Return of the bookies!
Simon Nott at Exeter and Cheltenham
EXETER 12/04/16
One thing you can pretty much guarantee with Exeter is that you are going to get a good crowd there, rain or shine. Shine, it seems ensures a very good crowd, especially for a Tuesday, the weather was glorious. Those that made the trip up Haldon Hill certainly got their money’s worth too with eight well-contested races and no odds-on shots.
The bookmakers were bathed in sunshine, all that is except the brace on the rails,one of whom described their pitches in the shadow on the Members’ stand as ‘Like the Baltic’.
Business was brisk,too,but certainly not lumpy, the layers having to field lots of small bets. The upside of that is that it makes things easier to make tidy books which is what most seem to be striving for these days.The fearless layers do seem to be an endangered species, at least at ‘off’ meetings may be virtually extinct after Cheltenham while wounds are healing.
That healing process would have been aided by today’s results. One 4/1 co-favourite and a couple of 5/4 shots the only jollies to oblige. Rainy City was the last of those to go in. As usual ‘Leglock’ Luke Harvey was the consummate professional interviewing winning connections after the race but it might have been handy for bookmakers and punters alike had he mentioned that one of the winning connections had flown over from Ireland for the afternoon especially for the race.
The ring almost had a right result when 100/1 shot Ninepointsixthree came within a couple of lengths of winning the race before. There had been some very exotic prices offered for rags throughout the day, no doubt hedged bigger, at least the win part elsewhere,but the scrabble for readies should one ever oblige can only be imagined.
Apollobet sponsored the whole meeting so were probably quite chuffed with the racing and the results, though bookies being bookies would have certainly preferred no favourites at all. They didn’t get one in the concluding ApolloBet Bet On The Lotteries Novices' Hunters' Chase. Dicky Bob won the race the 7/2 third-in. Armaloft Alex’s arm shot up as they passed the post.“I told everyone about that one,”he enthused. Of course it was the first time anyone in earshot had heard of it.
CHELTENHAM 13/04/16
It must be quite hard for bookmakers whose joints had been rocking incessantly for four days at the Festival when they return for a run of the mill meeting and periods of nothing but fresh air to look at.Of course there is never really run-of-the-mill racing at Cheltenham and there’s always a decent crowd,so don’t start feeling sorry for the hugely diminished numbers who bet today.
One thing hadn’t changed, though, at least for the first race, the jolly went in. Mister Miyagi won the opener having been backed from 2/1 into 13/8.The level of bets were understandably not akin to those of the Festival but if you lay £1,600-£800 about an eventually 13/8 shot it’s not good in anyone’s book.
In the next, the 11/2 favourite came second behind 6/1 winner Any Currency which bolted up, commentator Ian Bartlett did a great job of trying to make a race of it for those listening on the phone but it wasn’t really. Bet-wise it was all very modest fare.
That may have been down to the fact it was a 16-runner handicap but it didn’t put punters off wading into the similarly contested next.Might Bite was plunged on 3/1 down to 5/2 including some very rare office interest.There was also good money for Drumlee Sunset which attracted a bet of eight monkeys each-way, another punter had a carpet each-way Kerisper at 25/1 while the rails saw bite-sized chunks for Muhtaris at 33/1.
Most of that stayed in the hods when 20/1 Matorico won the race under Aiden Coleman. The gelding had been 33/1 and given the connections,a certain JP McManus and JJ O’Neill, I feared that several firms may have had a nasty shock when they looked at their payouts.None of it though as it turned out,the word skinner was being used a lot. JP certainly didn’t open his shoulders and march into the ring to have it on, nor it seemed did the punters on course either. The bookmakers’ cards were marked by the move on what some still quaintly call ‘the machine’ and staying one step ahead.
Harry Fry’s 9/2 winner Voix D’eau at least wasn’t favourite so did some books a favour but not the one that laid the £3,000£600. That punter must have thought he’d