Royal Ascot / Robin Keck / 21 June 2009 / Leave a comment Free £25 Bet

Robin Keck looks back at his highlights of Royal Ascot and his own betting fortunes.

The goose pimple raising moment of the yesterday was watching the old boy Caracciola giving weight and a beating to all in the Queen Alexandra Stakes. I'm not sure how many 12 year olds have won at Royal Ascot but we all thought the eight year old Yeats was defying nature on Thursday, so that provides some perspective. I was loyally cheering on his stable mate Tasheba as he is owned by my ex-bosses, bosses', bosses' boss (he was the CEO) but he didn't seem to quite have the class for this yet.

A look back on the week's P&L isn't as bad as I suspected. I was off to a poor start when Paco Boy stayed the mile (although I still think he doesn't get it on soft ground) and the week was significantly loss-making but I'm pleased I retained my discipline to fight another day and the ones I held back on did just as badly as the bets I placed. Not holding back after losses has been my Achilles heel for many years but I'm trying to leave the chasing to the horses nowadays.

Despite my own losing bet on Yeats, his victory was still the highlight of the week for me but I was in awe of Canford Cliffs whose performance broke all the rules of in-running punters by pulling hard but not tying up in the last furlong. Maybe I was born to be a bookmaker but I think he may turn to out to be a horse to lay in the future as his quirks may expose him at some stage. Yet another fascinating conundrum for another day.

I suspect I'm in a small minority but my heart leapt when I saw there was racing at Hexham and Hereford on Sunday. I'll have a shilling or two that Acambo follows up his recent Stratford win now that the David Pipe stable has hit form and I wouldn't put anyone off backing the trainer to land a big priced "across the card" treble. Good luck all.