BETTING AT YORK

AUTHOR: Lewis Williams

SIMON NOTT BETTING BLOG: York Wednesday

Sadly, this year’s Ebor meeting betting reports are a flashback to last year when I wrote them from home. I’m gutted not to be there but sometimes stuff happens. Anyway, on the plus side, being at home I have the benefit of getting the business from all over the Star Sports estate, writes SIMON NOTT.

The firm have Nick, Hannah and Lofty working on course, the multitude of betting shops will expect to be under the cosh and the guys at the Hove HQ will be braced for some big business. In short, we’re in for hopefully a hectic four days of punting as well as sporing action.

The betting shops were already reeling from a huge touch landed on the 49s numbers game. The bets landed amounted to just shy of £60,000 from small bets placed by a group that use the same numbers every week, a huge well done to them, a sentient echoed by Star’s owner Ben Keith on Twitter/X yesterday.

The early betting news today also came from one of the shops, they’d laid a £3000 trixie, the selections, Ruling Court, Los Angeles and City of Troy. The firm would be looking to get the hotpots beaten today, should they all go in that little beauty would just be the rubdown.

Before I start writing about the meeting proper, I’d just like to say a thank you to Dan Smith who took the time to tell Kaan at Windsor that he enjoys reading my betting ring reports. Thank you very much Dan, it’s brilliant to get some positive feedback from people that enjoy what I do.

As mentioned previously, today’s team at York were Nick, Hannah and Lofty. Both Lofty and Hannah made the journey up to the course this morning. Lofty drove whilst Hannah let the train take the strain. The trouble with that was, Lofty had to adopt the position of chauffer to Hannah as well as the happy face of the firm and on-course team PR. He didn’t seemed to mind too much though, that’s almost a smile there isn’t it.

1:50 – Symphony Group Handicap (Heritage Handicap) (Class 2) (3YO plus) 5½f

The first race on the card looked a real head scratcher for punters and bookmakers alike. Not so much of a head scratcher for the shrewdies as it turned out though, I was lucky enough to be sent the selections from two top tipping services and they both went for the winner the 10/1 chance JM Jungle.

As is often the case and hence I’ve often written, the opening heat is sometimes bit slow on course, exacerbated by the competitiveness when it’s a hot handicap like this but the team did manage to take 141 bets and field £2850 of which they kept £3. Still, that’s a winning race.

The office’s first message of the meeting told a similar story. ‘Lots of smallish each-way bets, but a nice winning start to the festival’

2:25 – Tattersalls Acomb Stakes (Group 3) (Class 1) (2YO only) 7f

Next up and on-course they laid a couple of decent bets over the favourite Ruling Court, £1000 and £2500 at evens as well as £400 each-way at 25/1 Wimbledon Hawkeye. First and foremost they were chuffed to get the jolly beaten by the 2/1 second-in The Lion In Winter, the fly in the ointment was the runner-up, yes, Wimbledon Hawkeye. The place money knocked the book about a bit but they still won £3253 on the race.

Across the firm, getting the favourite beaten was a good start as far as the £3000 trixie laid in the office went too. Between races I was foolish enough to interact with a charming young man on twitter. I really should look at an avatar before responding, anyone who wants to portray themselves grinning out of hoodie giving the world the bird is unlikely to be a great conversationalist. When will I ever learn!

The office news was once again similar, telling me ‘We’re pleased to say we got away with a small winning race, following strong support for both the favourite and Mr Chaplin’

3:00 – Sky Bet Great Voltigeur Stakes (Group 2) (Class 1) (3YO only) 1m 4f

By the time I’d started getting betting info for the third race my troll appeared changed his account and was still bitchin’, you have to pity them. Anyway, never to be mentioned again. Next up and there had been a bet of £1000 at 11/8 struck on Los Angeles early as well as £2000 on City Of Troy at the same price, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

The punters were keen on getting stuck into this race before worrying too much about the next, the firm laid a further monkey and grand bet at 5/4 the favourite. At the off the book had the one loser for £4039, it was a good race but despite the finish being a close one, the bogie was always doing just enough so cost the book just over four grand.

It wasn’t great news in the office either, their message read, ‘Los Angeles was popular with punters in the office, there were fair few decent size bets struck making it a losing race for us ahead of the big one up next. To make it more interesting we have a few multis running up on City Of Troy now too’

3:35 – Juddmonte International Stakes (British Champions Series) (Group 1) (Class 1) (3YO plus) 1m 2½f

Harking back to the beginning of the blog Los Angeles winning meant that the £3000 trixie in the betting shop was still alive. The air of anticipation for City Of Troy was evident even watching on TV, the trouble being a racing fan as well as writing for bookmakers is that on one hand you’d love to see a performance you’d remember forever, on the other you want your paymasters to win. Down in the ring it certainly wasn’t all about the favourite, bets laid included £2750 – £500 Bluestocking, £3250 – £500 Ambiente Friendly, £3500-£500 each-way Calandagan as well as a further £3000 City Of Troy at 5/4.

At the off City Of Troy was losing £5812 in the win book, made all and broke the bookmakers’ hearts to win pretty much unchallenged, beating the course record in the process. Nasty if you’re a layer, nice if that’s what you went racing to see, a superstar in the making.

The office didn’t go into too much detail, but between the lines could read their angst and only guess their losses. They reported, ‘As expected, City of Troy was all the rage, that was a bad result for us in the win book and the multis. Punters never really had a moments worry, the Ryan Moore & Aidan O’Brien show is never good for us.’

Word from the betting shop that laid the Trixie, probably thinking that they’d possibly dodged a bullet with it not being the ‘obvious’ combination of short ones, was that it paid £17812.50 for the double so still not a bad haul for that intrepid punter who laid out £12,000.

4:10 – Sky Bet Stayers Handicap (Heritage Handicap) (Class 2) (3YO plus) 2m ½f

Next up and the racegoers had the bit between their teeth, despite the stayers’ handicap looking a tricky one to solve. Bets included £3750 – £500 each-way Divine Comedy, £4000 – £500 each-way Forza Orta and £250 each-way Knightswood at 7/1. At the off the book was up the front five for relatively modest liabilities by Star Sports standards.

The team were no doubt pleased that the 14/1 winner Extensio copped £2570 in the win book then delighted that figure was boosted to a cop of £4500 after the ‘very kind’ places had been taken into consideration.

The office enjoyed a change of fortunes too, they told me ‘That was a decent result in the book for an Irish raider but there’s still some way to go to claw it all back however. We saw a few decent four-figure win only bets on Samui just at the off there which was very handy in hindsight.’

4:45 – Visit Irish Yearling Sale With ITM Fillies’ Handicap (Heritage Handicap) (Class 2) (3YO plus) 5f

After all the excitement of the afternoon so far, I don’t think many people would argue if I described the penultimate race as a bit flat. The win book held just over a grand with no bets of any note. To make things worse, Star Of Lady M winning at 13/2 was a loser for £700 in the book. Lofty selflessly blamed himself for the low field money being on the computer for the race and not wooing his multitude of fans out on the stool.

I don’t think anyone would disagree if I also said that the message from the office was morose either, they told me ‘Normal service is resumed, both our two worst results in the book brought home the old one-two in that race.

5:20 – Sky Bet Nursery (Class 2) (2YO only) 6f

Going into the lucky last the on-course team of Hannah, Lofty and Nick were losing £3600, the general consensus was that given the results it wasn’t that bad. Lofty pointed out that they laid £400 each-way a placed 25/1 chance in the second race. The last wasn’t frenetic affair but there were a couple of half decent bets for the race, £250 each-way Sex On Fire at 8/1 and £250 each-way Cayman Tai at 7/1 which could compound the misery or ease the blow, depending on what the Gambling Gods had in store.

What they had in store was 12/1 Yes I’m Mali, the book held £4061 and kept £2060 with bother decent each-way bets out of the frame. I could have been a lot worse, Lofty told me ‘It wasn’t bad last result Nahnahnahnahnahnahnana bagman said he’d bet the winner’. Not present at York but ever watchful, head of on-course Steve Brewer messaged ‘As long at it wasn’t with us, good luck to him!’ Quite right Steve, we all love the bagmen, as long as the back their winners with someone else.

The on-course team will be able to enjoy their sumptuous meal out on staff welfare tonight, without feeling too guilty, they survived what could have been a calamitous day with all to play for tomorrow, eat drink and be (not too) merry.

The final word was from the office, they had cheered up a bit thank goodness, nobody wants a miserable trader about the place do they, they were still a little bit doomy to be fair saying ‘Artagnan was our bogey, having laid a decent bet at 11/2 at the off, fortunately we barely laid a dime on the winner. Despite this, day 1 very much goes to the punters.’

Oh, one more bit of news, if you like to see how the away bets taken on course get on, a punter has bet a £3000 – £1000 Sonmarg in the 8.30 at Kempton tonight, may it run well, come home safe, but just get chinned. Either way the team will be on their main course by then. We’re all back tomorrow, whereever we are. Thanks for reading.

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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