17:32

Relief washed through the Ascot betting ring as Frankie Dettori and Turgenev were overhauled close home by the 28-1 shot Biometric. Among the most relieved was Robert Speechley, taking bets as Posh Bookmakers, who owns the S&D Bookmakers firm that has 10 shops around Peterborough.



“The liabilities in those shops [if Dettori had kept winning] was a quarter of a million pounds,” Speechley said. “It was massive, massive to get him beat. I can hardly get the words out. I thought he’d won a distance.”



But the ring was eerily quiet in the five minutes before the Britannia began, with no visible sign of panic, because the huge change since Dettori’s magnificent seven in 1996 is the advent of betting exchanges. The high street bookmaking firms sent boatloads of cash to the track in 1996 to shorten the odds of Dettori’s mounts but the belief now is that that action goes straight online. While the Italian’s fans were cleaning up, some of the bookies here were still turning a profit.



“Years ago, all the off-course bookmakers would be running for cover,” said Geoff Banks, standing in the middle of Ascot’s front line of bookies and speaking before Turgenev’s defeat. “But they don’t lay multiples any more. Otherwise, there’s no chance Stradivarius would have gone off at even money, it would have been 4-7 or something like that.



“These days, they’re not laying the multiples, they’re playing the exchanges, and everybody that’s here, they’re all casual investors.



“I don’t see the firms playing at all. Many years ago, my father [John Banks, also a bookmaker] said the biggest touch he ever had was not to be here on Frankie’s big day. He was in America and that must have saved him everything. He said he would have stood the last winner, Fujiyama Crest, for the maximum, it had no chance on form. The house, my schooling, everything would have gone.



“Today, there seems to be no alarm. It wont be dramatic here because on Ladies Day, the wagering is a lot smaller. The other days, we’re taking some proper bets, £40,000 to £1,000 each-way. We’ve had some £500s and £1,000s, so it’s been OK. But today, a lot smaller.



“Stradivarius came up a winner on my book, even though I was 6-5 at the off. All the casual customers here, good luck to them, but they want bigger odds. An even-money chance, what’s that to them? It’s not even odds they understand.”

