SIMON NOTT: Betting Report | Aintree Friday

There’s no way that I could dive straight into a flippant blog about betting on horses running around a field without mentioning the breaking news of the day. Prince Philip passing away at the age of 99. Married to the Queen since 1947 and a regular by her side on the turf, he’s been an omnipresent figure to all but the most elderly of the UK and sure to be missed by us all as a nation. Aintree observed a sombre tribute of two minutes silence before racing, jockeys wore black armbands and flags were flown at half-mast. RIP Prince Philip, Long Live The Queen.

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1:45 – Pertemps Network Handicap Hurdle (Grade 3)

Star Sports were well in front after day one, so a nice position from which to launch into Friday. It’s doubtful the office were expecting any real lumps in the fiendishly hard opener. There were none forthcoming but £11,000 – £1000 Amarillo Sky and £42,500 – £5000 each-way Solwara One were enough to make the boys on the trading floor jump just a bit. Luckily neither troubled the judge, the race went to 22/1 ‘result’ and drifter Tronador which was a handy start. Rory giving me the day’s information confirmed that there had been only small bets for the winner and that it was a good result.

2:20 – Betway Top Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 1)

Next up and once again betting was lively but relatively light, the office did lay a bet of £12,000 – £1500 Ajero and a single wager of £17,500 at 9/4 Dusart. That bet would have taken £39,375.00 out of the book had it had won. Sadly, for the intrepid punter the jolly could only manage third place behind 9/1 chance Belfast Banter. One customer did find the winner and got the value to the tune of £4800 – £400 each-way but it didn’t ruin another what Rory described as ‘a good winning race’.

2:50 – Betway Mildmay Novices’ Chase (Grade 1)

Chantry House was pretty much the only one that they wanted to be on in this race. The biggest single bet struck was £20,625 – £15,000 which was topped up by bets of £3000 – £2000, £1375 – £1000, £4125 – £3000 and numerous other wagers of more modest denominations. The only other bet of note in the race was an £11,000 – £2000 Fiddlerontheroof. Favourite backers got the money, but it may have been a different story had Espoir De Romay had not come down at the second-last leaving the jolly to coast home unchallenged. We were deprived or a race but happily, both the horse and jockey David Bass were unhurt.

Between races we got news that the Grand National will still take place tomorrow. I was quite surprised to learn it was ever in doubt, you can’t imagine that the Duke would have wanted his death to stop the nation’s favourite race. That’s no disrespect, the death of a person whose life was lived to the full for 99 years, though always sad, is ultimately one to be celebrated.

3:25 – Marsh Chase (Registered As The Melling Chase) (Grade 1)

The monster bets that we all love to read and indeed write about had been thin on the Aintree turf but that all changed in this race. One punter had £195,000 on Fakir D’oudairies at 2/1. Maybe he saved the £5000 for a good drink or a go on one of the later races should it all go wrong. That wasn’t the only bet on the jolly, add £40,000 – £20,000 and £20,000 – £10,000 to that total. Although there was nothing of that size but still decent support for others, Notebook £45,000 – £10,000 and £4500 – £2000 and £10,000 – £4000 Politologue. Some betting race.

They do tend to run well when the big punters open their shoulders. Fakir D’oudairies won with some ease and clobbered the book today and knocked yesterday’s winnings for six too.

4:05 – Randox Topham Handicap Chase (Grade 3)

Betting was wide open for the Topham, realistically it would be unlikely to get much of the previous losses back in this heat. You have to start somewhere though, so a bet of £14,000 – £2000 each-way Caribean Boy was a decent way to do so as was a £40,000 – £500 each-way Lust For Glory. Then another horse backed Livelovelaugh to the tune of £75,000 – £10,000 each-way and Storm Control attracting a wager of £27,000 – £1500 each-way. The four horses backed to decent money the four losers. Of course, that left plenty running for the book.

They may well have been running for the firm, but the form book will relate they didn’t run fast enough. Well done to the punter that copped £93,750 over runaway Livelovelaugh but it was deeper in the mire for Star Sports who had started the day so upbeat. ‘Upbeat’ is not how you’d describe Flynn’s message ‘A terrible result there’. There wasn’t much point in asking him to elaborate.

4:40 – Doom Bar Sefton Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 1)

His message shortly after the off was ‘Bravemansgame the only loser £32,000 – £20,000 and £48,000 – £28,000 struck late on. Ahoy Senor should maybe renamed Aye Aye Senor. The 66/1 winner was just what was needed to instil some confidence back into the trading room. Poor old Flynn had metaphorically started packing the kit away thinking that had been the last.

Being paid by a bookmaker laying off-course bets at industry prices, maybe I shouldn’t be highlighting it. But the bogie and runner-up Bravemansgame returned 13/8 but was 3.22 on the exchanges. The worst it would have been returned from a ring full of racecourse bookies would have been 2/1. When the racecourse bookmakers, including Star Sports, are back on-course how long are off course punters going to stand for it?

5:15 – Pinsent Masons Handicap Hurdle (Conditional Jockeys’ And Amateur Riders’) (Class 2)

The actual lucky last, a handicap hurdle for conditional jockeys, is the sort of race that bookmakers take the bets offered and hope for the best. They’ll have plenty of losers and have to hope that the horses they are left with come to the rescue.

Those bets included Bold Enough £24,500 – £3500 each-way, The Widdow Maker £6250 – £250 and £3125 – £125 both each-way, then the bogies, Camprond £45,000 – £10,000 and Copperless £40,000 – £10,000.

12/1 Rowland Ward running down Camprond in the shadow of the post saved the race but certainly not the day. Flynn was in a stoic mood summing up the day thus, ‘A good result in the last, but damage done early on. Slight flashbacks to the Wednesday of Cheltenham where we did chunks on Bob Olinger and it was a long way back from there. We did get out at Cheltenham but will need a fantastic day tomorrow to even get level.

📈 Spread Betting fans may have been disappointed that Star Spreads’ Toby Rose has been AWOL today. He did make it to the parade, albeit a little late and told me ‘It’s been overall a good day with minimal race by race punters. Those that did couldn’t string them together with today’s results all over the place, fortunately we didn’t lay any of the bigger prices, so no one took us with the SP boosts. We’ve just got out of jail on the last with our shrewd sellers of the double numbers, the final race adding a 38 to the mix which has swung it in our favour, just. Onto the big one tomorrow, where we have special indices galore’.

Yes, we let Toby get away with a shameless advertorial there, but he’s a good guy. Talking of which, the good guys are now on the back foot, it’s still all to play for though and we’ll be back for the big day tomorrow. Watch this space.

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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