Weekend Review: Bookies rattled by Goodwood and Galway “shocker”
William Hill laments “bad run on the horses” as Manchester City demonstrate outright credentials in Community Shield
Bookmakers experienced a nightmare week in horseracing as they struggled to recover from a first-day pasting at Goodwood where five favourites triumphed.
The bookies feared the worst when the five market leaders ran out winners on Tuesday, including Stradivarius in the Goodwood Cup and Dark Vision and Sir Dancealot elsewhere.
How did Dark Vision win the Vintage Stakes from there? ??#GloriousGoodwood #QGF pic.twitter.com/Ri8IWO4xdN
— Goodwood Racecourse (@Goodwood_Races) August 5, 2018
William Hill’s Rupert Adams said: “Goodwood was shocking. We’ve had a bad run on the horses for a few months and Goodwood was the same. The going is making results more predictable.”
BetVictor was more upbeat after enjoying a good Saturday which soaked up most of the losses, according to the firm’s Charlie McCann. He said: “A good Saturday meant we got our noses in front at Glorious Goodwood which is a rarity at that particular summer festival.
“It was a similar story over the week that is Galway,” he added.
Betdaq customers matched £27.6m on the races at Galway and £23.5m on Goodwood.
The exchange operator’s Eamon Moran said: “Racing punters were busy on both sides of the Irish sea last week with more than £51m matched on the Betdaq exchange.
“The most popular race saw £1.6m traded on Saturday’s Stewards’ Cup and it was a wild Wednesday for traders with SP-busting exchange prices at Galway of 86.7 for Clarcam and 83.6 Rovetta (both 33/1), while at Goodwood, Feel Glorious (125/1) returned a massive 412.”
Elsewhere, Manchester City beat Chelsea 2-0 in the Community Shield final at Wembley to whet the appetite of football punters ahead of the big Premier League kick-off next weekend.
The Community Shield is ours! #mancitypic.twitter.com/4FHjB6Dsg3
— Manchester City (@ManCity) August 5, 2018
The Football League season began on Friday however, and the bookies were relieved to see Steven Gerrard’s Rangers draw with Aberdeen and Championship favourites Stoke City lose to Leeds United.
BetVictor’s McCann said: “We broke level on the opening Saturday of the football season but won yesterday with Stoke popular and Aberdeen’s late equaliser a bonus against Rangers.
“The fact that Chelsea didn’t score in the Shield was a plus, although there were few nerves on that “score” with City looking in a different league to last season’s FA Cup winners.”
Hills’ Adams added: “It was a funny weekend and Saturday was a small loser on the footie but Sunday was excellent what with Chelsea failing to score, Rangers drawing and Stoke getting beaten.
“If you combine the two then it was an ok weekend.”