Honours Even After Day One

Bookmakers were left breathing a sigh of relief after things turned around in the later races on day one of Royal Ascot.

The gritty victory of 11-4 favourite Henrythenavigator in the opening Coventry Stakes was greeted with groans from the layers but cheers from the punters.

And it was the same half an hour later when 3-1 favourite Miss Andretti raced away with the King´s Stand Stakes.

But the slightly surprising victories of Excellent Art in the St James´s Palace Stakes and Ramonti in the Queen Anne evened up the scores.

'By just after three o´clock we were ready to pack up and go home,' said Ladbrokes´ David Williams.

'The first two races were horrible. We had said long before that Miss Andretti was the worst ante-post liability in the book.

'Everything changed after the third race. Excellent Art was a burster and although the Frankie Dettori-ridden Ramonti himself wasn´t a good result, he knocked out a load of multiple bets.

'The next two races were fine, so thankfully it all turned around. It´s all square with everything to play for.'

William Hill representative Ben Clarke echoed: 'With the two well-backed favourites it looked like it was set to be a bad day.

'But after the rest of the races, it ended up being a fair day, although Ramonti was not a great result.'

Damian Walker of totesport was more positive.

'We had a very good day today as we were shortest in the morning about Henrythenavigator and Miss Andretti,' he said.

'Although they were popular with punters on the day, we did not take the worst of it.

'It´s not often Frankie Dettori winning a Group One is good result, but getting George Washington and Cesare beaten, as well as Dutch Art and Cockney Rebel earlier, made it a good day.'

Tote figures were down from £1,378,944 last year to £1,622,801, down 15 per cent, but Walker pointed out the crowd at the meeting was also much smaller.

(C) PA Sport