Wednesday 12th November

“£500 Challenge Bet” (£897 - 5 bets inplay – accounted)

The Graduation Chase at Kempton is interesting but the prices seem about right to me – I'd have liked to have backed both I'msingingtheblues and Briareus but 1.5 looks right. Adding Modicum would make it close to a barking bet for the brave (or stupid).

Otherwise no bet again today. And a review of figures suggest that may become more common with this fund. I was guilty of just turning over money here, and that partly explains the poor progress over the last few months. I also think the barking bets fund itself is partly to blame. Third to blame is poor judgement and lastly a run of baddish luck.

I can see barking bets taking over as the engine room of my betting anyway – inevitably when they get up to around £500. I never thought that would happen when I was the amateur answer to Pricewise, specialising in top class handicaps. Markets are strange animals!

I'll try to be more informative down below from now on, but I'm sure you see why the bets by necessity are mainly last minute.

“Barking Bets” (Banked £1275/Current bank £3047)
Two easy races yesterday. There are possibilities at both Kempton and Bangor so a day in front of RUK beckons.

Kempton 12:30 too many unexposed nice horses – careful.
Kempton 1:05: possible now Henderson's is a non runner.
Kempton 2:50 – see above
Bangor 2:35 possibilities the front two
Bangor 3:10 possible to build something around the front 4
Avoid Southwell.
Celtic are not strictly speaking value, but not unfair prices either and you could do worse.
I was going to play the dog final tonight but am worried about Trap 1 causing an upset, so will skip.

“Snippet of the day”
“This time next year Rodney...”