Frankie rides into the record books

Ascot belonged to the jockey Frankie Dettori yesterday as he re- wrote racing's record books to become the first jockey to ride all seven winners at a meeting in Britain. While punters at the racecourse celebrated the Italian's magnificent seven, bookmakers were left reeling on what one described as "the worst day in history".

The accumulative odds of Dettori's winners - Wall Street, Diffident, Mark Of Esteem, Decorated Hero, Fatefully, Lochangel and Fujiyama Crest- were 25,095.3-1. The pay-out is expected to be at least pounds 18m.

Warwick Bartlett, a leading bookmakers' representative, said: "This has been a very bad day for the industry and for some it will be the final straw. There have been one or two bad weekends and this is likely to result in the closure of 30 or 40 shops."

One punter from Morecambe became a half-millionaire after he combined all seven horses in a 50p super Heinz bet and had a pounds 1 each way accumulator to land a betting shop record of pounds 500,000.

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