SIMON NOTT Betting Blog: Royal Ascot Wednesday

The day started early for me; I had a few messages from the on course team way before I expected them.

Anyone that read yesterday’s betting report will remember I related the tale of Inlike Flynn getting sniffed by a police drugs dog on his exit from a Royal Ascot loo which resulted in a frisking down.

It turned out that the dog was attracted by the betting money in Flynn’s pocket. Goodness knows why a dog trained to sniff out cocaine would be attracted to bank notes. Anyway, our man was shaken but not too upset to carry on losing the firm £100,000 on course in one day.

You might think that it couldn’t really get worse for our old mate Inlike, but no, he was collared again when driving home. His luscious dimples evidently scream guilt-ridden bad boy to the trained eyes of the local bobbies.

They pulled him over and made him unload what kit he had in his car. ‘Lucky I don’t have any readies left’ he quipped to the policemen. It’s not been recorded if they cracked a smile or not, but one thing they didn’t crack was a crime, for the second time in one day, our hero was released without charge.

👑 2:30 – Queen Mary Stakes (Fillies’ Group 2) (Class 1) (2YO only) 5f

Luckily, I had that story because there was very little interest in the opening racing of Wednesday. The Tattersalls pitch with Steve and Inlike Flynn trying for their lives fielded £1300 in total. They had two losers, the jolly a taker and the field winning a monkey. Lofty’s team on the bottom rail fared better, they managed to take £3500 on the race with the biggest bet £1100 – £400 on Beautiful Diamond.

The crowd was treated to a magnificent finish in which after a bob of heads American raider Crimson Advocate won the race at 9/1. The firm won £2500 across the pitches and Steve copped a tenner off Flynn betting on the photo.

📈 News from the office was: ‘There was late money for the winner Crimson Advocate, but good early money for the market leaders meant it was still a positive start for the office’ while over in the Star Sports betting shop estate the news was ‘It’s very quiet so far today, plenty of £100 and £200 bets but nothing chunky yet, it doesn’t help in the shops but we did win in the shops yesterday, remarkably.’

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👑 3:05 – Kensington Palace Fillies’ Handicap (Rnd) (Class 2) (4YO plus) 1m

The news from the racecourse was that they were taking plenty of bets but none of them what you’d describe as chunky. The biggest wager on either pitch was just £100. Over at the betting shop empire, the bets of note were £4500 – £500 Crystal Caprice and £7800 – £1200 Tarrabb.

Meanwhile, it was fun and games in the Hove office, they told me that they had a £200 double running up from the first race onto Farhh To Shy which would cop the punter a cool £60,000.

That punter would have certainly gotten a thrill as Farhh To Shy came with a rattle inside the final furlong, but so did several others. Ultimately, it was 25/1 chance Villanova Queen that proved the fastest horse on the day winning from 22/1 shot Don’t Tell Claire. That was another good result for the on-course teams, Steve’s joint won £1500 while Lofty’s £2200. The office were pleased not to take a clobbering over the double so were delighted with the result despite it being a light betting heat.

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👑 3:40 – Duke Of Cambridge Stakes (Fillies’ & Mares’ Group 2) (Str) (Class 1) (4YO plus) 1m

The biggest bet of the next was £55,000 – £20,000 Jumbly in the office which was the interest in the race. Meanwhile over on the racecourse pitches the bets they were reporting to me were more akin to the Shergar Cup than Royal Ascot. £1000 – £200 Grande Dame, £2500 – £100 each-way International Angel, £900 – £300 Jumbly and a monkey at 10/3 Prosperous Voyage but they were kept busy with smaller bets.

There was a turn-up of sorts when 10/1 chance Rouge Millennium won the race, it was an excellent result for the Tattersalls and Rails. Lofty’s rails pitch won £1800 while the Tattersalls pitch bagged £2500. News from the office was very good, they told me; ‘Despite it drifting in the market we saw further support for Jumbly, resulting in our best result of the week so far’ which was handy.

As often happens, if you look deeply enough into the ointment, you’ll spot a fly, in this case, a bet of £9000 – £1000 each-way the winner laid in one of the Star Sports betting shops, but it wasn’t enough to ruin a great race across the firm.

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👑 4:20 – Prince Of Wales’s Stakes (Group 1) (British Champions Series) (Class 1) (4YO plus) 1m 2f

The Prince Of Wales Stakes was a hell of a betting heat, firstly, the office laid £87,000 – £50,000 Luxembourg and £55,000 – £20,000 Bay Bridge in the morning, then they laid another £25,000 at 15/8 Luxembourg during the live betting. Things picked up a bit on the pitches on course too, they took bets on My Prospero to the tune of £2750 – £500, £5250 – £1500 Adayar, £2000 – £1000 Luxembourg, and £1250 – £500 Bay Bridge.

Nobody laid the winner Mostahdaf which won at 10/1. The office in Hove must have copped untold bundles, their message read; ‘Well our “best result of the week so far” needs updating – great result’. Steve on the Tatts pitch reported that they won £8000 on the race and were £12,000 up on the day, interestingly their average bet was £33 over the 390 bets.

Lofty on the lower rail said that they won £4000 but that their average bet was just a score over 700 bets on the day and most of it on their card reader which had been ‘pinging like a broken microwave’.

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👑 5:00 – Royal Hunt Cup (Heritage Handicap) (Str) (Class 2) (3YO plus) 1m

Nobody was expecting huge bets on the Royal Hunt Cup so nobody was too disappointed. Both books on course were on the right side of the ledger when Jimi Hendrix won at 22/1, the biggest single bet had been £4500 – £500 Ghaly, both books won £1500.

There had been a bet of £16,000 – £1000 each-way Blue For You in one of the Star Sports betting shops as well as a £3000 – £400 Ghaly but, in general, it was another light betting heat but where they enjoyed another great result.

The office said that the race was a slow one but they had a small winning race.

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👑 5:35 – Queen’s Vase (Group 2) (Class 1) (3YO only) 1m 6f

The punters got their betting boots on for the penultimate.

On-course there were bets of £2500 – £400 each-way and £2750 – £500 Chesspiece as well as £1100 – £800 and £1250 – £1000 Gregory all quite early on. Meanwhile, around the country punters were getting involved on the market-leading latter in the Star Sports betting shops, £3750 – £3000 and £7500 – £6000 laid. One of the last bets in the book was £1200 – £1000 with Flynn.

They knew, but they had a run for their money, Gregory looked vulnerable at the front but Frankie Dettori worked his magic and bagged his first winner of the meeting. Lofty’s pitch lost a monkey, Flynn’s lost £4000 and the betting shops did their cobblers.

The office were a little less buoyant than they had been previously today too telling me: ‘Frankie winning on an even money shot after a good few results – ouch!’

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👑 6:10 – Windsor Castle Stakes (Listed) (Class 1) (2YO only) 5f

The office had other news too, they’d laid a £150 double Jimi Hendrix and Fusterlandia at 40/1 in the last. OK, it looked a literal longshot but they were looking at a payout of £159,000 should Richard Hannon’s cold defy the odds.

There was action on course too, bets of £1650 – £400 and £1650 – £300 Maximum Security, £5000 – £250 Inquisitively, £3600 – £800 Johannes Brahms then a very late £50,000 – £15,000 the same horse. After it was going so well the wheels could well come off in the lucky last.

But they didn’t, Big Eves landed a quiet little 40/1 best priced in the morning into 20/1 gamble for Michael Appleby. The jolly was runner-up but was never going to beat the winner which was of course a great result for the books. Flynn’s pitch ended the day copping £26,000 though most of the winnings were on account, while Lofty’s team won a monkey on the last, a race that never really got going for them making it £11,000 winnings on the day, largely on the card machine.

It was a similar story over at the Hove office who told me ‘Not over busy in the last, but a nice way to close day two’. Ben called late in the day, it was good to give him some good news. An excellent winning day. Enjoy your steaks and beers tonight lads. Mrs Nott is rustling up a jacket spud as I type, missing you all.

We’re back, wherever we are tomorrow.

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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