ISSUE 178 RACING AHEAD 43pointed, even though the sun had sort
of come out. At least one firm were
clobbered when well-backed 7/1
chance Southern Hills proved a length
too good for his rivals under Ryan
Moore.
Thursday
Blimey what a day Thursday was and
could have been, it stopped raining
which was a result. What wasn’t a
result, especially for the bookmakers
that priced up the colour of the
Queen’s hat was that someone
appeared to know that it was
silver/grey today and helped them-
selves from 50/1 down to 8/13. The
real drama started, though nobody
knew it at the time, when Frankie Det-
tori rode A’ali to a 5/1 victory in the
Norfolk Stakes. It was the first of what
was to be a four-timer.
The first result was OK for the book-
makers because Sunday Sovereign
had been a well-backed 13/8 favourite
that was well-beaten. Frankie then
went on to win the Hampton Court
Stakes on 13/2 shot Sangarius, again,
another OK result beating the
favourite Fox Chairman into second.
Being Ladies Day there were lots of
ladies having a bet, if they are having a
guess-up they often ask what Frankie
is riding and back that one, so his
mounts are often worse losers than
other horses of similar prices, especial-
ly the rags.
Frankie’s treble was provided by
Star Catcher in The Ribblesdale
Stakes, at 4/1 he once again beat the
jolly, 7/4 chance Fleeting. Star Sports
were happy with that as they’d laid a
bet of £30,000 - £16,000. With the
on-course bookies getting a few
short-ones beaten it was the off-
course mob that were getting the
jitters. Frankie Dettori is one of the few
jockeys where people still do lump his
mounts into multiples. Things were
about to get interesting with him
riding even money favourite Stradivar-
ius in the Gold Cup. It was unlikely that
there would be a deluge of off-course
money for one so short, but should itwin then things could get hot in the
ring. It won. Bookmakers were bracing
themselves.
Frankie’s mount in the 17-runner Bri-
tannia Stakes was Turgenev. It had
been as big as 16/1 in the morning but
opened at 4/1 on course. It wasn’t the
on-course bookies running scared but
mirrored the price on the exchanges.
The natural thing for a bookmaker to
do in that situation, especially given
the competitive nature of the race is to
get stuck in. On-course layers were
ready for an onslaught of hedging
money from off course but it didn’t
arrive. The guess is that they hedged
directly into the exchanges.
Turgenev did touch 5/1 in places on
course, bigger than the exchanges but
eventually went off at 7/2 favourite.
The roar that went up as the jolly
kicked clear under Dettori was some-
thing to behold, could this be the
five-timer teeing up the potential of
betting carnage in the last? Then with
every stride that 28/1 chance Biomet-
ric made the crescendo faded away,▲Bookmaker
Tony Styles
wading to
his water-
logged
pitch