GOLF!!

I thought I would re-post this article from an old EVENING STANDARD as I am now taking an interest in betting on GOLF tournaments, but also simply because the article made me laugh.

What happened to 1923's "Worlds most successful men??";

President of the NYSE
RICHARD WHITNEY - RELEASED FROM PRISON TO DIE AT HOME.

Worlds Greatest Wheat speculator
ARTHUR COOGER - DIED ABROAD, PENNILESS.

President of the Bank of International Settlements
LEON FRASER - SHOT HIMSELF

Great Bear of Wall Street
COSABEE LIVERMORE - COMMITTED SUICIDE

Boss of largest steel company
CHARLES SCHWAB - DIED A PAUPER

Head of major Gas corporation
EDWARD HOPSON - WENT INSANE

PGA Golf Champion & Winner of US Open
GENE SARAZEN - PLAYED GOLF UNTIL HE WAS 92, DIED AT THE AGE OF 95, AND WAS FINANCIALLY SECURE AT HIS TIME OF DEATH!!

The moral, Screw work, play Golf

The Druid's Lodge Confederacy: The Gamblers Who Made Racing Pay

When Barney Curley recommends a "Must read" book about gambling I take a definate interest. Unfortunately the book seems to be out of print at present which is unfortunate. Anyway here is the skinny on what occurred!!

Yesterday (3 Oct) marked the 100th anniversary of one of the more spectacular racing coups.

When Hackler's Pride won the Cambridgeshire in 1904 it is estimated his connections, the Druid's Lodge Confederacy, made, in modern terms, more than £10m from their wagers. Ever so slightly more than they had made the year before, when the same horse won the same race.

To win consecutive Cambridgeshires takes some doing. To take the bookmakers for such a monumental ride verges on the epic.

The story is best told by Paul Mathieu in The Druid's Lodge Confederacy - The Gamblers Who Made Racing Pay .

The Confederacy was an eclectic bunch. It was headed by Percy Cunliffe, an Old Etonian gold speculator who weighed in at more than twenty stones and 'was not a man much given to smiling'. The man responsible for 'planking' the money down was Wilfred Bagwell Purefry. Called 'Pure' by his friends, he collected rare orchids, invested heavily in music hall, bred racehorses and was a director of the Autostrop Safety Razor company, a competitor of Gillette.

The funds were fronted by Captain Frank Forester, a dedicated huntsman who was 'a rather terrifying man in the early stages of a run'. And Edward Wigan, a small, extremely uncommunicative man, with a fondness for milk puddings, who pronounced the word coup as 'cowp'.

Another Old Etonian, he was criticised by one of his masters for 'only paying enough attention to turn what I've said into a Spoonerism'. The quintet was made up by the Irish vet Holmer Peard, who bought Sceptre and The Tetrarch and oversaw the trials that the Confederacy ran at their stables at Salisbury Plain.

The planning behind Hackler's Pride's initial campaign was meticulous. After one early impressive run at Hurst Park she was, writes Mathieu, 'run neither openly nor very honestly'. To confuse the bookmakers further, the Confederacy indulged in a pea-and-thimble game by entering three other horses in the Cambridgeshire. This was so successful that when the London clubs started offering odds, Hackler's Pride was available at 25-1.

To say Pure took advantage is an understatement. Employing contacts as various as a Birmingham New Street station-master, a dentist in Woking and a priest, they piled the money down. She started at 9-2 favourite. The race was a formality. 'Almost from the fall of the flag it was a one-horse race. The judge gave it as three lengths. It might have been 33,' was the verdict in the Sporting Luck .

The next year they repeated the dose. Hackler's Pride ran unconvincingly, they played the pea-and-thimble game and then backed Pride down from 100-7 to 7-2 joint favourite. This time it was a closer run thing as the horse won by a neck. Before the race, a stable lad had approached Cunliffe to tell him he had dreamed that Hackler's Pride had won. Cunliffe, unsurprised, replied: 'Indeed. What were second and third?' - buzzle.com

RESULTS SO FAR - 28 JAN 2008

THYESTES H'CAP CHASE

OSCAR INDIA - Balloted out BUT declared for the race, so stake returned.

AIG CHAMPION H'CAP HURDLE

AITMATOV - PU -£200

How disappointing was this horse?? Noel Meade's stable are not firing at all and I read he will not be having any runners for the next few weeks to see if they can discover what the problem is.

Best Odds every race

There are one or two bookmaking firms out there that GUARANTEE the best odds for every race, so who are they and what does this mean??

The way BEST ODDS work is that when you call and place a bet you take the odds on offer at the time of calling.

IF the starting price (sp) is BIGGER than the odds you took, the bet is settled at sp, which gets you round the problem of deciding whether to take a price or not.

For example if you back a horse at 7/2 and the price drifts out to 4/1 at the off, your bet will be settled @ 4/1 if it wins.

One such firm who offer this facility is BET365.

AIG Europe Champion Hurdle

The going in Ireland is going to be the main factor at the weekend and we need a horse that goes on heavy ground.

AITMATOV £100 e/w @ 8/1 with WILLIAM HILL is the one to be with.

Has been backed in from 12/1 and loves soft ground whereas some of the others at the front of the market will not handle it as well.

CHELTENHAM 2008 - ARKLE CHASE

MOON OVER MIAMI - £100 win @ 14/1 with LADBROKE.

The horse has been cut from 20/1 into 14/1 but is still worth a small investment ante-post.

The 2 main rivals appear to be, GLENCOVE MARINA who may run in the Royal & Sun Alliance chase, and TIDAL BAY who is a bit short for an ante-post bet @ 8/1.

newsflash: GLENCOVE MARINA out for the season!!
PEDROBOB also out for remainder of the season - atr 24 Jan :( :(

There is some doubt whether NOLAND @ 12/1 will run or not. His owner after declaring HE WILL NOT RUN at Cheltenham on 21 Jan 2008, seems to have had a change of heart after watching his charge win and jump well @ Folkstone on Monday (21 Jan). It seems he was concerned about the horses jumping as he is only learning his trade, and was worried about the fences at Cheltenham being too challenging.

Only time will tell, but I wouldn't be backing this ante-post!!

LADBROKE have a FREE £10 bet offer for those opening a new account.

BE LUCKY!!

THYESTES HCP CHASE

Winners profile:

Good current form, carrying a light weight.

Only 1 horse in the last 6/7 years has carried >= 11 stone.

Ground will be bottomless so lightweights expected to prevail once again.

OSCAR INDIA 100 E/W @ 20/1

Needs 8 horses to come out, but money back if balloted out.

Trainer thinks the horse is in at a nice weight, 10 stone, and at 25/1 into 20/1 with LADBROKE is a cracking e/w bet (horse part owned by trainers wife).

BE LUCKY!!

CHELTENHAM 2008 - TRIUMPH HURDLE

Another tricky race, so lets concentrate on what we know ??

CELESTIAL HALO - P. Nicholls main hope, won lto.
Galileo gelding.
Finished 7th in 2007 St. Leger btn 3 lengths
"Could be very special" - A. Stewart (owner)

BINOCULAR - Placed in listed company in FRANCE, won on Hdl debut, Plenty of form on soft ground. Different class to FRANCHOEK on flat (Both owned by JP Mc Manus).

I think at this point a lot of the value has gone in regard to Ante-post betting, so at the moment NO BET is the recommendation on this race.

27 Jan - update
sportinglife - Franchoek has been cut into 7/2 from 5s for the Triumph Hurdle by Betfred after he romped to victory at Cheltenham.

Robert Thornton never had to ask Alan King's star hurdler a question as he kicked clear off the home turn and jumped the last in fantastic style to easily dispose of Serabad.

"In my opinion that was the best race that Franchoek has run," said Betfred's Dave Metcalf.

"He has all the right attributes for a Triumph Hurdle candidate, and it will take a real good one to lower his colours in March.

"If anything does beat him they will certainly know they have been in a battle!" added Metcalf.

"However it will be interesting to see which one of JP McManus' Tony McCoy will ride, as Binocular oozed class when winning on his debut at Sandown and Nicky Henderson is very bullish about his chances in the Triumph, for which we go 8/1."


GOOD LUCK!!

CHELTENHAM 2008 - SUPREME NOV HURDLE

Interesting race this, full of plots and imponderables.

There are things we know we know, there are things we know we don't know BUT there are are also things we don't know we don't know!!

KHYBER KIM 7/1 into 6/1, VERY SHORT IMO!!

FRANCHOEK (A. King) - Currently 5/1 fav for TRIUMPH, but not as classy as BINOCULAR (N. Henderson) both owned by JP McManus.

CAPTAIN CEE BEE 25/1 > 16/1.

Also owned by J.P McManus and has been smashed into at all the major bookmaking firms.

RIPPLING RING - 5yo, 3rd in Sth African derby loves jumping a fence - P. Nicholls.

BE LUCKY!!

CHELTENHAM 2008 - CHAMPION HURDLE

EBAZIYAN 100 e/w @ 25/1

This horse won last years Supreme Novices Hurdle after showing very little during the winter.

It was nominated by Willy Mullins as his selection for a Cheltenham Yankee bet in the Racing Post some months back.

The horse has been ignored possibly because of the poor record of Supreme Novice winners in the Champion Hurdle race.

However last years winner of the Champion Hurdle SUBLIMITY, at a price of 16/1, finished 4th in the 2006 Supreme Novices Hurdle .

In a recent interview with W. Mullins he said "Based on his form last winter you would not have fancied EBAZIYAN to win the Supreme Novices Hurdle, but he did.

EBAZIYAN is a spring horse and needs GOOD ground, anything the horse achieves on heavier going in the winter is a bonus".

There was an interview with Dave Duggan on ATR on the subject of the Champion Hurdle and he mentioned a Dark horse in Ireland that could be the 2008 winner of this race.

Today (23 Jan) I read Noel Meade may run NICANOR in the race, subject to a positive result from an x-ray next week of a slight crack in a cannonbone.

Could this be Dave Duggans Dark Horse??

Update - 28 JAN

A very impressive performance by SIZING EUROPE in the AIG Champion Hurdle in SOFT ground BUT there is still 6 weeks to go before C-day!!

EBAZIYAN btn 15 lengths in ground that was never going to suit, and now available @ 33/1.

SIZING EUROPE had the race run to suit this day with a strong pace and he is an out-and-out galloper.

EBAZIYAN comes good in the spring and as long as he gets GOOD ground at Cheltenham I can see him finishing a lot stronger than on this occasion!!

Only time will tell, but Willie Mullins didn't seem that bothered after the race when interviewed.

TOTESPORT are offering a FREE bet of £25 for those opening an account for the first time:

GOOD LUCK!!

CHELTENHAM 2008 - CHAMPION BUMPER

LILLYWHITE DANCER is the one 200 WIN @ 12/1

Willy Mullins has won this race time after time and this one is his number 1!!

BE LUCKY!!

CHELTENHAM 2008 - GOLD CUP

CHELTENHAM GOLD CUP

TOTESPORT - Betting w/o KAUTO STAR, DENMAN, EXOTIC DANCER.

ANOTHER PROMISE 100 E/W @ 20/1 - 3 places.

atr - Ferdie is getting this one ready and will be backing it!!

As the race is likely to only have 6/7 runners as long as he gets round you should be in the money!!

FREE bets & Ante-post market movers

FOLKSTONE RACING IS OFF!!

I just managed to score £40 of FREE bets for a total cost of 20p, not bad eh!!

I put the whole £40 on EBAZIYAN to win the Champion hurdle at Cheltenham.

If you would like details of the FREE bet, email me @ bettingsystemsreview@gmail.com.

ANTE-POST MARKET MOVES:

Supreme Nov hdl - CAPTAIN CEE BEE 25/1 > 16/1.

Owned by J.P McManus looks like this one has been put up by a tipping line as it has been smashed into at all the major bookmaking firms.

Follow the Trainer

FOLLOW THE TRAINER IN DECEMBER PRODUCED THE FOLLOWING RESULTS:

25 winners from 104 selections with a profit of £4195 to level £100 stakes.

BE LUCKY!!!

Follow the Trainer

A King & Choc Thornton have a 42% strike rate at Lingfield.

I will be backing these if odds > Evens & <= 16/1

Haldibari (IRE) 13:20 Lingfield

Stolen Moments (FR) 14:50 Lingfield

Prince Broc (FR) 15:50 Lingfield

Currently 2-7 in January showing a profit of £450 to level £100 stakes.