SIMON NOTT BETTING BLOG: Royal Ascot Wednesday

I have great news, Inlike Flynn has informed me that due to popular request at Royal Ascot yesterday, ‘Trader Chat’ starring the man himself will return, writes SIMON NOTT.

Of course, since ‘Trader Chat’ last aired, Flynn has risen to the rank of Managing Director, but he says the title shall remain as it’s become loved and any demotion the title suggests is for artistic purposes only. Keep your eyes peeled, and please subscribe to the Star Sports YouTube channel.

As England are playing in the World Cup tonight, Kaan priced the game and offered up a daily double, but never one to do things by halves, he brought a bag of St George’s flags for people to wave when the King passed, then tonight in the pub. Dual use value right there.

The first big bet of the day was an early £24,000 – £12,000 Daryz in the big one, but most business was understandably focused on the opener.

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

The teams, Lofty, Ricky and Flynn on the lower rail, Pam, Ben, Dan and Noah on the top rail and Sophie, Tony and Keiran with Kaan at the helm in Tatts, had been betting on the first for what seemed like hours.

Bets included £25,000 – £5000 and £1800 – £400 Victorious, £25,000 – £1000 each-way Love A Giggle, £11,000 – £500 Armor Supreme and a trio of bets for Alta Regina £7500 – £1500, £1500 – £300 and £12,500 – £2500.

I’ll cut to the chase: it started badly.

Ryan Moore won on the absolute bogie Victorious, the book held £24,223 and knocked out a further £15,633. Nasty.

3:05 – Queen’s Vase (Group 2) (Class 1) (3YO only)

OK, it’s only day two, there’s plenty more bets to take and hopefully keep, illustrated by the £25,000 – £10,000 Galiyan down on the lower rail, which got the book going in style. Bets that followed in a book which ultimately held £26,173 across the three pitches included £2700 – £1200, £1000-£400 x 2 £900-£400 Galiyan, £3600 – £400 each-way and £10,500 – £3000 Limestone and £3200 – £400 Port Of Spain.

We were treated to an excellent race where the machine initially thought 12/1 chance Del Maro had won, copping the book £21,000 only to have the cup snatched from their lips when Limestone was backed into heavy odds on just being called the nose winner, losing the book £1973, some turnaround and an illustration of how this in game success can be dictated by very small margins, some turnaround in perceived fortunes!

3:40 – Duke Of Cambridge Stakes (Fillies’ And Mares’ Group 2) (Rnd) (Class 1) (4YO plus)

Next up and it was time to dust down and crack on. Luckily, the punters enabled that, a bet of £72,000 – £6000 Kon Tiki, which nearly made Keiran jump, it takes a lot to scare Keiran, that bet was added to later when a bookie hedged £5000 – £400 at the price.

Another bookie back bet was £5000 – £900 Friendly Soul followed by bets of £800, £400 and £380 at 11/2 the same selection, fraction crimes alert, there was a run on Blue Bolt too £5500 – £2000, £1500 – £500, £1100 – £400 and a monkey at that price, the Friendly Soul gamble continued with bets of £3600 – £800 and £4500 – £1000 in the hole.

This time it went the way of the firm, the jolly Blue Bolt won the race but Star Sports copped, £7323 from a £19,510 book, had the worm turned?

4:20 – Prince Of Wales’s Stakes (Group 1) (Class 1) (4YO plus)

Next up, the big one, and Ombudsman was all the rage. Two bets of £20,000 at 11/8 followed by £4000 and several grand and two grand bets fielded, though £24,000 – £12,000 Daryz showed there was decent money for at least one against it.

At the off, the combined books held £90,323, the firm just needed Ombudsman beaten… Ombudsman was having none of it, he bolted up at 11/10. The book knocked out £78,089 and 88p. The punters appear to have the game by the gonads. Lofty sent a message ‘send more cash’, luckily those bigger bets aren’t in readies but the smaller ones all add up. This was turning into a nightmare.

5:00 – Royal Hunt Cup (Heritage Handicap) (Str) (Class 2)

Going into the fifth race, the firm was £88,000 down, Ben was AWOL, though, as he’s the boss, it’s probably allowed. Messages were bouncing around, bookmakers were hemorrhaging money, with three races still to race. Mind you, given the results, what chance did they have?

Some punters evidently now have the bit between their teeth, bets laid in the race before the penultimate were £15,000 – £2500 and £5000 – £800 Archivist, £84,000 – £3000 Urban Lion, £80,000 – £4000 Holloway Boy, £38,500 – £3500 La Botte and £5000 – £400 Indalo.

At the off, the book held £24,205 and had some massive liabilities, a couple losers for just short of £70,000. If I tell you Kaan shouted in my ear ‘We are so flipping well back!’ Or words to that effect, you’ll understand that the firm enjoyed a result, Rogue Diplomat winning at 28/1 was a winner for £19,630 and 77p, every penny counts at this stage.

I’m guessing that not everyone won, my very first #BettingPeople interviewee, before Dave Stewart had even thought up that name, Neil Channing tipped the first and second, both 28/1 to his Betting Emporium clients. The firm weren’t back, but had taken a massive step back in the right direction.

5:35 – Kensington Palace Stakes (Fillies’ And Mares’ Handicap) (Str) (Class 2) (4YO plus)

A bet of £70,000 – £20,000 in the penultimate over Alobayyah at least gave the firm a chance to claw another chunk back, but of course the flip side was a deeper plunge back into the bollocks done mire. Splosh! Where did that one come from?

Alobayyah came with a late rattle to win by a neck, the book held £26,648 and blew £69,708. Who rattled the Gambling Gods?

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

So, into the lucky last with a virtually zero chance of getting out on the day, though Royal Ascot is a long week, this had been a tough day. Lofty sent a message to say the screens had gone up around their pitch and that thoughts were with connections, macabre but rather witty from the big fella.

The last heat was a slow betting event, though £26,000 – £4000 Sale Shark ensured a bogie in the book. Other bets of note were £500, £1000, £400 and £750 bets on Sergei Diaghilev at rates down from 5/1 to 10/3 and £5000 – £400 Celeron. A late bet of £16,000 – £1000 Alfred Wallace put another in the red. They didn’t appear in any hurry to get the race off on time and didn’t.

The book had struggled over the £14,000 mark over the three pitches, a good chunk of that figure made up of the bets already mentioned. At last a result King Of Cloughan winning at 33/1 was a virtual skinner by today’s standards, the book that held £14,635 copped £13,559. Today was ultimately a losing day for £124,000, a quarter of a million down in two days, hey the firm’s come back from worse.

We’re back tomorrow.

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

Simon Nott is author of: Skint Mob! Tales from the Betting Ring
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