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Christmas Tipping Jamboree

A betting colleague yesterday commented to me that he could not back (or tip) a particular horse running last night because, during a stable visit some months ago, the horse had bitten him! This was in spite of the fact the horse fared pretty well on his ratings.

I understand exactly where he’s coming from – nobody is likely to look fondly upon a creature that tried to make a snack of you!

The reason I mention it is that it reminded me of something that happened during a stable visit I went on back in the mid-eighties. I was accompanying a friend of mine to see a horse he owned which was due to run the following week.

We arrived at the yard in Lambourn fairly early(I can’t for the life of me remember who the trainer was) to find nobody about. Most of the horses were out on their morning work. My friend (my local pub landlord, in fact) led me over to a horse still in its box and said “This is my feller”

We spent around twenty minutes stroking, petting and generally geeing him up including feeding him some sugar lumps we had brought along especially. He seemed to be enjoying himself, lapping up the attention and swelling into a listed performer before our very eyes.

As the rest of the horses arrived back with their work riders and stable lads, my friend spotted the trainer riding back in with his staff. We wandered over to say hello and then my friend spoke the immortal words, “My one’s looking good. I think he’ll win next week”

The trainer replied, looking a little confused, “ When did you see him? He’s not even back from his work yet.”

It then dawned upon us we had spent the best part of half an hour geeing up the completely wrong horse

When the confusion was cleared up, I have to admit that the real horse and the “imposter” did look quite a lot alike (although most horses looked the same to me in those days – big and brown).

Whether the imposter went onto great things due to our love and attention, I will never know - I never even caught his name!

 

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Tipping Competition

On to the Christmas competition I mentioned in my last post.

Longer term readers will remember the tipping competition I ran for the Cheltenham Festival earlier this year. This one will be run along the same lines.

The winner will receive a one month subscription to my Morning Value Service (value £150.00) and a copy of the following books straight from my shelves:

Value Betting: Professional Approach to Horse Racing and Sports Betting  - by Mark Coton.

Enemy Number Oneby Patrick Veitch

Betting for a Living by Nick Mordin

A couple of those are from pre-internet days but are fantastic for learning the fundamentals of professional gambling.

The races you need to find the winner in are:

Saturday 10-12-11 2.30pm Cheltenham  Spinal Research 4 The Atlantic Gold Cup

Saturday 17-12-11 2.45pm Haydock  The Tommy Whittle Chase

Sunday 26-12-11 Kempton King George VI Chase

 

The Rules

Selections are required by 12 noon UK time on each race day. Any that come in after that will not be included ( I will have to be strict about this – last time I was still receiving selections 5 minutes before the race!).

Points will be allocated in line with SP for each winner you find.

If you don’t tip in a race you will lose 10 points.

The winner will be the person who has the most points after the King George on Boxing Day.

In the event of a tie at the end of the competition, I will draw the winner from a hat.

All the usual gumph about my decision being final.

 

To enter the competition you will need to contact me on kieran@makeyourbettingpay.co.uk before noon tomorrow with your selection for tomorrow’s race. Please put TIPPING COMPETITION in the subject line of your email.

Please also supply me with a tipping nickname you would be happy to see posted on the site.

I’m afraid no new entrants will be accepted after noon tomorrow (10-12-11). If you don’t pick for tomorrow’s race – there is no joining in later!

I hope those rules are fair and clear

That’s all from me

Have a great weekend and be lucky

Kieran

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