Today’s racing at Royal Ascot saw one of the shortest priced favourites in the history of the Group One Royal Hunt Cup with Bankable lapping up the interest from punters and experts alike. Going off at just 13-8 it seemed that he only had to turn up to bag the coveted race and a jaunt around the winner’s enclosure. But horse racing, and especially Group One horses racing, has never been that predictable.
While the draw for Frankie Dettori, who was riding Bankable, was not the best he could have hoped for there were still high hopes that he would pull through. The race started to plan but slowly it became apparent that the draw was going to be a real drawback for the champion in waiting. In the end Bankable only finished 5th behind the 25-1 outsider Mr Aviator who came from nowhere to grab the crown!
Bookmakers across the UK breathed a sign of relief as many punters had earlier winner Duke of Marmalade and Bankable as part of doubles and trebles, leaving the bookies with a potential £40 million hit. While the bookmakers live to fight another day there were still a number of high priced winners for punters to savour as racing wound up for the day.
Today’s racing at Royal Ascot saw one of the shortest priced favourites in the history of the Group One Royal Hunt Cup with Bankable lapping up the interest from punters and experts alike. Going off at just 13-8 it seemed that he only had to turn up to bag the coveted race and a jaunt around the winner’s enclosure. But horse racing, and especially Group One horses racing, has never been that predictable.