There’s nothing like a heatwave during Royal Ascot to make a bookie sweat!
The big meetings bring out the big players and it’s what we’re in the game for.
There’s just nothing like Ascot. The action on track is superb, the pageantry sublime, and the betting steps up a gear.
We used to have a pitch on the members’ rail before selling it some time ago. You’d be amazed how many of those ‘top hat and tailers’ don’t like betting anything more than a pound or two.
The money they spend on their outfits would buy a small house in the Valleys of Wales, but the thought of having a fiver on a horse is obviously a bridge too far.
We did attend on the Thursday (if you’re going to go any day, why not make it Ladies Day!) and made an acquaintance with ‘Lady Lilly.’
She informed us that she was recently divorced and looking for a new suitor. It turns out the prospect of living in the suburbs of Cardiff wasn’t appealing enough to give up her mansion in America.
I’m not sure she’d be overjoyed about being dragged to Ffos Las on a wet December meeting, anyway, plus I’m pretty sure this bookmaker’s wife wouldn’t be too overjoyed at the whole situation, either.
The week was one for the bookies in general with some proper results along the way. Although, it wasn’t all plain sailing.
River Tiber, on the Tuesday, was particularly painful after we boosted it to 2/1 in the morning. As was Vauban, with bets of 3k, 2k and a 1k all landing.
Wednesday put us well in front. Jumbly was a really big liability (over 10K) and even more so was Luxembourg later in the day.
Mostahadaf winning the Prince Of Wales stakes at 10/1 from the aforementioned Luxembourg and beating Bay Bridge in the process will go down as one our most profitable races to date.
Frankie put a little dent in the winnings securing victory on Gregory at the tail of the card.
Thursday saw us escape a kicking when Coltrane got beat into second in the Gold Cup having pushed it out to 4/1 in the morning. 150/1 and 50/1 winners, along with other big priced victors, had us starting to think that bookmaking was easy.
Friday reminded us it isn’t. Frankie winning on a 6/1 fav at Ascot (Coppice) is exactly what we didn’t want to see.
Bets included a £500 win and £300 each way, along with lots of smaller stakes. Tahiyra was a fair bogey in the race before. Bets included 2 x £2k, 1 x £2,700 a £1,500 and a 1k.
Saturday saw us have the biggest sweat of all in the last race after taking £3,500 on Stratum at 9/2. It was also popular all day.
The eventual fav won the race under another superb Ryan Moore ride. Overall, it was a rollercoaster, as these big ones usually are.
It was surprising how concentrated the money was on just a few horses and we certainly didn’t take the number of bets we did at Cheltenham.
From a bookie’s point of view, the results were excellent and we’re now fully stocked and ready to move on to the next big one.
Before that. though, we’ve got work to do.
We’re pricing up a whole host of Welsh rugby and football leagues, so you’ll be able to back your local side for the coming season.
There’s also a lot of work going on behind the scenes on the website itself. We’re still new and there are improvements to be made, so thanks for sticking with us and watch this space.
We really appreciate you having a DragonBet account, so diolch and pob lwc whatever you’re backing. Big or small.
