SIMON NOTT BETTING REPORT: Cheltenham Friday

Day one of a treble of writing betting ring blogs for Star Sports, Cheltenham, Cheltenham and Windsor, started with a story from Bangor, writes SIMON NOTT.

My old mate Armaloft Alex was up there on a jolly but felt the need to call me before the first. He’d seen a group of young men who appeared to be in a dialogue with a bookmaker. Moving closer he heard one of the chaps say ‘But Simon Nott says in his blogs, you should always ask for fractions.’ The bookmaker who apparently looked a bit exasperated at this point was heard to reply, ‘Yes, that’s as may be, but you tell me the fraction for 4/9!’

Brilliant. Thanks for the mention guys, for future reference please learn the fractions here and remember, never ask for them when the horse is odds on.

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12:10 – British EBF ‘National Hunt’ Novices’ Hurdle (GBB Race) (Class 3) (4YO to 6YO) 2m 1f

The first race here was a bit slow, though that did give me a chance to have a chat with a few people. My old mate Gary Payne the runner and his fellow running pal Steph, Rod who I used to work with when Turf TV worked with Channel 4 on big days, and of course the Star Sports teams. Today there were Lofty and Tony on the rail and up in the Sovereign Lounge Steve Paulo and John. Lofty was doing his best to get That’s Nice the odds on jolly in the book but there were few takers which was ominous given the connections while at the same time being a pointer that the favourite not being that well fancied.

The biggest bet the team took on the market leader was £200 – £300 in a £1200 book. The market got it right, the jolly ran poorly, the race went to 5/1 chance Country Mile. Lofty wasn’t too pleased despite the book copping £750 on the heat thinking they didn’t get their whack.

If the big punters don’t get involved that is their whack but it would so easily have been ten or twenty times that had a bagman opened their shoulders. Still, it was a winning start, so let’s not grumble.

It was good news from the Sovereign Lounge as well, they’d managed to lay £400-£600 the jolly so copped nicely too.

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12:40 – SSS Super Alloys Novices’ Chase (GBB Race) (Class 2) (4YO plus) 2m 4½f

Betting on the second heat opened with Caldwell Potter opening 5/4 and immediately attracting a bet of £500-£400. Jango Baie was his market rival but despite shortening on the machine didn’t attract anything of note before bouncing back out to 6/4 at the off. Lofty said he was keen to get the front two in the book and stick it up the pair of them. The trouble with a plan like that is, the punters have to play ball, but they didn’t.

At the off, that one bet was the only one of note, the book held £2490 with Caldwell Potter losing £2200, the rest good winners. Wandering up through the front line as they horses set off, it appeared there had been bagmen sniping up at the other end of the ring, hopefully they’d be back down to the rails at some point. As it happened it was lucky there wasn’t enough ammo for an up the front two book.

The big drifter, hard to lay and by the winning post 7/4 second in Jango Baie won the race, the book copped £2200 which was a very handy and Lofty smile inducing result where the book got more than its whack.

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1:15 – Catesby Estates Handicap Hurdle (Class 3) (3YO plus) 2m 1f

Next up and they bet 9/2 the field, except they would have if punters had been keen to get involved. There’s no point trying to gild a Lilly as they say. Business was, in the words of Lofty, ‘very poor’.

At the off the book held £680 including the places, there were two losers Wreckless Eric the 4/1 favourite losing £679 and To Chase A Dream bad for £330. Mirabad won the race at 10/1, a skinner on the win book so another winning race ticked off, hopefully on the way to the first winning day of three.

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1:50 – Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Coming Soon Handicap Chase (Premier Handicap) (GBB Race) (Class 1) (4YO plus) 3m 2f

I expected the betting on the next to be lively, but it wasn’t. Apparently Stoke’s leading on-line layer had boosted the jolly in the race Chianti Classico to 9/4. Lofty and Tony were a top priced 13/8, a punter strolled up and asked them to match the boost.

Lofty asked the punter how much he’d managed to bet online with them. He admitted that over his two accounts, naughty, he’d had bet £90 – £40. Lofty told him he must be a VIP with that firm, I’m not sure what he meant, he then told the punter that as he’d asked he could have a score at 7/4, he declined.

He might have been shrewder than Lofty gave him credit for, and Stoke’s leading layer come to that, the jolly was 9/4 on course in no time, still no takers. There wasn’t much money for anything, at off the book held just under a grand. Any that followed the market and got stuck into the favourite might have been getting twitchy turning for home as he appeared to be swinging.

Ultimately, the money got it right. Dave Pipe’s King Turgeon well backed into 9/4 in opposition to the weak favourite did the business winning in some style. The favourite weakened into third close home but stayed in the frame which was handy for the place book. All in, the book copped £350 the fourth winning race in a row on the day.

Once again, the Sovereign Lounge team managed to get the favourite in the book to the tune of £1200 – £800 early on.

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2:25 – Unibet Middle Distance Veterans’ Chase Series Handicap Chase (Class 2) (10YO plus) 2m 4½f

As they started betting on the race before the penultimate a bagman appeared. There was no need for the bookies to tremble though, he’d not had a bet all day. He’d just come to have a chat with Lofty and was the first person today to halt Lofty’s rampant decimation of the Star Sports’ fruit and mint sweet mixture. Reading this to him, Lofty protested he doesn’t like the mint ones but eats them under sufferance if he picks one out by mistake. As you might guess from the chatter and patter you have just endured, business was poor, the team took 41 bets and held £1100.

Numitor won the race by a rapidly diminishing margin from Copperhead, the book won £150, the runner-up would have been a bottle better. The firm celebrated the fifth winning race in the trot but in the sure knowledge that one bad bogie winning could still wipe the lot out. However, there was good news for the bookmakers staff needing to answer the call of nature, it was the Cross Country heat next. Better news still, being a handicap they might go around and around and the favourite might not win, at least that was the theory.

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3:00 – Glenfarclas Crystal Cup Cross Country Handicap Chase (GBB Race) (Class 2) (5YO plus) 3m 5½f

Just £540 was staked on the Cross Country race, Lofty said they could have greened up for £38, that’s number four on the rails. I thought I’d mention that for all the people that think bookmakers can hit the magic button every race and get fortunes for no risk.

There were five losers in the book at the off, the worst being Arizona Cardinal for £535. Stay right there, I’m off to the ablutions. I made it back just in time to see Stumptown the 4/1 favourite win the race after they’d been around and around. It wasn’t too bad though, he was one of the winners, Lofty and Tony copped £198 for the firm, six winning races out of six.

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3:35 – Citipost Handicap Hurdle (GBB Race) (Class 2) (4YO plus) 3m

Attendance of 9038 was announced as betting got going for the lucky last. That meant that roughly 45p from each person attending accounted for the £4150 Star Sports were up, before exes, going into the last. A couple of bigger staking punters came out to play with £350 and £300 on Doyen Quest at 6/5 early doors betting on the concluding heat. As the horses were going to post Lofty had an old fashioned book.

He was up the jolly with the second in a taker with a book that held £1600 and growing by the fiver, four more fivers to be exact, £1620 nestled in the hod at the off and a winning day assured. It was prudent that Lofty didn’t go up the front two, the second-in Long Draw won the race at 3/1. The book blew £43, the first losing race concluding a winning day. It wasn’t the best business but the deadly duo of Tony and Lofty had managed to claw a profit from what will certainly be the quietest meeting of the trio this weekend. Over at the Sovereign Lounge they laid £600 the jolly in the last do had a decent cop up there to finish their day too.

We’re back tomorrow but today, hey punters, Lofty and Tony have all your money!

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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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