He's back!

JP is back! The Don Corleone of betting bloggers. The King Kong. Goddammit, the John Holmes!

JP's blog became an absolutely essential daily read. His was a story that caught the imagination. Certainly it caught mine. From what was - in terms of the size of his betting bank - a relatively humble beginning, JP built his betting up, surfing the waves of strong performance provided at the time by the likes of Equine Investments, Steve Lewis Hamilton and Tipping Legends. There were mighty ups, deep downs, and every night, readers were treated to another exciting installment of what was a compelling story. JP was living what for many of us was the dream.

A series of events conspiring maliciously together though, forced JP to bring a halt to his journey. His last blog post was written two years ago now, although in the way that memory distorts the passage of time, it seems like only yesterday. For those two years, there has been a JP-sized hole in the blogging world. Today that hole has been filled.

I've been fortunate enough to get to know JP a little, and although having only actually met him in person on just the one occasion, I now consider him to be a real friend. I might suggest that after his experiences of a couple of years ago, that he is a little wiser and I for one have benefited from that wisdom. I've got a feeling that readers of his resurrected blog (link to the right) may well do the same.

Welcome back, JP.


After yesterday's triumph, has come today's disasters. I shall do my utmost to treat both imposters the same.

I backed five odds on shots today (three Strike Zone home bets and two The Sportsman Racing selections) without finding a winner amongst them. That kinda says it all.

On The Nose's small bet was also unsuccessful, and the only success today was provided by The Market Examiner and unfortunately that was adversely affected by a Rule 4 (Meet Me At Dawn - Southwell - 3.575/1). Good start to the month by TME though.

The Winning Racing Tips horse finished in the frame so a small return there (Gifted Girl - Kempton - 7/1).

The Market Examiner: Staked 3pts, +1.575pts.
On The Nose: Staked 0.5pts, -0.5pts.
The Sportsman Racing: Staked 1pt, -1pt.
Winning Racing Tips: Staked 0.5pts, +0.183pts.

Strike Zone (H): Staked 3pts, -3pts.


Now, just a little heads up for something that will be on these pages in the not so distant future.

I know we've been moaning about bookmakers a lot recently, but Boylesports have surpassed themselves in reaching new lows in levels of customer service recently. I intend to take them to task a little, not with any great hope of changing the world or anything, but rather to see what their reaction is to certain points that I am making to them. I will shortly spell out exactly what has been going on over the next day or two, and then I shall detail Boylesports' response. By this time tomorrow, I shall have contacted their Head of Customer Services and probably be awaiting their response. Then, by harnessing the power of Twitter, I intend to publicise our exchange as much as possible. I might need you lot to help me out a bit on that.

So in the spirit of Lassie, every one of the 101 Dalmatians, and Shep, may I shout a rallying call to arms...Tally Ho! Let free the dogs!


(PS. If any of you don't know who John Holmes is, please don't google it. Or if you must, make sure you use that "Private Browsing" function you can get now on your search engine. You'll thank me for that piece of advice, believe me.)