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Bow Echo unable to turn tide in favour of the backers on day one at Ascot
By Racing TV
Last Updated: Tue 16 Jun 2026
Star miler Bow Echo landed a rare blow for punters with some huge bets brought home by George Boughey’s colt in the St James’s Palace Stakes. But at the end of the round one at Royal Ascot there were more backers than layers sitting dazed on their stool.
The combination of big names associated with several winners saw Ladbrokes reporting a “tough opening day for the bookies”.
Star Sports were another who let it be known they had been stung with a monster £110,000 wager on the still unbeaten Bow Echo at odds of 10-11 to add to a £53,000 bet before racing.
“It’s a painful result for us as we’ve been stung to the tune of well over £180,000 when taking into account all of the business, meaning we were on the wrong end of a £400,000 swing,” said Flynn Goward, the firm’s managing director.
Yet there was a noticeable absence of begging bowls in the ring by the end of a day that featured 14-1, 25-1 and 50-1 winners for all that punters fought back with fairly well-supported 13-2 and 6-1 shots in the last two races.
What was not in dispute was that a haymaker was landed squarely on the noses of punters in the first race when 50-1 outsider of nine Ten Bob Tony silenced the grandstands in the Queen Anne Stakes.
Ed Walker’s five-year-old – who hit a high of 170 in-running on Betfair – floored all three of the best-backed horses in that shape of favourite Notable Speech, More Thunder and Opera Ballo.
For all that Scottish layer John Hamilton stood the winner to a cash bet of £50 each-way at 80-1 for a £4,000 plus loss, sympathy was in short supply.
Great Barrier Reef restored some momentum for punters in landing the Coventry Stakes at 6-1 but layers’ losses were limited by the fact he was the ‘wrong’ one of two from Ballydoyle with Ryan Moore on well-backed but unplaced 2-1 favourite Confucius.
Mission Central at 14-1 provided little respite for punters in the King Charles III Stakes despite getting home for the usually hot-shot partnership of Moore and Aidan O’Brien, with favourite Overpass third and well-backed Night Raider only 10th.
After Bow Echo tilted things back landing odds of 5-6 for favourite-backers, there was another cracking result for the layers in the Ascot Stakes when the biggest gamble of the day went astray.
Reaching High endured a horror passage under Ryan Moore in the colours of the King and Queen 12 months ago only to finish full of running on the heels of the leaders in ninth.
But after being backed down to 13-8 favourite in this 20-runner field he threw in a desperate effort, fading in the straight to finish just under 60 lengths last behind 25-1 shot Kizlyar.
Map Of Stars was a well-backed 13-2 shot in the Listed Wolferton Stakes in the Wathnan silks for all that James Doyle was, like Moore earlier, on the ‘wrong’ one – a fact which swayed a market that made his ride Haatem the 5-1 joint-favourite.
In the last Daiquiri Bay certainly carried support from the ring in getting home in the Copper Horse Handicap for Rossa Ryan and Alan King at 6-1 – a winner for a King, but not the one most of the punters had wanted.
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