Bookies braced for Cheltenham

12:59pm Friday 14th March 2008

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A local bookmaker is all ready for the exciting and eagerly awaited head to head - Kauto Star against Denman - in this year's Cheltenham Gold Cup which is now just over two hours away.

Taylormade Betting has already described the festival as "manic" as a result of the cancelled card on Wednesday due to the high winds.

And the firm got stung a little on Thursday when Chorley's multi millionaire tycoon Trevor Hemmings had two of his horses romp in - Old Benny in the 12.30 at 9/1 and Alberta's Run at 4/1 in the 1.05.

A victory for either of the big two at the head of the betting will make the firm's satchels somewhat lighter, too.

The bookie, which has shops in Euxton, Lytham, Bolton and Manchester, opened shops in Wigan and Preston this week.

Part of their pledge to customers is that they guarantee to beat or match the early prices of all major high street bookmakers, so a customer can get a mix of all the other bookie's prices and take them all with Taylormade Betting.

Paul Gambrill, the firm's marketing chief, said: "we have been absolutely manic due to it being called off on Wednesday.

"I don't think it is necessarily going to impact on business in terms of turnover. In terms of staff I think they are getting close to suffering from exhaustion."

He said both the new opening had been really popular. "It's been a hard slog getting the shops open in three weeks."

As regards Mr Hemmings' wins yesterday, Paul added: "They have both been very bad results for us because a lot of people go in our Euxton shop and were on Trevor's horses.

"Master Minded was backed quite heavily. At 3-1 people thought it is not a bad price."

If either Kauto Star or Denman go in today - as is very likely - then lots of accumulator punters will be celebrating.

"A lot of these will be rolling onto Kauto Star. If they come in we will probably get hit quite heavily. It will be a fantastic result for us if either of them don't win."

Paul said he believed the each way value bet was Exotic Dancer with Tony McCoy at 16-1.

But whatever the result, the firm has seen 600-700 slip increases compared to a normal day's business - and when the festival ends tomorrow it will be planning for Aintree and the Grand National with another host of special offers.