It was an early start to fly over for the weekend, but an absolute pleasure to do so once I’d woken up. The first loser of the day was when I got onto the Luas to the racecourse and somebody got up and offered me their seat. It’s not the first time it’s happened in Ireland. Maybe they’re just very kind or maybe I am starting to look my age, no need to comment on that. I'll go with very kind.
I don’t like to be negative, but Leopardstown didn’t appear very buzzy early doors. It was easy to get a seat on the tram even without somebody offering me theirs unlike the Dublin Racing festival where you are packed in like sardines. Still, with nine races on the card it was hoped that there would be a good crowd here eventually, especially as the weather was set fine. It was a pleasure to meet Dave O'Reilly's daughter Amanda for the first time too, she was working with another bookmaker in the main ring next door to AK's second pitch.
The first race on the card, due to be run at 1.10 featured two short ones in Chantez and Bubbling which opened at 13/8 and 15/8 respectively. The AK Bets firm fielded two teams. The Daves, O’Reilly and Tyrrell on the number one pitch and Des and Graham betting opposite the gap down the line. There were some familiar faces in the ring, some I expect they’d rather I didn’t mention, but I’m sure Toby Hawkins won’t mind, it was nice to see you Toby. There were a few potential big hitters wandering around too, and why I mean big, lumpy. I tried to clock if any bookmakers shortened their prices after talking to them but they didn’t appear to be any business done, certainly not with the AK pitches. When the business did come it was very late £1250 - £1000 Chantez after the smaller punters had whittled away at the bigger prices. At the off, over two prime pitches AK Bets had fielded 33 bets and held €2000, including the grand Sterling. Despite running around as well as fast Chantez won the race and the firm did about €1600 exchange rates pending. The worry wasn’t the jolly winning but the 33 bets tendered.
There were plenty more people around the joint on the run-up to the second race which was encouraging and definitely had a buzzier feel about it. There were only four runners for the next where they bet even money Delacroix. The first decent bet wasn’t on the jolly but a €1050 - €300 Bernard Shaw followed by £750 on the jolly at ‘tips-on’. The clerk in the pencil days would have shouted ‘Have £770 for goodness sake’, or words to that affect. These days nobody has to work it out, hopefully this time it would stay in the hod anyway. Then a chap came up and asked for evens the jolly when it was 10/11 on the board, wasn’t obliged so had €120 at 10/11, he should have waited for the 5/6! This time the race came up for the good guys, Tidler had two losers in the book and the 5/2 winner Green Impact wasn’t one of them copping a grand back.
Diego Velazquez opened at 11/10 in the next in what was a busier by the race betting ring. Despite the jolly being short the first bet to hit the bottom of the hod was €1500 - €200 Poker Face. There were a few €100 bets flying about for Maljoom among the smaller wagers though not much interest in the favourite. Between bets one of the UK’s top horseracing photographers Alan Crowhurst came to say hello. I asked if there wasn’t enough racing in the UK for him to snap, ‘Not like this’ was his outstretched armed reply, he had a point, you’d have a job to beat the sport on offer at Leopardstown today. AK himself turned up just when it was getting livelier. I was busy chatting to him and they were off before I'd realised, but if you are being distracted by the chap who's paying you're usually OK. Diego Velazquez won the race and returned the 10/11 favourite, I feared the worst not hearing of much business for the jolly but no, Tidler had played a blinder and had a bit of a lean-up the winner, the book copped €800 over a short one.
There hadn’t been much money for the winner with AK Bets in the previous race there was in the next, two Sterling bets of £1250 - £1000 were placed in quick succession on Porta Fortuna in relatively early skirmishes. Both pitches were offering prices over the races at Doncaster and Chester, there was enough interest to make it worthwhile but punters were hardly fighting to get on, even on the home races. Porta Fortuna was available at 11/8 in several places as the horses left the paddock, punters were still betting but bets were small, one chap even asked for and got €1 each-way, well he had the right money and the firm needed the change, it does make you wonder if people jib in wanting bets like that. A punter having €500 - €200 Fallen Angel perked things back up a bit but you can get an idea of the level of business that I’m mentioning it. At the off both pitches combined had fielded €4500 with the weak in the ring jolly losing €3000. Spoiler alert, the market knew nothing, Porta Fortuna bolted up finding the gears the others simply didn’t possess, a costly race.
Between races, a gentleman named Mike Lawler came to say hello. He told the Daves and I that he’d been coming to Leopardstown since he was 17 and he was now 87 and that the best horse he’d seen win here was Nijinsky. He added that he’d started working for Guinness when he was just 14, in short a fascinating man (pictured below). He’s also written a book, if you’re interested search ‘sonofoutsider’ and you’ll find it.
Next up here, race five of the nine boasted joint favourites when the betting opened, Auguste Rodin and Economics priced at a bottle each of two with most firms. With five minutes to go punters got stuck into Auguste Rodin €1000 at 9/4 the biggest bet with added salvos of €100 and €200 wagers at the price. AK kept the top of the head there for a while but ultimately had to capitulate, back to a bottle it was. At the off, Auguste Rodin was a loser for €6500, AK had for whatever reason decided to take him on.
If you are eating or are of a squeamish nature you might want to skip this paragraph. Apparently the team have developed a routine if they have a bad loser in the book. Dave Tyrrell goes and lays a cable, a lucky log, a jolly jinxing jobby, call it what you will. He even has a favourite loo, the disabled one, if free of course, near the Paddy Power betting shop. Our pooing protagonist must have still been curling it down as the bogie came with what looked ominously like a winning run, then chipped it off just in time for the 7/4 favourite Economics to do the business, bobbing to win on the line. That last thrust by the jolly was a turn out turnaround of €8500 for the book, so a congratulatory proper jobbie to Dave T.
Next up, and the last group race of the meeting. It looked the tightest in the betting too, they bet 7/2 the field with Sumiha heading the market with Trustyourinstinct 4/1 . Bets were a lot smaller in denomination with some outsiders being nibbled, Layfayette attracted a bet of €2200 - €100, Yashin €1600 - €100 and Chantilly €2250 - €250. Punters latched on to Trustyourinstinct late, the favourites flip flopped and this time the market knew as the jolly flew home winning at 3/1. The biggest bet the winner in the AK book was just €1000 - €250 but they still knocked out a grand on the race.
Next up, after the excitement of the group races the first of the three handicaps to conclude the meeting. The only bets to make the firm jump was €5000 - €500 Fighter from the trade and £2500 - £250 each-way Spasiba, the rest of the business was relatively recreational. Meanwhile the team did lay a €300 bet on Scandinavia at 6/5 over at Doncaster. This is where it went horribly wrong, the bogie Fighter bolted in. I honestly had to double check that this race was indeed a handicap, such was the nature of Fighter’s victory, the winner with the rest nowhere, the son of Frankel evidently a bit better than these and backed accordingly. The book lost over €5000 which was a body blow of some proportion.
Having had their wings trimmed in the last heat ring prices were tentative in the early exchanges for the penultimate where Cerulean Bay headed the market at 4/1. Small mercies are always accepted humbly though, the carpet bet at Sunny Donny stayed in the hod, at least it was a step in the right direction. As for this race, it was a virtual non-event with hardly a dinar bet. On the plus side it gave Celebrant Dave and I chance to have a chat with a very nice Mancunian and his lady over for the weekend, see you at the Curragh tomorrow. In the meantime they ran the race, there was about €700 across the firm in the combined hods of which the good guys kept a monkey when 12/1 chance Dance Night won the race by a head, the handicapper will be more pleased with that one.
Hey guys, we’re in uncharted waters here, I’ve not worked a nine race card or bigger since Cheltenham abandoned the Wednesday in 2008 and they played catch up on the Thursday. I’ve been at a point to point with 13 races, they kept splitting the maidens, by the end of that most of the punters, and bookies had buggered off. We feared the worst for this race but a punter waded in with £4500 - £1000 Quadruple to make it an interesting but potentially catastrophic last race on a day that had already knocked the book about a bit. That bet looked an even dodgier one to lay when a top rails firm rushed into the ring to back it too. To make things worse, there was very little else happening in the punting stakes apart from people still trying to back and beg prices for the now 3/1 bogie. As it turned out, they didn’t know this time, 10/1 Vera’s Secret won the race cosily copping the book €1800 easing the blow of a still €4400 losing day. That’s disappointing after a bumper card, but there’s the Curragh and Laytown to go and the nagging feeling defecating Dave should have had another go when they laid Fighter. Oh well, we’re back on the turf tomorrow.
Simon Nott
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