Friday 30 April 2010

Caught on the line

Close but no cigar today.
Lowdown, 3pt win @ 7/2 was well supported all day, down to 11/4 at the off.
He was considered well handicapped and led from the stalls and was kicked on into a clear lead inside the final furlong. In truth, the race looked all over and he traded 1.11 in running but was swamped late on to end up beaten a head into 3rd place.

Its nice to see the back of April whch has been one of our worst ever months, finishing over 30 points down.
We could make all kinds of excuses but there aren't any. Its been a poor month overall and we are hoping for a significant upturn in fortunes for May. We have lots to look forward to and the weather seems to be settling down so there should be no excuses.
May 2008 and 2009 both showed over 50 points profit so we are hoping for more of the same for May 2010.

Some great racing tomorrow but it may just be a day for watching rather than betting. We hope to have an account bet but at this stage its far from certain.
The 2000 Guineas is a no betting race from our opinion as the vibes are very strong for the favourite but he is much too short for us at 11/10.
Elsewhere there looks to be little each way value in the race.

We do have a strong fancy for the 1000 Guineas on Sunday though, assuming the rain comes as forecast.

Until then, thanks for reading
SimpleBet

www.simplebet.net

Tuesday 27 April 2010

Horror run continues

Unfortunately our horrible run in April shows no sign of improvement.
One account bet today, Cygnet 3pt win @ 6/4.
The word was that this horse had matured and had been working much better now he had been gelded. Unfortunately he showed nothing like this on the track.
He ran green throughout and didn't pick up at all. May have finished lame, may have just been green but either way he finished last.

We have had a couple of horrible runs like this before and can only apologise to members for this.
It does happen. It is part and parcel of racing. However, its awful when it does happen and we do have to ride it through.

We have had a 70 point losing streak in the past and still showed a 300 point profit that year.
Hopefully this run will turn round soon but in the meantime we will be as selective as possible with both our account bets and our staking.

We have around 5 or 6 likely bets this week but we may scale that back slightly.
Decent racing at the weekend and hopefully a change of fortunes will come with that.

Thanks for reading
SimpleBet

http://www.simplebet.net/

Wednesday 21 April 2010

Grey-lame-i

Bit of bad luck today with our account bet, Greylami 1pt e/w @ 16/1 finishing lame.
Frustrating as he got the early pace he required and was well in touch with 3 furlongs to go but went lame and was heavily eased down.
He certainly wouldn't have troubled the winner who was the ultimate 'group horse in a handicap' but may have been placed at a nice price.

Elsewhere we were keen to oppose Denman but would never have backed the winner (we considered a bet on Cooldine but he wasn't really an each way price.)
Good decision to leave the race alone in the end.

We don't have anything lined up for tomorrow currently but that may change in the morning and there may be an account bet.
We have a strong account bet lined up for Saturday though, all being well.

There might not be a blog for a couple of days as we were travelling over to Ireland for a couple of days in the morning now the travel situation has calmed down.

Hoping for a change of luck over the weekend and into next week.

Thanks for reading
SimpleBet

http://www.simplebet.net/

Tuesday 20 April 2010

Spam and spam filters... (non racing)

Its Tuesday.
In the last three days we have had
  • A service offering to send out emails to all their clients advertising our service for a fee.
  • Two seperate emails offering us email lists of up to 600,000 names of alleged known gamblers
  • An email from a racing service offering to buy the names of all our current and ex members.
This isn't an isolated few days. It happens all the time.

We never ever get involved in any of these. In fact we make and absolute guarantee that none of our members details will ever be passed on everywhere.
However, it shows how much spamming goes on just in this industry.

We were blocked a while back by Hotmail because they thought our emails were spam. It took many man hours and online form filling to get ourselves unblocked.
Yesterday some emails to BT Internet and Yahoo were delayed as they were help in their spam filter for many hours. Fortunately a few members missed a couple of losers, so in this case can thank their ISP!

The amount of emails we send, although all legitimate to paying members, is so minimal in the grand scheme.

The strange thing is though, why does anyone ever send spam?

If you wanted to buy Viagra or a fake Rolex would you really but it from a spam email that you received?
If we wanted insurance the last company we would go to is Go Compare because of the incredibly annoying advert. We certainly wouldn't buy anything from a spammer for similar reasons.

Who do people bother? Our inboxes would be a lot clearer if they didn't thats a certainty.

Rant over. That feels better!

No bets today although there was some good racing, especially in Ireland.
Hopefully there should be a bet tomorrow and the latter part of the week looks a lot busier than it looked at the weekend with lots to look out for.

We are also expecting a maximum bet next week if all goes to plan.
After that we have the Guineas meeting at Newmarket and flat racing is seriously underway.

Thanks for reading
SimpleBet

http://www.simplebet.net/

Monday 19 April 2010

Bad start to the week

Not the start to the week we were hoping for today with two very poor runs.

Our first bet was Born To Perform 3pt win @ 6/4.
Alan's horse was a very unlucky loser for us last time out when he wasn't given the best of rides and could only manage second at 9/1. Fallon was on board today in an interesting jockey change.
The horse travelled well in for two miles or so but patently didn't stay. Disappointing.

Our second bet was also disappointing. Sir Rocky, 2pt win @ 15/8.
He was said to be the better of Hannon's two runners but played up in the paddock before the race and drifted from 11/8 to 2/1.
Once in the stalls things didn't improve as he veered left when the gates opened and ran green throughout.

Not the best of days, with the only crumb of comfort that we are still staking small.
The last week has been one step forward, two steps back. A nice double on Friday followed by a good run by Lady Of The Desert on Saturday but then two very poor runs today.

We have a fairly quiet week coming up but there will be at least two bets between now and Saturday.
The weather looks set to remain good and there are certainly no excuses on that front.

Two of our favourite trainers have runners tomorrow so there may be a bet. We will wait for an update tomorrow.

Thanks for reading
SimpleBet

http://www.simplebet.net/

Saturday 17 April 2010

Wrong one out of three

Got it wrong today with three races we could play in resulting in two profits.
Unfortunately the race we had an account bet yielded a loser.

We backed, Lady Of The Desert 3pt win @ 15/8 at Newbury.
We kept the stakes sensible as she has played up going to post in the past which she did again today.
She also pulled much too hard for the first couple of furlongs and these two factors were largely responsible for her not winning. If you can have impressive losers, she certainly was one of these.
When asked the question from Fallon she responded almost instantly and went a length or so clear and traded as low as 1.32 in running.
Unfortunately she ran out of gas and was caught in the last 100 yards.
The feedback after the race was that she blew up, largely due to being over excited before and during the race rather than failing to stay. Her next race is planned to be the French Guineas.

Elsewhere we mentioned a couple of other races in our email to members.

We gave a good mention to Dick Turpin in the Greenham as a sensible each way bet at 8/1 providing all 5 went to post.
Canford Cliffs is still probably the better horse but Dick Turpin showed good resolution to get up close home.

In the Scottish Grand National we had good words for both Gone To Lunch and Dom d'Orgeval.
Many bookmakers were paying 5 places and those who played with them would have had both horses placed. Gone To Lunch was second and Dom d'Orgeval was fifth.

A few members have emailed saying they backed the other horses as well as the account bet so showed a profit on the day.

Overall, we didn't get it quite right today and the results show a 3 point loss on the day.
However, we can take slight heart that all our information was spot on. We just played the wrong race on the day.

We are unlikely to have an account bet tomorrow but we have a couple of calls to make in the morning so we will see.

Thanks for reading
SimpleBet

http://www.simplebet.net/

Friday 16 April 2010

Newbury Double

A nice and much needed double at Newbury today.

Our first bet, Mezaan 2pt win @ 5/1 won in good style.
We had word that connections thought this horse was well handicapped today and that was shown to be correct. He travelled well throughout, although he pulled a little too hard on the outside group. He hit the front with a couple of furlongs to run and stayed on to win quite comfortably.
This is a horse worth keeping an eye on. Despite being keen early he was pretty impressive overall.

Second up we had Pink Symphony, 3pt win @ 11/4 advised.
This was a horse who was expected to enjoy the slightly softer ground as well as the step up in trip. Despite being a maiden after three runs she won well today.
Jamie was looking over his shoulder for dangers with over half a mile to run and he kicked her into a lead with around three furlongs to go. She stayed on well to win by two lengths.
Another horse to keep on the right side of as she will improve further for this run.

The only annoyance with todays racing was that we didn't stake slightly higher on Pink Symphony. Our contact in the Gosden yard told us that Meezaan was the best bet of the day and that they were concerned about Pink Symphony in the race where they had the early morning favourite, Mujdeya.
With that in mind we could have staked more heavily but because we have been on such a poor run in April we kept things sensible.

Hopefully a corner has been turned now for April although we are still just over 14 points behind for the month.
We still have lots to look forward to over the next few weeks in particular but will remain sensible in our staking.
All being well we have a decent bet lined up for tomorrow, although that is price dependant.
There should be at least one account bet though.

Thanks for reading
SimpleBet

http://www.simplebet.net/

Wednesday 14 April 2010

and continues...

Our bad run continues for April with two losing account bets today.

We backed Blue Spinnaker, 2pt win @ 11/4 (best odds guaranteed returned 10/3)
We had a couple of good words that this was well fancied and our only saving grace was because of the run we are in we staked very small.
It ran a good race but unfortunately found one too good and was beaten half a lengths into second.

Our second account bet ran nowhere near as well unfortunately.
Prince Of Thebes, 1pt e/w @ 14/1.
He was supported into 11/1 but failed to make the running which was the plan from his good draw and his chances were gone early on.

We have said a few times of late we are in the middle of a very tricky run. With Blue Spinnaker running well we thought there was light at the end of the tunnel but Price Of Thebes didn't help that unfortunately.

We have some strong information lined up for the weekend but will remain to stake very cautiously for a while.
There will probably be an account bet tomorrow where we have an interetsing runner at Newmarket. Lets hope we can buck this trend very quickly, like tomorrow.

Thanks for reading
SimpleBet

http://www.simplebet.net/

Monday 12 April 2010

Bad run continues

One account bet for us today, Brynfa Boy, 3pt win @ 3/1. (best odds guaranteed returned 6/1)
We had received four seperate messages for this horse by 11am saying it was thought to be well handicapped and was very well fancied today.
Unfortunately the ground became very fast at Windsor which wasn't in his favour at all and he drifted big time.
He ran ok, looking to have a decent chance in running with a furlong to go but struggled to quicken up on the fast ground and finished 4th, beaten two and a half lengths.

We are in the middle of our first real bad spell of the year.
We had one in 2008 and one in 2009 and its very frustrating when things are like this. Fortunately we still managed 300 points profit in each of these years so we have to ride it out.

Hopefully things will turn around very quickly. It seems like an age since our first 5 bets of March all won!

We have lots lined up up for the next few weeks but will be staking very sensibly until we are through this bad run.

Its unlikely there will be an account bet tomorrow but there is some decent racing at Newmarket on Wednesday and Thursday.

Thanks for reading
SimpleBet

http://www.simplebet.net/

Saturday 10 April 2010

Four Blanks

Not a great run since our last blog a two days ago.

We have had four account bets, all unplaced.

Yesterday we had two bets. Ogee 2pt e/w @ 9/2. He was backed down into 11/4 but lost all chance when a faller in front of him all but brought him down.
We were also on a horse planned for a touch, Shawkantango 2pt e/w @ 15/2. She had been 100/1 on all three starts to date but was trying on her first handicap start. She was backed right down to 7/2 but missed the break and always struggled.

Today we had two account bets at Lingfield.
Musaafer 3pt win @ 15/8. Another who was well backed but with the lack of pace he had to make the running which didn't suit. He tried to quicken off the final bend but swallowed up.

We also backed Sennokian Storm, 3pt win @ 2/1. This very expensive purchase has been doing everything right at home but struggled on the track today. A very disappointing end to a bad week.

Bad runs are part of racing and this week has been our first bad run of the year. It happens and we need to ride it through.
We are still nicely in front for the year, not to mention the last two years but we understand this doesn't help members who have only recently joined.

There is some good racing to look forward to later this week and we have a huge list of runners expected to put in big performances when they run.

There may be an account bet tomorrow but probably not.

Thanks for reading
SimpleBet

http://www.simplebet.net/

Thursday 8 April 2010

Average Ainama

Pretty much a horror show through the card at Aintree for many punters today with winners at 3/10, 40/1, 5/2, 50/1, 4/1 and 16/1.

We only had one account bet, Ainama 2pt e/w @ 9/2 (best odds guaranteed returned 5/1.)
He was held up on the inside throughout and looked to be making some progress 3 out but failed to find too much and could only mange 7th, beaten around 5 lengths.

Elsewhere we were close to having another account bet and we would have been very disappointed if we had.
Molly Mylenis must be the unluckiest two year old in training so far this season.
We backed her first time out when she lost loads of ground at the start and finished well to get 3rd. Today she would surely have won had she not been carried over the course by the winner. How the result wasn't amended is a mystery (She traded odds on during the enquiry) We would have been gutted if we had made her an account bet.

Tomorrow at Aintree looks very difficult but we are hoping we will have at least one account bet.

We are currently 11.5 points down for April and will be looking to turn this round as soon as possible.
We have some decent info to look forward to next week on the flat and the weather seems to be settling down at last.

Thanks for reading
SimpleBet

www.simplebet.net

Wednesday 7 April 2010

Blank Wednesday

Disappointing day today with two account bets, both losing.

First up we had Tell Halaf 3pt win @ 2/1 (best odds guaranteed meant 5/2)
He was thought to be very well handicapped today but ruined all chances by pulling much too hard. He then hung left and although he started to make some ground up with 3 furlongs to go he never really looked like winning and faded back into 5th.
The feeling is that he will be tried in headgear next time out but probably won't carry our money.

Over at Kempton we had Kings Song 3pt win @ 9/4.
He was backed right down to 13/8 and travelled very well, looking the winner 2 furlongs from home. From there the race became very crowded and muddled as often happens at Kempton but he was expected to be good enough to kick clear from the position he was in so no excuses.

Elsewhere there was a good word for Ella. She ran a good race but again was too keen and could only finish second.

Our ante post bet for the National, Comply Or Die has shortened in to 16/1 today after Timmy Murphy decided to stick with him as his ride.

Aintree starts tomorrow and we will almost certainly have at least one account bet.

Thanks for reading
SimpleBet

http://www.simplebet.net/

Monday 5 April 2010

Bank Holiday Monday

A profitable day today but it could have been much, much better.

Our first bet of the day was Born To Perform, 1pt e/w @ 9/1.
We were told they were expecting significant improvement today, taking a big step up in trip. The horse read the plot but unfortunately Robert Winston didn't.
We often say we hate hammering jockeys for a bad ride because its an easy way out but we can consider ourselves very unfortunate here.
Absolutely cruising for the final 4 furlongs he traded 1.2 in running but was caught out by a late run from Sendali and couldn't get back up once passed, to be beaten a head.

These things happen and we will have our lucky days just as we have unlucky ones.

Our second bet of the day was Wovoka, 2pt e/w @ 9/2. Best Odds Guaranteed meant we got 13/2.
There was a big gamble on the favourite, Mr Rainbow, who was backed right down to 7/4. He failed to show at all though.
Wovoka was held up in rear and brought to challenge two furlongs out. He ran a decent enough race without ever looking like winning but we got the place money as he got up for third.

So, a small profit on the day. Could have been better but on a tricky days racing but we will take that.

On a blogging note we will only blog on days when we have an account bet now.
We have bets on average 5 days a week so will still be blogging most nights.

The weather looks set to settle down towards the end of the week so all being well we will get some decent ground as we have loads to look forward to.

There is a good chance of an account bet tomorrow but we are waiting on a call or two in the morning.

Thanks for reading
SimpleBet

http://www.simplebet.net/

Saturday 3 April 2010

Difficult Saturday

Very tricky stuff today where we had just one small account bet, Benandonna 1pt e/w @ 28/1.
The plan was to try to get an easy lead but he didn't read the script and missed the break and was never better than mid division.
He looked to be travelling ok with 3 furlongs to run but found little.
A very small bet on a very tricky Saturday so fortunately not too much damage done overall.

Elsewhere we did well to leave well alone.

Fistral Beach was well fancied but jumped very poorly and never looked the winner.

There was a good word for both Shamwari Lodge and Azizi at Kempton but both were pretty short with horses fancied against them.
Shamwari Lodge won pretty well and Azizi looked the winner but was picked up close home and finished second.

On Good Friday we spent the day at a very wet Lambourn.
A great day out as it always is, despite the weather and we picked up lots of interesting bits and bobs.
Lots to look forward to over the next couple of weeks, if and when the weather starts to settle down a little. Until then, staking will be kept sensible.

We have a possible bet tomorrow. All will depend on the ground as it looks certain to be heavy everywhere.

Until then, thanks for reading.
SimpleBet

http://www.simplebet.net/

Thursday 1 April 2010

Good Golly Miss Molly!

Possibly unlucky not to start the new month with a profit today.
Molly Mylensis, 1pt e/w @ 11/2 missed the start by around six lengths in the stalls. Never a good thing in a 5 furlong race!
She really got the hang of things late on and ran on very well to finish 3rd, beaten three and a half lengths. The winner was slightly eased down and its arguable if she would have won but she can certainly be labelled an unlucky loser.

We also backed I'm In The Pink, 2pt win @ 9/4 and he looked all over the winner with two furlongs to go.
Traded at 1.3 on Betfair he appeared not to stay and could only manage 3rd place.

A small loss of two points to the start of the month. We finished March just over 31 points in profit and are just over 68 points in profit for 2010 to date.

Busy day tomorrow as we travel down to Lambourn for the open day. Should be very interesting as we look to pick up a lot of information.

There is no racing tomorrow but we should have at least one account bet on Saturday.

Thanks for reading
SimpleBet

http://www.simplebet.net/