NEWBURY IN THE RING

AUTHOR: Lewis Williams

SIMON NOTT BETTING BLOG: Newbury Saturday

It’s Schweppes Day! Or at least it was when I was a lad, the trouble was the meeting kept getting abandoned when I was a lad too, hence it’s not been called the Schweppes for a while now, but for us of a certain age it always will be.

Anyway, back to the future, today’s team for what is now the Betfair Hurdle day was Steve, Lofty and Tony.

The lads picked number one slot on the second row which is right in front of the gap between the stands. All three chaps were in good spirits and got straight to work on the opener, the pitch bathed in winter sunshine.

12:55 – Betfair Racing Podcasts Novices’ Hurdle (GBB Race) (Class 3) (4yo+) 2m½f

They had to graft to take a few quid though the punters weren’t exactly piling in. The biggest bet was £1400 – £800 the favourite at the time Hasthing. There had been a bagman lurking but over to a fleet of rails hedging his business.

It didn’t turn out to be a bad bet to lay as at the off the bogie had drifted to 2/1 and been usurped at the head of the market by Making Headway.

The market knew, Making Headway won the race nicely and the firm won £1175 over a 6/4 favourite, a great start.

1:30 – Betfair Serial Winners Fund Handicap Hurdle (Challenger Stayers’ Hurdle Series Qualifier) (Class 3) (4yo+) 3m52y

Next up and the bagman swooped, eight monkeys early on Ikarak which well and truly got the ball rolling. The next bets of size were €2250 – €500 and £900 – £200 Emitom followed by £2100 – £300 American Sniper.

The business was lively if not lumpy, at the off the bogie was unsurprisingly the bagman’s bet with Emitom and the next worse losing £1800. ‘Unbelievable’ was Lofty’s summing up as the latter won, we’ve laid it under the odds and it’s still won.

That’s the way the mop flops sometimes, the market may not have known but the punter with a fist full of Euros did. The book was behind going into the third but it certainly wasn’t over.

2:05 – Betfair Denman Chase (Grade 2) (GBB Race) (Class 1) (5yo+) 2m7f86y

The very first bet in the next was £10,000 – £11,000 Shishkin, which of course made things very interesting. Clipped into 4/5 another punter decided that was still value for his monkey so had it in. Business was a bit on the slow side apart from those two bets, however a punter did have £500 – £75 Sam Brown, that’s 13/2 if you don’t ask.

Luckily, Shishkin did jump off, so the race was going to be a sporting one rather than copping the money in cold blood as the firm did when he refused at Ascot.

Cutting straight to the chase Shishkin won the race from Hitman who flattered to deceive and Protektorat who jumped well but couldn’t keep up the gallop. The jolly won nicely and book lost over £11,000 so things were suddenly looking a bit bleak after a fortuitous start to the day.

2:40 – Betfair Exchange Game Spirit Chase (Grade 2) (GBB Race) (Class 1) (5yo+) 2m92y

The bad news was that when the punter who had the £11,000 on Shishkin came to have his winnings put into his card account, he said he was pulling up stumps. What you’d really have liked to hear him say was that he was going to spin it up. Spin it up responsibly I hasten to add. But nope he was knocking it on the head for the day well up with Star Sports’ money.

The downside of course is that getting out on the day with the big player calling time was going to be a tricky old job. There were still some decent bets being offered up though £550 – £500 Edwardstone, £1250 – £500 Boothill and £1600 – £200 Funambule Sivola. ‘We’ve got three losers!’ exclaimed Lofty from behind the joint after the last bet had been struck.

With a bit of tugging and pulling there were only two red in the book as the quartet set off. They finished first and second. The book did a monkey over Edwardstone, it felt like winning really, if the big punter had decided to have a play up, the Christmas bonus might already be looking a bit shaky.

3:15 – Betfair Hurdle (Premier Handicap) (GBB Race) (Class 1) (4yo+) 2m69y

As the lads got to work on the big one I was dispatched to find chocolate for Lofty and Steve. Now the last time I was sent on such an errand I knew exactly where to go, so headed there. Where the heck was the hut that used to sell chocolate and cigars? Gone, that’s where. I couldn’t find a Mars bar anywhere. The chaps had to settle for Danish pastries, they didn’t seem to mind but come on, every racecourse needs a chocolate outlet.

Incidentally, a hungry man and Lofty is a hungry man, is often a grumpy one and even the tasty Danish didn’t properly quell that hunger. To be fair, our hero was more incensed than he was hangry, he paid £9 expecting a succulent chicken burger and got this. You can imagine his disappointment as he unwrapped it ready to tuck in.

Considering this was the Schweppes, one of the biggest betting races of the season at Newbury and one of their busiest meetings, fielding less than £2000 in the race was poor. In all honesty, there was very little buzz about the place at all.

When you further consider that fielding just over £1800 to be more accurate included a single monkey bet and a £4000 – £560 you can see just how poor it was. Imagine how the team felt watching the subject of that last bet, Iberico Lord, forge ahead on the run-in to win. ‘We’re doing over £16,000’ Lofty observed, adding ‘Not the best day’.

3:50 – Best Odds On The Betfair Exchange Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase (GBB Race) (Class 3) (5yo+) 2m7f86y

The penultimate was another quiet heat, the firm laid £2500 – £2000 Inch House, £1200 – £100 each-way Hometown Boy and £100 straight forecast Inch House to beat Rock My Way with £2832 in the hod.

Making Your Mind Up winning at 7/2 clawed £1700 back, but it’s worth mentioning, Lofty did, that the runner-up Rock My Way was a grand better so no reason to start ordering the Buck’s Fizz. Boom Boom.

Going into the last £14,000 down, it was a big price that Star Sports would leave the course in front.

4:25 – Betfair Exchange Beacons Bumper (A Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race) (Listed Race) (GBB Race) (Class 1) (4-6yo) 2m69y

There were still punters having a go in the last, one had £2400 – £300 I’m A Lumberjack ‘that one’s OK apparently’ quipped Lofty sharp as a knife, it went totally over the punter’s head. Another had £2700 – £300 Dirty Den, our resident joker did attempt a joke about Ange but lightening rarely strikes twice in the humour stakes.

Other bets included £900 – £300 and £600 – £200 Histrionic and £700 – £200 Union Avenue, so lively enough. Not so great was the news from Paul Metcalfe of Jack Bevan and co that there were hold-ups on the motorways, A303 it is then. Anyway, back to the lucky last, after the flurries of decent bets, it got a bit quiet.

At the off Histrionic was losing £954, I’m A Lumberjack £1492, U Can’t Be Serious (no mention of chalk dust from the resident comedian) £398 and Dirty Den £1282. the rest winners. In westerns it was always the cavalry that came to the rescue, but today it was the infantry, Royal Infantry to be exact, trained by Dan and ridden by Harry Skelton, winning the race at 9/2 (5/1 hawking on course) and copping £1646 in the win book.

A losing day but a winning way to end it. proper job. I’ll be back with the team at Kempton on Saturday week. Thanks for reading, I’m sorry if anyone was upset by this sad tale of bookmakers losing again, hopefully the story will end well one meeting soon!

Today’s Racing Post results from Newbury:

SIMON NOTT

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

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

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