Normal service resumes for bookies

AND so things return to normality. For the first two days of the festival the bookies here took a dreadful hammering — losses were being calculated upwards by the million as each race passed – and by the end of trading on Wednesday conservative estimates of the bookies’ losses across the industry were being estimated at about £25m.

And what happened yesterday? Well, yesterday they took it all back.

The defeats of Voy Por Ustedes in the Ryanair Chase and Kasbah Bliss in the Ladbroke World Hurdle, hit the punters hard and got the bookies right back in the picture.

“I suppose you could call it a score-draw right now,” one spokesman said at the end of yesterday’s play.

“We were not so bad at the end of day one, although Quevega’s win in the last hit us hard, but we were still about level. Wednesday was a complete bloodbath though and across the industry the losses were estimated at somewhere between £25 and £30m, although probably nearer the former figure than the latter.

“Today, however, the carnage was among the punters who suffered heavy losses on those two red-hot favourites. Had they won — or even if only one of them had won — we’d have been in trouble.

“But, thankfully, they didn’t win and we’re back in the game,” the spokesman said.

The smile returned to the bookies’ faces when Voy Por Ustedes, who had been backed down to 4/5 favourite to win, made a ghastly mistake at the fourth last which effectively took the wind out of his sails.

Jockey Robert ‘Choc’ Thornton’s succinct comment — “stupid f***ing mistake” — as the horse was being led back after the race, told its own story. Even though Voy Por Ustedes finished strongly to snatch second behind Imperial Commander, trainer Alan King put a brave face it.

“I think the mistake hasn’t helped. It happened at the wrong time. Choc had been very happy until then, but there you go. The fences are there to be jumped and he didn’t today.”

For the connections of Kasbah Bliss, there were few excuses either. The 10/11 favourite for the Ladbroke World Hurdle, faded tamely up the Cheltenham hill to finish 20 lengths behind the winner Big Buck’s and his trainer Francois Doumen said he had “no reason” for the disappointing result.

“Christophe (Pieux) said he knew when they started to come down the hill that he was not travelling well. There was no reason for the poor run. Some might say he was beaten because he travelled so wide throughout the race, but if he was beaten narrowly we could have said that, but he wasn’t close.”

Doumen also pointed out that the markets may not have got it right beforehand. “To be so sure Big Buck’s and Punchestowns would not beat him was a mistake,” he said.

If it was a mistake, it certainly was not one the bookies were complaining about.