Tag: racing

Traders of the De l’arc

Traders of the De l’arc

Once a year I will tuck into French racing like a connoisseur drinks French wine, with a sense of appreciation but with the gusto of a true enthusiast.

I don’t tend to trade on Sunday’s or on French racing, but the richest race in Europe always draws my attention as it and the companion races are nearly always a great opportunity. It has to be said that most of the other stuff on today is not the greatest quality. So …

02/10/2011 | By More
Don’t come back till St Leger day

Don’t come back till St Leger day

The oldest classic horse race in the world is almost upon us again and while it marks the closing of the flat turf season, tradition dictates that it also marks an upturn in financial markets if folklore is to be believed.

“Sell in May and go away, don’t come back till St Leger day”

There is a general ‘theory’ that during the summer stocks languish and only when everybody is back to their desk does the market perk up. Here …

07/09/2011 | By More
New in-running tool

New in-running tool

Something has been annoying me for ages and that is how I’ll often sit between races waiting for the next one to start. It’s a lot of wasted time, so I recently decided it was time to do something about it. The result is a new tool for Bet Angel users.

The concept is a clickable user interface that shows you the progress of a race as it happens. Its the first ever product to allow you to click on …

01/09/2011 | By More
Marmite Monday

Marmite Monday

It’s that day of the year that you either love or hate. The August bank holiday in the UK brings  a whole bunch of racing, all on the same day.

In total there will be ten cards todays and about a billion races. This may seem like heaven for some, but it’s a nightmare for others. Quite a few races will attract little liquidity, a lot isn’t of great quality and many races will clash meaning that you can’t do …

29/08/2011 | By More
EBore & the sack race

EBore & the sack race

The York EBOR moved this year to a Saturday and as a consequence it killed it from a trading perspective. Chester races were only five minutes in front of York and Chester did it’s best to ruin York all day saving the best for the feature race by going off only 38 seconds before the big race at York. Racing UK got in about five seconds of coverage and most of that was covered with a graphic of the odds. …

21/08/2011 | By More
York Ebor meeting

York Ebor meeting

Summer racing isn’t over quite yet and today kicks of the Ebor meeting at York. I’ve traditionally done OK at this festival each year so I am looking for something above average this week. I’m going to give Betdaq a good go this week at York as liquidity is rising and I suspect I can get something decent out of some of these races. I’m keen to get some decent practice in. If you look at my Ebor result from …

17/08/2011 | By More
Gooder Goodwood

Gooder Goodwood

My old English tutor would have a heart attack with that title!

Had my best day of the week yesterday and should be headed for a great festival overall. The day didn’t start very well with a delayed start and then I got my bottom spanked at Nottingham when I failed to address an alarming drift on the horse I was trading. But from there in things just got better and better. I managed to pull in some really good …

29/07/2011 | By More
Not so Good-wood

Not so Good-wood

A fairly lacklustre day yesterday started me off on the five day festival at Goodwood. I didn’t pull anything amazing out of the hat, but ended on a decent amount for the day. I think it ‘felt’ lacklustre because I had such a good start last year. On the same day last year I managed a clean sweep of the entire card, I didn’t manage that this year.

Today promises to be very interesting. The feature race stands out a …

27/07/2011 | By More
Barney Curley

Barney Curley

Always an interesting card when there are Barney Curley runners on it, today we have two. You can follow all the shenanigans and trading opportunties thrown up by Curley runners by reading this thread on the forum.

You may have to wait till 21:00 to see the best opportunity of the day it seems!

For some additional background view this You Tube video: –

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25/07/2011 | By More
Repeating patterns

Repeating patterns

Sometimes the markets surprise me, but more often than not they don’t. After 11 years of doing this, even the surprises don’t seem surprising any more. But yesterday I got a surprise.

Yesterday, last year, I traded a race at Catterick and got a really cracking result from it. A year later at the same course, on the same day and on the exact same race I got the same result. You would think it impossible that such a thing …

14/07/2011 | By More
Feast or farce

Feast or farce

Not difficult to choose what to do this afternoon. Yes there was some racing on but when end up with 15 minute gaps and one race at Pontefract had just two runners, though curiously this was the best race of the day for me.

Over at Wimbledon there were quite a few decent matches and opportunties so it was this that held the main interest for me today. As a point of interest, if you want evidence that people are …

27/06/2011 | By More
A week full of opportunities

A week full of opportunities

We are now just beyond the half way point in the year. So double what you have made so far and you end up around your annual total!

Glad I am sat here and not half drunk on some beach. OK I lied, but any regret at not getting sun burnt has been tempered by some fantastic results in the market this week. I’ve really picked up speed in June and I am heading for a great month overall. Despite …

26/06/2011 | By More
Royal Ascot / Open Golf Thursday

Royal Ascot / Open Golf Thursday

Another good day in the bag for Royal Ascot, but I left it late today. I didn’t get a real blockbuster race till near the end of the card. I had to work much harder than yesterday and I took my foot of Betdaq, as working harder meant I couldn’t keep focus on two exchanges effectively. I did broaden my activity out on Betdaq though to other races and they worked well. So after Ascot I’m going to continue my …

17/06/2011 | By More
Royal Ascot – Day two

Royal Ascot – Day two

That went well! I have to give myself a 10/10 for yesterday. After a quiet start with a few errors in my P&L I slowly got into stride and managed to really hit top speed by the end of the day. In the end I managed to achieve my best ever daily result at Ascot which was incredibly satisfying. I can’t pretend today will be a repeat performance, but I will try hard.

It’s difficult to pick any highlights out …

16/06/2011 | By More
Ascot – Day one summary

Ascot – Day one summary

I thought that went quite well. I struggled last year but this year was ok and I could have done better if I was a bit more aggressive. In hindsight I was too passive yesterday, didn’t take on board enough risk. So I’ll give myself an 8/10 as it was good, but I could have done better.

Frankel made a bit of a mess of the feature race of the day and the market on Frankel was so strong that …

15/06/2011 | By More
Royal Ascot day one

Royal Ascot day one

An intriguing day one at Ascot. After all, what colour hat will the Queen be wearing. LOL!

I’ll be all guns on the first day to work out what feel the market brings this year. I’ve paid a lot of attention to Ascot over the years and each year we see the market shift subtly in one direction or the other. I didn’t do a very good job of it last year, comparatively speaking, so I’ll want to put in …

14/06/2011 | By More
Levy board statement

Levy board statement

The HBLB made a statement yesterday which you can read here: –

https://www.hblb.org.uk/document.php?id=411&search=

Betfair’s response is here: –

https://corporate.betfair.com/media/press-releases/2011/2011-06-08.aspx

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09/06/2011 | By More
Derby result

Derby result

A satisfactory result. Not my best, but not my worst either. The market seemed pretty boyant today and volumes were much better than last year. Racing should be thankful that the Queen will bring so much attention to next years Derby. Can’t only help can’t it?

I’m taking tomorrow off from an activity perspective. I had hoped to trade the mens final at the French Open tennis, but I’ve been going downhill the last few days with a heavy cold …

04/06/2011 | By More
Fab Friday

Fab Friday

Today, we have a decent looking day ahead of us on the sporting front.

The Epsom derby meeting kicks off today and the Oaks is always a reminder of the first race that Betfair took bets on back in June 2000. To be honest I haven’t really ripped through this Friday for a few years. So I’ll be taking things careful until I get a feel for the day.

At the French Open the top four men in the world …

03/06/2011 | By More
Good day all round

Good day all round

While the afternoon racing yesterday was a complete farce – shame on you racing, the evening card was much more interesting, enjoyable and full of opportunity. On the horses I managed more than double yesterday, which was a good result.

At Roland Garros the tennis was proving brilliant yesterday as well. With the wind howling around the courts it threw up lots of oppotunity. Some high profile slip ups generated some excellent opportunties. Congratulations to the person who backed Rus …

27/05/2011 | By More
Quieter day

Quieter day

It was a quiet day yesterday at Roland Garros. Only five matches really caught my attention compared to nine the day before. With the wind blowing around a lot today I feel we could see some unexpected results today.

I had a more productive day on the horse racing and I am looking forward to the meeting at Sandown tonight, but the afternoon card looks a bit of a farce to be honest! Only ten runners in total in the …

26/05/2011 | By More
The big backer

The big backer

If you are active on the markets, then I am sure you may have seen this character around. If not then they appear fairly regularly recently, either trying to get filled at a certain price or just deliberately trying to stop the price from moving. I think it’s an odd strategy, as dipping in and around the markets is like playing poker. You don’t want to show your hand!

When somebody shows their hand like this then it’s an …

21/05/2011 | By More
BHA announces serious charges

BHA announces serious charges

Following an investigation into suspicious betting activity on a number of races, the British Horseracing Authority has charged 13 individuals with serious breaches of the Rules of Racing. The allegations focus on horses being laid to lose on betting exchanges in 10 races that took place between 17 January 2009 and 15 August 2009.

Each of the jockeys is additionally charged with a breach of Rule 243 of the old Rules of Racing in that it is alleged they communicated …

20/05/2011 | By More
Black Caviar

Black Caviar

Just got up early to have another look at Black Caviar who was running at Doomben this morning. As expected, she delivered her 13th win out of 13. Quite a feat and she is causing a significant amount of interest in the racing world and also from a betting perspective. Went off at 1.22 this morning with £1.7m out of £1.8m was matched on just one runner.

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14/05/2011 | By More
So you think

So you think

Despite the long weekend I couldn’t help but be tempted to dip in to the Curragh yesterday to take a look at ‘So You Think‘. I’ve seen this horse progress in Australia so my ears pricked up when I heard it was running in Ireland yesterday. It didn’t disappoint and despite it’s short price I managed to get a decent position on it, netting just short of £127. This could be a good summer for the flat season …

03/05/2011 | By More
Guineas

Guineas

I had a fantastic result on the Guineas last year, when just about everything fell into place nicely. This year already looks a bit tougher so I can’t assure myself of a similar result, but will try my best to make something happen. The much vaunted ‘Frankel’ is currently trading at 1.59 which should generate a lot of volume today, but whether it does much else is another question! I’ll be reviewing the Guineas trade, amongst others, in my next

30/04/2011 | By More
The national – Part three

The national – Part three

And so ends the national series for this year, a decent result on the The Grand national, the Scottish national and the Irish national. Outside of the Irish national there was little of interest for me today, I didn’t like the card and I was proved right, it was a mess. I really should stop doing days that I know I wont enjoy, it makes little material difference to me and to enjoy a day out on a boat …

25/04/2011 | By More
Racing needs to wake up

Racing needs to wake up

Sunny public holiday, lots of people on extended holidays, spirits are high. But racing is struggling to muster up decent fare again.

Today we have a bumper bank holiday card with 8 meetings and 55 races on hand, excluding the Irish racing. But a casual glance down the UK card shows only Warwick with decent fields and out of the remaining 7 UK meetings only 4 races have ten runners or more. Hmmm….

No racing on Good Friday and only …

25/04/2011 | By More
One horse race

One horse race

I was going to write about the FA Cup semi final today as it looks a really tantalising prospect. But the thing that really caught my eye this morning is racing’s continued struggles to adapt to modern commercial realities. The result of which is a race that includes just one runner at the 17:10 at Leicester this afternoon.

https://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/apr/14/one-horse-race-leicester-protest

It’s unfortunate that prize money is under pressure, but in any other commercial regime you would simply incur less cost to …

16/04/2011 | By More
Clean sweep

Clean sweep

A very pleasing today on all fronts with lots of decent sporting action to get stuck into and generally favourable results all round for my most popular strategies. The highlight was racing where I managed a clean sweep on all 34 races I participated in. It’s pretty tricky to achieve that nowadays and there are many ways to get tripped up as the day progresses, so it’s a very satisfying result.

Coupled with some excellent results elsewhere it was a …

02/04/2011 | By More
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