6/1 on course ) copped £960. Lofty piped up, ‘That’ll do, another 72 races like that and we’re out of it!’ At least it was a step in the right direction.

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4:20 – Coronation Stakes (Fillies’ Group 1) (British Champions Series) (Rnd) (Class 1) (3YO only) 1m

What the Star Sports team weren’t expecting was the betting heat that was to follow. Inlike laid a bet of £19,500 – £3000 Cachet and then a bookmaker had a hedge of £32,000 – £2000 each way Pizza Bianca, then topped it up with 16 monkeys to win. Both bets were dwarfed by a £90,000 – £40,000 Inspiral that followed. The punters would not be denied, Tony took another £2000 on Inspiral this time at 15/8.

Inspiral won. Game over.

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5:00 – Sandringham Stakes (Fillies’ Handicap) (Str) (Class 2) (3YO only) 1m

Fair play to the guys on the pitch, the on-course day gone way beyond recall they still got to straight to work on the race before the penultimate where they bet 9/2 the field. At the off, there was £2000 in the hod and two losing more than it held, Fresh Hope and Espresso.

The 7/2 favourite Heredia won the race and was a small cop in the book.

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5:35 – King Edward VII Stakes (Group 2) (Class 1) (3YO only) 1m 4f

Then there was a bing-bong for a Stewards’ Enquiry. That meant that hundreds of people were queuing in the sunshine waiting to draw over the favourite while the books were trying to get to work on the penultimate, not ideal. The next heat was the hottest one of the day. The big punters having it on with a bookie nearby off of who Star Sports were getting the hedging business had apparently upped their game.

A requested bet of £200,000 on Changingoftheguard at 13/8 was negotiated to half at the price and half at 6/4. Lofty’s 20/1 getting out on the day was looking value again but of course, gone. The placing from the previous race was unaltered, announced at 5.19, the ring was moving again and the book redder than the heads around us, liability over £312,000.

The race was a gut wrencher for Star and the other bookmakers, that stood the favourite. Changingoftheguard tried to make all under Ryan Moore then Grand Alliance looked to have ground down the jolly on the wide outside and went to the front well inside the final furlong, only to then veer across the track, losing by a short head. The cup cruelly snatched from the lips, no doubt to the absolute joy of the intrepid big-staking punters and pretty much every neutral out there.

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6:10 – Palace Of Holyroodhouse Stakes (Handicap) (Class 2) (3YO only) 5f

The show went on into the lucky last. A punter had a £22,000 – £2000 Loves Me Likearock and another £20,000 – £1000 Nymphadora – dwarfed by news from the office who’d laid a colossal £1,000,000 – £300,000 Ladies Church. Going into the last, the on-course book was losing just over £470,000 which must be nearing an unenviable record loss in a day involving purely on-course bets at Royal Ascot.

And still the bets came in £70,000 – £2100 each-way Canonized and £35,000 – £4200 each-way Korker off the floor.

Another £20,000 – £1200 each-way Canonized was the last bet in the book. The 5/1 winner Latin Lover copped £10,000 in the book. A drop in the ocean back but at least the right side of the ledger, the office bet beaten a huge tonic. Phew, what a day in the betting ring. We’re back tomorrow, will the big punters have a real go to top off the meeting? Bring it on.

SIMON NOTT

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Views of authors do not necessarily represent views of Star Sports Bookmakers.

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Simon Nott is author of: Skint Mob! Tales from the Betting Ring
available on Kindle CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS

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