Just a brief post today peeps, taking a quick look back at the fate of my first decent bet of the flat season and a look forward to the Grand National, which is almost upon us.

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It was a rum old day on Saturday. First big meeting of the 2012 flat season and my first decent bet was undone by the width of a fag paper and what looked to be a half decent draw proving to be more of a hindrance than a help.

The writing was on the wall for Mull of Killough after the Spring Mile at 2.0…

The sun is beating down and you could be forgiven for thinking it was Royal Ascot week rather than a couple of days before the Lincoln.

The flat season is almost here and bettors with any sense will be reining their stakes in over the coming month until the form settles and we know where we are.

That being said, I thought I'd use today's post to take an in depth look at the Lincoln Handicap on Saturday, the first major flat race of the season. Here's hoping we can find a couple at value prices.

The…

A very good morning to all,

It's only a short one today, looking back over the highs and lows of another Cheltenham past along with a cry for help!

 

Cheltenham Highs

Cheering Finians Rainbow past Sizing Europe on the run in of the Queen Mother Champion Chase. What was looking like an unpleasant Cheltenham for me on the betting front, was saved, right there in a single moment.

Synchronised - a little horse with a huge heart -showing every ounce of that heart and a will of steel to go past them all an…

Wow - what a first couple of days it has been. I could write a novel but I will try to be as succinct as possible.

 

Day 1 and 2 Ponderings

No one is a bigger fan than I of Tony McCoy and I certainly don't like to criticise the 16 time Champion Jockey, but I have to say, in my honest opinion, he gave Binocular a shockingly bad ride in the Champion Hurdle on Tuesday.

He made the, frankly, amateurish mistake of racing one horse rather than the field. He was so intent on tracking Hurricane Fly that by …

The waiting is nearly over.

The beers are chilling nicely, the boys are primed for an early arrival at mine tomorrow, everything looks set -I'm having my own version of the Cheltenham Festival at my house this year.

A much more civilised Festival will be had. Good beer, good food and good company are the order of the day. I will be watching every race in it's entirety from the comfort of my sofa. No hour long queues for a drink, no loud mouth screaming in my ear, no craning my neck around some ove…

Cheltenham Festival fever appears to have hit the country and I've been swamped with calls from friends, family and acquaintances asking me what I like for next week.

Very few of my friends and family (for that read 0) understand the concept of value and when I explain to them I'm not hunting for winners, I'm hunting for value their eyes glaze over and they say "just give me a winner."

The whole thing is getting to be a damn headache. Not the festival, I'm looking forward to that, just the once or…

 

The Festival is almost upon us and the rumours are flying thick and fast! Starting today, I will be relaying any  gossip I hear about the chances of the main players:

There have been some raised eyebrows in the last couple of days over the perceived drift in price of Long Run for the Gold Cup (6/4 out to 2/1 on Betfair). Seven barrows have denied that there is a problem with the horse and my contact at the stable has told me there is nothing amiss. If the drift continues, I may be tempted into b…

It’s been a long, long time since I managed to get anything up on this blog and for that, you have my sincerest apologies.

I know it’s no excuse but I’ve been ravaged over the last couple of weeks with a level of back pain I’ve never experienced before – the kind of pain, discomfort and lack of mobility that I wouldn’t wish upon a mortal enemy. It’s been just about all I could manage to carry out my form study and keep my premium services running and profitable.

I’ve had bad backs before – with my…

Even after spending countless hours earlier in the week looking at the antepost markets for Newbury's meeting on Saturday, I refuse to be dejected by the news that the weather has claimed it and we have lost what looked like a fantastic meeting. What can you do?

Rather than sit here  dejected I thought I'd reproduce an article I wrote last week for Daily Punt, which hopefully demonstrates just powerful it can be to ask for a price.

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You Have to Haggle

A successful punter sho…

Here we are again, the weather playing havoc with our beloved racing.

I had intended to do an in depth look at the Betfair Hurdle today but it's looking increasingly likely that Newbury won't survive the weather.

That being the case I'll just give my thoughts on where the value lies and keep my fingers firmly crossed that we get to enjoy what looks like a fantastic meeting on Saturday.

Zarkandar - the likely winner and worthy favourite. Yet I'm slightly put off by Pumpkins repeated assertions that …