SIMON NOTT BETTING BLOG: Brighton Festival Wednesday

It took me four hours to drive from Devonshire to Brighton today but it wasn’t a hardship at all, it was a lovely journey, writes SIMON NOTT.

The Sun was shining all the way, there were hardly any hold-ups, light traffic and some great music for me to sing along to. On arrival at the racecourse, it was already packed with lots of people enjoying the Sun. The Star Sports hospitality was out in force with banners everywhere with people enjoying the lawn and no doubt the box and whatever was going on in there.

Mind you if you walked around the side of the stands it was very very windy so it was serving its purpose as a windbreak, the designer wasn’t daft. Today on the pitch, just the rails, were new recruit Glenn, Lofty and Steve looking forward to a good day of sport.

2:25 – ⭐ Star Sports We Believe In Bookmaking Handicap (Class 4) (3YO plus) 5½f

The first heat boasted just five runners with decent money for two of them. The rails pitch laid £1500 – £1200 Night On Earth and £2000 – £500 Wrestling Revenue. With the rest of the field money, the total take added up to £2500 which isn’t bad business. Even better was that not many punters found the 10/3 winner Grace Angel, the book copped £2100 which was an excellent start.

2:55 – ⭐ Download The Star Sports App Handicap (Class 6) (3YO only) 6f

Between races, I spotted a very familiar old face professional Punter, Alan Francis. Now Alan has been coming racing as long as I can remember so obviously longer than I’ve been coming in myself and he stood the test the time. He’s a very private man, he won’t do a betting people but is a very nice chap to chat to. I was very surprised by his extensive knowledge of public houses in Devon. He asked me about my journey up here because he travels down to the Westcountry punting a lot and lives locally to Brighton. He told me that when he goes down to Exeter, Newton Abbot and Taunton, he leaves home at 4:30 am to avoid the traffic and arrives in time for a good breakfast. There you have it, professional punters not just shrewd backing horses but they’ve got all bases covered.

Next up and I got interviewed by roving Star Sports reporters Lewis and Jordan, they asked me 10 questions, the first one I answered ‘Old’ I don’t know why, they wouldn’t let me redo it, it should have been ‘happy’! The next race only featured one bet of note £2200-£2000 on Nelson Rose the favourite, the rest of the field money made up an extra thousand pounds so it was Nelson Rose against the field for the book. ‘They knew’ Nelson Rose won, the rest nowhere, back levels you devils on the day.

3:25 – ⭐ Star Sports Classified Stakes (Class 6) (3YO plus) 1m

The atmosphere on course was added to by a roving jazz band, including a double bass, lovely. At the sharp end meanwhile, on the pitch, the lads have had a tip for Hawjes. I’m not sure how many of them got stuck in, but I did see cash changing hands. The race was a more competitive heat on paper and didn’t come alive until late on, but when a decent bet did come in it was on an unexpected horse, £300 each-way at 14/1 Danehill Star, trained by Tony Carroll, who also trained the tip.

Neither were any good although the tip did eventually finish third after not really being at the races for most of the race which went to Romanovich. The winner returned 5/1 and was well-backed to small money, so much so that the book only copped £250 thanks to the each-way carpet that went down.

3:55 – Carlsberg Danish Pilsner Brighton Mile Challenge Handicap (Class 4) (3YO plus) 1m

Next up and another competitive race on paper, though there was a £2000 to £1000 bet Charming Whisper, the favourite and also interesting each-way money for Blenheim Star £250 each way at 7/1 and £300 each way at 13/2 the best of the big bets. ‘We’ll either be behind again or back up here’ was Lofty’s observation looking into the book at the favourite losing £1700 and Blenheim Star red for £2400 in the win book.

With the race off the firm were watching the bad ones, the each-way bogie missed the break but did threaten to be placed at one stage. The jolly was behind for most of the way, they never spotted Uncle Dick, in fact I doubt anyone noticed Uncle Dick, he was out of the picture on the big screen until he flashed across it to come from nowhere to win going away. I would imagine there were in-running fingers burned, but on course he was a great result. One punter backed the winner with Star Sports, he was shrewd too, having a tenner each-way at SP. The winner returned at 28/1, I have to be honest it wasn’t that price near Star. Well done him, despite his ouch the book win £2000 and were back in the black.

4:25 – ⭐ Starsports.Bet Handicap (Class 6) (3YO plus) 1m 2f

The first bet in the book for the penultimate was £500 at 5/2 Chourmo, the best-backed horse with public money was Cryptos Dream and the one that attracted the biggest bets, £1300 – £800 and £600 – £400, was Clear Justice. This was a race that was a good betting heat with punters keen to get involved now that the Sun had gone in.

Halfway up the run in it looked on the cards that Early Morning Dew might spring another 28/1 surprise but it was not to be, Chourmo wore down the bookmakers’ result to win the race. It wasn’t as bad as you might think though, despite being the original bogie the winner actually copped £250 in the book which added to the tally with one race to push.

4:55 – ⭐ starsportsbet.co.uk ‘Confined’ Handicap (Class 6) (3YO plus) 7f

‘Rucker’ betting as Paul Wilkinson was calling ‘on the nightcap’ to describe the last race. That was new one to me, but I liked it so will run with it. One of the first bets in the book was £2250 – £500 Cut To The Chase, there weren’t many after that for some time, it had gone quiet. One feature of the afternoon had been quite a few bets away, small but welcome. Steve asked Lofty to double check that they had in fact enjoyed a ‘clean sweep’ at Pontefract, sadly for presumptuous Steve, the last bet at said Pontefract had been at tenner each-way On a 33/1 winner. Nasty, but at least it was only a tenner.

As the field were going a post a punter alleviated the looming boredom with a £1000 – £200 win bet on Adace. Another decent bet to come in was £250 each-way Diamond Cottage which made that one a loser too. At the off with only £2000 profit in the hod, the book was fairly tidy and no chance of knocking it all out. Lofty hadn’t been prudent, there just wasn’t the weight of money in this race. At the off the worst was Cut To The Chase losing £1146.

It went the way of the firm, sort of, On Song, the 3/1 favourite won the race and lost £30, a winner for £260 once the places had been accounted for. A winning day concluded. ‘Not bad at all’ was Lofty’s summing up of the day.

Now all we had to do was get to our hotel before the forecast demonstration stroke riot started. Wish us luck, we’ll be back tomorrow (hopefully)!

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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