SIMON NOTT BETTING BLOG: Glorious Goodwood Thursday

The first winner of the day was that the storms were forecast to give Goodwood a swerve after a drenching had been on the cards all week. That was of course great news to everyone coming for today’s eight race extravaganza, nine if you include the Magnolia Cup which kicked off proceedings, writes SIMON NOTT.

The rails pitch bet on it, Reins Reigns Rains won the race under Lizzie Jeffs, the combination were 2/1 favourite with Lofty, but I suspect the big fella was ducking it. He won £1300 on the race, hats off to Lofty for his pluck and guile taking on the horses that ‘couldn’t win’.

1:50 – Coral Kincsem Handicap (Class 2) 1m 2f

The punter that had been opening his shoulders betting long odds shots here and elsewhere all week opened them again early this afternoon. His bet, struck before the first was £21,000 at 2/7 Florjin to win his rowing event in France which was happily taken, Star are keen to lay away racing or sporting events when on course.

The first decent bet on the first was £12,000 – £3000 Palace Green with the Tatts pitch. Disaster struck the firm, Nick on the Tatts pitch had a funny turn and needed to retire sick, so I was commandeered to jump up and take bets. I thoroughly enjoyed the banter, but there was of course still a blog to write, but when the going gets tough and all. Over on the rail Lofty laid £8000 – £2000 Midnight Gun then about £1500 in ‘shrapnel’. Approval winning at 11/1 was aptly named and very welcome. The rails copped £3500 and the Tatts pitch £4000.

2:25 – Markel Richmond Stakes (Group 2) 6f

Next up, still no Nick, Kaan laid £5000 on Royal Equarry in the next at Nottingham at evens then £5500 – £5000 The Strikin Viking here in the next, at the Tatts pitch all the ladies wanted to be on Big Cyril at 25/1, he was very popular, not just in Tatts though, a punter bet £25,000 – £1000 each-way on him too. Back on the Tatts pitch Kaan laid a monkey each-way Tropical Storm at 11/2. Over on the rails they laid £10,000 – £400 each-way.

Big Cyril couldn’t put his best leg forward and was unplaced which was sad for his supporters but not bad for the book. 9/1 chance Black Forza won the race, copping the rails £6000. Meanwhile the Nottingham horse was beaten, which added the cherry on the top of the £8000 the Tatts pitch copped. Poor old Nick had been whisked off for medical attention so a replacement was dispatched to take his place. The firm weren’t going to be allowed to bask in the glory of a good cop, a punter bet £5000 on Sargent Mayer the the 2.35 at Nottingham taking 11-4 which threatened to knock a hole in it. It won and did, despite being a drifter on the machine, in one hand and out the other. He was soon back in though, £10,000 on Ashdale Bob at 11/8 over at Galway in the 2.45. Anyway, back to Glorious Goodwood…

3:00 – John Pearce Racing Gordon Stakes (Group 3) 1m 4f

The next heat was a four runner affair so win only with Star Sports. Business was steady, but news from Galway was that they’d just laid another loser, despite it having gone 30 on the machine in running. It was OK though a punter waded in with £14,500 on Jan Brueghel at 4/5 here, then over on the rail they laid £2000 and £3000 the jolly, Kaan following the market went 5/6 the favourite late and laid a £1000 – £1200 right in the hole so both teams could do without the short one.

Sadly, Jan Brueghel didn’t get the memo and despite looking beaten several times in the race got his act together close home to win a neck. It certainly had turned on a sixpence and badly.

🏆 3:35 – Qatar Nassau Stakes (Group 1) 1m 2f

Wait, it gets worse, the punter had an even £11,000 on Shamrock Bay at Nottingham, that won too, what a game this punting lark is. ‘Does anything get beat today’ exclaimed Lofty on the rail. He was about to test his mettle because a punter bet £20,000 – £10,000 Emily Upjohn with him, then a punter had £22,200 at 7/4 with the Tatts pitch, the horse went bottle again so Kaan laid a very nice chap that asked for it, £2000 – £1000 which silenced the white collar sparring going on between Lofty and Steve via WhatsApp!

Anything but Emily was the call that went out from the pitches. As they were off, super sub John Williams arrived and hopped up on the stool in my place. I thoroughly enjoyed taking the bets but was evidently bad luck. Opera Singer was only ‘top of the head’ 9/4 winning the race, but she was a cracking result for the firm as Emily was not only beaten but out with the washing for good measure.

Talking about tops of heads, mine was glowing thanks to the impromptu bet taking though hopefully the bald patch will go a golden brown and look better than a toupee. There’s no rest though, the train kept a rolling, a bet of £12,000 – £10,000 Adelabella struck on the Tatts pitch which was victorious in the 3:45 at Nottingham so cut celebrations very short.

4:10 – Jaeger-Lecoultre Nursery Handicap (Class 2) 7f

Next up, some respite from the onslaught, the punters didn’t fancy the nursery too much, so there’s time to relate a story from our friends DragonBet next door. A punter came to their joint to draw, he’d backed the winner, but with another bookmaker. James at DragonBet pointed this out to the gentleman, but the gentleman wasn’t having it. ‘I bet it with you’ he protested rather louder. Exasperated, James led the punter to the bookmaker he had the bet with, not being able to find him proved problematic and did little to calm the punter’s ire, now even more convinced he was being tucked up. Eventually, the bookie he had bet with was located, the punter was paid and everyone was happy, not least James from DragonBet. Well, almost, as the punter walked back past the DragonBet pitch he pointed an accusing finger at James and rasped, ‘I definitely had the bet with you!’ Punters.

Meanwhile it was picking up, a Tatts pitch punter had £7000 on El Burhan at 11/4 then a £1500 – £500 the same horse. Over on the rails Lofty was up the front two having laid £15,000 – £5000 both El Burhan and Brighton Boy. John really had brought a change of luck, at least as far as the Goodwood results went, 10/1 chance Mr Chaplin winning was a cracking result, the rails got almost £11,000 and Tatts £6800.

4:45 – Buccellati Handicap (Class 3) 5f

A punter fancied Ninth Titan over at Galway and invested £5000 at 9/4 with Kaan and co over at the Tatts pitch. Meanwhile over on the rail there was very little doing but their mush threw some well needed shade so I hung around. To start with business was brisk but relatively modest over on the Tatts pitch though they were fairly buoyant as the Galway bet was beaten. Bets they did lay on this race were £1600 – £400 Sharrat, £360 at 9/2 Kendall Roy followed by a lumpier £24,000 – £6000 Kendall Roy and £2750 – £250 each way Grandlad. The rails had only taken £1800 on the race in total ‘very quiet’ was Lofty’s less than colourful but perfectly accurate summing up of the business.

The 7/2 joint favourite won the race but there was no chagrin when Shagraan passed the post in front. The Tatts pitch won £5700 and the rails £200. Meanwhile there was a group of chaps behind the joint asking each other who had ‘the bugle’, they got short shrift from Kaan when one of them threw his beer container on the kit piled up behind the joint, so they buggered off. People don’t even try to hide what they are doing any more.

5:20 – Tatler British EBF Maiden Fillies’ Stakes (GBB Race) (IRE Incentive Race) (Class 2) 7f

Next up, on the Tatts pitch they laid £7000 – £4000 Dreamy, while over on the rails a bag man had a bottle on four separate rags opposing the jolly. The people the bag men stick on for tend to be shrewdies so that gave a bit of hope that the short one was vulnerable. The sun was getting to some punters by now, at least you assume that is why a punter came to the joint begging 15/8 about the jolly, they don’t mind people asking but it’s unusual when the board is showing 2/1, I gave him a card and suggested he opened an account. He was of course laid 2/1.

Over on the rail Lofty had laid £2000 – £1000 Dreamy and £5000 – £1000 Bouvier but still had plenty of losers in the book thanks to dananananana Bagman! Whilst business for it wasn’t large the best backed horse in the race on course was Tundra Rose which had been 11/1 and was one of the bagman’s selections but 7/2 at the off. In contrast Dreamy was out to 11/4 and largely friendless apart from the bets struck at 7/4.

All the Tatts pitch needed was to get her beaten, that looked on the cards as he hit 40 in running, the , that was before the long time leader and likely looking winner Bouvier metaphorically fell into a hole allowing the bogie to get up to win. The Tatts book lost £6321 and the Rail £1500 but they were still £26,000 in front going into the last, Tatts were losing £11,000, so it had been a good day across the firm and an even better one on the races at Goodwood but so far the aways had been their downfall.

5:55 – HKJC World Pool Handicap (Class 3) 1m

RaceShare’s Treasure time opened the 4/1 favourite to win the extremely difficult looking getting out stakes, in normal circumstances you would normally rather be a bookmaker than a punter in a race like this, but you only need a couple of successful bets at a big price to totally ruin your day.

Lofty had laid a danananananana bagman £4000 – £200 Native King, £2250 – £500 Sir Gabrial and £2750 – £500 Westridge. Over on the Tatts pitch they were taking steady bets including a bet of £1000 – £120, that’s 8/1 with the fractions Jungle Mac. I mention it because he nodded at me as he had it, a blog reader I hope, well done Sir, always ask for the fractions. A customer that didn’t ask for the fractions was the one that bet £8500 – £1000 Sir Gabrial with Lofty near the off. As they set off both books had nasty losers, they just needed the rub of the green to end the day on a winning note.

They got it, Great Chieftan winning at 20/1 was the best result in the modest Tatts book copping nearly £2000 which the rails pitch doubled winning four grand making Lofty’s team’s cop £30,000 on the day more than making up for the Tatts pitch £9000 loss capping day three with the two busiest days to follow.

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