LAYFAYETTE has proved a tremendous servant to owner Patricia Hunt and the Noel Meade-trained gelding brought his career tally to 11 wins when landing the featured Irish Stallion Farms EBF Martin Molony Stakes for a second time.

The nine-year-old, who also won this mile and a half listed race back in 2023, travelled sweetly to lead inside the final quarter mile but needed to be driven right out by Adam Caffrey in the closing stages as Chally Chute finished strongly to get within half a length with Uxmal a further three and a half lengths away in third.

“He has been at the game longer than myself! This is the biggest win of my career and I’m very grateful to the owners and to Noel,” said Caffrey (22) of the 9/1 winner.

“This ground (soft, soft to heavy in places) is ideal for him and the race went quite smooth. He took me everywhere and I probably got there a little soon, but I didn’t want to break his momentum.

“I’m in Noel’s every Tuesday and he has been great to me and has given me plenty of opportunities. I fell in for the ride today with Colin Keane being in Ascot and it worked out great.”

Heffernan suspended/Martin fined

Seamie Heffernan picked up a 14-day suspension following a running and riding enquiry into the Tony Martin-trained Eben Zaabel who caught the eye when finishing strongly into third behind Satono Chevalier in the mile and a half handicap. The Sea The Stars gelding was banned for 60 days with Martin fined €3,000.

Satono Chevalier (9/1) was recording a third win this season with Paddy Harnett’s mount holding off the renewed effort of Chemdawg by half a length with Eben Zaabel just three-quarters of a length further back.

“I thought he was a bit flat during the week so I wasn’t going to run him, but the ground was in his favour and everything else was good,” said locally based owner/trainer Michael Flannery who mentioned the Listowel Festival as a possible target.

Off the mark

Motta Alta showed the benefit of her debut at Naas last month when getting off the mark in division one of the Twilight Racing Summer Series Maiden. The 11/1 chance narrowly headed Elusive Path over a furlong out and kept on well to beat that determined rival by half a length. “Nathan (Crosse) said she was keen again today and that it took him a while to get cover. It was softer than ideal, but she handled it well and saw out the distance. She is a typical Ghaiyyath who knows how to gallop and run,” said trainer Jarlath Fahey who later completed an across the card double with The Right One at Down Royal.

“We’ll see what the handicapper gives her and I have her leased from her breeders Deer Forest Stud, so we’ll see if the owners want to sell her.”

THE father and son team of Andy Slattery senior and junior teamed up to take division two with Expert Dancer (85/40), who had to wait before gaining an opening on the inner and then held the strong finishing Rebel Wave by a head.

Killenaule-based trainer Slattery said: “She is her own worst enemy as she misses the break and missed it again today. The ground was too quick for her the last day, so we were happy to see the rain.

“She is a good filly who could get blacktype on soft ground. Maurice (Ahern) is a retired sheriff from Nenagh and owns her in partnership with a Tipperary syndicate.”

The 0-60 mile handicap provided another family success as Carvalhal (5/1-7/2), trained by Robbie Burns and ridden by his daughter Nicola, was produced with a powerful run on the outer in the straight and asserted in the final 100 yards to beat Starting Monday by two lengths.

“I’d like to thank Henry and Dymphna Holdcroft and Tony McLoughlin, who are the owners and are great supporters.

“We bought this horse for 4,000gns and we got a few issues sorted last year. He seems more comfortable and relaxed going racing now,” said Robbie Burns before adding: “Nicola is learning a lot in Ger Lyons’. She is in there every morning and loves it down there.”

ZENFORD added to two winners at Down Royal for a Johnny Murtagh across-the-card treble when justifying odds of 10/11 in the seven-furlong maiden.

The Newtown Anner Stud homebred son of Beckford needed a strong drive by Ben Coen to peg back the pacesetting Venetian Star close home and score by half a length.

Murtagh’s assistant Denis Lenihan said: “He is a nice horse and is by what I think will be a good stallion. He seems ground-versatile and had a good run on good ground at the Curragh the last day. I think he will be a progressive horse and hopefully can end up winning some good handicaps.”

Busy O’Brien

Joseph O’Brien, busy saddling five winners at Royal Ascot, kept the ball rolling on the domestic front as Themis, sporting the colours of the trainer’s mother Annemarie, landed the mile and a half McMahons Builders Providers Maiden.

The 17/2 shot led over a furlong out and was just pushed out by Joey Sheridan to beat Blissful Bonita by four and a quarter lengths. “It took time to get there but she relished the test over that trip and on that ground,” said Sheridan.

Spanish Temptress, trained by Richard O’Brien for the Phoenix Rising Syndicate, again showed her liking for soft ground with a fourth career win in the Ballyduane Stud Fillies Handicap. The well-backed 13/8 favourite made all and Keithen Kennedy didn’t need to get serious inside the final furlong as she kept on well to beat Tofino by two lengths.

“Richard and Billy (Lee, regular jockey) told me ‘whatever you do, don’t make the running’ but when I got down to the start, nobody wanted to make it and she pinged the gates,” said Kennedy. “I got it very easy out in front; I walked around and I’d say she’d have a harder piece of work.”

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There’s a familiar scene at every Irish race meeting. Ten minutes before the off, the queues at the betting ring swell with racegoers clutching a tenner and a hunch: a name they liked, a jockey they recognised, a tip overheard in the bar. It’s all part of the fun, and nobody should pretend otherwise. But there’s usually someone else in that queue you wouldn’t pick out, the professional, and for them the race isn’t an occasion. It’s a job.

The gulf between the two isn’t really about knowledge of form, though that helps. It’s about process. Professionals approach betting the way a good farmer approaches breeding stock, with patience, records, and a cold eye for value. A casual racegoer can never put in the hours a professional does, and wouldn’t want to. But there are habits worth borrowing, and most of them cost nothing.

How do professional punters actually make money?

The short answer is they don’t try to pick winners. They try to pick prices. A professional is perfectly happy to back a horse they reckon has a 25% chance of winning, as long as the market is offering odds that imply 20%. Over hundreds of bets, that gap is where the profit lives. Any single race can go either way, so the discipline is in trusting the process across a season rather than chasing the result of one contest.

This is why professionals keep such careful records. Every bet, every price taken, every outcome gets logged and reviewed. Most casual punters couldn’t tell you within a hundred euro whether they finished last year up or down. The professionals know to the cent. Even a simple notebook habit, stake and price and result, changes how you bet, because it makes wishful thinking harder to keep up.

What does ‘value’ mean in betting?

Value is the most misunderstood word on a racecourse. It doesn’t mean a big price, and it doesn’t mean a likely winner. It means a price that’s bigger than the true chance justifies. A 6/4 favourite can be tremendous value; a 33/1 outsider can be desperately poor value. The skill, and it really is a skill, picked up over years of watching races and studying form, is working out a horse’s chance for yourself before you ever glance at the market.

As this paper has noted before, Ireland’s love of sports betting runs deep, and anyone who follows the markets closely will know how often the bookmakers get it broadly right, and how often they leave a small gap. Professionals hunt those gaps. The casual racegoer can start smaller: before you look at the prices, jot down what you think the first four in the betting should be. If your figure and the bookmaker’s differ by a lot, you’ve either found value or found a hole in your own thinking. Either way you’ve learned something.

How much should you stake on a race?

Ask a professional for their most important rule and few will mention horses at all. They’ll talk about staking. The cardinal sin is betting more after a loss to ‘get it back’, which is about the surest road to ruin ever paved. They stake to a plan, usually risking only a small, fixed slice of their betting bank on any one wager, no matter how good the thing looks. Confidence, they’ll tell you, is the most expensive feeling in the game.

The same discipline applies wherever you bet, on course, online, or across the growing range of digital platforms Irish punters now use. One habit professionals have brought into the online era is using payment methods that leave a clean, visible record of what goes in and what comes out. It’s one reason e-wallet options like those compared on Irish PayPal Casinos have caught on with players who want their leisure spending kept well clear of the household accounts. The principle is older than the internet: decide what the bank is, keep it separate, and never top it up on impulse.

Can you really beat the bookmaker?

Honestly? Very few people do, and the ones who manage it graft at it the way a farmer grafts at harvest. For everyone else, the realistic goal isn’t profit. It’s informed enjoyment, losing a bit less and understanding a bit more, and getting better value out of what you were going to spend anyway.

It’s also worth knowing the rules are changing. The Gambling Regulation Authority of Ireland is standing up a new licensing regime that will reshape how operators deal with Irish customers, with consumer protection as the point of it. Horse Racing Ireland, for its part, keeps publishing attendance and betting figures that show how central the punt still is to a day at the races.

The real takeaway from the professionals isn’t a system or a secret. It’s an attitude. Bet with your head, write down what you do, keep the stakes small and steady, and treat the day’s racing as the entertainment it is. The professional grinds out an edge over thousands of bets; the rest of us are buying an interest in the 3.30 at Ballybrit. No shame in that, as long as the stake is one you can cheerfully wave goodbye to.

And if the fun ever stops feeling like fun, free and confidential support is available through GamblingCare.ie.