SIMON NOTT BLOG: Newbury Saturday

Yes! It’s March the first, the first day of spring and the sun has come out to celebrate, writes SIMON NOTT.

What a glorious day. Are you getting he feeling I’m happy to see the back of winter? Good, it’s been a long winter.

The seven race card looked a good one today, it was an Inved day, so lots of young adults were in attendance bolstering the crowd. I didn’t spot any faces from the punting community, apart from one, a bagman, without his bag… which was a bad sign.

An even worse sign was the £207 field money tendered in pick one on the second row where Kaan, Amberley and Kieran were trying to crack on. People were betting but in amounts not even taken in Tatts when I first started.

1:20 BetVictor Super Boost Has Arrived Veterans’ Handicap Chase (Class 2) 3m 1f 214y

The race went to 10/3 chance Sam Brown, it was hard to get excited about the heat with just a bottle in the bag though. The team lost a tenner on the race. It appeared Kaan backed the winner, he was leaning well up the run-in despite any of its rivals needing to be Pegasus to get anywhere near.

As Johnny Lights said, ‘It looks different when you’ve backed it’. Did Kaan have a ‘Lofty Lean-Up’ the winner? I’m on the fence.

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1:55 Best Odds Guaranteed At BetVictor Conditional Jockeys’ Novices’ Handicap Hurdle (GBB Race) (Class 4) 2m 69y

Authentic Legacy opened at 5/2 for the second race but it wasn’t until Kaan went 3/1 that punters showed any interest, they bet £600 – £200 and £300 – £100 which ultimately were the biggest bets in a £954 book. Business had picked up somewhat from the opener, though that bar had been set very low.

The punters that jumped in at 3/1 got the money and the value as Authentic Legacy obliged for them at 9/4, come racing. The book blew £630.

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2:30 Get Daily Racing Specials At BetVictor Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase (GBB Race) (Class 4) 2m 7f 86y

I had an email from a pro-punter pal before racing, he told me he was unable to make it today as planned. He normally marks my card so was kind enough to tell me that he had one bet in mind today, in this race Zertakt, I told him I’d have my tenner on, he replied back he’d backed it at 7/2 which he thought was value The 15/8 opening show wasn’t quite so appealing. I told Kaan we’d had a mark for it, so he went 2/1 and wallop, laid a £4000 – £2000.

Nice, the punter told Kieran that he’d bet with Star because he liked the blogs, which made up for it. Business was brisk, the book held £4700 at the off and it went the firm’s way. Zertakt ran its race but had to settle for finishing runner up behind 15/2 chance Rivers Corner, dare I say the winner stole the race going off in front then yielding the lead nothing. It was a cracking result for the book which copped £4599.

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3:05 Lengthen The Odds At BetVictor Handicap Hurdle (Class 3) 2m 69y

Next up and another six-horse race, one in which Jurancon opened 2/1 favourite. The punter who likes the blogs was soon back in, he bet £5000 – £1500 Sorceleur I’m hoping he won’t mind a mention in the blogs either because his wager was the only one worth writing about.

Sadly, for the punter but hopefully not my blog writing longevity, his plucky bet was off target again, the 2/1 favourite Jurancon won the race with some ease, the book copped £1563.69 of the £1944 it held, the extra £444 the team managed to lay on top of the big bet was paltry but the cop over the jolly very handy indeed.

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3:45 BetVictor Greatwood Gold Cup Handicap Chase (Premier Handicap) (GBB Race) (Class 1) 2m 3f 187y

Next up and the most competitive race of the day, the 14-runner Greatwood in which Kaan and Kieran both fancied the favourite Billytherealbigred the 11/4. It seemed the punters didn’t fancy anything much enough to bet on. There was £413 in the hod off so I’ll take this opportunity to pass on the news that for anyone that’s interested, there was a punter wandering around Newbury trying to have lumps on Golden Goose in the 7.00 at Southwell tonight.

I’m told he got a bit of 4/1 but was declined the 7/2 he was after best-priced on odds-checker. I told Kaan to say get what you can with them and have the rest at 3/1 with us, but he’s too polite for that old school Harry Metcalfe type banter. Back at Newbury, there may not have been much interest in betting on the race but the heat itself was a cracker. 16/1 chance Booster Bob which had looked a forlorn hope trading at 880 in running found turbo to run on through the entire field to win going away and copping £378.06 on the heat for the firm.

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4:15 Football Betbuilder Boosts At BetVictor Handicap Hurdle (Class 3) 2m 4f 118y

Next up the penultimate and the fearless blog reading punter waded in and bet £20,000 – £3000 Eaton Anne, 13/2 and he asked for the fractions, good man. Another fractions bet was £1500 – £180 Go To War to the trade, come racing, ask for the fractions, which made up the bulk of the £4660 book as they set off.

Nobody watching the race is going to remember those bets, they will remember the confident bordering on cocky way Harry Cobden won on 4/1 chance Guard Duty with consummate ease, who much did he have in hand? What Star Sports had in hood after the race was £3420.70 which totalled £9321 in front going into the lucky last. Did the blog reading punter have any ammo left? Was the Southwell punter on? It was like a Saturday morning pictures cliffhanger with one heat to go….

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4:50 OLBG Racing Club Mares’ Open NH Flat Race (GBB Race) (Class 2) 2m 69y

By the lucky last some of the Invade contingent were flagging, though others appeared to have paced themselves slightly better and were keen to get involved. It had been an enjoyable and profitable day in the spring sunshine so far.

The only thing that could stop it being a good winning Saturday was either the big punter or another big punter having it on. The firm had been using a new piece of RDT kit today, some sort of super wifi, Grant from the firm was very chuffed to point it out to me. Mind you, I’m not so impressed as he added you can’t piggy back your phone onto it, talk about chocolate teapot! 60GHz I’m told.

The big punter didn’t come in, the firm didn’t find another, but they did take £1073 off the floor, there were no big bets, at the off the losers were Hill In Brazil for £976 and Queen’s Abbey £504. Heron In The Park won easily at 4/1 and copped £116 in the book. A very good day at the office.

We’re at Sandown on Saturday, catch you there, thanks for reading.

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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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