SIMON NOTT BETTING BLOG: Ascot Saturday

There was a new face on the Star Sports pitch today, Kieran from Portsmouth. He wrote in to Star saying he was interested in how the on-course business worked and the next thing he knew he was on the team for a day, writes SIMON NOTT.

Ben is always keen to help people out, one of many reasons he’s a top man. By the time I got down to the joint he’d already fielded plenty of bets, met a bagman and witnessed a £11,250 sports bet. That was a double Celtic to win the Premiership and Max Verstappen to win the Emilia Romagna to cop £5250. What he hadn’t witnessed was that it was like Benidorm on the other side of the stand, just pleasantly shady in Tatts, that’s shady as in not in the sun rather than Peaky Blinders of course.

1:30 – Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% Handicap (Class 3) (4YO plus) 1m 4f

Whilst as you’d expect it wasn’t like Royal Ascot in the betting ring, but there were a couple of decent bets, £2100 – £600 Kotari, £1600 – £200 each-way Youthful King and £1000 – £90 Think First, I’ve had to include the last bet of course, fractions in action on course. Apart from those, the rest of the field money was poor £600 including the place money, that’s from pitch four in the second row.

Kotari made backing the favourites to make a living punting look easy. He got a dream run up the rail under Jason Watson to win by three-quarters of a length. Luckily, Youthful King was unplaced slightly easing the blow but the firm still lost £1700 on the race, not exactly a dream start. However, horror stories emanating from the rails suggested Star dodged a bullet, or rather the plethora of £7000 – £2000 bets reportedly laid at the sharp end.

2:05 – Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% British EBF Fillies’ Handicap (Str) (Class 2) (3YO plus) 1m

Next up and the only bet of note was £2000 – £500 Zouzanna. It appeared the bookmakers had all turned up, Tattersalls and the rails looked full. There were plenty of punters here too but the majority were having very recreational sized bets. Apart from one bagman and the unseen (by me) guy that lumped on down the rails in the first, there didn’t seem to be too many big staking punters in evidence. At the off Zouzanna and Rose Prick were the two losers, the former thanks to the one monkey bet, the latter was the weight of money rather than a stand-out bet. 8/1 chance Bellarchi won the race, ‘Popular with the ladies’ agreed Steve, Nick and Kieran. I guess that there are plenty of girls out there with the name Rose.

I had high hopes that young Archie Metcalfe fifth generation on the Pickwick- Bevan pitch had copped. Given he’d had a touch at Exeter based on a winner he’d dreamt about, the namesake bet would have been too hard to resist, but alas no, he wasn’t on. However, Star Sports won just under a grand on the race so good news from their end, they were back in the game.

Between races, a punter had £1000 – £300 on Rubies Are Red over at Lingfield’s William Hill Oaks Trial which luckily didn’t get to the winner You Got To Me, so another cop in the book.

2:40 – Lavazza & Ascot 10 Year Anniversary Victoria Cup (Heritage Handicap) (Class 2) (4YO plus) 7f

There weren’t many lumps expected in the feature race where they opened 7/1 the field but the lads did lay £2100 – £300 each-way Pearle D’Or followed by £100 the same horse at the same price, but that was it for bets £100 or over, stakes remained modest but bets plentiful. Those punters on Pearle D’Or got value, but not the sort they can eat their fancy was a 5/1 chance on course as they set off but the first home in the race was 7/1 poke The Wizard Of Eye which came with a rattle to mug 16/1 shot Ramadan close home. As it turned out, the winner was almost as good for the book as the second, copping £1384 thanks to the places bolstered by the capitulation of the unplaced gambled on jolly. The firm were now £920 up on the day including the away Lingfield bet with plenty of action still to come.

Between races, the punter with a taste for the action over at Lingfield bet £2100 – £600 Defiance in the next there. Meanwhile, betting stepped up a notch when a bagman had £4000 – £5500 Hallasan and another punter £8000 – £500 Xanthe in the next here at Ascot.

3:10 – Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% Novice Stakes (GBB Race) (Class 3) (2YO only) 5f

Defiance was beaten, watched by all on the big screen, but there was no time for celebrating, another carpet each-way was proffered, this time £2700 – £300 over Monomyth.

Ben called to see how the team were doing and was pleasantly surprised to hear there had been a lump or two flying about. ‘Let’s get this one beat’ his parting words. I don’t know if you want the good news or the bad news. As nobody can answer, I’ll give the good news first, Hallasan was well beaten back into third and returned 4/7. The bad news, sadly, Xanthe won the race, getting up close home to beat 14/1 result Reposado. I should have prefixed, the well-backed Xanthe, that £8000 – £500 bet looked particularly good/bad when you take the SP of 8/1 into account. Come racing, the book lost £2484.

3:45 – Carey Group Handicap (Class 3) (3YO only) 1m 2f

Next up, and was that a tumbleweed? There was hardly a bet to be seen. I spent much of the betting for the next chatting to a bagman and ex-bagman while the punters appeared to vanish. Even the bagmen didn’t envisage any more business on the day. The horses were going down before the first bet of note came in, £2250 – £1000 Midair. That was ultimately the only bet of note, at the off the book held £1864 including the places with Midair losing £3076 in the win book.

Meanwhile, as they were running a punter had £1200 – £800 Poet Master over at Haydock which was handy to lay. While that bet over a favourite was being processed, the jolly here Midair was being trounced out on the hallowed Ascot turf, 11/2 chance Too Bossy For Us won the race and the book copped £1376 back for the good guys.

4:20 – Mariner Systems Fillies’ Handicap (Class 4) (3YO plus) 1m 2f

The away bets came up trumps again, Haydock wasn’t on the big screen but Poet Master did win there which got some more back. The sixth race on the card here at Ascot was slow apart from a couple of decent bets on Turn Up The Heat. The team laid £3300 – £1200 and £1500 – £600 which ensured the Ralph Beckett horse went off the absolute bogie. She wasn’t the only loser in the book, Liv My Life was also a loser for £1374 in a book that held £2840 including the place money.

Warda Jamila the 11/4 favourite won the race and Star Sports copped £2156, it was just how it came in, as it always is. Sometimes it goes your way and other times it doesn’t. Going into the last race, believe it or not the firm were £3490.47 in front. I know you believe it, it’s only the monster bets some people call whoppers. There wouldn’t be any of them today, this isn’t Royal Ascot after all. There especially shouldn’t be in the lucky last the 26-runner 6f handicap, surely only a ‘getting out stakes’ heat for the bravest or most foolhardy wishing to open their shoulders.

4:55 – Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% Blue Ribbon Handicap (Class 4) (4YO plus) 6f

The books went 8/1 the field and bets were very modest, the bet responsibly message evidently getting through. The biggest bets tendered on the race were £1600 – £100 each-way Dark Side Thunder and £175 each-way Tadreeb at 25/1. It was good news and bad news again, as is traditional, the good news first, Northcliffe won the race at 25/1 and copped £600 in the win book, the bad news, the result of the photo for fourth showed one of the place bogies Dark Side Thunder was in the money so there wasn’t much juice in the race for the book. But straight across ensured the firm had another winning day. Aye Aye. My next betting ring blog for Star Sports will be from Towcester and the first heats of the Greyhound Derby. Catch you then.

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