SIMON NOTT: Epsom Oaks day BETTING REPORT

It would have been a few years into my ‘racecourse career’ that I first visited Epsom – so mid-1990s. Weirdly I don’t remember the year, but I do remember queuing for the turnstiles, with the kit, tripods etc so travelling light. At the last moment I was ushered through a door just before we had to pay and told to ‘keep walking’, so I kept walking, as did the rest of the team. Once into Tatts I was given a score and told to give it to a guy on the gate. I’ve no idea what was going on but it stuck in my mind as a bit strange, but who was I to argue.

Epsom has been a fairly regular track for me over the years, sporadically with bookmakers, then pretty much every year from 2009 with Turf TV and more recently with Star Sports. Sadly, ‘Inlike’ Flynn and the team missed their pitch by one today, so they are in the office and I’m sat at home. Mind you, going by the photo on-course bookie Joe O’Gorman sent me and the pictures on the TV it appears every cloud indeed does have a silver lining, just being emptied onto Epsom!

2:00 – Cazoo Woodcote EBF Stakes (Conditions Race) (GBB Race) (Class 2) (2YO only) 6f

The rain had gotten into the ground by the time Oscula won the opener by three lengths for trainer George Broughey under Mark Crehan. The winner returned 15/2 after being weak in the morning market having been 11/2 overnight. It was a great start for the office business who dodged anything lumpy for the winner. Bets of £27,500 – £10,000 and £2500 – £1000 Dairerin, £27,500 – £10,000 Flaming Rib and £11,000 – £1000 each-way Zoltan Star all copped.

2:35 – Coral ‘beaten By A Length’ Free Bet Handicap (Class 2) (4YO plus) 1m ½f

Corazon Espinado sprang a 12/1 surprise of sorts under Hollie Doyle for Epsom trainer Simon Dow in the next. Richard Hoiles commentating is evidently a linguist as well as a top-class caller. As the winner passed the post he said over air that he was a ‘thorn in the side of favourite backers’, the winner translates to ‘Thorny Heart’ in English. To be fair he could have said that about the first four home that beat 11/8 jolly Irish Admiral. The result was an absolutely blinding one for the Star Sports office, I’m sure regular readers won’t object to me describing the bet of £405,000 – £270,000 laid the jolly as a ‘Whopper’. There was also smaller interest in Storting of £3000 – £750 each-way and £4000 – £1000 also each-way who finished in front of the favourite but still out of the money. With five races to go for the monster bet backer to try and get it all back, things could start to hot up.

3:10 – Coral Coronation Cup (Group 1) (British Champions Series) (Class 1) (4YO plus) 1m 4f

8/1 bookies’ result Pyledriver put up a superbly gutsy performance to get back up to win the Coronation Cup after being headed by the uneasy favourite Al Aasy. There were emotional scenes after the race, not here though, this is a hard-nosed betting report though I imagine the traders might have had a little tear too. Hold on for just a moment, an ‘Aye Aye’ for the good guys is in order. I’ve no idea if it was the same punter that did his dough in the second, but the office laid a bet of £600,000 – £200,000 Japan. That dwarfed the still chunky £32,000 – £20,000 and £5500 – £4000 Al Aasy. So far so good, Epsom’s idiosyncrasies and softening ground going the way of the layers so far.

3:45 – Cazoo Handicap (Class 2) (4YO plus) 1m 2f

To say the wheels fell off in the next would be giving those monster backers that had so far done their cobblers on the day the rubdown. No, I wouldn’t want to do that. There was a reversal though, the punters only wanted to be on the 9/2 favourite Blue Cup, which bolted up. One the plus side for the Star Sports office, it wasn’t the really big hitters having it on, the only notable bet on the winner was £22,500 – £5000 plus Flynn told me ‘Lots of smaller bets for it too.’ Any punter or bookie will tell you that winning and losing runs often turn on a short head victory or loss.

4:30 – Cazoo Oaks (Fillies’ Group 1) (British Champions Series) (Class 1) (3YO only) 1m 4f

I know I said this is a hard-nosed betting report, but Frankie Dettori’s win on Snowfall was jaw dropping. Aiden O’Brien’s filly was hugely impressive, as her jockey said after the race ‘went through them like a hot knife through butter’ and won by an astonishing 16 lengths. Prior to her victory there had been a veritable betting frenzy over at Star’s Hove office. There was a bet of £625,000 – £250,000 on Santa Barbara followed by another £250,000 – £100,000 with ‘plenty of £1000 – £4000 bets’ to top it up. Other bets of interest were an early £40,000 – £5000 Teona and £700,000 – £50,000 each-way Divinely.

There’s nothing like a great result in the book to appreciate and savour a cracking win on the turf. It was a shame for the ledger that the each-way money for Divinely copped. You can’t win them all, but as JB in the office said after telling me that the biggest bet for the winner was a monkey at 13/2, ‘Yep, we’ll take it’.

5:10 – Play Coral ‘Racing-Super-Series’ For Free Surrey Stakes (Listed) (Class 1) (3YO only) 7f

The penultimate was the calm after the storm. The 11/8 favourite Mehmento provided jockey Hollie Doyle with a double on day winning cosily by two and three quarters of a length for Archie Watson. The jolly was the only loser in the book, JB reported bets of £6875 – £5000, £2200 – £2000 and £1980 – £1800 the winner. Now that’s a bad losing race by anyone’s standards but given the level of the business that had stayed in the hod this afternoon it wasn’t too bad a blow put into context.

5:40 – Cazoo Derby Festival Handicap (Class 2) (3YO plus) 7f

The lucky last went to David O’Meara’s charge Rhoscolyn who won under James Doyle at odds of 9/2. You might imagine that the last would have been a fairly quiet heat with the big races all done and dusted. Wrong, it was an absolute maelstrom of bets. There was a £300,000 punt on Dulus at 11/4, £110,000 for Paws For Thought at 17/2, £12,000 Shelir at 3/1, oh and the absolute killer, a bet that lost the firm over a million quid. £1,012,500 to £225,000 be exact, the winner. A million quid on a single bet. That’s got to have knocked the wind out of the sails, but JB reported ‘We still win but certainly took a hit there’. Very understated our JB.

Before we go, let’s not forget our mates betting on course for the first time in two years. I got hold of Joe O’Gorman and asked how they’d fared on course, he told me ‘Unfortunately the wet weather dampened the business, we took between 60 and 80 bets per race. The trade on the Oaks was slow with the favourite hard to lay. The two decent results have given me a fair lead heading into the last. Yes, it’s been wet, but been a pleasure to be back and I’m looking forward to tomorrow and some sunshine’.

I’ll be back tomorrow, it promises to be lively!

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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