A competitive Saturday card across the country produced exactly what bookmakers love this time of year: deep fields, unpredictable results and plenty of punters trying to build their way into a collect through multis.
According to Anthony Jupp, it was a day that started shakily for the book but gradually turned into a solid result, despite a handful of nasty collect pays and one very sharp professional finding a 150-1 winner.
“It was a decent day of off-season racing,” Jupp said.
“Flemington was strong betting-wise, Scone had depth everywhere and Doomben was building nicely into the winter carnival, even though the wet track made things tricky.”
The day began quietly from a bookmaker perspective with very little action coming out of New Zealand racing, but one punter quickly put Ponybet under pressure through the opening races at Doomben and Flemington.
The customer started the day by anchoring both Autumn Charm and Express Payment to place in early multis before rolling into Midnight Dynamite in the opening race at Flemington.
That collect turned $171 into $2441 and immediately had Ponybet on the back foot.
The same punter then followed up by landing a place treble through the opening three races at Doomben with Express Payment, Kaluakoi and Estremo, turning $248 into $3000.
“After only a couple of races we were already down about seven grand,” Jupp said.
One of the pivotal moments early came in Race 3 at Doomben, where a tight photo finish fell the bookmaker’s way.
“Fabulantes was backed off the map so when he was outbobbed by Estremo the floor breathed a collective sigh of relief,” Jupp said.
“We only lost about $300 instead of closer to $5000 if the other horse wins. That felt like a genuine victory.”
The race everyone was talking about came later at Scone when Queen Regent stunned the market at odds of 150-1.
While it was technically a winning race for the bookmaker, Jupp revealed one sharp professional punter still managed to find the roughie.
“One of the top pros chimed in around 9am Melbourne time and somehow found the winner,” he said.
“For a horse starting 150-1, that was pretty impressive.”
Outside of a few isolated results, Ponybet gradually clawed back the early losses and built into a strong position through the middle part of the afternoon, largely thanks to Flemington.
“Flemington was exceptional for us. We only really lost the first race there (won by Autumn Charm) and the rest of the meeting was very solid.”
Morphettville also proved profitable, but Doomben produced another sting later in the day when Ponybet laid a significant wager on Cigar Flick in Race 6.
“We laid $1150 at $20 on Cigar Flick and sent out around $19,000 on the race,” Jupp said.
“That one hurt.”
Scone also produced another painful result when Miss Freelove won Race 6.
“One punter had $580 at $12 on the filly which contributed to a $5k loss on the race,” he said.
Belmont was one of the few meetings that failed to cooperate for the bookmaker.
“Belmont started poorly and finished poorly. Astro World in the last got us with a $1000 bet at $3.70 plus a few multis attached.”
Into the evening, the only notable blemish came at The Gardens where Ally’s Vogue proved costly in Race 8.
“We laid $1150 at $4.60 there,” Jupp said.
Fortunately for Ponybet, the AFL results helped balance the ledger.
“The footy was kind to us with both the Dees and Blues getting the job done,” Jupp said.
By the end of the night, Ponybet had recovered strongly from the shaky opening exchanges to finish with a pleasing overall result.
“It ended up being a solid day for turnover and a solid result for the joint.”
