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21 June, 2021

AUTHOR: Star Sports Content

SIMON NOTT: Royal Ascot Saturday BETTING REPORT

Continuing the theme of casting my mind back to days gone by, Royal Ascot used to be just four days. That is Tuesday to Friday. They raced on Saturday too but the card reverted to that of more usual Saturday fare and was simply ‘Ascot Heath’. Turning up on the Saturday was a bit like waking up in the morning as a kid and discovering your parents had taken the Christmas decorations down while you were in bed. Just a bit bare.

From a betting ring point of view, the number of bookmakers would have halved, but the business would be OK. There was a without fail moment every year where you felt so sorry for someone that you just wanted to give them a hug. That was the sight of the poor souls that hadn’t done their homework and turned up in the full splendour of top hat and tails and full frock and millinery. I always used to wonder at what point the cold shiver moment of realisation dawned on them. It must have been toe-curling.

Still, I’m sure they still had a great day, after all, they were at the races. Somewhere I hope the next big meeting I cover in this fashion is written from and not in a little office full of CDs and vinyl. I’m not moaning though, it’s been great to have the opportunity to do it and enjoy every race and the excellent ITV coverage. With no more ado, we’d better get on with the grand finale of the meeting, let’s make it a good one. After all, even the Queen’s made an appearance so best foot forward.

THE SHOPPING LIST

Plenty of decent morning wagers in the Star Sports betting shops reported ahead of racing. You can get a full list of Star’s growing betting shop estate in the SHOP LOCATOR:

3.40 – Broome £16,000 – £4000
4.20 – Nahaarr £18,000 – £4000, Dream of Dreams – £7500 – £3000, Dream of Dreams / Summerghand £500 RFC
5.00 – King’s Lynn – £10,000 – £2500 each-way
5.35 – Fantastic Fox – £18,000 – £3000
6.10 – Cleonte £33,000 – £1000 each-way

FLYNN ON COURSE

⭕ Flynn Goward set up the final day of Royal Ascot 2021 with the early moves.

2:30 – Chesham Stakes (Listed) (Class 1) (2YO only) 7f

It didn’t take long for the day to kick up several gears from yesterday. Ed Dark in the office simply said, ‘We’re underway’, having just laid £420,000 – £350,000 Point Lonsdale. The favourite was the only horse to see any business, JB came on late to add the other bets of note on the short one which were £11,000 – £10,000 and £48,000 – £40,000. There might have been a few moments of anxiety mid-race for anyone that emptied the wheelbarrow on the favourite which was niggled with no immediate response. Ultimately though the supreme confidence was rewarded when he eventually out-battled the Queen’s 11/1 chance Reach For The Moon to win at odds-on 10/11. The punters were in clover and although there were six races to go, the guys in Star Sports’ office found themselves in a massive financial hole to try and clamber from.

📈 Star Spreads’ Bobby, taking over from Toby who was playing golf, yes I know, let’s move swiftly on and forget it’s Royal Ascot, told me pre-race ‘Royal Ascot Day 5 – Punters are looking for high distances & a few high priced winners with buyers of SPs. Let’s hope for a few tight races. Is a dead heat in the 1st race too much to ask?’ Sadly, it was but half a length wasn’t too bad.

⭕ The news from Inlike Fynn on-course was better but still not good, they hadn’t done their cobblers which was great, but only because business was very small, which wasn’t so great. Another member of the team was missing on the last day, Lofty from on-course. Hold up though, his reason for absence was nowhere near as heinous as Toby’s, Lofty was on duty at the Star Sports Greyhound Derby third round up at Towcester. So Tom has been drafted in for the day having worked at Cheltenham previously for the firm.

3:05 – Jersey Stakes (Group 3) (Class 1) (3YO only) 7f

Betting 5/1 the field, as you’d think the volume of stakes was small in the next. JB in the office told me ‘Naval Crown is the one they want, we’ve laid £70,000 – £10,000 each-way, lots of business for that on the show still backing at 5/1 other bets laid include £22,000 – £2000 Storm Damage and £11,000 – £1000 each-way Tactical. They dodged a bullet though, despite the Naval Crown finishing runner up the only bet of note the winner Creative Force was £5000 – £1000 each-way.

⭕ Naval Crown was the worst on course for Flynn and the team too, so they didn’t come to much harm either. After such a thumping loss in the first, the combined team on and off-course needed some great betting races resulting in huge shocks, not losing just not losing too much.

📈 Bobby at Star Spreads told me ‘We were looking for another short distance but also for Naval Crown to stay out of the places.’

3:40 – Hardwicke Stakes (Group 2) (Class 1) (4YO plus) 1m 4f

Next up, there was enough money being bet to try and get some back. Bets included £100,000 – £40,000, £7000- £2000 and £9000-£4000 Broome those in addition to a wager of £100,000 – £20,000 Wonderful Tonight, then smaller bets of £20,000 – £5000 Ilaraab £42,500 – £5000 and £13,000 – £2000 Hukum. At the off Rory said that Broome was the most popular with plenty of ‘bottle to ‘monkey’ bets in addition to the bigger single lumps. Wonderful Tonight bolting up did the book no favours but looking for the silver lining wasn’t as bad as the runner-up Broome returning 9/4f would have been.

⭕ Flynn on course said that they also needed Broome beaten but that there had been plenty of each-way money for third-placed Hukum which returned 8/1.

📈 News from Star Spreads Bobby was ‘William Buick is proving popular today and got off the mark in the Hardwicke Stakes after a 2nd in the previous. Hopefully, this is his only winner on the card.’

4:20 – Diamond Jubilee Stakes (Group 1) (British Champions Series) (Class 1) (4YO plus) 6f

📈 Bobby was in touch again before the next, ‘We’re looking for another distance under 1.5 lengths, William Buick rides one of the outsiders this time, he couldn’t, could he?

This next part comes with a warning, it’s about bookmakers suffering catastrophic losses. Ed Dark got in touch before the race with a message I forwarded onto twitter, just call me old fat fingers, I originally sent this message out as 9/1, I’m sure you’ll all be glad to here that it was really ‘Dream Of Dreams a big ante-post loser we laid £80,000 at 9/2, it’s the big loser in the shops as well and potentially our worst result of the week’

Other bets on Dream of Dreams included £55,000 – £20,000 and £52,000 – £15,000 in addition to a bet of £140,000 – £20,000 Glen Shiel and £9000 – £2000 Nahaar.

Dream of Dreams winning was an absolute body blow, but even worse was to come when one of the betting shops reported laying a bet of £200,000 – £50,000 antepost the winner as well.

5:00 – Wokingham Stakes (Heritage Handicap) (Class 2) (3YO plus) 6f

The chances of salvaging the day were delivered a blow when Ed Dark in the office told me ‘It’s gone quiet, we’ve just laid £33,000 – £1000 each-way Hey Jonesy and £17,500 – £5000 each-way Kings Lynn.’ If you can’t take it you can’t win it back.

However, small mercies gratefully received, the winner Rohaan got a few quid back, Dave in the office told me that the biggest bet on it was £8000 – £1000 each-way.

📈 Bobby from Star Spreads updated us with ‘Another close race and there’s yet to be a double figure SP so far. Let’s hope that continues.

🌠 Meanwhile, in the shops one punter was doing better work than Mystic Meg and looking at a £16,000 payday …..

5:35 – Golden Gates Stakes (Handicap) (Class 2) (3YO only) 1m 2f

Sadly, it was not to be for the betting shop punter, we all wanted them to win, the saving grace would be that it never looked like winning either, probably better than getting chinned on the line. Anyway, the race went to Foxes Tales winning at 13/2. It could have been a bad result but wasn’t. Ed Dark’s news from the office was ‘It was another quiet race, we did lay £11,000 – £2000 Alfaadeh £8000- £2000 each-way King Frankel and £16,000 – £1000 each-way the runner-up Visualisation.

📈 Star Spreads Bobby told us ‘Quiet on the betting front in the penultimate race of the festival. 2 1/4 lengths provides the largest distance on the card.’

6:10 – Queen Alexandra Stakes (Conditions Race) (Class 2) (4YO plus) 2m 5½f

‘Braving scuffles and fisticuffs between ‘Del Boys’ in Tatts prior to the last Inlike managed to get the message out that Who Dares Wins was by far the most popular with those interesting in betting not boxing.

Ed Dark in the relative safety of the Star Sports office, said ‘Last race of a busy week £10,000 – £3000 each-way Falcon Eight a bit earlier, plus a £1875 – £1000, Grand Visor £7500 – £1000 and £1750 each-way at 7/1 and a £9000 – £2000 Stag Horn.

The good news for the Lucky 63 punter was that they still trousered £885 for their bet which wasn’t a bad consolation.

Stratum winning at 4/1 wasn’t one of those subject to a big bet but as it was Ryan Moore on board still had plenty of supporters.

📈 Bobby of Star Spreads message was ‘The last race of the festival and ironically it’s a Willie Mullins horse that gets up under Ryan Moore. Lucky for us he did as a 40/1 shot finished second. It was a good final day at Ascot and a good festival overall. Until next year.’

The final word went to Dave in the office who told me ‘After a one-sided final round our customers have taken this one on points’.

So that was it, what a week, what a ride, sadly not a winning week for the firm but it’s warmed me up nicely for Newton Abbot on Tuesday!

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