SIMON NOTT BETTING BLOG: Epsom Derby, Saturday

Double Derby Day, that’s THE Derby and the Greyhound Derby, started with heavy rain and wind in combination, writes SIMON NOTT.

It didn’t look good but started to brighten up a bit as the opener approached. Some of the bookmakers in Tatts found themselves in a wind tunnel effect, a couple of firms’ kit looked in danger of coming second in the worst of it. Star Sports pitch positions were unchanged from yesterday so protected from some of the weather. Staff had been reshuffled as follows, Nick and Pam were joined by Chris on the rail while Amberley and Tony were on the Tatts pitch with Dan, Lofty and Keiran had been tasked to work the Greyhound Derby up at Towcester. There were only eight pitches occupied on the rail, a record low apparently.

Early bets struck included the one that caused some confusion on X when posted last night, £6500 on Item at 9/2 for the Derby which went into the Tatts book to get it started was followed by £40,000 – £20,000 Benvenuto Cellini. Other early bets included £10,000 – £12,000 Calandagan. Stephen Darbyshire came to say hello, dressed to the nines, gets around that chap.

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1:30 – Betfred Tattenham Corner Stakes (Group 3) (Class 1) (4YO plus)

Betting on the first proper was conducted mostly in wind and rain so given the conditions, the teams did well to field what they did. Never So Brave was the horse that attracted the four figure bets, Tatts laid £2000 – £1000 twice and the rail £4000 – £2000 once in books that held £4100 and £3586 respectively.

There were no big screens visible from most of the Tatts or rails but apparently the jolly missed the break, the race went to 6/1 chance Ten Bob Tony which wasn’t named after the value of our Tony’s battered phone but did cop £2624 and £2365 in the Star Sports’ books, a great start.

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2:05 – Princess Elizabeth Stakes (Fillies’ And Mares’ Group 3) (Class 1) (3YO plus)

The first decent bet in the second race on the rain-assaulted rails was a monkey each-way Pina Sonata at 9/2. There was interest in the first at Doncaster £2000 at 4/6 Met Ball laid by Nick earlier in proceedings so while the gentlemen kept their morning dress dry all eyes were on the results from Sunny Donny. Met Ball won.

Meanwhile, there was very little going on at either pitch until the rail laid £7000 – £1000 Pacific Mission. Over in Tatts they laid a late £3000 on Sparks Fly at 10/3. They were happy to lay the bet at the time, not so much after jockey Laura Pearson took the mare up the unfashionable far rail to win unchallenged. The Tatts book blew £13,000 though the rail clawed £2125 back.

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2:40 – Coolmore Coronation Cup (Group 1) (Class 1) (4YO plus)

‘That £12,000 at 5/6 is looking promising’ was Nick’s comment on the Calandagan bet looking at 5/4 in the book. I’d been off buying coffees, when I returned the rails pitch had hardly taken another bet, OK they had taken another grand but all in bits and bobs.

It went the way of the books though, they sang Shangalang when Bay City Roller ran clear of the gang to cop £12,976 in the rails book. Over in Tatts, Jan Brueghel had been all the rage, they’d laid £20,000 – £8000 and £12,500 – £5000 plus £1100 – £1000 and even £4000 and got £18,600 on the race, the best result of the meeting.

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3:15 – Betfred ‘Dash’ Handicap (Heritage Handicap) (Class 2) (4YO plus)

Next up, the Dash, it was too hard for them, apart from one intrepid punter who bet £17,000 – £1000 each-way Dyonisos, it was too hard for him too, that one was unplaced behind 8/1 winner Arklow Lad.

Hold up, the winner is owned by the Horsewatchers which would possibly explain which is why the smaller punters found the winner which lost £1378 in the rails book which held less than two grand, the Tatts pitch copped £1844.

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4:00 – Betfred Derby (Group 1) (Class 1) (3YO only)

Next up and the big one, the Derby, the big bets already laid mentioned previously were added to when the punter that bet the Doncaster winner had his £3333.33 on Benvenuto Cellini at 9/4. I had a message from James at Mayfair, they’d laid £20,000 – £5000 Item in Star’s flagship shop there. Apart from that news it appeared the damp had got into everyone betting was very slow.

The rail was tapping away when a bet of £650 each-way Pierre Bonnard at 13/2 livened things up a bit. The Tatts pitch had laid £2750 – £1000 Benvenuto Cellini late on adding to the lump they already had the jolly for, though its market weakness gave the teams hope.

Ho Ho Ho, Christmas Day winning was a tremendous gift for the bookies, the rails book copped £4795 and Tatts £27,022, well they thought they did, there was a bing bong for a Stewards’ Enquiry with an ambiguous message about looking at the start regarding the jolly. The books immediately stopped paying out, and waiting.

Just as the presentation was being made to delighted winning owners Michael Tabor and co it was announced that the stewards had deemed the favourite Benvenuto Cellini a non-runner due to having not been a fair start. Nobody in the ring or Tatts had a clue what had happened due to no big screens servicing those areas.

A rule 4 of 25p was declared and chaos ensued as punters got reduced payouts over the winner, wanted money back over their bets many with lost tickets and people wanting to get on the next race couldn’t get through the melee. The revised rails winning total was £1620, and Tatts £6198.

The situation was a nightmare for the ring, not just what they could have won but the chaos with the punters.

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4:40 – Cherryfield (Croydon) Lester Piggott Handicap (GBBPlus Race)

In Tatts, it was literally chaos but down on the rail a little more subdued. Bookmakers who paid out before the Stewards’ was announced were counting their extra losses but the rail did manage to take a couple of bets Allegresse attracted a bet of £5000 – £1000 and Hell Yeah He Did £1333.33 at 13/8.

Over in Tatts, they’d only managed to take £1182 on the race, 6/1 chance Folk Pageant won, Tatts copped £68 and the rail £2473.

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5:20 – HKJC World Pool Northern Dancer Handicap (GBBPlus Race) (Class 1) (4YO plus)

The good news is that the remaining £2000 of the returned £3333.33 was invested on away races both of which were sadly beaten. Business had unsurprisingly, died off of the rail though they did lay a bet of £4500 – £1000 Spinning Wheel early. Over in Tatts, they were struggling to take a bet, Geoff Banks behind them had decided to pack up and go home. Spinning Wheel proved popular, bets of £4000 – £1000 and £3500 – £1000 followed all on the rail, so just the one loser for them.

Tatts only fielded £1400 in total, Too Soon winning at 17/2 copped £1336 of it, the rail did slightly better winning £3261. The photo of the Derby favourite’s hoof up in the stalls after they opened was posted on X, madness that sort of thing must happen all the time, it’s bad luck. Are we eliminating bad luck from horse racing? Someone turn out the lights on their way out.

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5:55 – JRA Tokyo Trophy Handicap (Class 2) (4YO plus)

The lucky last had saved a bit of betting action for us bets of £20,000 – £4000 and £5500 – £1000 on Sondad laid on the rail the trouble was with 10 minutes to go they’d only added £300 worth of bets to that total, over Tatts they’d struggled to take a bottle as the punters headed for the door.

At the off the Tatts book held £850, the Tatts book copped £256 when Sondad won, you couldn’t make it up, winning £15,220 on the day, the rails pitch lost £26,046 losing £16,670 overall, a result which pretty much summed the day up, a damp old Derby day to forget.

I’m back with Star Sports reporting from their new pitch at Bath on Saturday.

Thanks for reading.

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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 on Kindle CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS

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