Now how many racing journalists are as honest and as accurate as me I wonder? Last week I looked at the little remaining racing around the World and I correctly predicted I would struggle and we wouldn’t make a profit – and I was 100% correct with the one solitary winner failing to cover the losers, a real shame and I did try, but no great shock in the circumstances.
The racing this week seems fairly mediocre as well as severely limited but luckily for me I have dug out a couple of racing titbits that I hope will keep you amused or even have you scratching your heads and asking “why”?
First things first and as you know, I am a member of the HBF (Horseracing Bettors Forum), but that doesn’t mean I can’t be shocked by what we find. Those cleverer than me (all of them) have gone through the Ts and Cs of all the bookmakers we could find in the UK and I think (and this is MY opinion only), it is a disgrace that our/your funds are not ringfenced. Who knew (or even considered) that if the company went bust YOUR funds (winnings or deposits) could go towards paying THEIR debts, not even me and I have worked in this industry for longer than I care to admit to.
All I can say is the information is out there (https://ukhbf.org/betting-charter/hbf-register-of-protection-of-funds/) and I seriously suggest you at least have a look – 23 bookmakers including household names where your funds are unprotected, a whole bunch in the middle – and just the eight (yes 8!) where you have full protection. With plenty of publications reliant on bookmaker advertising to survive it will be interesting to see who is brave enough to even comment on the HBF Press Release sent out this morning (Friday), but either way I am sure you will agree that this is a sorry state of affairs.
Meanwhile, here in the UK there has been plenty of naming and shaming of local shops charging exorbitant fees for toilet rolls or hand sanitiser in these trying times and rightly so. Its all over the news and all over social media, but apparently it only applies to the “small fry”. Reading the Racing Post earlier this week and a story there about Jamie Insole (representing Charlie Hills in Dubai) came perilously close to getting stuck in Dubai when the stumps were drawn for World Cup night. There was a race to book flights out with Jamie quoted as saying "I got Steph [Potter] in the office to look at some flights and I think they were £280 with British Airways, then an hour later they were £1,900. "It was a mad panic then to get out of the country because the word on the street was a two-week lockdown until this blows over." Now forgive my ignorance, but is that not as bad or even worse than the corner shop mark ups? Of course I appreciate supply and demand, scarcity value and simple economics, but (excuse the pun), how did that 678% mark-up get under the radar and fail to make the same headlines around the globe?
Having waffled on for two huge paragraphs and destroyed any slim chance of a future BA upgrade, I ought to at least write a little something about the barrel-bottoming racing on this weekend and as I have close to zero knowledge on American racing, that leaves me with Australia on Saturday and Hong Kong on Sunday – so do expect the same set of results as last week which is hardly inspiring but could give us a bit of fun.
Rosehill put on a classy card on Saturday with eight group races on a nine contest card, but hands up who knows enough about the form down under to consider anything other than a guess? Not me, that’s for sure, so I have worked out the two horses who look to have the best chance of success, starting with the short priced Verry Ellegant in the Group One Tia Tancred Stakes over the mile and a half. She gets weight from all her rivals here as a filly and was only beaten half a length by Addeybb here over two furlongs shorter last week with the rest strung out like the washing. Avilius is in with a shout if the filly finds this comes too quickly for her but the form book is all I have to work with, and she will prove hard to beat if in the same kind of form.
In the Vinery Stud Stakes that follows I am going to stick my (fat) neck out and make Funstar the NAP of the weekend. She is seen as out of the top drawer at home and is expected to win plenty more races of this standard and although she tries the mile and a quarter for the first time here, she was sired by a Cox Plate winner (Adelaide) and ought to be even better the further she travels. I have liked what little I have seen of her and although she invariably ends up in a one-to battle with market rival Probabeel, I see no reason why she cannot come out on top again today.
One more will do for us all this week and Sha Tin race on Sunday, one of my favourite venues in the racing world. Most of the card looks tougher than tough so a watching brief makes good sense overall, but I will open the wallet just a little before Incanto Prepared goes to post for the seven furlong handicap at 7.15am. Only beaten a short head last time out over course and distance Joao Moreira keeps the ride as expected for trainer John Size, and this race looks a fraction easier to win despite the large field.
Sean’s Suggestions:
Verry Ellegant 4.50am Rosehill Saturday
Funstar 5.30am Rosehill Saturday (NAP)
Incanto Prepared 7.15am Sha Tin Sunday
PS If you see yourself as a punter or UK racegoer please please please go to
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdcJZO-44vLgejJRn07LhmUPbEPhLLm3D16Thq3Wh70Abk9Vg/viewformand fill out the HBF fixtures survey – we would like your views to move this forward!
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