Bookies Off To A 33-1 Flyer

Simon Nott spends time at a crowded Ascot and a picturesque Chepstow

ASCOT 07/10/17

First impressions on a dank October afternoon was what a good crowd, rumoured to be about 20,000 and an astonishing number of bookmakers, almost Royal Ascot numbers.

Business looked to be brisk for the opening Hope And Homes For Children Rous Stakes. The trouble was that the money was all one-way traffic for John Gosden’s Waady backed from an early skirmishes 15/8 into ‘tips on’ 10/11 at the off. The bookmakers’ mettle was certainly tested with a one horse book. Those that left the ledger lopsided were rewarded with the shock 33/1 victory of Ronald Harris’ Just Glamorous. To be fair, most of the ring would have settled for the 7/1 runner-up Sir Robert Cheval but a proper result is always welcome, especially in the first.

I took a wander around the ring but held on just long enough to see one layer hop off his stool, ask the pitch in front ‘How much did you get on it?’ then stick his head into the computer before the clerk had a chance to answer. Some bookies just can’t help being bookies!

Further down the line Paul Gold on one of the Pickwick-Bevan pitches was cook-a-hoop. He’d had computer problems, had to stand the jolly for much more than he wanted and got lucky and copped the lot. Not so chuffed was the back row firm who had a skinner for all they took. “Not chuffed?” I hear you cry, yes dear reader, they had taken the princely sum of £81 on the race, trying for their lives. Not only that, they’d given a lift to a friend of the winning trainer who told them the winner had been quietly fancied but didn’t heed the advice. “I only needed to have a tenner on,” rued the bookmaker. Oh well, we all know it’s easy after the race.