From 100-1 into single figures: punters pray and bookies quiver over the mother and father of all Royal Ascot gambles

Fifteen years have flown by since the biggest one of the lot. The day Paddy Power's pants were pulled down and left around their ankles for an embarrassing one minute and 12 seconds as Johnny Murtagh weaved his way through the Wokingham field as though he were on Brigadier Gerard in a 0-60 at Beverley. But even Laddies Poker Two was never any bigger than 25-1 before going off 9-2. What we are dealing with this time is the mother and father of all ante-post gambles as punters up and down the land, on both sides of the Irish Sea, have dived head first into The Liffey.

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Even in this depressing day and age of a fiver putting something through the floor in an ante-post market, it must have taken a lot more than a fiver to make this big a splash with The Liffey in the Royal Hunt Cup. Opening at 100-1 a few weeks ago, he is now just 5-1.