Hi all,
Inside today’s main piece you can read my thoughts on Frankel at 16 and Lee Mottershead’s piece on restrictions. Plus, there’s a handful of horses worth noting from Saturday’s Betfair Hurdle.
Frankel: Doesn’t Time Fly
It’s hard to believe that Frankel is now 16. Knowing that certainly makes me feel old. It only seems like a couple of year ago that he was blitzing his field to win the 2,000 Guineas. That was the day that he announced himself a great racehorse and you relive that performance here.
Not only did Frankel become the greatest horse of generation he’s now well on the way to becoming one of the greatest stallions of recent years.
I got to see Frankel once live in the flesh when he won the International Stakes at York. To this day it remains my most memorable day on a racecourse. There were over 30,000 racing fans in attendance, and I have never seen the York parade ring so full. People took up their positions before the first race and didn’t budge until they saw Frankel in the flesh. Me included.
August 22nd, 2012 is a day that will stay with me for ever. Racing fans came out to show their admiration for a true champion and be able to say, “I was there”.
Lee Discovers Bookmaker Restrictions
Lee Mottershead might be ‘late to the party’ as far as bookmaker restrictions are concerned but it’s better to be late than never.
Lee’s article in Monday’s Racing Post is worth a read.
He points that if you beat SP on a certain percentage of occasions you will be quickly restricted by the bookies. Even though your profit maybe small or you could just be breaking even.
Then halfway through the piece Lee drops the proverbial hand grenade.
“Restrictions are no good for racing, either, except in some ways they are. The levy is hooked on bookmaker profits, which means the sport benefits when punters (and the top horses) lose. By closing or heavily limiting the accounts of winning punters, bookmakers bank more money, which means so does racing”.
Those that run the sport are taking a very short term view. It’s been my contention that bookmaker restrictions will ultimately prove worse for the sport than affordability checks. They are turning people away from betting on the sport or sending them towards the black market.
The optics are also not good. We live in an era of responsibility gambling. It doesn’t look good that sport is dependent on punters losing.
We won’t get the ideal situation of a Pari Mutual type set up. So, we’re left with the only alternative switching the levy to a bookmaker turnover model. The big bookmakers are vehemently against that change and the BHA which should be leading the call for change are SILENT.
The smaller independent bookmakers who can’t compete with the gaming behemoths get it for obvious reasons. I have just opened an account with one such firm and I’m going to see how they compare. I’ll let you know my findings in due course.
Future Winners:
There’s not much for the tracker this week. The only race that should be worth following is the Betfair Hurdle. It was a competitive race, and we had a classy winner. I think it’s a race whose form will be worth following.
Iberico Lord was a cosy winner at the finish and should prove up to at least Grade 2 standard before too long. Before that he could be County Hurdle bound and even after being reassessed, he’s likely to be head of the handicapper. He’ll be worthy favourite for that race at the Cheltenham Festival and has a great chance if there’s plenty of juice in the ground..
Runner-up L'Eau Du Sud looks capable of winning a nice handicap hurdle in the spring before going chasing next season. He’ll go up a few pounds for this performance and he will need to as his present mark of 129 might not get him into a County Hurdle. His stablemate Faivoir won last season’s County Hurdle and ran a cracking trial for this year’s race in fifth.
Fourth home Doddiethegreat needs further than 2m and could be a Coral Cup contender.
If there’s only one to be taken out of the race for the tracker it’s Our Champ who ran well for a long way in 7th. He’s another who can win a handicap hurdle in the spring when his sights are slightly lowered and he’s back on good ground.
County Hurdle Domination
As ever Dan Skelton will likely have strong hand in the County Hurdle. His race record is 4 winners from 15 runners +75, 5 placed.
Since 2008 three trainers Willie Mullins (6), Dan Skelton (4) and Paul Nicholls (4) have won 75% of the County Hurdle’s run. The other four winners of the race were all trained in Ireland. Will that trend will continue this year?
Tuesday Preview
I mentioned last week about breaking your own betting rules. I did it again yesterday. When I wrote up yesterday’s column, I was seeking for 2/1 about Monday’s selection Omar Maretti. When I looked at this race this morning, I decided to the 15/8 available with Bet365 & SkyBet was worth chancing. It was a marginal call, odds wise and one of those occasions when you must be flexible.
Tuesday’s racing is poor, there’s not even Omar Maretti type to go at today, so I’m happy to leave it alone.
Good luck with your Tuesday bets.
John
Racing used to be such a simple enjoyable pastime.
WTF have we done to it!
I’m 79 and have been betting for very small stakes for many many years,except for very rare occasions my bets would normally be £1or less. I have accounts with most of the big bookmakers and so far I have been restricted by , Paddy Power, Corals, Boylesports Unibet, Sky Sports and now after about 18 years and literally thousands of bets, and I mean thousands sometimes as many as 80+ bets a month, I have just received notification that Bet365 is restricting me.
I must admit to having most of my BOG bets restricted and then the 8.00 am rule applied. And also for them getting denied a BOG availability for the night before racing. Only Bet 365 and often Paddy Power give the BOG from 8 am.
Also yesterday there was 19 races of which only 5 had an ISP of 7/2 or bigger and non of those were under 10/1. Winners yes but I don’t like little prices, and so along with small fields it’s getting difficult to happily place a bet. My stakes are small, I am almost the same age as Ted and probably Henryk could be near us but what’s left in the locker for us all.
I’m 69 gents, but age is just a number right?
The one thing we have, which the younger fans will also have, but for many wrong reasons in the future, is, the best memories.
Of course the today lads still have a craic, but they have missed out big time…oh yes!
The lunatics have took over the asylum