AUTHOR: Star Sports Content

SIMON NOTT: Royal Ascot Tuesday BETTING REPORT

I’ve been lucky enough to have been to at least one day of most Royal Ascots since 1992, formerly with various bookies, then nine years with Turf TV and latterly with Star Sports. They were all very different experiences, none of them bad.

Sadly, as with the majority of us I’ve got the double up of missing them this year and last.

I do remember the first time I went, with Jack Lynn, it must have been Ladies’ Day. I was warned that it would be ‘no good’ but they’d try it. For some reason there was a move in the ring. In those days a move was a cumbersome affair, down the list depending on the bookmaker’s seniority. The team got put into a pitch they’d never worked before, it was the on the second row near the end of the line, at the wrong end of the ring. There were people who had pitch picking down to a fine art, blimey, they missed this one. What a pitch, perfect for Roy and Jack Lynn, they could not stop taking money. There didn’t seem to be a logical reason why, but the pitch was out of this world – all small money but as Jack used to say ‘little fish are sweeter’ and those small fry just swam relentlessly into them.

Needless to say were we back to Royal Ascot from then on, just in the hope of getting that pitch again. Of course, if anyone else asked what it was like, the answer was always, ‘just about workable’!

Ahead of racing Flynn set up the day and the early money:

2:30 – Queen Anne Stakes (Group 1) (British Champions Series) (Str) (Class 1) (4YO plus) 1m

The Star Sports on-course team were primed for action. Flynn on the pitch in Tattersalls and Lofty on the rail. The big punters soon found them having £35,000 on Palace Pier at 4/11. Meanwhile Ed Dark, keeping me informed on the office business, came through with a £200,000 double, Palace Pier at 4/9 and Battaash at 7/4. Now that’s a new level, doubling them up!

Other wagers on Palace Pier, jolly in the first included a couple of £20,000 bets at 2/5. It wasn’t all one-way traffic, in the office, there were also bets for Lope Y Fernandez £80,000 – £5000 each-way, Lord Glitter £28,000 – £1000 each-way, and Top Rank £90,000 – £5000 each-way. Luckily for those punters that strode out purposefully to bet like heroes on Palace Pier, it all went to plan and won, albeit not overly impressively.

🌠 One of the Star Sports betting shops saw a £5000 bet on Palace Pier. To find a Star Sports betting shop click here.

📈 Toby from Star Spreads told me ‘It’s been a quiet start to the day for us’

3:05 – Coventry Stakes (Group 2) (Class 1) (2YO only) 6f

Between races Flynn messaged from the course to say that the same punter who had £35,000 on the first winner reinvested £20,000 on Battaash. Ed came through from the office and told me ‘I was going to say it’s been a quiet race then we laid £50,000 – £10,000 Gisburn, £150,000 – £20,000 Kaufymaker and £50,000 – £10,000 Dhabab’. Flynn went half a point better and laid £11,000 – £2000 the latter on course. Berkshire Shadow’s 11/1 win was a very good result in the sort of race not much business is expected.

Someone who rarely appears happy was good old Lofty, also known as Martin Chapman, he piped up on twitter saying, ‘Actually ticking over quite nicely on the rail, enjoying it so far’. I originally thought someone must have nicked his phone but it was apparently him. We can only surmise that all the Star Sports Greyhound Derby action has mellowed him.

Lofty – the tallest one, obviously !

📈 Toby from Star Spreads was happy too, he told me ‘This race was a bit more juicy Gisburn was our loser on the book.’

3:40 – King’s Stand Stakes (Group 1) (British Champions Series) (Class 1) (3YO plus) 5f

There was nothing mellow about the betting in the third though, it was all about Battaash, well nearly but we’ll get those bets out of the way first. There was the £288,889 rolling on from the double with Palace Pier, then the £20,000 Flynn laid on course, another £70,000 in the office at 13/8 then £5000 and a brace of £3000 bets at 13/8.

It wasn’t all one-way traffic though, a punter came on to the office with a bet of £20,000 for Winter Power. The bogie took it up surely partially propelled by the commentary which made it sound better than it looked. Battaash’s moment of glory was very short-lived and had to settle for fourth.

They were no match for Oxted which won with such ease that jockey Cieren Fallon allowed himself a celebratory punch of the air passing the post. The winner was well-supported late on but nothing of any note with Star Sports who enjoyed a great result.

📈 Toby from Star Spreads told me ‘No real loser on the book, but we’ve got people buying favs now, so getting Battaash turned over was ideal’

🌠 A punter also got involved in one of the Star Sport’s betting shop having £2000 on Battaash at 7/4.

4:20 – St James’s Palace Stakes (Group 1) (British Champions Series) (Rnd) (Class 1) (3YO only) 1m

Next up and to describe the betting as spirited would be an understatement, a bet of £85,000 in the office Poetic Flare at 4/1 kicked things off, then another £80,000 at the same price. Money also came in lumps for Chindit including a bet of £180,000 – £30,000 then £110,000 – £20,000 Lucky Vega. Meanwhile Flynn was on course trying to bet up to a bet £80,000 – £20,000 he’d laid Poetic Flare.

Poetic Flare won. You don’t need to dust off your abacus, that translates to Ben and his Star Sports warriors doing their absolute cobblers on the race. And in some style too, the 7/2 winner bolted up and put the race to bed a long way out. That last furlong would have felt like a drummed walk up the gallows’ steps for the bookmakers that stuck it fearlessly to the favourite.

📈 If poor old Ben was the fella walking to the gallows, Toby from Star Spreads was the chirpy chap selling the popcorn, he told me ‘Lucky Vega was the big loser there, though Battleground in the placings was frustrating.’

5:00 – Ascot Stakes (Handicap) (Class 2) (4YO plus) 2m 4f

📈 Toby was on to me again before anyone else, tail up he warbled ‘Is this real life? Or is this just fantasy? No losing race yet. Elysian Flame and Cape Gentleman the two we’re against.’

Rory, talking over from Ed in the office was sensibly a little more subdued, but it was good to read that the bets kept rolling into them. His debut message informed me that they’d laid bets of £100,000 – £20,000 MC Muldoon £75,000 – £30,000 Cape Gentleman. Flynn’s big punter or punters were also showing no sign of fatigue he laid bets of £55,000 – £20,000 Cape Gentleman and £50,000 – £10,000 MC Muldoon. With the same horses being backed, it was the old fashioned book of the front two against the field across the firm, including one of the betting shops who laid Cape Gentleman to the tune of £5000 – £1500 in the morning.

Ed came on as they were running, they were in deeper than I thought, he told me Cape Gentleman had attracted further bets of £50,000 11/4 and £10,000 at 9/4 and another £100,000 – £20,000 MC Muldoon latter was also laid at 14/1 Ante-Post.

Reshoun winning at 66/1 for Ian Williams under William Buick beating MC Muldoon a short-head is the sort of result bookmakers dream of at big meetings like Royal Ascot. It couldn’t have come at a more opportune moment for them today.

5:35 – Wolferton Stakes (Listed) (Class 1) (4YO plus) 1m 2f

The penultimate had the feel of a race where things had gone a bit quiet, it hadn’t, it was just that the office guys were so busy they didn’t have time to tell me about the £120,000 – £20,000 and £45,000 – £5000 about Felix, the £140,000 – £40,000 and £175,000 – £50,000 Patrick Sarsfield and £12,000 – £1000 each-way Fox Tal.

On course Flynn laid bets of £70,000 – £20,000 Patrick Sarsfield and £45,000 – £10,000 Solid Stone. The last two mentioned finished second and third behind 14/1 winner Juan Elcano which was another great result for the book. I know how much the following phrase winds some people up terribly, but I’ll say it anyway and just jazz it up a bit, the bets, readies or otherwise stayed in the hods, metaphoric or otherwise.

📈  Toby over at Star Spreads had gone a bit negative on us, he bemoaned ‘They’ve all gone, they’ve flicked over to the Hungary v Portugal match’. Come on Tobe, I think I preferred him when he was singing his messages.

6:10 – Copper Horse Stakes (Handicap) (Class 2) (4YO plus) 1m 6f

Quite often the concluding handicap at Royal Ascot can be a bit of a damp squib where people are flagging a bit. Flynn admitted it was a bit slow in Tatts but still ‘buzzy’ on the rails. He did take a bet of £20,000 off the floor for Saldier which kept him on his toes. That was dwarfed by two bets of £100,000 on that same horse at 5/2 in the office too topped off late by another £150,000 – £80,000. There were a couple of £2500 bets on Throne Hall and Arthurian Fable that the firm would no doubt be delighted to pay. This was it, the day rested on the lucky last.

The ITV Racing commentary called it a head-bobbing finish and so it was, it didn’t matter to the office or Inlike Flynn though, it was between 33/1 chances Dubious Affair and Amtiyaz. As Jack Lynn would have said, ‘Come on both of you’. The photo was called, a winner for the Gosden’s under Hollie Doyle, Amtiyaz got the money. A cracking result for the bookmakers to conclude day one of Royal Ascot.

I would have given the final word to Toby but he was still being negative and talking about football again, so we’ll swerve that and finish with an Aye Aye!

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 
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