SIMON NOTT

AUTHOR: Star Sports Content

SIMON NOTT BETTING BLOG: Ascot Saturday

You never know in this game, and what Star Sports’ team today didn’t know was that the firm’s founder Ben Keith was going to pay them a surprise visit, writes SIMON NOTT.

Luckily, but as you’d expect, the team of seven, Kaan, Alex the BHA graduate, Keiran and Tony in Tatts and Pam, Lofty and Eoghan on the rails were impeccably turned out so passed muster, phew.

Onto the day’s action. Ben even managed a lengthy #Top10 with Pam, watch out on the Star socials for that one.

1:10 – Dentakay EBF Crocker Bulteel ‘Confined’ Maiden Stakes (Class 2) (2YO only)

Meanwhile, in Tatts poacher turned gamekeeper for the day professional punter Nick Goff was working on David Richardson’s rails pitch which was good to see, Nick’s a top man.

There was an excellent sized crowd in evidence for the first, but their number didn’t translate into bets; business wasn’t bad but a little disappointing from two prime pitches on a packed day.

There were just two bets of note taken, a monkey at 5/4 and £7000 – £1000 Tumishi adding a fair chunk of the £3832 field money. Keiran roared home the winning 11/8 jolly Never Enough, a cardinal sin, well it would have been had it been the bogie, instead it copped £220 which was handy.

1:45 – Princess Margaret Japan Cup Stakes (Fillies’ Group 3) (Class 1) (2YO only)

Prior to betting on the next Kaan suddenly pointed to the big screen and pointed out that ‘our’ Hannah was on the big screen broadcasting for the racecourse; fantastically well done, Hannah. Once again, business was a bit slow given the size of the crowd, the biggest bet of the race as the horses were going down was a trade bet of £1750-£500 Dark Issue.

There was another lump lurking though, Pam, Eoghan and Lofty laid £10,000 – £1000 each-way Velozee, which had been a drifter but boosted the field money and became the boogie in the process.

At the off the book held £5968, Moonrise winning at 11/2 looked to be a good result, only for the result of the photo for third showing Velozee getting the place, instead of copping nicely the book lost £348.

2:20 – Longines Valiant Stakes (Fillies’ And Mares’ Group 3) (Rnd) (Class 1) (3YO plus)

The third race started lively, £6000 at 11/8 followed by £2000, £1000 and £500 at 6/5 on Touleen.

Things went a bit quiet until a punter had £1050 at 11/10, evens it was then a punter strolled up and had £7000 on at evens. To coin an old phrase, the public were backing this jolly as if defeat were out of the question.

And still it went on, and even £2000 was the next decent bet to hit the bottom of the hod, the small punters were piling in too.

At the off, Touleen was a tips-on chance and a loser for £26,245 with £27,861 in the book. ‘This will get beat’ was betting sage, TV personality and all round good egg Stephen Darbyshire’s prediction had bet the mathematical each-way Kon Tiki at 7/2.

Well, what can you say, apart from Stephen knew. Kon Tiki bolted up with the bogie toiling in her wake out of the frame. The book copped £23,655.

2:55 – Moet & Chandon International Handicap (Heritage Handicap) (Class 2) (3YO plus)

The next heat, a heritage handicap was surprisingly lively with some decent bets including £8500 – £1000 and £8000 – £1000 Back In Black, £2200 – £200 each-way Saytarr and £3500 – £700 Amazing Journey all into a book that ultimately held £6708. The nevis bet on Amazing Journey proved inspired, winning nicely returning 4/1.

That punter wasn’t the only one to get 5/1, Gary, who reads the blogs, came to say hello was also on at 5/1, it was nice to chat to you Gary, luckily he didn’t bet the winner with Star Sports as they’d already knocked out £3636 on the race.

3:35 – King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Group 1) (Class 1) (3YO plus)

The King George came alive, the rail laid a bet of £120,000 at 11/8 Calandagan and £15,000 each-way Kalpana at 6/1 in quick succession. Maybe the high-rollers seeing Ben here thought it was Royal Ascot; now that the money was in the bag, the hope was that the results wouldn’t emulate the Royal Meeting.

Prior to all the action, I bumped into Simon Holden, a previous #BettingPeople interviewee, form judge and now a video host, it’s been a while since I’ve seen him; I didn’t recognise him at first, it must have been the statement bins.

Then a bet of £50,000 – £10,000 Benvenuto Cellini thickened the broth even more, though it was good to see that some people who bet big were opposing the jolly. Not all though, a punter bet £12,500 – £10,000 Calandagan late making him a loser for just over £150,000, if ever there was a race to get a good old-fashioned result this was it.

Well, they didn’t get one, but they did get the favourite beaten, by the worst winner, 13/2 chance Kalpana with the jolly back in second. Once the figures had been crunched they were, field money £170,348 copping £28,326 over the winner. They’d take that.

4:10 – Ascot Shop Handicap (GBBPlus Race) (Class 4) (3YO plus)

After all the excitement of the feature, not a lot happened in the next, Pam went for a wee, I filmed Stephen Darbyshire then went to buy the firm much-needed drinks, and when I returned still not much had happened.

The most amazing feature of the race was that Ben was still working the rails pitch grafting, though was lamenting his ‘lost bottle’ blimey yes fancy only standing one for £150,000 what a fiddler.

Primo Lara won the race at 4/1 and was a decent result copping £1752 from a £3802 book across both of the pitches. No sooner had they passed the post than Ben asked me to interview an interesting young man named Zack O’Reilly who’d made the trip over from Northern Ireland.

4:45 – Betfred Handicap (Str) (Class 2) (3YO plus)

The penultimate started out as a tepid betting affair; people appeared to have thinned out from the ring but the teams kept at it, though Ben is reported to have quietly exited stage left but would have copped anyone who bought the number of races he worked a healthy profit.

Not a lot happened apart from steady small money but there was a late bet of £800 at 4/1 Grizedale which made the field money look more respectable standing at £4024 at the off. Hickory winning at 10/1 was a handy result copping another £1901 (Kaan likes to be precise) for the firm.

5:20 – Whispering Angel Handicap (Class 2) (3YO plus)

Going into the lucky last, including the away business, the firm were winning £40,360.61 on the day; notice the decimal point, I told you Kaan likes to be accurate.

Anyway, on to the last, bets were brisk compared to the previous couple of races, but the big punters looked to have legged it.

I don’t often mention winning jockeys and trainers in these blogs, but it would be remiss of me not to point out that Saffie Osborne was looking at a four-timer should 13/2 Bolo Neighs win the last, a treble already some feat on King George Day.

Punters seemed keen to be part of it; her mount proved a popular choice along with Getreadytorumble the 9/2 jolly. At the off with £5149 in the hod with no notable bets to report, it was the aforementioned the two bogies. All Ways Glamorous won the race at 8/1 copping £925.13 topping off a very satisfactory couple of days on the turf.

I’m back with Star Sports at Glorious Goodwood from Wednesday onwards. Thanks for reading.

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

STAR PROMOTIONS

SS_DTA_Social_Banner
SS_WeBelieveInBookmaking
previous arrow
next arrow
SHARE VIA

    Most Read