It is never easy to find winners at Cheltenham but for much of the day here on Friday it was more than most punters could do to find a horse to just make the frame. After a series of unlikely results, the first six races on the card produced a Tote Placepot dividend of £91,774.50 for a £1 stake, a record in the bet’s long history – and nearly half as much again as the previous record payout of £63,284.30 at Newmarket in October 2003.
Not a single favourite managed to reach the places in the half-dozen races on which the Placepot operates, and it was clear as early as the second race, in which the placed horses were 16-1, 25-1 and 9-1, that a large dividend was possible.
That was followed by a handicap hurdle in which the hot favourite A Hare Breath was unplaced behind runners at 8-1, 14-1 and 9-1, while the sixth race was won by So Fine, a 33-1 chance, followed home by outsiders at 66-1 and 16-1.
There was no individual winner of the dividend with a £1 line, and the pool of £157,148.16 was shared between a total of 1.25 winning tickets.
Winners included a betting shop punter in Cambridgeshire who received £9,174.45 for two 5p lines.
If Friday’s card proved difficult for punters, it was one to warm the heart of Nick Rust, the British Horseracing Authority’s chief executive, in his campaign for a fair share for racing from bookmakers’ offshore betting profits.
Several high-profile betting firms are threatening to withdraw from sponsorship following the BHA’s new initiative to introduce Authorised Betting Partner (ABP) status for bookies who guarantee racing a share of their offshore profits.
Bookmakers are significant sponsors, but this card included events sponsored by an estate agent, a mail firm and a high-street stationer, which helped to back up a claim by Tim Radford, whose company Timico will sponsor this season’s Cheltenham Gold Cup, that non-betting sponsors are “chomping at the bit” to get involved.
Timico, a communications and data business, stepped in to back the Gold Cup earlier this week when negotiations with BetFred, its previous sponsor, foundered on the insistence of Jockey Club Racecourses that all new betting industry sponsors should have ABP status.
A loss for Fred Done, BetFred’s co-owner, was swiftly transformed into Radford’s gain, and though Radford’s promising chaser Knock House could finish only fourth behind Aachen in the day’s most valuable race, the Ryman Stationery Handicap Chase, his delight at being the new Gold Cup sponsor was obvious.
“The Gold Cup is the best there is, the pinnacle event,” Radford said. “It’s a dream come true, I can’t believe we’ve done it. I think racecourses and the racing organisations should do more of it, non-betting sponsors were chomping at the bit to get involved.
“We’re going to be announcing in the spring a Timico Triple Crown, which I hope will cause a lot of excitement. I think there’s a lot more we can do to develop the sponsorship.”
Radford would not expand on the Triple Crown idea, though Jockey Club Racecourses launched a Chase Triple Crown of its own this year, culminating in the Gold Cup. He is confident, though, that other non-betting sponsors may fill some of the gaps if more bookmakers drop out of big-race sponsorships.
“Our business looks after multi-site venues and racecourses are no different to pubs or filling stations or builders’ merchants,” Radford said “It’s more aligned than people think. We want to lift our profile and grow our business and this opportunity is tailor-made for us.
“Racing needs to develop more people like us who have a natural affinity with the sport. Maybe we can see more non-bookmaking sponsors come in to take advantage of these opportunities. They tell me that Cheltenham week here [in March] is the second-quietest week of the year in the City after Christmas. A lot of our audience come here and we need to talk to them and connect with them.”
Radford’s runner Knock House was second-favourite for the handicap chase but could not summon a challenge to Aachen, who made all under a fine ride by Charlie Deutsch. Blaklion, meanwhile, joined an ever-expanding group of horses quoted at around 25-1 for the Cheltenham Festival’s RSA Chase with a decisive success in the opening novice event, with the only question mark over the form arising from the early mistake by Minella Rocco, the favourite, which effectively took him out of the race.
Blaklion was a faller three out in a similar contest at the previous meeting here when looking a very plausible winner, and while he was a little shaky over the opening fences, he was soon travelling and jumping well for Ryan Hatch and quickened away after the last to win by two-and-a-half lengths.
Blaklion is a 25-1 chance for the RSA Chase in a market headed by No More Heroes at 5-1, a point in front of the 2014 World Hurdle winner More Of That, who will make his second start over start over fences at Cheltenham on Saturday.
Josies Orders is the new 4-1 ante-post favourite (from 8-1) for the Festival’s cross country race after his second win over the circuit in less than a month, and the second too under a fine ride by Nina Carberry.
Josies Orders could be a force in these races for years to coe as he is just seven and trained by Enda Bolger, the undisputed master of the discipline.
“We have great neighbours,” Bolger said afterwards when asked for the secret of his success. “We go through all the farms and it’s not all about galloping. We take them to different places to try to keep them sweet.
“It’s down to the neighbours we have, the jockey and the owner [JP McManus]. They have to be settled, they have to be relaxed and they have to enjoy it, but having Nina on board is a massive plus.”
