sport news Ben Keith is the bookie who lost £2m at Cheltenham last year... but didn't ... trends now
It sounds remarkable, but the bookmaker who will lay the biggest bets at next week’s Cheltenham Festival has not watched a race all season.
Ben Keith, owner of Star Sports, says that when he stands on his pitch in the frenetic festival betting ring on Tuesday, he will need his clerk to point out which horse is which as they charge into the home turn.
He believes he has no need to know how far 4-11 Champion Hurdle favourite Constitution Hill won his last race by, nor what sort of form trainer Nicky Henderson is in. It is not the way the man who says ‘my favourite fish are careless billionaires’ operates.
‘I bet to figures and faces, I don’t bet to races,’ says 43-year-old Keith. ‘Five minutes before the off at Cheltenham, if you want to try to prove to me that you know better than the market, I am willing to let anyone in the world try to find that out. I am playing the man.
‘I will lay what you want to bet. It is not my job to have opinions. I run my race. Three minutes before the off, if you want to back the favourite or second favourite, rock on baby.’
Ben Keith employs 300 people and is about to open his 24th betting shop in Mayfair
When Willie Mullins-trained Energumene won last season’s Queen Mother Champion Chase, Keith had taken a £150,000 bet at 100-30 which cost his firm £500,000. But Keith is not interested in individual results.
In the build-up Energumene, who is owned by Tony Bloom, the acclaimed gambler who owns Brighton & Hove Albion football club, had been beaten at Ascot when Keith laid another bet to an unnamed client of £360,000.
And a big-staking punter placed £725,000 on the gelding when it could only finish third on Cheltenham Trials day this January. Keith did not watch the race, but was texted the result.
The next chapter of this intriguing sideshow to Energumene’s bid to retain his title will be played out on Wednesday.
Keith is unfazed. He says his edge comes from studying his human adversaries, learning their habits, strength and weaknesses. He draws a parallel with how the late Shane Warne, his sporting hero, watched Ashes rivals to elevate his game.
Keith, who employs 300 people and is about to open his 24th betting shop in Mayfair, says: ‘Shane worked out how he would bowl at batsmen, how he would set them up to get them out as well as how he could best make them
