No account bet again today unfortunately as the weather still disrupts racing.
Is it really Spring or has Winter just been extended for a while?!
We had one free bet, Carrig An Uisce in the 2.10 which turned out to be an easy winner.
They have been trying to win with this one for a couple of runs now but there was also a good word in the same race for Tifernati who was said to be over a few niggling injuries.
Tifernati was a fairly late non runner, making the race somewhat easier.
Carrig An Uisce looked to be struggling 2 out but picked up quite well and went on to win by 12 lengths.
Elsewhere there is a fairly good word for Free Tussy in the 8.00 tonight but we don't like Kempton at the best of times and with the non runners it is no value at 13/8 or so.
The weather is showing little signs of settling down.
Wincanton is abandoned already for tomorrow and Newton Abbot has been called off for Saturday.
There is a possibility of an account bet tomorrow but Saturday is looking more likely.
Thanks for reading
SimpleBet
http://www.simplebet.net/
We were close to an account bet today but a non runner ruined the plans.
Last night we had a good word for Issaquah in the 2.40. The message was "A good run is expected and we can't see it out of the first 3 at around 10/1"
Unfortunately Knight In Purple was pulled out at 8.30 meaning we were looking at a 7 runner race so two places as well as a shorter price than expected.
Rather than an account bet we put it on Twitter as a free bet and it hosed up at 5/1. Typical!
Its always a fine line when asked the question, whats worse, missing a winner or backing a loser?
If we were a service that backed 60 or 70 horses a month we would possibly have still made Issaquah an account bet but the reduction to two places left us feeling we didn't have an edge so no bet.
The weather looks to be set to impact the racing fixtures over the next week or so with some horrendous weather forecast for Scotland and Northern Ireland tonight.
Exeter is abandoned already for tomorrow and Newton Abbot are inspecting tomorrow for Saturday.
Hopefully though we should still have a bet or two before the weekend, all being well.
Thanks for reading
SimpleBet
http://www.simplebet.net/
One account bet today, the very disappointing Una Pelota. 3pt win @ 5/2.
There was a good word for this Michael Owen owned runner who had switched yards and was said to be working well.
He was well backed in the morning but failed to show a lot on the track.
You could be kind to the horse and say that he pulled quite hard early on when there was no pace on but that would be very kind for what was essentially a poor run.
Other than that there was very little going on today.
Tomorrow there are precautionary inspections at both Newcastle and Exeter as heavy rain and snow look like they could have an impact on the racing in the next few days.
We have a couple of decent bets lined up for the weekend, weather permitting.
There are a few nice unraced 2yo's we are waiting for and they should be running pretty soon.
Aintree is also just around the corner and we are almost certain to have a decent bet in the Bumper.
Thats all for now, thanks for reading.
SimpleBet
http://www.simplebet.net/
No bet today which was a good thing.
We had fairly good words for three horses and none won so we made the right decision.
In the 2.10 King O The Gypsies was fancied but too short for us. He could only manage second, beaten a head.
Still at Hexham, in the 4.55 we had a good word for two runners in the same race. Fightstar and Sunnyside were both fancied by their yards. We put Fightstar up as a free bet.
Sunnyside finished second with Fightstar never getting competitive in ground that was looking pretty desperate by now.
Elsewhere, the email situation seems to be slowly getting resolved.
We are still blocked (again) by Microsoft meaning no Hotmail, Live or MSN emails get accepted but we sent some test emails to GMail today and they were fine.
They are looking into what happened and apparently the emails were held up at their end by "between 1 and 15 hours" - Strange.
We have joined Microsoft's Junk Mail Reporting Partner Program (MJMRPP?) and apparently should be all ok again within a week or so.
On the form we have to complete it asks if we send over a million emails a month. Are they kidding?!
Its all exciting stuff, not...
Pretty poor stuff tomorrow, as is the norm for a Monday but we have our eye on one.
We will wait for a call or two tomorrow to see if there is a bet or not.
Thanks for reading
SimpleBet
http://www.simplebet.net/
A good if slightly frustrating day for us today on the first day of the flat season.
We had a bet on Thursday for the Lincoln, Penitent, 4pt win @ 7/2.
In truth we expected this to start around 9/4 or 5/2 today and the SP of 3/1 (much bigger on Betfair) was a surprise.
Much of the drift was probably due to the confusion over the draw but it didn't matter much as the results was never in too much doubt.
Second up we though we were on two from two in running. Squires Gate, 3pt win @ 11/2 was given a slightly strange start to the race as he was pulled in behind to take a middle course.
He was absolutely cruising with around 300 yards to run and trading at long odds on in running but didn't find anything like it looked he would and he could only manage 3rd.
A very promising horse all the same and one to keep on the right side of.
Finally we had Presvis, 2pt win @ 5/2.
Where possible we try not to blame jockeys as its a hard job and it makes us sound like bad losers. However, Christophe had an absolute nightmare on this today!
He looked to have a ton of horse under him with 500 metres to run only to manage to run in behind a wall of horses with no possible way out. From 6/4 to 50/1 on Betfair in around 3 seconds.
A nice profit on the day though and we will show around 35 points in profit for March when our web guys update the website after the weekend.
Finally, we seemed to have all kinds of problems with members receiving our emails today for some reason.
Last week we had our emails to Hotmail accounts blocked by them as they saw it as spam. After 10 or so emails back and forth to them they saw we don't send spam in any way and allowed our messages through.
They seem to have blocked them again today. Messages to Googlemail, BT Internet and some yahoo accounts also seemed to fail to get through. Some others with yahoo accounts got our messages 3 times.
We never send unwanted emails and this is particularly frustrating as we get around 10 spam messages a day, much of it racing related.
We will be looking into what we can do about this and will probably have to sent 2 emails for the time being to ensure one gets through. - one from our server and one from Hotmail.
In the mean time can we ask all members who don't currently get the bets sent by SMS to send us your mobile numbers if possible so we can add you to the SMS list.
Its always good to have that as a back up, just in case.
Its unlikely there will be a bet tomorrow but we are interested in the Bumper at Hexham (4.55).
However, we need to have a close look at the ground.
If there is a bet it will go out later than usual but before 3.30.
Thanks for reading
SimpleBet
http://www.simplebet.net/
Another no bet day today as we gear up for the start of the flat season in England tomorrow.
We were close to an account bet on The Bay Bandit in the last race of the night at Wolverhampton. We made the right decision, just, as he was nabbed on the line and beaten a short head.
Elsewhere there was an interesting race lined up in the 7.40 at Wolves.
The Tim Vaughan trained Contradiktive was the subject of a huge plunge from 10/1 down to 2/1 (as low as 6/4 in a place) before being withdrawn.
Did word get out too early? Certainly one to keep an eye on for the next run or so whatever...
The flat starts tomorrow and we should have at least one more bet to go with our bet already placed on the Lincoln.
We have interesting information in both England and Ireland over the weekend as well as the possibility of a bet at Meydan.
Thanks for reading
SimpleBet
http://www.simplebet.net/
Quiet stuff today and we weren't even close to an account bet.
Chepstow going was pretty awful and the going in Ireland wasn't much better either.
There was a good word for Lambro in the bumper at Thurles (5.45.) He travelled well and looked the winner but found little.
There was also a good word for Goolagong at Kempton (about to run as we type...)
Didn't seem great value at evens though, especially as we try to avoid betting at Kempton on the all weather where possible. In hindsight we should have remembered that last night!
The draw for the Lincoln has now been made and perhaps just as important the weather forecast has suggested a fair amount of rain.
We have already sent our bet out to members as we expect if to shorten up dramatically between now and race time.
We are really looking forward to the start of the flat. Lots and lots to look forward to with a huge list of unraced two year olds we will be backing.
Thanks for reading
SimpleBet
http://www.simplebet.net/
p.s. Goolagong has just finished second, beaten fairly easily. Lots of money lost there by the looks of the SP!