SIX-FIGURE TOUCHES
AND RECORD WEEKS
SIX-FIGURE wins have been reasonably common over the years, most based on the form book and nearly all of those in handicaps. In May 2002, I had a monster day during the York Dante meeting. Five bets, four winners. Showpiece and White Cliffs won at Salisbury and Imtiyaz prevailed at York, but the biggest winner was Macaw at York. I wasn’t massively confident, but the opening show of 33-1 was too big and my each-way bets were to win me £111,045. However, as I watched the race from the owners’ bar, I found myself next to a group of Scotsmen who were cheering him home pretty much from the moment the stalls opened. It was clear from their support that he’d been especially prepared for the race and I only wished I’d known. I’d have taken all prices down from 33-1 if I’d been aware of the confidence behind him.
Master Robbie was a big-priced touch at Ascot in September 2003. My team returned me a total of £2,435 each-way at 50-1 and 40-1 and his victory led to a profit of £126,010. When he won at 20-1, some reports suggested that the big-priced winner was sure to be a good result for the bookmakers. This wasn’t the case.
Salviati was another major result on a sunny Sunday at Newbury in August 2004. He hadn’t won for more than a year but was an outstanding form pick in a sprint handicap. We found some nice quiet accounts to place my bet of £25,000, mainly at 9-2, clearing £113,176. Four days later, I took everything available at 5-2, 9-4 and 2-1 about Morgan Lewis at Haydock, turning a stake of £49,410 into a profit of £114,188. On his previous start he had been so unlucky that I actually noted down ‘very easy winner’ in my notes, underlined twice. Three days later came my Caesar Beware bet. I was in true ‘thunderstorm’ form, a term I use for a period of weeks when I hit a rich vein of form and turn over huge sums each week to capitalise on this.
Sea Frolic, in June 2005, left me mystified as to how I’d won £126,687.50 at a minor evening meeting at Warwick. Happily mystified, but bemused nonetheless. The takings were around twice what I had expected, and there were two reasons. Firstly, Royal Ascot started the next day and the bookmakers were probably fielding much higher turnover than usual. Secondly, the race was once again the type to reassure the bookmakers, a 15-runner handicap. Even with these three factors, I still felt we had the luck of the draw that night. Getting just short of £10,000 each-way on a horse backed from 12-1 to 9-1 on a Monday evening was an amazing result. It felt even better when Sea Frolic played her part in proceedings by crossing the line a length and a half in front.
That was the start of a magical seven days in which I set a new record for a week’s trading. My previous two record weeks had been achieved in successive years at Glorious Goodwood. Some have suggested that Goodwood is a terrible place for betting, but with lifetime profits of more than a million pounds there I have no hesitation in nominating it as far and away my favourite track.
The reason I like it, and perhaps others don’t, is that races are more complicated to assess than at most tracks. The eccentric switchback nature of the course means that certain horses handle it far better than others. This might seem like a negative point but if I’m seeking a big edge over the bookmakers, this is most likely to happen in races that are as difficult as possible. Crucially, I find it relatively simple to forecast the way in which the race will be run. Cerulean Rose was a much bigger price than she would have been in a similar race at another track, because the layers were bamboozled by the general belief that handicaps at Goodwood are fiendishly complicated puzzles.
My profit in Goodwood week 2003 was £436,012.24, with Cerulean Rose supported by profits of £91,250 on Lady Bear in the mile handicap and £96,894 from Patavellian in the Stewards’ Cup. In 2004, my profit was £413,012.24. Salviati at Newbury, as mentioned above, was the biggest winner that week but I found a whole barrage of smaller winners at Goodwood, including £69,500 from Merlin’s Dancer. One day from that week is outlined in much greater detail in part three.
But, returning to 2005, Royal Ascot week at York would see me better those figures. Technically, Acomb doesn’t qualify as a six-figure winner, but two wins of more than £80,000 in the space of five days makes it very hard to leave him out. I hadn’t backed Acomb on the first of three quick wins, on the same night as Sea Frolic, but the way he won convinced me that he was very well treated. When he reappeared at Ayr five days later I was ready to open my shoulders for a serious punt. It was still Royal York week and the bookmakers were still trading more heavily, even on the smaller meetings. My bet of £15,000 at 6-1 and 11-2 was fairly easily placed by my trading manager and Acomb made all the running to give me a profit of £85,140.
Iffraaj, in the Wokingham Handicap on the Saturday, was the other big winner of the week. Because of the switch to York the Wokingham had a much smaller field, 17 runners instead of 30, and Iffraaj stood out like an apple in a bowl of cherries. When the weights were published I had to move fast to secure double-figure prices, but Iffraaj was very popular and my bets weren’t fully accommodated. A week or two later I had to be brave and get stuck in again at 6-1. There was always the concern that I might get blown off course by a big draw bias, but I couldn’t afford to wait and watch the price contract day by day. The decision proved correct, as Iffraaj was such a heavily backed favourite that he started at the unthinkably short price for a Wokingham of 9-4. He sped home two lengths in front and my winnings came to £119,980.
The best of the other winners that week, both on Friday, were Munsef winning me £70,728.86 in the King George V Handicap and La Chunga £50,582.84 in the Albany Stakes. My overall profit on the week of £455,471.53 was a new record. Just as well, as a little more than a month later I suffered my worst losing week. I’ve already referred to the £40,000 loss on Quality Street, but having won more than a million pounds in the previous ten weeks I was in ‘thunderstorm’ mode, and my losses of £146,725.71 were a weekly record. Given the circumstances, it wasn’t an irretrievable situation. When a longer losing run hits it is hard to remain so relaxed, and it becomes impossible to avoid a certain amount of mental torment.
Back to Acomb. It is quite rare for me to follow up on a horse I have previously backed on a form basis, but in his case I felt that neither of his wins in York week had shown him to best advantage. At Epsom, just four days after Ayr, I felt he had an outstanding chance to win again and, to my amazement, the market seemed keen to oppose him. It’s great when that happens. We got most of our bet on at 4-1 and I upped my stake to £20,000, winning £82,290 as Acomb made all once again.
A month later, Roodeye was another to net me a big touch at an evening meeting at Doncaster. We had found one particular outlet willing to lay us massive bets, and for the short time it lasted we took full advantage. A large part of my £13,000 each-way was placed with a single account and offers of around 8-1 were seriously misguided. The profit came to £124,360.
Finally, back to where we came in – the Scoop6. After my triumph in 2000, there were two further big incidents. I’ve played the Scoop6 less than a dozen times since then, as I prefer to wait for large rollovers and a card I fancy before becoming involved. July 22, 2000 was one such occasion when a £1m rollover in the win fund was up for grabs. There was massive demand, and I needed a good result or two to knock out the other players. This came up in spades in the third race. I’d become steadily convinced that the quality of form in Germany was improving, so I’d included the 20-1 German-trained Abitara in my selections. Her victory dramatically reduced the number of surviving tickets and left me with serious prospects of scooping the lot.
But, just as I began to see a huge pot heading my way, it suddenly slipped from my grasp. I’m fairly sure that I had all but one of the remaining tickets on Blue Sugar, who surged clear a furlong out in the fifth leg. I also had all the runners covered in the last leg, so was incredibly well placed to scoop the million on my own. But disaster struck. Blue Sugar started to tire in the closing few yards and was collared on the line by Jathaabeh. It was a bitter blow.
In May 2004, I again came within a whisker of collecting half a million when chasing the Scoop6 bonus rollover. Once again, I had included my agents, but this time the winnings in the first week were more substantial. I’d had two winning tickets in the win fund, yielding a profit of £189,500, of which my share was £115,938.58.
There were four winning tickets chasing a bonus rollover of just over £1m the following week. The case for us all forming a syndicate was overwhelming, and news soon filtered through that another professional punter, Harry Findlay, had the other tickets. Harry, part-owner of star chaser Denman, is an enormous and successful player, although he tends to favour a riskier strategy with his capital than I do.
Come the following Saturday, Harry and I picked out four selections in the race at Newbury. I still can’t believe we didn’t collect. Not only did we choose Cold Turkey, who was beaten a short head by the Ed Dunlop-trained Swift Tango (I think I mentioned earlier that I wasn’t a big Dunlop fan, well, here’s one of the reasons), but we also selected Red Fort, who finished third, and Wunderwood, both of whom went on to win at Royal Ascot next time out. Half a million pounds went astray by a short head. Still, you don’t go into the gambling business without expecting a few minor disappointments…