SIMON NOTT: Royal Ascot Friday BETTING REPORT

The Friday at Royal Ascot, before Saturday became ‘Royal’ too used to be the day when the tradesmen of London came to the races, and bet like heroes. Friday was the last hurrah and the biggest betting day of the week. I hate to say that it was easy pickings but you did fancy your chances of beating the punters. One example was a chap coming up to the pitch when I was working with Dave Phillips at the wrong end of Tatts. He asked if he could have a glance at the Racing Post. He was accommodated and provided with a paper, he did indeed take a glance, then asked which one the favourite was. Once told he said, ‘I’ll have a monkey on it’ and duly pulled up £500, had it on and left.

Another Friday memory was working over on Ascot Heath in the £1 enclosure using the radio to try and earn from the bookmakers doing a roaring trade on the inner ring. I was there because we were thinking about splitting teams with Dave and I heading to Goodwood for the evening meeting. He’d pick me up on route to the car if he decided to leave early and go to Goodwood. We parked very early every day and were just ushered in to the staff car park the attendants thinking we were working not bookies, you had to watch the exes!. I had just discovered tipster Henry Rix and had been getting a few quid backing his tips in the paper. I must have had a winner or two in the afternoon because he’d selected three in one of the big handicaps so I did a combination tricast, probably 50p.

Anyway, the race was running but due to the perfect storm of being a short arse, the crowd being huge and noisy and commentary echoey I had no idea what was winning but kept hearing all of Henry’s selections. As the indecipherable commentary reached its crescendo, I was sure they were all there. They were too, sadly for my dreams of drawing my biggest ever win, they were in second, third and fourth. So near but yet so far, great picking though Henry.

After having spent the morning glued to ATR and starting to rue the real possibility of racing being off it was excellent for it to get the go-ahead. Mind you, the outpouring of public negativity and cynicism that only racing twitter can do after good news is delivered was a sorry read indeed. None of that in this report though, we’re all about the positive, an afternoon of shock results as horses waded through a barely raceable quagmire was surely to follow?

2:30 – Albany Stakes (Fillies’ Group 3) (Class 1) (2YO only) 6f

Unsurprisingly the big punters appeared to be holding back from getting too involved in the first, at least compared to the first three days. There was still some decent business though. Bets struck on the opening heat included £6000 – £1000 £28,000 – £4000 each-way, £7000 – £1000 each-way Prettiest and £27,500 – £10,000, £3750 – £1500 Flotus.

Sandrine, 16/1 winner, was left alone for a good start to day four.

Poor old Flynn on course just said that he had a scarf on in June. I suppose that 19th Century clobber wasn’t really designed for inclement weather. Lofty was expecting things to warm up a bit, not in a good way though. He was prophet of dooming it after singing badly out of tune football songs appeared to be more popular among the proliferation of young men in attendance than watching or indeed betting on horse racing.

📈 Toby from Star Spreads messaged, and I do apologise for the down with the kids spelling but have to be authentic, ‘With the weather, comes the shroods Buyers of distances, SP’s, Top of the Card number 1’s, Double Numbers. There’s widespread expectation amongst the punters the heavy ground will throw up some big priced winners or wide margin winners. The first race was neither good nor bad for either party.

3:05 – King Edward VII Stakes (Group 2) (Class 1) (3YO only) 1m 4f

There was a massive stick on in the next, not in lumps but a one-way traffic cumulative gamble on the Alenquer backed from 2/1 into 13/8 favourite. It appeared plenty of punters took advantage of Star’s Royal Ascot offer of a FREE BET (50% of average win stake over week) and duly filled them in. The result was a very bad one despite there being no headline bets. They all added up to a very nice few quid and a very bad race.

📈 Toby at Star Spreads said, ‘That was an incredibly quiet race, Gear Up was our loser and but we could have done with any anything under 1.5L as far as the distance markets go’.

3:40 – Commonwealth Cup (Group 1) (British Champions Series) (Class 1) (3YO only) 6f

The next race was also quiet in the office Ed Dark told me ‘Quiet race there’s a treble running up on Suesa which wins £80,000 topped up with £4500 – £2000 three times and £3375 – £1500 and a bet of £8500 – £1000 A Case Of You. He added that they had dodged the gamble on Dragon Symbol apart from a couple of monkey bets. That was just as well because the gamble was landed when Dragon Symbol scrambled home.

📈 Toby told me that ‘We were just trying to avoid Case of You, a big distance, and oddly, Laws of Indices.’

The ‘Bing Bong’ to announce a stewards enquiry would have sent a shiver down the back of those that backed the first past the post. The winning distance had been a head but the winner appeared to lean on runner-up Campanelle in the closing stages. After a lengthy look at the race by the Stewards there was the announcement of an amended result. It wasn’t all bad news for Star’s customers that backed the winner though. They get paid first past the post up to the first £200 of their stake. Of course, the firm also have to honour in full the bets on the promoted winner too.

🌠 One of the Star Sports shops also laid Case of You £20,000 – £2000. CLICK HERE for Star Sports Shop locator.

4:20 – Coronation Stakes (Fillies’ Group 1) (British Champions Series) (Rnd) (Class 1) (3YO only) 1m

Dusted off, it was back into the fray, Ed came through from the office to say that they had another one horse book, this time it was Mother Pearl that they all wanted to be on. Bets included £40,000 – £10,000, £18,000 – £4000 each-way and £8000 – £2000 and of which stayed in the hod when 11/2 chance Alcohol Free won the race, although the cautious each-way backer did get most of theirs back as Mother Earth finished in the money in third.

By nature of a one-horse book the winner was a good result in the office despite only being an 11/2 poke.

📈 Star Spreads Toby on the other hand wasn’t so chipper, the only two he wanted beaten were Empress Josephine and Alcohol Free. He came back after the race to tell me ‘The top of the card buyers in heaven, in profit with three races to go, barring a runaway distance winner though, we look covered elsewhere.’

I’d not heard from Flynn on course so gave him a shout. He reported that there wasn’t much doing and that it was too cold for him and the punters alike. He did pass on the good news that the only decent bet they’d laid the previous race was a £1800 – £400 Pretty Gorgeous which of course they kept.

🌠 One of the Star Sports shops were paying out after laying Alcohol Free £22,000 – £2000. CLICK HERE for Star Sports Shop locator.

5:00 – Sandringham Stakes (Fillies’ Handicap) (Str) (Class 2) (3YO only) 1m

The race before the penultimate saw some lively betting. Rory told me bets tendered in the office included for Urban Violet £44,000 – £2000 each-way, Samoot £61875 – £11250, £27,500 – £5000 each-way and £10,000 – £2000, Pomelo attracted a bet of £70,000 – £5000, Divine Light a £60,000 – £5000 oh and the fly in the ointment a bet of £48,000 – £8000 the winner Create Belief. That took a lump out although the runner-up Samoot was reported to be the biggest loser in the book, a book which from a fair way out, had no chance of copping.

📈 Star Spread’s Toby’s last message to me was that they didn’t want a runaway winner. It looked quite a long way winner to me. Toby had gone quiet, maybe trying to add the lengths and losses.

Flynn called from the course to say that the winner had been the worst in their book. It wasn’t catastrophic though adding that business had been very small all day. In addition to poor business it was freezing cold, had rained all day and the course was full of blokes singing ‘Football’s coming home’ Is he selling it to you? No me neither!

📈 Toby had gone a bit self-depreciating on me before the penultimate he messaged to say, ‘The old miserable Toby is back, they’ve gone running, I assume all getting in a nap prior to the England game. We don’t care what wins, just give us a photo.

5:35 – Duke Of Edinburgh Stakes (Handicap) (Class 2) (3YO plus) 1m 4f

Business today had been showing none of the glamour as far as monster wagers go as they did earlier in the week. Despite that though there were still plenty of bets of interest this this race. Rory sent them through, telling me they laid Quickthorn to the tune of £20,000 – £5000 and £20,000 – £5000 each-way, Raymond Tusk £37,500 – £1500 each-way Aaddeey £27,500 – £5000 and £20,000 – £2500 Mirann. Well, you’d have a job to write the result in much worse, that is the 7/2 jolly Quickthorn winning with 25/1 each-way bogie Raymond Tusk runner-up. Nasty.

📈 I don’t know if had anything to do with the football, but Toby was going AWOL before the last. He left a message though, it read, ‘I won’t be live for final race, we look like we’ll break even though, the loser on the day would be a 6+ length winner but in a 5f race I feel pretty confident we’ll be OK.’

6:10 – Palace Of Holyroodhouse Stakes (Handicap) (Class 2) (3YO only) 5f

The business stayed buoyant in the lucky last with bets for £50,000 – £10,000 Boomshalaa £32,500 – £5000 and £39,000 – £3000 Dream Composer, £13,500 – £3000 x2 £4500 – £1000 Mo Celita and £40,000 – £2000 each-way and £8000 – £500 each-way First Company. Significantly winning at 10/1 depriving Boomshalaa was a handy way to end a day that was a little disappointing on the business front and an uncomfortable virtual non-event on course for poor old Fynn, Lofty and the team.

They’ll be laundering their 19th century clobber and no doubt drying a few notes in their five star digs tonight. Let’s hope there’s steak and a few beers on the menu for the team too who I’m sure earned it today. We’re back tomorrow for the lucky last.

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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