Oh, Mr Porter... what will we do?

The big question after Royal Ascot celebrated a sell-out 75,000 crowd yesterday, 2,000 up on last year, was whether it had recovered the X factor. In the Silver Ring, at least, they appeared to doubt it.

"It just doesn't feel like a full

house," one racegoer said. "I've

been coming for 10 years and for

some reason it hasn't got that

charged atmosphere."

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It was surprising subdued given

the size of the crowd and bookmaker

Neville Porter confirmed

that impression.

"Business is shocking, there is

simply no buzz," he said. "It was

good the first day, dropped off on

Wednesday and even further

today.

"Business is 25 to 30 per cent

down on what we'd normally do

and I don't know why.

"There are no heavy bets today,

the weather has obviously played

a factor but bookmakers across

the board will be very disappointed."

It seemed that no matter how

impressive Yeats was in taking the

Gold Cup for the second year,

some people will never be overwhelmed

by the sense of the

occasion.

As the Gold Cup hopefuls went

to post, the tension was simmering

nicely.

Temperatures were also clearly

rising in the Silver Ring where a

neatly attired girl was being gently pushed up against a green bin by a

would-be seducer.

Yeats was odds-on favourite for

back-to-back wins in the 200th

Gold Cup and the gentleman's

chances of landing his prize

appeared similarly short.

There was more chance of being

poked in the face with an umbrella

than someone offering you an

insight into the form of runners in

the next race.

As Mick Kinane on Yeats made

his decisive move three furlongs

from home, the roar came from

the new Grandstand rather than

the bargain-basement ring where

having a good time is as important

as following the action... if you

could.

Despite a big screen on the

inside of the track, those in the

cheap seats were struggling with

the view but not with the drinks.

"People are taking chairs down

to the rails and standing up and

we can't see a thing," said Elizabeth

from Halifax. "It's not on. If

you are coming here for the first

time it's a bit off-putting. You

don't get these problems at Pontefract

and York."

Elizabeth had even resorted to a

novel method of watching the races,

hoisting a camcorder above her

head in the vain hope of catching a

few frames to replay later.

With the blips of last year's first

meeting under the new £210 million

grandstand behind them, the racecourse had implemented

changes to appease the public.

But it's instilling some of the old

spirit into the new facilities that

will be high on the agenda for new

chief executive Charles Barnett

and his team.

The attendances had been dramatically

down on the opening two

days, but Barnett was unfazed.

"I

am relaxed about it," he said.

"We will have to accept the fact

that people maybe didn't have a

good time last year. You can't take

your customers for granted. We

have made a hell of a lot of

improvement and we have a good

base to work from.

"I don't think it is something to

get concerned or excited about. It

is more important in a way to have

a really successful meeting than

break any record crowds."

At least the men behind the

launch of Betfair could afford to

smile.

The betting exchange's cofounders,

Ed Wray and Andrew

Black, are members of the Comic

Strip Heroes syndicate and their

aptly-named horse Winker Watson

took the opening Norfolk Stakes

under the jockey of the meeting,

Jimmy Fortune.

"I don't think it compares to the

stress I felt over (setting up) Betfair,"

Black said.