SIMON NOTT: Betting Report | Cheltenham Festival Tuesday

This year will be the first Cheltenham Festival I’ve missed since I first went working for Jack Lynn in 1992. There are loads of memories from the time since. Too much Guinness before the first on Gold Cup day that first year courtesy of a very generous bookie’s clerk John Holland, which made working out fraction back bets a bit tricky. Jack’s clerk John’s first child Grace being born on the Tuesday in ’93 which meant that after only having ever clerked a Bath evening meeting I was on the pencil on the Wednesday, being rightly branded useless and returned to the floor Thursday. The joints at lower Tatts rocking so hard that despite some notes tendered barely better than photocopies, being told to just throw them in the hod, it was too busy for a ruck. Hoping not to get them in your wages at the end of the week.

Using the computer for the first time with great success on the Tuesday in ’99. Telling the bookies around us that it was slow and useless. Being sent back to Torquay to get the printer after it had been left at home marking everyone’s card it was a real edge. Flying to Singapore the day after Cheltenham 2000 and doing the Kranji double. No Festival in 2001 so working in a perfume factory, sticking on stickers.

Thinking that the Cheltenham Festival was a case of how much is the boss going to win and wondering how big the bonus was going to be? Getting my eyes opened in 2002 when working for big layer Ivor Perry who did fortunes when they all went in. His reaction after the last day, shrugging his shoulders and saying, ‘Today would be a good day to get mugged in the car park’. Reviewing the Festival from the betting ring for the Racing Post Weekender.

Seeing the Festival from a different angle returning prices and collecting big bets for Turf TV from 2008. Staying in hovels so that I could be in the after racing action and stay within budget. Spending the nights in Broadway after racing with Rod and co from Channel 4. Having my heart broken and a sizable win snatched away when Maljimar got collared, having to relive it for the rest of my life. Working alongside the legend that was John McCririck whose cigar smoke was torture when hungover.

Working with Star Sports as a freelance for the first time in the ring in 2017, having my eyes opened wide to the world of monster bets, £350,000 and £400,000 wagers struck. Fast forward to 2021 and back as a freelance, for the first time since 1992 and now not on course when the Festival takes place. The plus side is that I’m going to get to watch every race on TV for the first time ever. That’s a very small plus.

Whatever happens on the turf 2021 won’t be on any future special memories list, but there’s still a lot of great racing to look forward to, so let’s kick on….

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1:20 – Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 1) (Class 1)

The Festival kicking off with an odds-on favourite is not really a bad thing. The punters have had a whole year to forget how hard it is to back a Cheltenham winner, at any price. The bookmakers are generally keen to get the short one in for that very reason, confidence high because nothing has dented it yet. One side of the punting fence is going to be put on the back foot after the opener. The value for the punters was in the each-way market, had the race been a run of the mill midweek one it would have been hard to get those each way bets. ‘Inlike’ Flynn, head of horseracing told me that 85% of the business had been for the favourite Appreciate It which was a ‘huge loser’. The other horse being backed heavily in the race was Blue Lord but still a good winner in the book.

It can’t have been a lot of fun for the guys taking the bets in the virtual office to watch the 8/11 jolly absolutely storm up the hill unchallenged. The first favourite winning to silence at least spared the bookies the rub-down.

That was just as well as bets included £100,000 – £120,000, £15,000 and £19,000 at 5/6 so many £500s at 4/5 & 5/6 they can just be described as untold bundles.

📈 Toby from Star Spreads over in Ireland told me that there had been plenty of buyers of total distances on the day at 28 lengths, they must have been feeling good about that investment, Appreciate It winning by 24l.

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1:55 – Sporting Life Arkle Challenge Trophy Novices’ Chase (Grade 1)

Early skirmishes in the next saw a bet of £35,000 at 4/9. Come on, who has £35,000 on a 4/9? I can just imagine an old school bookie berating the punter goading him into pulling the other £10,000 up to make it a round figure. Flynn was a little bit ambiguous about the rest of the business due to requested customer confidentiality, which of course is always paramount. He told me ‘We’ve taken very large bets on Franco De Port, Allmankind & Eldorado Allen but I can’t talk amounts. Shishkin is a near level result in the book but we’ve still taken a huge amount of bets on the favourite – although Franco De Port is, just, the bogie at the off.

After the second odds on favourite of the day won, just level in the book is, ladies and gentlemen, what you call getting away with it.

📈 Not so with Star Spreads, a downbeat Toby told me ‘Distance buyers are in the money, every extra length costing us about £115 now’. Imagine being one of those punters, a dream day’s racing.

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2:30 – Ultima Handicap Chase (Grade 3) (Class 1)

The first handicap of the meeting saw steady betting, steady apart from very lumpy support for Cepage & Alnadam. The stakes can’t be reported but if I tell you that the field bar those two won plenty and they both lost six figures – you can all do the maths and have a fair guess up as to the liabilities.

📈 Toby was just praying for anything to win a nose.

Sadly, for Toby at least, Vintage Clouds winning at 28/1 did so by 5 ½ lengths, you can imagine those spread betters screaming ‘keep him going’. The book got the two big bogies beaten and some back. I asked Inlike if the winner had been a skinner, to which he replied, not quite. I’d have still called ‘Pay Pay’ at the top of my voice had I been on course, knowing darn well there’d not be much of a queue. It’s the simple pleasures.

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3:05 – Unibet Champion Hurdle Challenge Trophy (Grade 1)

When the firm you are writing about are known to take the industry’s biggest bets and Richard Hoiles the commentator told the world that the winner of the Champion Hurdle, Honeysuckle under Racheal Blackmore had been backed as if defeat were out of the question, you fear the worst. It was with some relief then that Flynn told me that the winner was a small cop in the book. The reason for the second get-out on the day was laying bets of £400,000 – £100,000 and £90,000 – £20,000 Epatante with a £140,000 – £10,000 each-way ‘cherry on the top’ cop on James Du Berlais.

The caveat from Flynn was that the multiples were beginning to stack up. I’m having a fair guess that it was a similar story all around the industry.

📈 Talking of stacking up, Toby over at Star Spreads was doing the sums, adding another 6 ½ lengths to the distances total.

It’s usually by this point in the meeting when on course that I give Star stalwart Martin Chapman aka Lofty a mention. He’d have been down on the bottom rail leading the pensioners’ team. After the short ones have gone in it’s fair to say that he’d have been a bit bristly at best and have a monster cob on at worst. Now, the late and sadly missed Ivor Perry who I mentioned I used to work for in the 00’s always said, ‘Whatever you do in racing do it consistently.’ That’s my excuse for mentioning Lofty, hopefully lounging at home with a big smile on his face after reading this.

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3:40 – Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle (Registered As The David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle) (Grade 1)

Poor old Toby was still praying for a photo not caring what beat what in the race before the penultimate. Meanwhile the rest of the bookmakers just wanted the favourite Concertista beaten. Toby cheered up a bit when 11/1 chance Black Tears got up on the line to beat the 10/11 ‘tips on’ jolly to win a head or in spread terms just 0.2 to the distance buyers’ tally.

It never pays to try and double guess how a race as gone for the book, especially with this firm. ‘Inlike’ Flynn came through with the bogie, not the jolly as you’d expect but third-placed Roksana which had been the subject of a bet of £360,000 – £120,000 each-way. Yes, each-way, nasty. In addition to that another bet of £30,000 – £10,000 win only was struck and stayed in the hod.

It was still hugely important getting the favourite beaten too though, as Flynn pointed out ‘Concertista getting beat great for the perms being busted, we had an easy 6 figures going onto it’, adding ‘ Black Tears a fantastic result’.

I had better point out for a PR perspective, the relief of getting Concertista beaten was somewhat mitigated by the fine margin, despite Toby being delirious. Star Sports were refunding and indeed are on all bets this week any horse getting beaten one length of less up to a macaroni. And the shrewdies tell me the secret of getting a favourite beaten is usually keeping the readies in the hod, a bit generous Ben?

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4:15 – Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle (Registered As The Fred Winter) (Grade 3) (Class 1)

It’s usual for the layers to take a bit of a breather with the bankers out of the way for the day. Not so with Star in the penultimate. Three big bets were struck Nassalam £270,000 – £15,000 each-way, Zoffanien £100,000 – £5000 each-way, Busselton and £80,000 – £10,000 each-way at 8/1, the rest of the field were winners.

Jeff Kidder winning at 80/1 was a good old-fashioned Cheltenham ‘result’ for the layers. ‘Inlike’ could hardly contain himself, his message, seconds after the winner passed the post, was ‘Near skinner, some big ‘Aye Ayes’ from the living room desk here’. In all honesty he spelt ‘Aye Aye’ in a very strange manner, I knew what he meant however and have corrected him to spare his blushes for the purpose of this report. For the sake of continuity, the winning distance of two lengths added to the Star Spreads distance buyer’s bootie.

The firm were winning going into the last, but in Flynn’s words ‘God knows how’. It certainly wasn’t a winning day on paper, though the last was still to be negotiated so he wasn’t counting any chickens. Especially as he followed that up with the message, ‘Escaria Ten loses us upwards of half a million Galvin loses 6 figures too’.

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4:50 – Sam Vestey National Hunt Challenge Cup Novices’ Chase (Grade 2) (Class 1)

Galvin won at 7/2 from Next Destination with the jolly back in third. You know the race hasn’t gone your way when you are cheering home the one that loses six-figures to beat the half a million quid bogie. Up the run-in there was very little hope for the book. The luck that had been ridden for much of the day finally ran out. Still, looking on the plus side, the firm could have been losing plenty more than they were, and the absolute worst didn’t win. The other huge bonus this year is there aren’t a horde of hungry and thirsty staff looking for Ben to be fed and watered in hostelries around the Cheltenham area.

At time of typing ‘Inlike’ had stopped giving it the Aye Aye, Toby had just come up with a total of a buyers winning distance margin of 23.7 and we all have another three cracking days of televised Cheltenham to look forward to.

Plenty of time for the books to get it back.

Simon Nott

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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 now on Kindle CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS

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