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
SimpleBet

http://www.simplebet.net/ 

Panama At Sixth

One account bet for us today, a poor one.

Panama At Once, 2pt e/w @ 15/2 - B.O.G. returned 10/1 - was thought to be coming back to a bit of form after taking his time to settle into the new yard.
He ran an improved race last time and any improvement on that was expected to see him bang there at the end.

He ran up with the pace and sat in 3rd place for the first couple of miles.
Although he jumped well throughout he lacked the pace to go with the leaders when the pace picked up. He stayed on well enough inside the last couple of furlongs but could only manage 6th place.

The flat season starts 'for real' tomorrow with the Lincoln, the main piece of a good card at Donny.
We should be having at least one account bet.

Thanks for reading
SimpleBet

http://www.simplebet.net/ 

Cheltenham Day 4

No account bets for us today, other than a small ante post bet in the Gold Cup.

The racing was very trappy and there really is little point in forcing a bet just because its Cheltenham. That does no favours to anyone in the long run.

A while back we had Kempes, 1pt e/w @ 16/1 mainly because of the doubts surrounding those at the head of the market.
It turned out that pretty much all those at the head of the market were on their A game and Kempes wasn't.
A fantastic race to watch though and a superb ride on the winner from young Sam.

As we thought, picking winners today was very hard although there were some great finishes.
Final Approach and Get Me out Of Here was a great finish with Ruby just spoiling a gamble on the runner up.
Sir Des Champs won another great race to watch, winning under another very good ride.

We had 5 bets over the 4 days, losing a point and a half.
We also had 2 ante post bets that saw 6 points going astray.

So, its back to 'normal' racing from now on and to be honest that suits us much better.
We were saying to a member not long ago we would rather have a decent bet on a maiden at Plumpton where we have a strong word for one rather than play heavily in a race where every horse is trying for its life!

We are hopeful of at least one account bet tomorrow and already have lots lined up for the flat season which is only  a couple of weeks away!

We already have some interesting information for a horse at a big price in the Lincoln.

Thanks for reading
SimpleBet

http://www.simplebet.net/