Exeter - Celebrate Christmas Raceday. 19/12/24

When I arrived at the racecourse it was tipping down with rain, so much so that I had to sit in the car for a bit. By the time they ran the first, The Coreus Group Maiden Hurdle, the sun was blazing down. The racecourse was heaving, hospitality was full and Haldon Hill topped with Christmas cheer. There were plenty of whispers around the racecourse, mostly for Jane Williams runners, as well as plenty of people having bets in the opener. Friendless in the morning, the money came late for JP McManus' Kap Ouest off course and on. I was told bets of £1000 @ 8/11 four times and a grand at 4/6. All those punters had value, the jolly won nicely though had to fight for it, returning 4/7 to get favourite backers off to a flyer. Feel also for the front row layer that not only laid the winner but £2750 - £500 each-way the runner-up Tuxedo Junction. 

Bit between their collective teeth, the punters waded into Party Vibes in the four horse Southwest Rail Solutions Mare's Novices' Chase. Bets included £600 - £900, £800 - £1300, £768 at 4/7, £500 - £1000 x 2 £2400 - £5000 and £2500 - £5000. The decent bets weren't the exclusion of everything else, one firm laid £6600 - £100 Nancy Till. I'm sure most layers on the track would be cheering that one home with the punter. Another layer told me that they were laying a punter £250 doubles. Come racing. Sadly, Nancy Till parted company with Tabitha Worsley out in the country so the hope on both sides of the fenced we dashed with her. Sunday Solider did her best to get the Christmas money from the bookmakers but ultimately the support was justified, Party Vibes just got her head in front after a hard fought battle after the last. The winner returned carpet-on so once again racegoers got the value.

The third heat on the card, the Southwest Rail Solutions EBF Junior National Hunt Hurdle featured a real talking horse in Jane Williams' Le Soleil Reve. Two separate professional punters tipped it to me to add confidence to the strong word I heard when I arrived on course. The pro-backers had been on at 6/1 and 5/1 so were no doubt in a very good position when the gelding opened at 2/1 in the live betting. Between races I got talking to Archie and Ian of the Jack Bevan (est 1897) firm. Ian was in good spirits and insisted on telling me a joke, so here goes 'Did you hear about the blind prostitute? You had to hand it to her!' Boom boom brought to you direct from 1980. Archie's eye rolls at no doubt the umpteenth time he'd heard that one today were funnier than the joke! Meanwhile, betting was brisk, bets included £4400 - £4000, £440 - £400 and an even £800 and an even £642.50 Red N Yellow, £2100 - £300 Star Of Guiting and £1000 - £500 Le Soleil Reve. The punter that had the carpet on Star Of Guiting knew, or at least got it right this time. It would be interesting if the punters shoulders would be so broad in the next now that they'd had a reversal. Jane Williams' talking horse went off the 11/8 favourite and was a very promising third. That would have been disappointing for those that followed the money but we'll no doubt see much better to come with that experience under his belt. 

The South West Rail Solutions Handicap Chase that followed looked very competitive. I had marks for five of the 11 runners including positive vibes for the two Jane Williams' runners Pepe Le Moko and Jupiter Allen. Down in the ring, well it's been a long time since I have so many big bets given to me. They included £10,500 - £3000 each-way and £1400 - £400 Toss Of A Coin, £2750 - £500 and £1500 - £300 Jupiter Allen and £7000 - £1000 each-way Enjoy Your Life. The betting ring was buzzing and the racecourse was pulsing with a party atmosphere, it was great to see on both counts. Meanwhile, out there on the turf, there was a shock for some punters when Polly Gundry's Don't Rightly Know won on her chase debut under Nick Schofield. I said some punters because the winner had been a 20/1 chance this morning but returned 12/1. As far as the layers on course were concerned it was an excellent result.

The next heat, the South West Rail Solutions Handicap Hurdle saw a lesser number of big bets, but the three that I did get were hefty, £6600 - £6000, and £2400 - £3000 Into The Park and £5000 - £2000 Issam. Business did appear to slow as the crowd got colder and more refreshed. I did feel sorry for one poor chap whose female companion dressed as Father Christmas but in a mini skirt rather than cosy red fur-lined strides was moaning to him how cold it was. She wasn't wrong, just her clobber. My pal 'Armaloft Alex' had passed on a whisper for Mayhem Mya before racing. I listened, told my hospitality guests but didn't act on it myself. It must have stayed a whisper generally because Chris Honour's mare did the business beating the jolly after a scrap on the run-in but returned 9/1 having been a 13/2 chance best when I arrived this morning. A Chris Honour whisper is unlikely to have gone unbacked on course but the firms that laid the lumps would have been no doubt delighted. 

Next up, the penultimate, the Southwest Rail Solutions Handicap Chase looked very trappy. Before we go on, I did ridicule Ian's joke earlier. When I'm doing my boxes and these very supportive sponsors have their names on a race title I often quip that the race might be delayed because of leaves on the track, I thought it would be churlish to do so today, so won't. Normal service will be resumed at a future meeting. See what I did there, boom boom, anyway...

You can never be too sparky when you go down into the ring after a 'result' because you never know what's happened. For example, DragonBet had laid £6000 at 11/8 the horse that just won away at Ffos Las. Despite looking tricky the punters were happy to get involved here too. One firm laid a whopping £15,000 - £6000 Chris Gordon's Mr Upton, another laid £2200 - £800 the same horse. Elsewhere I was given a bet of £4000 - £500 Imperial Joe and £6600 - £100 each-way Nigel Hawke's Eurowork. Out on the course the low sun was playing games again with fences on the far said of the course omitted. One bookmaker would have winced as Imperial Joe passed the post first having laid the winner, especially given the name, but once again he's been a drifter, 6/1 best when I arrived on course returning 7/1. That might have been a little misleading though a punter bet £250 each-way at 10/1 with a front row firm. Meanwhile DragonBet just got a £7000 away bet beaten behind 100/1 chance Karuma Grey over at Ffos Las. 

The lucky last, otherwise known as the Southwest Rail Solutions Amateur Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle was another race with a whisper, once again it was a Jane Williams horse. The story went that Moorland Rambler was fancied for this, so much so that the yard had obtained the services of multiple champion point-to-point jockey Will Biddick only for him to have injured himself at Larkhill at the weekend. If that rumour had gone around the racecourse there were plenty of punters who wanted to get stuck into plenty of horses. Bets included £1000 at 11/2 Diamatiste, £6000 - £500 each-way and £2500 - £250 each-way Jukebox Fury, £19.250 - £3500 each-way and £2500 - £500 Catboy plus £6000 - £1000 Nigel Hawke's Sindabella. Moorland Rambler ran well but didn't finish in the money. The race went to 10/1 chance Martalite for David Killahena and Graeme McPherson under Mr Tommie O'Brien from Diamatiste concluding a fantastic day's action out on course and in the betting ring. 

At least that's what we thought, we thought it was all over then 'Bing Bong' a Stewards' Enquiry citing possible interference between the first two. That scuppered any thoughts of beating the traffic. Mind you, looking at  the jollity in the crowd, you'd have to hope most of them were going home by public transport.  I don't think anyone really expected the result to be reversed and it wasn't, though the extra excitement was a bonus extending the day though maybe not for the bookmakers and punters who be paying out and getting paid in ever diminishing daylight once it was announced. I'm back tomorrow and Saturday reporting from Ascot for Star Sports.

Simon Nott 

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