So, had a bit of dinner last night (Risotto, not half bad) then holed up on the sofa and got down to "Homework"...which roughly translated means trying to work out the perpetual labyrinth that was the Newbury placepot on less than good ground...a favs GRAVEYARD!!!
I have a VERY firm rule, NO MORE than 12 perms in a 1x1x1x2x2x3 formation, meaning if I get to the last leg i'm pretty well covered, saying that I just could not slim it down to less than 16 perms at 50p, and so, i'm glad that was the case...
The first race went like a dream, 5 runners, only the first 2 count and the 2/5 Nicholls hot pot trailed in third, with a 33/1 and my 9/1 filling the places, so BOSH!!!..in one fell swoop 95 % of the cash was gone (27% for the tote, of course).
I had the 13/8 fav in the next as I needed 3 "bankers" and I just couldn't see him out the first two, but equally couldn't see him winning, he proved both my therories correct by finishing an honourable runner up.
The third I had no strong opinion about, except the Fav "Prime Location" was a dodge at 11/10, so just slotted the 2nd fav in, who duly won, halfway through and still in....
Race 4 had a "touch cloth" element to it with only three runners, I was strong with both the fa and the next in the market, MUCH has been written in the racing press recently about "Profit to be made backing the outsider of three"...not in this case, Handicap Queen, Venitia William's Benny's Mist hosed up by 26 lengths at 5/4!!!
4 down, 2 to go...squeaky bum time as I had the last of my three "bankers" in a quite competitive handicap, but it was an improving hurdler for the awesome Pipe/Scudamore combo, once again, like in the third, I simply HATED the favourites chance, and that nag would be carrying a weight of the pool along with all the non-runners cash...but Shotavodka got the job done, and the pot of gold was well and truly visible at the end of the rainbow...
Race 6, the money race, was a hunter chase, often a VERY tough sphere to get a handle on form, with a horse showing form figures of -11111-111 going off at 7/1 and one showing 45PF54-67U going off the 11/8 favourite, this is due to the point to point for being showed (albeit in bold type) in the racing press, but if you scratch the surface of the form you can see that the horse with the string of PTP wins is actually rated only 100 and the one that looks like a countdown conundrum was actually rated 155 in his pomp, but still operates in the high 120's... so this was the case in the place pot finale, the fav, who was rated 156 3 years back, but has los 42lb, or a full THREE STONE of ability since went off at 2/1, and my beloved "Offshore Account" rated 147 in the 2009 Grand national when just the odd 99 lengths behind Mon Mome, what difference for me was, this old chap was STILL rated 120, losing only 2 stone of ability in 4 years not bad going......coming to the last , these two were clear, but that didn't concern me, as the 7 runner field meant just the two places...my lad jumped the last and screamed home at a juicy 10/1....Oi! Oi1 Oiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!
so for my more than usual outlay of 16x50p = £8 I had a whole 50p steak at the prize which paid a near £440....just goes to show, just like at school, homework nearly ALWAYS pays off!!!
I KNOW I said i'd be doing my absolute NUT over the Sprinter Sacre "ratings" fiasco, but this was a good backing day, and just caught wind of news that Nicky may well step up the "Long Black Aeroplane" to 2m 4f in the Mumm Melling at the grand national meeting on April 5th, the old boy should be a couple of fences clear by the jamstick!!!!
Be Lucky!!!!
£££PlacePotter£££
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