ROYAL ASCOT BETTING

AUTHOR: Star Sports Content

SIMON NOTT Betting Blog: Royal Ascot Thursday

I’d like to report that the team went wild last night, that Ricky was thrown out of a club at 3am for dancing on tables etc.

Sadly, I can’t. If they did get up to any shenanigans, they kept them quiet. Mind you, now that Royal Ascot is seven races a day, that day is a long one.


The guys are on course well before lunch and then working all day in Victorian clobber and not getting away until seven, only Charlie and Hannah are young enough to hack a good night out after that anymore, though I’m guessing Steve would give it a good go.

The on-course teams had a good day yesterday with some excellent results, but they didn’t take the money as they did on Tuesday when losing £100,000. After Steve crunched all the numbers, the on-course team were still down around £80,000 going into day three.


The good news today, Star Sports’ charismatic owner Ben Keith was on the joint taking bets for the first, when Ben’s on the joint he’s like a magnet to the big punters. If anyone was going to pull them in, it would be him.

👑 2:30 – Norfolk Stakes (Group 2) (Class 1) (2YO only) 5f

Despite the boss being on the joint on course for the first, there weren’t any huge bets.

Lofty laid £2000 – £500 American Rascal, Steve laid £1200 – £300 and £1600 – £800 Elite Status but that was about it, a fairly light betting race. Valiant Force winning at 150/1 is the sort of results bookmakers only dream about. The trouble is, at that price if anyone bets it they don’t need much on to do your money. The Tatts pitch laid a tenner each-way and a few £2.50 each-way bets on the winner which was enough to lose £900 on the race.

No wonder the old school rarely went bigger than 33/1 anything. Down on the bottom rail Lofty reported taking his first bet on a Coutts card, a fiver win, that’s the last I heard from him, under the cosh no doubt.

The betting shop estate managed to lay a tenner each-way way the winner in their Burnham on Sea shop, plus a £5 each-way double going onto Accidental Agent in the lucky last, the punters there standing to win £26,800 if his crystal ball can strike lucky twice. It was a different story in the Star Sports Hove HQ, they enjoyed their busiest first race of the meeting so far and revelled in an absolute skinner.

👑 3:05 – King George V Stakes (Heritage Handicap) (Class 2) (3YO only) 1m 4f

Next up and the Desert Hero did a massive favour to Royal Ascot and racing in general by winning for the King and Queen at 18/1. It wasn’t a bad result for the bookmakers either, well you’d think so wouldn’t you?

The teams on course were under the cosh as is the way on Ladies’ Day but not laying bets to any real lumps. Flynn did report a bet of £1800 – £400 Perfuse but that was about it. You never can tell on course, especially Ladies’ Day, a royal horse is always going to be popular, the Tatts pitch lost £1350 on what should have been a result.

Lofty’s team fared better, they’d laid £3600 – £600 Tagabawa and copped £1200 on the race. Over at Star Sports HQ they reported that despite the racing being a light betting one most of the money they did take was for Perfuse including a bet of £2500 at 11/2 so they had a good result too, so across the firm good news.

👑 3:40 – Ribblesdale Stakes (Fillies’ Group 2) (Class 1) (3YO only) 1m 4f

Now if you are going to get back the thick end of £80,000 on-course losses you need a high-roller to wade in and back something like Al Asifah in the next and hope it gets beaten. Well, they say one out of two ain’t bad. The firm got one of the meeting’s bankers beaten but didn’t take any monster bets. Steve and Flynn up in Tattersalls laid £2500 – £3000 while Lofty managed to take £800 – £1000 but that was about it.

Lofty reported that the one they kept laying in the race was Ferrari Queen, guessing that lots of the people in the Royal Enclosure drive them. At the off, she was losing his book £5500. He also took £250 each-way out of Ghara at 50/1 which was handy.


Warm Heart winning was a £2500 cop in his book, despite having the jolly a winner. They got a similar amount up in Tatts plus a few hundred quid on distance bets which all copped when the favourite flopped. The office didn’t give me any lumps over the short one but reported that it isn’t often you can report a Ryan Moore winner as a good result at Royal Ascot, but this time it was another good one for the home team.

⭐ Word from the shops was: ‘Nothing in the shops for the favourite, which was frustrating’, adding, ‘They knew!’

👑 4:20 – Gold Cup (Group 1) (British Champions Series) (Class 1) (4YO plus) 2m 4f

Both pitches on course reported chunky each way punters latching on to Nate The Great in the Gold Cup at 50/1, 40/1 & 33/1. The Tatts team also took a £3000 – £1000 Coltrane, the rails £1200 – £400 the same horse. Steve reported a bet of £1100 – £200 Eldar. In the olden days at a normal meeting, if you asked for a bet the bookie considered a bit big, they’d bark ‘Where do you think you are, Royal Ascot?’ they’d have taken a bet like that though!

Times have changed, but Ladies’ Day is Ladies’ Day. One of the shops laid a £5000 – £1000 Eldar Eldarov while the office reported a bet of £120,000 – £10,000 Broome and a flurry of late money for other horses.

Frankie Dettori winning the Gold Cup for the last time on 15/2 chance Courage Mon Ami had the racecourse in raptures. They weren’t overly chuffed on the Tatts pitch though as they lost £100 on the race. On the other hand, the rails team were cheering Frankie, evidently the sort of delicate ladies that like to back Mr Dettori weren’t too keen to approach Lofty for their bets and left him out. The upshot was his team won £2000 on the race.

📈 Word from the office was: ‘We saw plenty of late money, but incredibly not for Frankie’s mount, which was a great result for us.’

Frankie was at his best in the race and so brimming with confidence he appeared to plant a kiss on the Queen’s cheek, luckily for him Kings don’t order heads lopped off these days or his retirement might have ended quite abruptly!

👑 5:00 – Britannia Stakes (Heritage Handicap) (Str) (Class 2) (3YO only) 1m

There were two bets of note in the race before the penultimate. One of them in the office, £110,000 – £20,000 each-way Docklands and £600 each-way Mustajaab at 66/1 in one of the Star Sports betting shops. The racecourse pitches had gone a bit quiet, as they tend to at this stage in the afternoon for hard handicaps.

That was just as well as it turned out Docklands got up in the shadow of the post to collar 22/1 chance New Endeavour under a fantastic ride from Hayley Turner. The on-course teams lost a round of drinks over the 6/1 favourite, at least the office did the right price.

They were quite stoic about it though, telling me ‘That’s a setback, but we’re still in front with plenty to come’.

👑 5:35 – Hampton Court Stakes (Group 3) (Class 1) (3YO only) 1m 2f

Business was fairly light in the penultimate, but both pitches on course took a grand bet each, both on the same horse, Drumroll. Flynn laid a £4000 – £1000 and Lofty £3500 – £1000.

Unsurprisingly, that horse was the bogie for both firms. Waipiro winning at 7/1 was a good result for the firm, Lofty’s team won £2000 and Flynn’s £2500 which was handy, but Flynn commented it felt more like a Saturday crowd than Royal Ascot.

👑 6:10 – Buckingham Palace Stakes (Handicap) (Class 2) (3YO plus) 7f

Hopefully the Star Sports Clapham betting shop punter had some fingernails left. He’d no doubt be waiting all afternoon to see if he was going to win £26,800 from his £5 each-way double, all that stood between him and a life-changing cop was Accidental Agent winning the lucky last. Sadly, it wasn’t to be his lucky last, not even place money. Jamie Spencer won the race on Witch Hunter at 50/1.

It was a very good result for the office in what they described as a low-key finale. Back at the racecourse. Flynn had said that it was like a Saturday crowd, Saturday crowds like to back rags, which is normally good for the books, once again they ran into the winner, only to a couple of small bets but enough to take their meagre book but won £4500 on the day. Lofty down on the rail copped £1200 on the race after laying a score’s worth of the jolly and won £10,500 on the day.

Another winning day, but still only a dent in that £80,000. Every little helps though and Ascot Friday is traditionally when the serious punters come out to play so all to play for.

SIMON NOTT

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

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