Tag: horse racing
Racing needs to wake up
Sunny public holiday, lots of people on extended holidays, spirits are high. But racing is struggling to muster up decent fare again.
Today we have a bumper bank holiday card with 8 meetings and 55 races on hand, excluding the Irish racing. But a casual glance down the UK card shows only Warwick with decent fields and out of the remaining 7 UK meetings only 4 races have ten runners or more. Hmmm….
No racing on Good Friday and only …
Probe starts into AW races
On top of rumours of another scandal about to break, the BHA is investigating unusual betting patterns at all weather courses: –
https://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/horse_racing/9465233.stm
Fair weather
Well what a start to spring we have had in the UK! It’s more like the summer at the moment, not that this will impress people in warming climates, but it’s a welcome period after a very cold winter. Having flown away to warmer places in February, it’s been a good start to the year. No seasonal disorder for me this year!
The racing markets have been better in April as well, so the weather on that front is improving. …
One horse race
I was going to write about the FA Cup semi final today as it looks a really tantalising prospect. But the thing that really caught my eye this morning is racing’s continued struggles to adapt to modern commercial realities. The result of which is a race that includes just one runner at the 17:10 at Leicester this afternoon.
https://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/apr/14/one-horse-race-leicester-protest
It’s unfortunate that prize money is under pressure, but in any other commercial regime you would simply incur less cost to …
Schwing
A really good day for swing traders and a generally good day to boot. Plenty of races, plenty of opportunties whatever your style; but the thing that stood out today were some big swings. Hope you had a good one.
Tiring weekend ahead
First day of Aintree is now behind me and I can take that knowledge forward to today. I had a difficult start yesterday but ended up doing OK on the day overall in the end. I think I could have done better, but lets see what today brings. If you remember Cheltenham, you will be pleased to know that the Betdaq markets are working well at Aintree also, so bear than in mind today if you are finding the going …
Levy debate starts in parliament
Three hours of debate has just started in Parliament about the future of the Horse Racing levy. Tune into BBC Parliament to hear the MP’s debate: –
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/tv/bbc_parliament/watchlive
Betfair widen cross matching net
Today will see the launch of cross matching on pre-off horse racing markets. Having studied the markets for a long, long, time, I think I can guess the impact that this will have, but I am open minded. Change will occur though, so keep your eyes out.
In-play cross matching produced a curiosity which we hadn’t thought of, so it may be that pre-off does as well. We have collated data over very long time frames and can see at …
Much better
Not only am I feeling better but I must say, what a relief it was today to experiance three race meetings on in the afternoon and some decent field sizes as well! After such a barren spell recently, it was really nice to get really stuck into some markets again.
Despite keeping my hand in the game over the recent barren spell I haven’t been doing as much as normal and it’s suprising how rusty you can get. I’d be …
Cheltenham didn’t bust
Phew, things worked out OK today. Nothing spectacular for sure, but £560 from 14 markets is a useful return to the fold. Nearly all that came from Cheltenham, so the prospect of a decent day looks on the cards with the twilight and evening racing to come.
Cheltenham or bust!
With most of the racing lost to the weather once again it looks like the week will rest on Cheltenham for most racing traders. It’s a high risk strategy as there is no gaurentee that Cheltenham will provide favourable markets, especially with little infront or behind of it. Already Channel Four have asked for the times to be put back so they can cover the meeting, that’s going to impact things as well. Lets hope that when the races get …
No end in sight
Just been browsing the Met Office web site for news on when the cold weather will end. Unfortunately, despite a respite at the weekend, it looks like it is still here for a while. The main issue being a high pressure in the Atlantic blocking progress of a westerly airstream.
I was on fire this week last year and could do no wrong, difficult to be on fire this year. On a daily basis there is very little to be …
Trading the drifting Denman
With a tough week already, it looked like Saturday was going to be a white out as well. Fortunately Newbury survived with a quality card and that gave me a reason to sit behind my desk. I’ve typically done OK at the Hennessy gold cup, so wanted a fair crack at it. When you have been going for a few years you can’t but resist looking at previous years and having that as an unofficial target. Tough when the most …
Cross matching goes live on inplay racing
See Betfair announcement. Looks like they are planning to go live tomorrow on all racing: –
“Following a previous trial earlier this year, we are now running another trial of in-play cross-selection matching (‘cross-matching’) on the win markets at Lingfield Park on Tuesday 23rd November. Cross-matching will only be activated after the markets are turned in-play.
Cross-matching was introduced
…
Set back for Betfair Australia
Scott reports on his blog that Racing NSW has won an appeal on what is clearly a discriminatory tactic against Betfair. Unless Betfair can overturn the ruling it’s a game changer in this territory for exchanges.
https://www.sportismadeforbetting.com/2010/11/racing-nsw-wins-racefields-legislation.html
How bizarre was that?
17:10 at Haydock and Drill Sergeant gets off to a flyer. Gee thanks, I got stuffed by the start. But he is well in the lead as he goes around the first corner. The suddenly he stops and starts to have a casual stroll around the course. Price rockets out from heavy odds to to 120 and confusion reigns as the field catch him up and somehow pass him without an accident. Mc Coy somehow gets the horse moving again …
Fat fingers crucify punter
I see lots of strange things in the markets but few stranger than what happened just a moment ago at Newbury. While I realise we all, in some way, take money of each other now and again. I feel a great deal of sympathy for what they did, we all screw up from time to time. I can’t imagine how they felt after this error.
The long and short of it is that they backed a 400/1 shot down to …
Shocking
Good volume on the Caulfield cup in Melbourne this morning, £1.25m was traded on this high profile race and it produced some nice moves. The favourite, shocking, was defeated on heavy ground by Descarado trained by the colourful Gai Waterhouse. I had no idea she was Scottish!!
Shocking is also in key contention for the Melbourne cup, maybe the ground will be more suitable there. It’s been a good session this morning and ideal practice for the Melbourne Cup.…
Eight day week
A long week this week on the racing markets. I know a lot of traders who work seven days a week, but I tend not to; this week being an exception.
It’s really the last chance this year to smash in a big week. The Cambridgeshire meeting at Newmarket, more group racing on Saturday and Sunday in Australia and of course the pièce de résistance, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Sunday.
It’s tiring but its a nice way …
Levy row heats up
Lots of rhetoric coming from the big bookmakers about the levy and trying to blame it’s decline on betting exchanges. Perhaps they are forgetting that most of them have moved a lot of their operations offshore to avoid paying the levy. This has obviously had a significant impact on levy funding and unless that is addressed immediately, it looks a little foolish of them to point the finger elsewhere, after all the first bookmaker to go offshore did so in …
My wife knows everything
One of the best joke commentaries I’ve seen in horse racing, apart from it’s actually a real race! You have to watch this race to believe it: –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEF60avsloY
Don’t come back till St Leger day
Today we can all buy shares again thanks to the oldest classic horse race in the world. There is this ‘theory’ that during the summer stocks languish and only when everybody is back to their desk does the market perk up. Here is one link, from many, that discuss this: –
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/investing/article.html?in_article_id=484982&in_page_id=166
I’ve never managed to pull anything spectacular out of hte St Leger for some reason and the Doncaster meeting seems to have been particulary tough this week. Let’s …
Laying on the sand
Today sees the annual return of the races on the beach at Laytown. When my work on the markets is complete I will definately visit this race course along with many others that I have on the list. I keep saying that ‘next year’ I will do Laytown, so I look forward to saying the same next year! In the meantime I’ll be looking to do a bit of laying at laytown.
Laying at Laytown
August
August turned out to be an interesting month.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, coming into it off the back of a record month, so I set my much expectations lower. It turned out to be a pretty good month anyhow and I was just short of my third best month of the year. I now tend to glance at prior years to figure what I should achieve and I was more or less on target based on years prior. …
Goodbye Windsor
I’m not leaving, but Windsor is. That’s it for the summer evening racing at Windsor and it marks that week that we transition to all weather only evening racing. The downside is you now have no get out of jail cards for a poor afternoon, good news is your social diary suddenly widens!
I managed to finish the last Windsor evening race of the year with a healthy £155 profit, but the rest of the day was a bit torrid. …
Goodwood / New football season
This is turning out to be a good week so far. I think the research I did last year and this has given me some confidence to know exactly what I should be doing and when, also when to not bother! I don’t think it’s been easy, but that gives me even more confidence given the fact I am making it work well.
Today is going to be very busy so I hope that I can end the week with …
Goodwood day two
First race of the day struggled to stay in profit, small profit second race and a loss in the third. My winning run broken. But with the shackles off I threw caution to the wind and actually had a pretty reasonable day. It’s been pretty mixed though, but I am doing a better job than last year. I hope to keep that up for the next three days to complete a strong month.
The confusing thing is that I am …
Glorious Goodwood?
Goodwood starts today and I must say that in previous years I’ve often struggled to make this a glorious week. Goodwood does not seem a lucky course for me. Last year I had to work hard to try and get things right and it took me most of the week to get it and by then it was too late. This year I am better prepared so hope to do better.
We also have the Galway summer festival this week. …
Newmarket July meeting
I’ve never really put this one in the diary as a meeting that exhibits great characteristics but this year it feels different and is much more positive. Don’t get me wrong its a much better than average meeting, it’s just never stood out in previous years. It’s been a good start to July, so I am hoping the last day of the meeting will bring further rewards. Typically the last day is the best.
Small fields
If I had a small field in as my garden I would be happy. But a small field when trading is not such a happy occurrence. Look at today’s card and there are seven meetings but only 5 races have field sizes in double figures!
Straight off this tells me what sort of day this is going to be, trickier than usual. But its alarming that none of these courses can seemingly cobble together a decent field. No doubt there …
Connect
Connect with us on the following social media platforms.