SIMON NOTT BETTING BLOG: Aintree Friday

Thursday couldn’t really have gone any better for the firm, so the three Star Sports musketeers, Ben, Lofty and Nick were hoping to keep the elastic around the readies and kick on, ploughing through another card of favourable results, confidence on a high… writes SIMON NOTT.

They were also celebrating over at Hove. No, not in the office, where I’m told celebrations are a near-daily occasion, but after the opening day of the brand new Star Sports betting shop, where they enjoyed a very good winning opening day too. If you are in the Hove vicinity, check it out, it’s swanky.

1:45 – William Hill Handicap Hurdle (Premier Handicap) (GBB Race) (Class 1) (4YO plus) 2m 4f

Assuming the fun boy three weren’t hungover after celebrating, I imagined that they’d have been up and betting quite early, but I’d not heard anything with a minute before off time. I was guessing that, given the race, where they bet 5/1 the field business was light.

Meanwhile, the office said that they were busier than they had been yesterday but hadn’t seen any big bets. When I did finally hear from the guys on course, they reported they laid a bet of £4000 – £500 each-way Wellington Arch, which was the only bet of note in a book that held a very respectable first race £4786.

Yesterday had gone so well, I suppose it was inevitable that the worm would turn at some point. Sadly for the firm, it was sooner rather than later when Wellington Arch did the business for the monkey each-way backer, the book blew £3824, the worst result in the book.

💬 Office Quote: “Nice start to the day with the winner not being that popular, despite winning this last year”

2:20 – William Hill Mildmay Novices’ Chase (Grade 1) (GBB Race) (Class 1) (5YO plus) 3m 210y

Dusted down and ready to go in again, the dynamic duo of Lofty and Nick, Ben had already gone AWOL, got to work laying a couple of decent early bets, £5000 – £1000 Regent’s Stroll and a monkey each way Salver at 4/1. The guys managed to add a further £1631 in smaller bets to the two grand already mentioned before the off.

Gold Dancer won the race, the 10/3 co-favourite of three in the Star Sports book at the off and was a winner for £1650 in the book in what was an unedifying race to watch.

💬 Office Quote: “Another good result at HQ”

2:55 – ThatPrizeGuy Top Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 1) (GBB Race) (Class 1) (4YO plus) 2m 103y

The next heat featured the odds-on Sober Glory but the first bet in the book and the biggest of the day so far was £35,000 – £10,000 Baron Noir. What happened next was certainly not, what’s the saying that’s popular with people these days? Oh, yes, not on my bingo card.

The firm took £3800 over the easy to back jolly Sober Glory at odds-on of various prices then Ben had £4000 back at even money, ‘Arbing’ howled Lofty and they were off.

Remember Sod and his law? Yes, that kicked in. Sober Glory was one of the first horses beaten. Luckily for Ben’s blushes, Baron Noir didn’t run much better than the jolly but did finish third behind the 16/1 winner Storming George over which the book won £9750, popular with the smaller punters and the second worst winner in the book.

Despite the unorthodox, for Star Sports, nature of the book, it was an excellent result which saw the firm hit the front on the day.

💬 Office Quote: “The news just keeps getting better – great result in the 2.55”

3:30 – JCB Melling Chase (Grade 1) (GBB Race) (Class 1) (5YO plus) 2m 3f 200y

The first message to emanate from Lofty and the next heat was that the firm had laid (but not arbed) £17,500 – £5000 Gidleigh Park, despite it soon to be a 4/1 chance next door.

The bets kept coming, fielding £2000 and £800 bets on Heart Wood at 11/8 and £1800 – £400 Grey Dawning into a book that held £10,912 at the off. Racegoers and TV viewers alike were treated to one hell of a race where Grey Dawning and Solness battled it out all the way up the run-in, with the former just getting the best of things from the gallant runner-up.

Grey Dawning had been an easy to back horse all day and copped £6076 on the race despite the decent bet. Lofty sending me the figures had been uncharacteristically accurate this meeting. The big fella was a bit gutted having been ‘all over the runner-up’, which might have accounted for it being £1500 better in the book had he won.

4:05 – Randox Topham Handicap Chase (Premier Handicap) (GBB Race) (Class 1) (5YO plus) 2m 5f 19y

I heard absolutely nothing from the course during the betting on the Topham. I hoped there hadn’t been an arb-based bust-up on the team, rather that they had been too busy tapping away to make message small talk with the likes of me.

Thankfully, the latter had indeed been the case; the intrepid trio had fielded £4035, totally comprised of bets generally considered not noteworthy in this blog.

At the off, there were four losers in the book, with the popular with the public outsider Teddy Blue the worst for £7850. He might not have been as popular with the gamblers after finishing out of the money behind 9/1 chance Will The Wise, which lost £900 in the book.

Lofty pointed out that the first four in the betting filled the first four places, so not too bad a hit as it might have looked. Oh, I got a phone call from Ben, he’d left Hale and Pace in charge and taken an early bath, so it was just the deadly duo doing the business for the concluding brace of races.

💬 Office Quote: “More of the same”

4:40 – Oddschecker Sefton Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 1) (GBB Race) (Class 1) (4YO plus) 3m 149y

No sooner than Ben had legged it than Nick and Lofty were on ITV working at the pitch, looking every inch the professionals that they are, totally ignoring the camera as Brian Gleeson did his stuff. They didn’t look very busy, but they still didn’t get in touch, too busy signing autographs for ladies of a certain age, maybe?

Whatever they were up to, they’d still been grafting, the field money on the race was the lightest of the day but still an OK £3612 with no noted bets. That business was crafted into an old-fashioned up the front two book with Zeus Power losing £1650 and Johnny’s Jury £250 on the win side.

Sadly, Zeus Power obliged for favourite backers costing the on-course book £1400 after the favourable places had been taken into account.

The running total on the day going into the last was £14,000, probably not exactly, but Lofty had evidently given up that accuracy lark. Whatever the actual figure, the hope would be that there was no knocking that lot out and the second winning day on the trot was on the cards. Considering how concise they’d been all afternoon, the office spokesman was a veritable chatterbox with their message.

💬 Office Quote: “Well it took 6 races but that was one for our customers, a small dent in our day.”

5:15 – Debenhams Handicap Hurdle (Conditional Jockeys/Amateur Riders) (GBB Race) (Class 2) (4YO plus) 2m 103y

So, with £14,000 in the bag and the boss on his way back to the palatial digs, the guess was that the lads had boxed these up in the right and proper manner.

As had become the norm in the last few races, I was kept in the dark until the horses lined up. When I did get to see the book, the lads had been evidently grafting with £4073 in the bag in a low staking book on what had been a fairly consistent day as far as field money went.

Sherminator and Melon were the two losers for just over £2600 each, so another winning day was assured. 20/1 winner Laafi did the book a favour by holding off the determined and persistent challenge of Melon copping £2390.93 on the day. No, Lofty hadn’t suddenly become super accurate. I got to see the print-out. That concluded another excellent day’s business on the turf for the firm, with the book one yet to tackle.

Hopefully Lofty and Nick will have a great night in Pop World tonight and not have one over the regulation working night eight pints, though if they do, hey they’ve earned it.

💬 Office Quote: “The last goes our way, giving us a very good day, but now our attention moves to the big day 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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