Weekend catchup

One bet on Saturday and one bet today for us.

Saturday's bet was Penitent, 3pt win @ 9/4
This horse landed a real nice touch for us this time last year when landing a decent gamble to win the Lincoln.
He was entered in the Lincoln as well as a race in France but connections opted for this race. It was felt that if he stayed he probably would win.

A huge gamble on the day, he started an 11/8 chance.
(At some point we need to write a gamble to cover what is a gamble and what isn't. Many punters believe a horse being punted from 33/1 into 14/1 at Wolverhampton on a Thursday night is a huge punt but 9/4 into 11/8 at Kempton on a Saturday isn't...)

Anyway,
Penitent settled well enough tracking the leaders and looked set to pounce with a couple of furlongs to run.
When Frankie asked him to quicken he found very little and could only plug on at the same pace to finish 4th. Whether he didn't stay, wasn't fit enough or just wasn't good enough is hard to tell.

To make matters worse, William Haggas won the race with his second string, Shamali.
This one wasn't fancied at all. (Opened 12/1, went off 12/1)
In fact, the trainer told the Racing Post "I'll be staggered if Shamali wins, as he's sure to need the run. He was never really right this year and hasn't run since May. He's had leg problems, so running here on an even surface was preferable to most other options"

Now, the cynics will say that he said that to get a better price on his second string, blah blah blah, but the amount of money that was lost on Penitent tells the true story. There were a lot of gutted punters at Kempton!

On to Sunday which was much better.

We backed, King Of Eden, 1pt e/w @ 10/1
This horse did us some great favours last year and had really grown and strengthened over the winter. That and the fast ground made connections hopeful he would stay the extra furlong today and if so, was fancied to run a big race.
The ground wasn't great, with lots of grassless patches at Donny so we kept our stakes sensible.

Our selection went off a 10/1 chance as money poured on Ivory Silk. (13/2 into 9/2)
He was always in a handy position in around 6th place and made headway with around 2 furlongs to run. He hit the front with a furlong to run and stayed on very well to hold Ivory Silk by a head.

A nice and very welcome 10/1 winner after a pretty difficult week.

This week is all about Aintree and our Grand National ante post bet continues to shorten in price. He could still go off favourite.
Connections are still very confident that with a clear round he is the one to beat.

There will probably be a few bets between now and the start of Aintree on Thursday with a couple of interesting runners lined up from one of our favourite yards...

Thanks for reading
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