Racing
Captain leads Syndicate to £1,578 win in Royal Ascot Place 6
One of our newer Captains, TheHorseMaster, demonstrated exemplary leadership on Thursday by netting their 24 Syndicate contributors an impressive £1,578.71 at Royal Ascot.
Having made two selections in each of the opening four races of the day, it soon became apparent that they had chosen extremely well. Swerving the favourite, Sunday Sovereign, in the first, the Captain added A’ali and Mount 
Fuji to their ticket and the former justified the faith shown by winning, though Mount Fuji was unplaced.
Matters improved further in the next race when Sangarius and Fox Chairman finished first and second in impressive fashion, giving the Syndicate a pair of places.
The feat was repeated in the Ribblesdale Stakes when Frankie Dettori rode Star Catcher to victory ahead of Ryan Moore who was on Fleeting, giving the group a second consecutive one-two finish.
Next came the featured race of the day, the Gold Cup, where Stradivarius was the well-fancied and much-discussed favourite. He was included on the ticket in addition to Dee Ex Bee, the marginal second favourite at 7/2.
Stradivarius travelled handily throughout, always hugging the inside rail and never dropping lower than fourth, whilst Dee Ex Bee led the chasing pack for most of the race. With three furlongs remaining Frankie Dettori made his move but Stradivarius was trapped in the middle of five horses. With nowhere to go as though he may not find a way through but, with a furlong remaining, a gap suddenly opened up and he didn’t hesitate to show advantage. Showing his class, he accelerated through to nick the victory from Dee Ex Bee who hung on for second.
Sensationally, TheHorseMaster had claimed hat-trick of first and second places, putting the ticket in an extremely strong position after four legs. Am £800+ Cash Out offer arrived, presenting a 
dilemma. On one hand, they had the chance to quadruple the initial £192 investment ahead of a tough final two legs featuring large, open fields. On the other hand, with three and four selections taken in those legs, the Captain had plenty of chances to progress further.
Eventually they compromised by Cashing Out half of the ticket for £410, ensuring that the worst case scenario was that the Syndicate would double their money, whilst retaining a chance of landing even more winnings.
The fifth race was the 28-runner Britannia Stakes, a fiendishly tricky contest to predict. The Captain had selected Hero Hero, Aweedram and Finoah. However, when Aweedram was declared a non-runner he was automatically replaced on the ticket by the favourite, Turgenev.
Hero Hero and Finoah finished well short of the places, ending up tenth and 12th respectively, but fortunately the subbed-in favourite, Turgenev, ran extremely well. After leading for much of the race, he ultimately finishing 
second to ensure the Syndicate scraped through to the final leg.
The King George V Stakes also looked a tough one to call but, with four horses in the bank and the same amount of places on offer, TheHorseMaster must have been confident of getting at least one of them home.
Three of the selections though, Fox Premier, Sir Ron Priestley and Questionaire, proved to be hopeless, finishing ninth or lower. However, the fourth pick, Constantinople, saved the day by finishing second. The ticket had won!
In addition to the £410 Cash Out, the Syndicate landed another £1,168, bringing their total payout to £1,578, an 8.2x increase on their initial stake. Well done to all involved!
