Thursday 31st July

“£500 Challenge Bet” (£965 – 3 bets inplay – accounted)

I think Tomina would probably have won yesterday but for the reins breaking. That would have made for an interesting treble going on to Ochoa, in addition to the double we do have. She has started nicely enough this morning so far.

Almost as soon as I dumped the cricket bet so the clouds lifted. Looks like there could be delays today, judged by the rain here, but a draw looks very unlikely, so I hope people ignored me!

Goodwood looks very difficult today – I'm well ahead this week with my new approach, but better still is I know I'd be right down in the smelly if I had bet in my old style so far this week. And today would have been an awful prospect.

Instead I'll just back Yeats. This should probably be a barking bet race as Honolulu and Mad Rush could trouble him, and 4/6 is only how I priced him, and we should probably wait in case there's a deluge. Even so.

As a companion piece I'm going to follow a few tipsters in on Indian Pace at Galway, who looks nicely prepped and will get the pace he needs.

3:30 Goodwood £15 win Yeats at 4/6
3:40 Galway £5ew Indian Pace at 12/1

“Barking Bets” (Banked £500/Current bank £2855)
A loser but otherwise another good day. I dumped some of my bet on Ferrer early in the first set and, unlike the cricket trade above, that turned out to be prescient. It was only the second in-running trade I've ever done on this fund and is not a habit I intend getting into – I just had cold feet watching the first few games, but could still trade out at way lower odds than I'd backed.

1. Tennis – Wozniaki beat Laine £240 at 1.09

2. Tennis – Jankovic beat Dubois £240 at 1.12

3. Stratford – first and last races look playable

4. Nottingham 4:30 and Mussleburgh 6:40 potentials only.