How
not to bet at Chester
Chester races 6 May 2015
I’d never been to Chester races and had heard mixed
reports of the experience. Living near a direct train line (80 minutes) this
was easily remedied and I’m surprised that I’d not been before given the number
of bets I’ve had on the racing here over the years.
The first day of the May festival was my chosen
date. I could have gone any of the three days but I achieved a reduced price
deal on a ticket for the Wednesday. There are numerous price options but the
“best” of these - where one does not have to wear a jacket, collar and tie and
can choose to wear jeans is Tattersalls. The Chester races
website was offering a two-for-one deal in this enclosure for bookings made by
the end March. What I soon realised was that the half-price deal also worked for
a single ticket purchase. So my ticket cost £17.50 (rather than the face value
of £35). On top of this was a booking fee of £2.50. The cost for posting out a
ticket was an exploitative £5.00 so I went for the (free) collection option.
You will all know that the track is the oldest in
Britain and is adjacent to the city walls. It’s about a 20-minute walk from the
station, straight through the town. I stopped for some liquid refreshment along
the way at the Cellar - despite its name a street level bar. It does have a
basement bar however which stages live music at the weekends. It’s been CAMRA’s
(local) pub of the year for the last couple of years. Interesting bar snacks: for
example scotch eggs made with black pudding and/or traditional pork pies both
served with pickles and relish. These were just £3 each.
I collected my entrance ticket without a hitch and
made my way into Tattersalls. The weather was grim – occasionally both wet and
windy. The first thing I noticed was that there was nowhere to sit and the
viewing was rubbish. Basically all you can see of the track is the home straight, under three furlongs of the one mile circuit. For the rest of
the race you have to follow it on the big screens. It was no better next door
in the County Stand where you could pay extra to sit down in your suit and see
no more than the Tattersalls’ punters.
Earlier in the day I’d had a multiple bet on six of
the seven races focusing on low-drawn runners. Everyone knows the effect of the
draw here – not surprising given the contours of the track. Unfortunately low-drawn
horses are often over bet as a result. The day started well with my two choices
in the first finishing 1-2 (with 11/4 taken about the 2/1 winner) and the AOB
banker obliging in the next @ 2/1 (returned 6/4). The latter – Diamondsandrubies
- scooted in by six lengths and is third favourite for the Oaks as I write.
Ryan
Moore walking to the weigh-in after success on AOB’s Diamondsandrubies
Things started to go pear-shaped with the feature
race the Chester Cup over two-and-a-quarter miles. Here I was on the horses
drawn two and three – yes, there is a historical draw advantage over this long
distance too. My selections ran well finishing a creditable fourth and fifth in
the 17-runner field.
Tattersalls provides you with access to the centre
of the course including the paddock. You access this via an underground tunnel.
In this tunnel you will encounter two young girls dressed like cinema
usherettes selling drugs: cigarettes and cigars.
There is something more unpleasant all over the
track though. Everywhere you look you will see kiosks offering the rip-off ChesterBET.
Although I knew about this because it’s been in place since it replaced the
tote in 2012, it was only when I saw the public queuing up to be stitched up it
really hit home what a dreadful operation this is. Punters tend to think it’s
the track’s own tote system. Well it’s not. It’s a fixed odds system (fixed
being an appropriate description) that pays out at “RP” (racecourse price). The
RP win dividend is calculated as SP LESS 10%. So taking the Chester Cup winner
as a simple example:
Trip
To Paris returns:
W 10/1 SP return for £1 stake = £11.00
RP (ChesterBET) = 10.00: return for £1 = £10.00
Tote win dividend (not available on track) = £11.40.
Of course there will be odd occasions when the RP
beats the tote dividend (small fields usually) but by definition it will NEVER
beat the SP.
Who knows how the straight forecast is calculated
but this too will always be less than the SP version as it is SP related. For
the feature race the dividends were: Exacta (tote) £45.30; SP £45.80;
ChesterBET £41.40. As you can see the latter is roughly 90% of the SP dividend.
I believe there are two main reasons why the
ChesterBET operation is totally unacceptable and should be avoided by punters at
all costs:
- One of the
purposes of an on-course tote operation is to provide meaningful
competition to the on-course bookmakers. Clearly there is no fair competition
with ChesterBET because it will always
pay dividends that are less than the bookmakers’ SP.
- Although most ChesterBET field books are likely to indicate a profit which ever horse
wins, it surely can’t be right that a racecourse would prefer the victory of
one horse over another because of the projected betting profits.
If you are visiting Chester races my advice is to
stay away from ChesterBET. Either bet with the bookmakers on-course or preferably
have your bets beforehand. Any bookmaker offering BOG on the internet (best
odds guaranteed – either the price you’ve taken or SP whichever is biggest) will
ALWAYS provide you with better returns than ChesterBET.
Punters
being taken to the cleaners with ChesterBET
Back to the racing. The fourth race was the one I was
really looking forward to over the frantic five furlongs. I’d played Come On Dave at 11/2 in the morning and
was encouraged by the support into 4/1 joint-favourite at the track. However he
went off like a scalded cat and was about six lengths clear two furlongs out.
As I was counting my winnings he faded quickly and couldn't even finish in the
frame. No interest in the next where the 1/6 chance was beaten and in the sixth
my 9/4 about the 5/4 favourite Normal Equilibrium proved to be a very good
value loser. I decided to call it a day after this and walked back in the
direction of the station. I stopped at the Old Harkers Arms an attractive pub
converted from a former Victorian canal side warehouse. This was a very
pleasant establishment. No background music (at least while I was there) was a
bonus. I had a delicious pint of Lemon Dream from the Salopian Brewery (which is located
just outside Shrewsbury).
I can’t see myself going racing here again. It’s
generally poor value for money and has severely restricted viewing. Plus the
horrible ChesterBET does not encourage me to support an organisation that rips off
its customers.
Mike Q
May 2015
