Friday 17th October

“£500 Challenge Bet” (£1032 - 6 bets inplay – accounted)

Newmarket 3:45 has a nice shape. Spacious is opposable, over the trip and with the stable still in the doldrums. Barshiba throws in the odd great race in group races and then regresses in easier grade and plenty of the others look erratic or done for the season. The one horse who not only looks solid, but looks to be improved over the trip is Fragrancy. She may well find one too good on the day but looks decent place material.

Cheltenham 5:50 is full of likely sorts. However there is an angle into the race – called Alfie Flits – who is increasingly looking a dog, and not one to charge up the hill with verve and gusto. Also, David Pipe is 0 placed from his last 30 runners (a bad omen for my bet of Mamlook for tomorrow!), so his earlier runners have to be watched carefully. Sagredo and Unfurled are both interesting, watch the market on the former, and Balding's hurdlers always worth noting. Hobbs farms this race so the keystone of any bet is going to be Cockney Trucker. Am not sure what I'll do at the moment but for here say we'll dutch the first few without Alfie and Big Eared Fran at somewhere between 6/4 and Evens.

Newm 3:45 Fragrancy £3 win at 8/1 and £12 place at 6/4ish
Cheltenham 5:50 – something like Dutch Cockney Trucker with Sagredo/Unfurled/Show Winner £12.50 at 5/4ish
£2.50 treble Dreamcoat/Fragrancy/Cockney Trucker

“Barking Bets” (Banked £1175/Current bank £3066)
At around 9pm last night I was swearing about cheating Russian tennis players (conveniently overlooking my own poor judgement in backing someone who had played 6 weeks in a row and who had just qualified for the masters). At 9:30pm I suddenly had a thought. Hadn't I placed the bet on Betdaq rather than Betfair? In whch case it would be void. And so it came to pass that I went to bed in an altogther better frame of mind. Remarkably lucky too, as I had backed the Azarenka match with Betfair. I've never liked Betfair's one set rule – it seems to me one of many instances of them being quite happy for sharks to shear us sheep as long as they get their cut. I'll press up on that luck today and continue to use Betdaq whenever I can, as long as someone matches me!

1. Azarenka beat Garringues £310 at 1.28

“Snippet of the day”
“And the words of the prophets are written
On the subway walls, and tenement halls”

(For my step-niece-in-law – or whatever – who has just been caught tagging Tewkesbury. To avoid being caught in future she should probably learn not to write her own name!)