Royal Ascot is done. Eleven bets over the five days, five won, and the book is four points better off. One of the eleven was at Ascot, Operasinger on the Friday at 4.84, and she lost. The other ten were somewhere else, and that's not a boycott. It's the same thing as Cheltenham, and I'll say it again because it's the hardest lesson in the whole book.
The best racing of the year has the best priced favourites of the year, and best priced means shortest. Every horse in every race has been studied to death. The money is the deepest it gets on the flat. A favourite at Royal Ascot is the favourite because it should be, and the price has the lot in it. There's nothing left for me.
So my bets that week went on at Ripon, at Catterick, at Worcester, at Limerick. Ordinary cards that the whole country had forgotten about because the telly was showing top hats. Those are exactly the markets where a fancied horse can be the wrong price, because fewer people are looking. Five of the ten won, including a 3.55 shot at Catterick on the Tuesday and a 4.03 shot at Limerick on the Saturday, and the one bet I allowed myself at the royal meeting was the one that lost. Make of that what you like. I know what I make of it. They were on the members' card each morning while the telly showed top hats.
What I did do at Ascot was watch, which is the thing I'd tell anyone who loves racing and also wants to make money from it. The two things aren't the same, and the week you most want to have a bet is often the week you least should. I had a fiver on a horse in the Gold Cup for the fun of it, and it's not in the book. The book is for bets. The fiver was for the afternoon.
The summer's going to be a lot of this. Big meetings I watch, small meetings I bet at, and a book that goes up a point here and down one there until the jumps come back and the prices get interesting again. If that sounds dull, it is. It's also why the book is still in front after six months, and most of the people who had a lot on at Ascot aren't.
Lee
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More from the notebook: Eleven bets in Festival week · Royal Ascot 2026, the week I watched again