SIMON NOTT Betting Blog: Royal Ascot Saturday

Phew, what a day yesterday was…

Star Sports took a clobbering all over their estate, their shops, office and on-course. The total from on-course was losing £87,000 going into the last day, still with it all to play for.

Lofty, held out on me yesterday, he forgot to mention that when the £50 note punter in the first race was given his free sweet, he thought it was a condom. It would be a good marketing idea on days where the bookmakers get shafted. Lofty also told me that a punter went to the joint and told him that they thought I was mean to him in these betting reports, really?

Don’t feel sorry for Lofty, I love him as does (almost) everyone and he thrives in all the adulation he gets on course. He’s at Towcester for the Semi-Finals of the Greyhound Derby tonight, after you have a bet with him, give him a hug.

👑 2:30 – Chesham Stakes (Listed) (Class 1) (2YO only) 7f

In his place down on the rails is Ed Brown, he’s a proper happy sort of chap. If Lofty has been putting you off betting with Star on the bottom rail, please go down and say hello to Ed.

The teams were busy on the first, but there was nothing much of note from either pitch on course. When Ed Chamberlin said that the punters had been deprived when 12/1 Snellen beat the 7/4 favourite Pearls And Rubies. Maybe favourite-backers Ed, but not all.

The message from Flynn was that the winner was the absolute bogie, losing £13,000. At least that made it a round £100,000 to aim at getting back in six races.

The betting shops didn’t escape the winner either, they laid bets of £12,000 – £1200 each-way and £2000 – £200 each-way.

Luckily the punters didn’t get the treble up, the office won on it but were cautious telling me, ‘It was a decent start to the day but the minefield is yet to come.’ Flynn added with a great big dollop of irony ‘Get me back to more competitive racing at Cheltenham!’ while Lofty, on his way to Towcester, wanted a price the winner for the Triumph.

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👑 3:05 – Jersey Stakes (Group 3) (Class 1) (3YO only) 7f

Next up… and some good news.

Age Of Kings winning at 22/1 was an actual result. The biggest bet in Flynn’s book was £5000 – £900 The Antarctic but there was plenty of money flying about, the book won £8000 on the race. The betting shops had taken decent money on Enfjaar including a £6500 – £1000 each-way, £4500 – £500 Holloway Bo and enjoyed a virtual skinner across the estate.

Over in the office, they were still braced for action, but it didn’t arrive in the second which was described as ‘not over busy’ but it was still a decent result.

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👑 3:40 – Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes (Group 1) (British Champions Series) (Class 1) (4YO plus) 6f

Khaadem winning at 80/1 in the next was a shock to most and another great result for the bookmakers. Flynn’s team had laid a £6500 – £1000 Artorious which helped the winning cop of £5000 which put his team £200 up on the day. Ed Dark down on the bottom rail broke radio silence to let me know that they were £2000 up on the day.

The betting shop empire spokesman just said ‘Proper racing’ which I took to mean the result was satisfactory, the office won too, but given the magnitude of an 80/1 winner they didn’t get their whack it having been another relatively light betting race, their summing up, ‘Huge price, small win arghhh’.

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👑 4:20 – Hardwicke Stakes (Group 2) (Class 1) (4YO plus) 1m 4f

There was expected to be a deluge of public money for Frankie Dettori’s mount Free Wind in the next, Flynn did take £1200 at 6/4 but that was it, the only other half-decent bet was £1200 – £300 Pyledriver which won at 7/2 but the still book won £1000. It was only chipping away at that £100,000 and time was running out.

There was a rather surprising and cryptic message from the office, they simply said ‘That was the worst result so far and let’s hope it stays that way’.

They had laid Pyledriver including £22,500 – £5000.

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👑 5:00 – Wokingham Stakes (Heritage Handicap) (Class 2) (3YO plus) 6f

The reason the office were concerned about the last result, being their worst result of the day and hoping it stayed that way probably alluded to the £180,000 – £40,000 each-way they’d laid Orazio in the Wokingham. The same horse had been popular in the betting shops too, they’d laid £2600 – £400 and £3250 – £500.

Flynn reported very little business in Tatts, as they loaded the stalls Mums Tipple was the bogie losing £2700 and Orazio £1500. Saint Lawrence winning at 22/1 was a good result for Flynn’s team who won £1400. The office got Orazio out of the frame and reported a winning race despite paying extra place, Orazio was sixth. Phew.

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👑 5:35 – Golden Gates Stakes (Handicap) (Class 2) (3YO only) 1m 2f

Just to remind Flynn that it might nearly be over, it’s not over until the punters say so, one of the first bets in the book was £10,000 – £500 Liberty Lane in the penultimate. One of the betting shops laid £4900 – £700 Local Dynasty while the Star Sports office waded in with a bet of £220,000 – £40,000 each-way Lion Of War. Burdett Road won the race at 20/1 which was great news, Aye Aye. What wasn’t such great news was that Lion Of War finished second which bagged the place money but the office reported despite that, it was another winning race for them overall.

Flynn was happy too, he said that they couldn’t stop laying Frankie’s unplaced Knockbrex to punters who were hoping for a fairytale last Royal Ascot ride.

The Gambling Gods are hardnosed, and that money stayed in the hod, which all added up to winning £3500 on the race and £6000 on the day with one race to go. Not bad going considering the £13,000 loss in the first. Goodness knows how it was going for Steve, Ricky and Eddie down on the Lower Rail, they’d been in a phone signal black hole for most of the afternoon, but you’d like to think that they were in front.

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👑 6:10 – Queen Alexandra Stakes (Conditions Race) (Class 2) (4YO plus) 2m 5½f

Troopers to the end, the Tattersalls team reported a bet of £2250 – £1000 Dawn Rising in the lucky last. It must have been a long week for those guys working on course, just one more to push. The punters that resorted to plunging (responsibly of course) on the getting out stakes were rewarded when Ryan Moore got Dawn Rising home in front to win the finale.

One of the last bets in the book at the Tattersalls pitch was £10,000 – £5000 on the winner which meant that they lost £10,000 on the day after all the heroics.

The on-course business may not look like ‘proper bookmaking’ to other layers on course, but people have to remember Star Sports like to take on punters, not make traditional books.

They are a small part of a much bigger picture, that being the office business, the final word from them was: ‘A few lumpy late bets on the unlucky in running Run for Oscar, means we got a small win despite it being Ryan in the last, the good news is that also despite some lumpy publicised bets over the week, we still managed to end in front.’ Eddie got some signal right where it mattered, they won £5000 on the day.

Of course, there’s no final word when Lofty is about, he got a touch from Towcester and told me: ‘It’s lively at Towie tonight, I just laid £4K at 5/6 the jolly here’. The show rolls on…

Thank you for reading, I hope everyone had a good week.

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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