SIMON NOTT BETTING BLOG: Glorious Goodwood Thursday

I’m always delighted to get messages and emails from other people in racing. A person I’m always pleased to hear from is Alan Potts, writes SIMON NOTT.

Yesterday’s email didn’t contain a tip but a fascinating piece of Goodwood history I didn’t know, he told me;‘Goodwood this week – did you know that prior to 1965, this meeting was the only one run at Goodwood every year?

Although by then, the July meeting had been going for over 160 years. Four days then, rather than five, Tuesday – Friday.

In 1965, they added a two-day meeting on the Fri/Sat of the August BH weekend. And it’s continued to grow ever since.’

The other message I got was from racing’s premier meteorologist Tony Calvin. It simply read ‘You are going to get very wet today’. Cheers TC.

Given that Tone knows, as soon as I got to the still dry racecourse, I kept an eye out for someone to take today’s blog photo before my clobber for the day became leggings and a Mac. As luck would have it, multiple HWPA photographer of the year winner Edward Whitaker was passing and graciously agreed to take the snap, what a gent, that was the first winner of the day; the second would be TC’s seaweed proving inaccurate.

At 1pm with betting in flow for the first, Tony’s seaweed had thankfully appeared to have let him down. There had been a smattering of rain around 11am, enough to dampen the tarmac in the betting ring, but no more. The temperature was balmy with no precipitation with blue sky between the clouds. The crowd appeared much larger than yesterday and all was looking set for another excellent day on the turf. There were many more deckchairs in evidence too so I was glad I’d worn my understated version today.

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1:20 pm – Coral Kincsem Handicap (Class 2) (3yo) 1m2f (1m1f197y)

The opener was a tricky looking heat to kick off with, an 18-runner handicap with Best Secret the 5/1 market leader. As with the previous two days there was stready but modest betting in the opener, the rails laid £5000 – £300 Dantes Lad to the trade. As the horses were loading my bald patch was burning, flippin’ Tony Calvin should stick to tipping horses, I’d left my Panama in the car and it was baking. Tatts had taken £2224 all small, the rails £1665. Best Secret got up to win a neck, the winner returned 7/2 but had been an 11/2 chance, the Tatts book lost £707 and the rails £120, the punters were due a jolly.

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1:55 pm – Markel Richmond Stakes (Group 2) (Colts & Geldings) (Class 1) (2yo) 6f

Next up and Havana Hurricane opened 10/3 as the sun baked down. Well it did for a bit, then an ominous looking black cloud loomed large on the horizon, sorry Tony all looks like being forgiven! Meanwhile the betting continued with over £2000 fielded in Tatts and £1500 on the rail as the horses loaded where it looked to be already raining!

Then I instantly regretting ridiculing Tony’s weather forecast, people were literally screaming the rain came down that hard. Not many saw 5/1 chance Coppull win, as they were running for cover. The rails copped £200 on the race, Tatts blew £1500.

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2:30 pm – HKJC World Pool Gordon Stakes (Group 3) (Class 1) 1m4f (1m3f218y)

Next up and it was biblical rain but the troopers that are the teams managed to take a few quid, Tatts £700 and the rails £400 amazingly even though Merchant the 6/4 jolly won the race both pitches won, the rail £300 and Tatts £400 and still it rained and rained. It was impossible to escape it as the undercover areas were packed to the rafters!

Talking of biblical, Trundle Hill was more reminiscent of Calvary Hill today. You wouldn’t want to be half in, though you couldn’t do much. Then the going was heavy.

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3:05 pm –Qatar Nassau Stakes (Group 1) (Fillies & Mares) (Class 1) (3yo+) 1m2f (1m1f197y)

The rain persisted during betting for the feature race, but punters did make their way to the pitches, well, punters and bookmakers if I’m being accurate, which of course I always try to be. It was a bookmaker with his begging bowl out that asked for 11/8 but got £3500 – £2500 Whirl on the rail, a late bet of £1200 – £1000 in Tatts got them into the red with the jolly too. What can you say about the flag start, well I was reminded of the good old days at Newton Abbot when a Pipe/Scudamore horse was fancied, say no more. As with those horses they didn’t see which way Whirl went both pitches lost when she won.

Meanwhile, the rain eased a bit and I got talking to Perth Australia-born Andrew Barwise who was betting behind Star. Why anyone would desert the sunshine of Perth was beyond me, but he seemed content.

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3:45 pm – Buccellati Handicap (Class 3) (3yo 0-95) 5f

Dan Tucker was a solid 4/1 chance when the rain finally stopped and betting stuttered into life and I was able to get some exact figures from the last race, Tatts lost £2417 in the and they blew £3500 on the rail. In this heat the rail had taken £1500 as the horses loaded and £1236. Nanna’s Sparkle winning copped £149 but the rail lost thanks to a £2000 – £200 bookies hedging the winner.

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4:20 pm – Phase Eight Nursery Handicap (Class 2) (2yo) 7f

Next up, it had sort of stopped raining but everyone was soaked and plugging a charger into my phone resulted in an alarm. Still, enough of the moaning, next up was another hard heat, this time a nursery where they bet 9/2 the field. The rail laid £2250 – £500 American Gun to the trade before it took a significant walk in the market. Meanwhile in Tatts as the horses congregated at the start they had yet to take a meaningful bet though had taken nearly £2000. Meanwhile the rails laid £7000 – £1000 Amazing Journey here and £2200 – £2000 the jolly Chillhi in the next at Nottingham, they were off here and the sun came out. Sir Albert won the race at 6/1 and the rails won a monkey, Lofty was gutted not to get the eventual favourite Victorious One in the book, bemoaning the fact he’d done a ‘Tim Brown’ and had a price bigger than the machine on the board but still couldn’t lay it, over in Tatts they blew £491.

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4:55 pm – Tatler British EBF Maiden Fillies’ Stakes (GBB/IRE Incentive Race) (Class 2) (2yo) 7f

The penultimate was a maiden which probably wouldn’t attract bigger punters or at least that was the thought. Looking on the bright side of very poor business as he tucked into a doughnut, Kaan mused that had the weather been fine today, the big punters might have played and the firm would have done their cobblers – there’s always a silver lining, after all there had been enough bloody clouds. Over on the rail, they’d laid £2000 – £360 Dictal here and also got the jolly over at Nottingham beaten so Lofty was chirpy. He’d earlier lost the plot with a malfunctioning rails mush but thought it prudent not to mention it. Kaan managed to repair it since so it’s all good.

As the 11/4 jolly Aylin bolted up for the punters, it looked increasingly as if Kaan was right, though his pitch, which did incredibly well to take £2324 from sodden racegoers with not a three-figure wager amongst them, blew £1456. In Tatts, Lofty, Tony and Emily took £1900 and kept a monkey of it. I’m pretty sure that the betting ring en masse were looking forward to just getting out of there; indeed, some hadn’t waited until now to leg it, though the term early bath probably isn’t suitable.

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5:30 pm – World Pool Bet With The Tote Handicap (Class 3) (3yo 0-90) 1m

At last, the lucky last, sorry for the negativity but when your shoes are full of water and your shirt wet, you can get a little like it. Going into it, the rails were losing £2000 and Tatts £6300. The rails team laid £3250 – £500 Sea Force and £6000 – £840 Atherstone Warrior, which made up a good portion of the £3000 they held at the off, Tatts had less in their hod, £2331 for their troubles. Kaan spotted Principality going well some way out and started cheering the only realistic chance of a result in the leading group.

The in-running market on the machine evidently thought he wasn’t going to last home, but last home he did, returning 18/1 off course. There was never going to be a way of getting out on the day, but ending a challenging Thursday on a winning note was still very handy. Kaan’s Tatts team got £1876 on the race so they ended up setting fire to just under £4500 on the day, and the rails copped £2000 of their £3000, ending the day very commendably straight across. Hotel rooms across Arundel tonight will be looking like Chinese laundries, but we’ll be back and ready to go for the penultimate day of the meeting tomorrow.

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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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