After a monster three days at the ’Bool, Jupp said the weekend metro cards lacked firepower.
Tricky meetings at Caulfield and Gosford, an underwhelming edition of the Goodwood, and a Gold Coast meeting littered with horses seemingly using the day as a stepping stone to bigger targets. Turnover matched, with wagering interest down at Ponybet.
Still, ugly cards can often produce ugly results for bookmakers too. Things went pear-shaped early thanks to New Zealand.
“The day started exactly how it finished – soft turnover and us slightly behind after laying eventual winner Pacifico in the seventh at Rotorua,” he said.
“We laid a punter $1,000 at $7.50 and before you know it, you’re chasing your tail before Australia’s even started.”
That pain quickly crossed the Tasman.
Gosford’s opener proved another early sting, with I Am Dirty getting the money after Ponybet laid the horse to lose $1,500 at $2.80.
“It wasn’t catastrophic, but it’s one of those races where you just want to get off to a flyer and instead you’re immediately on the back foot.”
The heat kept rising at Caulfield when Nick Ryan’s Highvol gave bookmakers a whack in race three.
“We stood Highvol for $10,000 and got absolutely strip-outed,” Jupp said.
“It was that kind of day. Every time we looked like clawing a bit back, another one landed.”
That pattern continued throughout the afternoon.
Bazaball Rewarded was heavily supported in Caulfield race six, with Ponybet sending out more than $7,500 on the runner before Monopolistic added to the pain at Gosford.
“The punters definitely got a lead on us – you could feel the confidence building as the day went on.”
Then came the inevitable. Pride Of Jenni rolled to the front in the Hollindale Stakes and did exactly what Pride Of Jenni does when left alone.
“The only leader in the race was always going to take catching,” Jupp said.
“She got complete control and absolutely toyed with them.”
Punters piled into the mare throughout the day, with the biggest individual bet reported as $2,000 at $3.40.
Jupp said the bookmakers avoided a potentially bigger result in the Goodwood after receiving a steer from racing personality Moody.
“We got the tip from Moods from his podcast that he liked – and indeed backed(!) Desert Lightning so we didn’t chase the winner,” he said.
“But it didn’t help much because it was hard to lay much at all in the race so we still ended up losing on the Group 1 feature.”
The pressure continued in The Coast at Gosford, where Ponybet stood Athanatos to lose $11,000.
Fortunately for the bookies, the closing stages of the day finally provided some relief.
“The last few metro races finally went our way and Perth helped dig us out a bit,” Jupp said.
“But there’s always one out wide result that leaves a scar.”
That honour belonged to Royal Inference at Ararat.
“Royal Inference stung us late. We laid $1,400 at sevens on Peter Chow’s galloper who resuming, and that one hurt,” he said.
“Thankfully the rest of the country meetings more than covered it.”
With turnover easing into the night session and larger punters largely calling it quits early, the bookmakers limped to the line.
“The bigger punters went to bed early and the internationals were pretty quiet,” Jupp said.
“In the end we technically won on the day, but these are the Saturdays the industry hates now.”
“You survive, but by the time you pay all the fees, taxes and everything else, it doesn’t feel like much of a result.”
