Bookies count cost of Blue gamble

It was a Blue Monday for punters but a black Saturday for bookmakers, who estimate losses of “almost £10m industry-wide” after jockey Steve Drowne and trainer Roger Charlton helped land a massive gamble in the totesport Cambridgeshire Handicap.

Blue Monday, who was on offer at 10-1 when the shops opened, was backed at all rates down to 5-1 favourite – and the four-year-old turned the nine-furlong event into a procession.