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William HillReturning to a rather dark and bleak UK after enjoying a relaxing fortnight in Cape Verde. The picture shows my feet and typical daytime view!
Chris in Cape Verde!
Sadly during the vacation I missed some top quality racing, in particular gutted to miss Kauto Star’s return to prominence. Very cheering, especially as connections were considering retiring the great horse if it put in a seriously lacklustre performance. I have watched the replays and read the post race reports and it is interesting to see Long Run’s Gold Cup price has eased to 5/2, with 11/4 available with one firm. Kauto Star is best priced 12/1 with Sportingbet, though all the main contenders will still be making the trip to Kempton for the King George. To be honest I haven’t stepped into the Ante-Post market yet, and I am content to keep my powder dry.
Kauto Star beats Long Run
My choice of holiday date also conspired to clash with the Hennessy, what a great story for Carruthers and Mattie Batchelor. The jockey had only 3 wins for the season and then took the Hennessy, the biggest handicap chase outside of Liverpool. It is a pity Mattie isn’t on Twitter yet, most of his jockey brethren are tweet fans, when he goes 2.0 I will let you know. On the subject of tweeting my twitter a/c is GamblingG_Chris, feel free to follow me. Anyway, memo to self, make sure 2012′s main break is during the end of the flat season, and not during the start of the jumps one!
Carruthers
Nice to get back into racing this weekend. I have to say I wasn’t massively impressed by Al Ferof, and watching the race I felt For Non Stop may have done the 4/11 shot pre the new whip rules. On the face of it the time of 4m 0.2s compares favourably with Sizing Europe’s Tingle Creek of 3m 59s, but the performance didn’t look like that of an Arkle winner, and I agree with the opinion of Ladbrokes’ compliers who eased John Hales’ charge to 7/1 from 6/1. Paul Nicholl’s said post race that the horse tends to stop in front, and Ruby Walsh is going to have to give it a clever ride to beat Peddlers Cross.
Sizing Europe was very classy, and looked head and shoulders above the competition in the Tingle Creek. Wishful Thinking was again very disappointing, and after its poor run in the Paddy Power (Mackeson!) Gold Cup questions are to be asked. Also nice to see Deep Purple win the London National. The horse has been doing the business for years, and I remember being at Ascot to watch it when it was still a novice. The 2009 Charlie Hall winner is priced at 50/1 (Victor Chandler) to take the Grand National.
On the subject of the Grand National, the Beecher Chase provided the first outing of the season over the Grand National fences. Both the Beecher and Sefton handicaps raced over a further modified course and pleasantly there were no fatalities. Some traditionalists (most vocally Alistair Down in the Racing Post) have levelled criticism at the further safety amendments, and they perhaps have some weight in their argument as the National will always have an implicit risk factor. West End Rocker took the Beecher Chase by 22 lengths. Alan King’s horse earned Ante-Post joint favouritism (with Beshabar) and can be backed at 20/1 with PaddyPower. With the horse a confirmed soft ground stayer it maybe prudent to wait until nearer the time as the going in April next year may not have enough cut for it, plus it will be interesting to see how severe a view the handicapper takes.
West End Rocker at Aintree
Just booked a group outing to Plumpton on the 19th, so something to look forward to later on this month. The restaurant is £45 for 3 courses (entry was a £tenner on top), and should be a nice day out. There are ten of us going, and as the expression goes “win or lose, they will drink some booze”.
Happy Punting!
I have been involved in the betting industry since the late 90’s and have in that time worked for a on course bookmaker (at now much missed Catford Dogs), spent time at a leading spread betting company, and worked for Betfair in their two year start-up phase.
In 2007 I co-founded iGaming supplier Hyperion Gaming with long suffering business partner Alex Lafferty.
Being involved in the industry for so long has given me a good understanding of the wonderful world of online gambling, and I put effort into giving honest opinions, that remain my own!
