SIMON NOTT BETTING REPORT: Glorious Goodwood Friday

Still continuing the Goodwoods of years gone by stories. This one I was lucky enough not to actually witness. I was staying at the ironically named Comfort Inn just outside of Arundel. The accommodation wasn’t the most salubrious, but the company was (mostly) top notch.

I’ll spare the blushes of the lovely bookmaking family, but they employed a chap can only be described fairly, as ‘a character’, as their workman. It’s safe to say he enjoyed a drink after work and then his behaviour often became a little unpredictable.

This particular evening, nobody really knows how he was trying to get away with it, but at around 3am he decided he’d spark up a cigarette in his room. That was not allowed of course so the guess is he was trying to smoke it out of the window. Again, nobody really knows how it happened, but he managed to catch his beds sheets on fire. In a panic he extinguished the flames with what was left of the beer in the pint glass next to his bed.

He put the flames out successfully but then realised that he’d need new sheets and to own up to his foolhardy antics. As he left his room, stark bollock naked, to look for the night porter, the door closed behind him. Nonplussed by his nakedness he strode into the bar area and told the no doubt perplexed Comfort Inn employee what he’d done.

For some reason there were no clean sheets at hand, so the Night Porter told him he’d need to go elsewhere to get them and fetch the master key to let him back into the room. Our man being our man said that he might as well have a pint while he was waiting. He was poured one which was billed to the room, then sat at the bar on a stool as if having a naked pint at 3am after you just set fire to your room was totally normal.

Quite what the late arriving couple as they walked into the bar seeing a nude middle-aged drunk tucking into a pint in the wee hours thought is anyone’s guess. It was the last straw for the nice bookmaking family though, that was the last time he worked for them and as far as I know he’s not been seen since!

Back on course way before even early skirmishes a punter came into Flynn for a £10,000 – £2000 Art Power which augured well for the day’s business. Whilst wandering around the ring he bookmaker whose floorman was mentioned but not named in yesterday’s report messaged me last night and spoke to me in person this morning. He was keen to let me know that he was delighted with his floorman’s work because having a £14,000 – £1000 back about something he’d laid at 12/1 was fine by him.

His floorman was a little more self-flagellating and said that he didn’t want to mess about asking for fractions he just wanted to get the bet back, but admits he could have got the extra value. He managed to redeem himself at dinner last night though. He somehow managed to get a 20% discount from the firm’s evening meal, £11 so he still has to claw back an extra £9 by the end of play tomorrow to make up the score he could have saved his boss by asking for fractions. For anyone that doesn’t understand the value to be had from asking for fractions, you can learn about them here. https://www.starsportsbet.co.uk/simon-nott-when-on-course-always-ask-for-the-fractions/

1:50 – Unibet 3 Boosts A Day Goodwood Handicap (Class 2) (3YO plus) 2m 4½f

Betting was very brisk in the opening race. It was a fiendishly hard opener on paper for punters to fathom but get it right and the day’s potentially paid for. Bets on course weren’t chunky, but plentiful. Lofty on the rails did lay a monkey each-way Elysian Flame but there was nothing else of note. The was confusion before during and after the race, first a false start then Just Hubert planted itself at the restart. The trouble was hardly anyone knew because there no big screen, I’m told due to the high winds and the commentary was barely audible.

As the field closed on the winning line in front of a sea of straining neck, it became apparent that the aptly monikered Calling The Win, Flynn’s bogies had won at 8/1. It appeared that nobody could hear the result so there was a lot of checking of phones to try and find out the placed horses. When they did, Lofty’s each-way bogie was third. Ed Dark in the office reported a quiet start. However, they did lay three bets of £7000 – £1000 each-way The Grand Visir and three separate monkeys each-way on Platform Nineteen at 7/1 both out of the frame.

2:25 – Bonhams Thoroughbred Stakes (Group 3) (Class 1) (3YO only) 1m

Baaeed bolted up as his 4/11 starting price suggested punters expected him to. Luckily for the firm that didn’t translate into money buyers piling in as you might expect they would.

Lofty did get a two monkeys bet on, the office only laid a £3000 – £6000 and Flynn couldn’t lay it at all.

3:00 – Unibet Golden Mile Handicap (Class 2) (3YO plus) 1m

Ed Dark in the office reported that the big punters flexed their punting muscle in this race, two bets of £100,000 – £40,000 over Path Of Thunder and bet of £9000 – £2000 Johan. Those lumps meant what they were looking at was a very lopsided one horse book.

Maydanny winning at 8/1 was an excellent result. Lofty fancied the winner so no need to tell you how that was in his book. The winner was a taker on Flynn’s book but bad places made the race a losing one. Nevertheless, across the three books it was an excellent winning race.

Down in the ring still no big screen in action and a very quiet PA system was making life very difficult, many punters were clueless as to how their horses ran and the bookmakers not much wiser.

3:35 – King George Qatar Stakes (Group 2) (Class 1) (3YO plus) 5f

The big screen was back in time for the big one. The feature race fittingly saw the busiest betting heat of the day so far. Flynn already had the £2000 on Art Power in the bag so got to work on the favourite Battaash which was very easy to lay. He told me ‘We laid a monkey at 2/1 then loads of hundred, and fifty-pound bets. Over on the rail Lofty had laid a £2250 – £1000 Battaash and £2200 – £800 Dragon Symbol. Suesa winning at 7/1 was a blinding result for the Tatts team.

Flynn had gone down the book with the favourite to lessen the blow should Art Power oblige. The winner was almost a skinner and a much better result than a 7/1 chance deserves to be. Lofty said he’d had it in its place and got a nice few quid too. Given the profile of the race the business in the office was relatively modest. Ed Dark told me, ‘We had two losers but no monster lumps, laying a £4000 – £2000 and £2000 – £1000 Battaash and a £10,000 – £2000 Art Power.’

4:10 – L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate Glorious Stakes (Group 3) (Class 1) (4YO plus) 1m 4f

Flynn did good early business on the race before the penultimate before the withdrawal of Mogul which incurred a 25p in the £1 Rule 4 on all bets struck previously. First up he laid a bet of £16,000 – £2000 Without A Fight, then £9900 – £300 Fox Tal.

Now dear reader, I don’t want to harp on about it too much, but had the punter just added the word ‘Fractions’ when asking for £300 on the latter he’d have been laid a £10,000 – £300. That’s a potential hundred quid extra for just saying the word ‘fractions’. If that punter is reading this, learn your fractions, see above.

It’s OK though, it was all academic after the 2/1 favourite Passion and Glory won the race, Fox Tal ran well to finish third. Flynn won on the heat not being able to bet up to anywhere near those take-outs. Lofty did his money on the rail and was a bit grumpy when I told him that Flynn had won on it. ‘Going for favourites’ was his comment accompanied by a sardonic smile. Ed in the office told me that the race had been a quiet one for them with the biggest bet being £1000 – £500 the winner.

4:45 – Unibet Deposit 10 Get 40 Bonus Nursery (Class 2) (2YO only) 6f

They bet 4/1 the field in the penultimate, it looked a competitive heat to go to work in. Lofty laid a bet of £7000 – £500 each-way Dandy Dinmont on the rail, Flynn laid a bet of £2000 – £320, Tropez Power, that’s 6/1 with the fractions, praise the Lord. The office also laid Tropez Power each-way to the tune of £33,000 – £6000.

Those bets were all dwarfed by a monster whopper wager. A bet of £360,000 – £80,000 each-way on Ever Given which returned 4/1 favourite. Ever Given hosed in by 2 ¾ lengths and the firm lost £450,000 in one hit. Nasty.

5:20 – TDN Australia Handicap (Class 3) (3YO only) 1m 3f

The lucky last proved to be just that for the punters, with 11/4 favourite Wink Of An Eye ensuring a losing end for both Lofty and Flynn, and undoing some of their hard earned but not ruining the day but the real damage was done in the office.

SIMON NOTT

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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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