'Friday was a bloodbath - I've never seen us lose £450,000 on a day before'

On-course bookies at Royal Ascot on Saturday morning were licking their wounds after a nightmare fourth day at the royal meeting – one made even more painful by a number of agonisingly tight finishes.

Meditate, Aidan O'Brien's 5-2 winner of the Albany, would not have gone unbacked, while Perfect Power, impressive in the Commonwealth Cup, was the 7-2 joint-favourite and Candleford a well-found 11-2 shot in the Duke of Edinburgh.

Inspiral (Coronation Stakes), Heredia (Sandringham) and Changingoftheguard (King Edward VII) were successful favourites and there was little respite in the last, won by Latin Lover, whose Palace of Holyroodhouse success was a first at the meeting for trainer Harry Eustace.

"Yesterday was a bloodbath," said Flynn Goward of Star Sports. "I've never seen us lose £450,000 on a day before and I've been doing the on-course job for about three years.

"We lay large bets, but I've never seen consecutive hits like yesterday. We had the first where we lost £40,000 on Meditate. We then laid £8,000 on Perfect Power at 4-1. We laid £90,000 on Inspiral at 9-4 and she won. Then we thought we had a chance of getting out despite being a couple of hundred grand down at that point.

"We laid £100,000 at 6-4 on Changingoftheguard and £100,00 at 13-8 on him and I don't really want to talk about Changingoftheguard to be honest!"

That horse won by a short head from the errant Grand Alliance and Goward went on: "I'm not a jockey and I'm not a jockey basher, but I feel if Danny Tudhope had managed to keep Grand Alliance straight he probably would have won a length. That one was excruciating because if Changingoftheguard had got beat we would have won on the day, whereas we ended up doing £454,000.

Changingoftheguard: a poor result for bookmakersCredit: Edward Whitaker

Colin Stokes, whose sons Joseph and James run Kalooki Racing, was feeling the effects too.

"It was brutal yesterday and I'd say that to my wife maybe three times a year," he said. "It was quite bad, but I can't complain as we had three good days, which put us up rolling on today.

"Everything we won on the first three days we basically gave back yesterday. Some you win, some you lose, but it evens itself out."

Stokes was also pleased to report that cash still seemed to be king.

"People love betting with cash – absolutely love it," he added. "How soulless would this ring be without the bookies? This is the whole focus and people love being paid in cash. Where's the fun in betting on card and getting the money back on your card? There are lots of cash machines around the place and we can take six or seven cash bets in the time we take one on card, and when they're ten deep here betting you lose out taking it on card."

Ben Moore, representing Brown's Bookmakers, was singing from the same punting ledger.

"Disastrous – that's the way to describe yesterday," he said. "When the favourites win, the bookies don't seem to do any good and it was a day for the punters.

"I'm from York and yesterday compared to a bad Ebor day. Turnover was good, but the results were against us.

"I think we're looking at £6,000 in expenses for the week, so you're looking for one good day to cover that and turnover yesterday would have made that, but five times we've been done in photo-finishes at £800 swings. It doesn't take a genius to work out five times eight is £4,000 and that was on the line. That Grand Alliance was a winner until it swerved, but that's the sport it's a brave man's game."

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