Wednesday 5th November

“£500 Challenge Bet” (£895 - 4 bets inplay – accounted)

There's a few bits and bobs I've been looking at this week and today looks a good opportunity to sweep them up into one day's betting.

1. Strictly Come Dancing. This week's eviction looks pretty clear-cut to me. John will come bottom with the judges and top with the voters and avoid the bottom two. Heather will be in the bottom two and this time is only left opposing better dancers. She goes!

2. X Factor. I can't be bothered to tie up a load of money on this pile of pooh. However, for interest, Diana and Laura look the only credible contenders to me and we can dutch them at 4/5ish.

3. Another day's racing at Chepstow, another day wondering how many winners Nicholls/Walsh will have. The odds are a joke of course, so think of this as an 'action' bet that allows me to delay sweeping up the autumn leaves from my driveway!

4. I've followed Arthurs Girl (Kempton 7:50) on and off and this looks a chance to come late for a place at least, with a useful weight allowance over the better horses.

5. I'm still waiting for David Howell to fully get his game back, and this is a good field. However, he did win here a few years ago and 80/1 seems worth it.

Heather Small next elimination £5 at 5/4
Diana and Laura win X Factor £10 dutched at 4/5
Nicholls/Walsh today 6x75p doubles and 50p acc
Arthurs Girl £2.50ew at 12/1 guaranteed
Howell £2.50ew at 80/1

“Barking Bets” (Banked £1275/Current bank £3162)
I bet a football match inrunning last night, and it was such a terrible bet I'm too embarrassed to say what it was! Painful though.
A few races have small potential today, unlikely to amount to much though.

“Snippet of the day”
Shouldn't betfair void McKeown's race at Southwell yesterday? They make a song and dance about their transparency, but in all other respects act as little more than a grifter's merry-go-round.