Final day goes to punters in battle with bookmakers

PA Sport Reporters
June 19, 2021 6:15 pm

Honours ‘around level’ for the week.

Punters claimed victory on the fifth and final day of Royal Ascot.

The Queen was on track for the first time this week to watch her runners and she had a couple of near-misses with Reach For The Moon and King’s Lynn both placed.

Reach For The Moon was beaten in the Chesham by the heavily-backed Point Lonsdale (10-11 favourite), while King’s Lynn was third to Rohaan (8-1) in the Wokingham.

Dream Of Dreams made it third time lucky as 3-1 favourite in the Diamond Jubilee, Creative Force beat fellow 5-1 joint-favourite in the Jersey Stakes and super filly Wonderful Tonight (5-1) had plenty of supporters in the Hardwicke.

The closing victory of Stratum (4-1) for Ryan Moore and Willie Mullins was also a hit for the books.

Nicola McGeady of Ladbrokes said: “It’s a day we would rather forget, with punters well and truly getting revenge this afternoon.

“The worst result of the day was Dream Of Dreams, while Creative Force and Point Lonsdale were also big losers. I suppose we should just be grateful that King’s Lynn did us a favour, as that would have been a nightmare.”

The defeat of Frankie Dettori’s mount Falcon Eight in the finale saved Paddy Power from an even bigger hit.

Spokesman Paul Binfield said: “Punters rounded off the week with another fine day, but as on Friday it could have been so much worse and the bookies were bailed out with good results in the last two races, especially getting the furiously-backed Falcon Eight beaten in the ‘lucky’ last which was a particularly big outcome for us.

“Overall it’s probably a case of around level between backers and layers over the whole extravaganza with the former fighting back marvellously over the last couple of days.”