Thursday 14 March 2013

Cheltenham Day 2 - On The Nose to the rescue.

Well it was another day that ended in deficit, but thanks to On The Nose hitting their second 20/1+ winner in less than a week, the damage was limited. The hero in question was Lord Windermere, backed each way at 20/1 antepost and winner of the RSA Chase. The Judge has hit form, and he came very close to another big priced winner (Meister Eckhardt - Coral Cup - 16/1) but just run out of it after the last by it's stablemate. The place part of the each way bet paid nicely of course. Either way, seriously good tipping.

That was the good news, and now onto the bad. 4PA has had a shocking first half to the Festival. Yesterday was particularly galling. I was left well and truly galled, as system qualifier Flaxen Flair stormed to victory in the Fred Winter at 25/1, a horse ballotted out as a selection. These things happen, but it was doubly hard to take after all other 4PA selections lost. These things happen, and no-one is to blame. PCB makes the call and his judgment as to what does and doesn't make the account has proven to be solid over the long term. Still, like I say - galling.

To be fair to 4PA, it did tip up Sprinter Sacre antepost at 6/4. Trouble is, that was before I rejoined the service and I missed out on the bet as the odds had become prohibitively short at time of renewal, so I didn't even gain the benefit of this advice yesterday.

My memory may be playing tricks on me slightly, but I seem to recall 4PA having a similar start to the Festival a couple of years or so ago - loser after loser and then balloted out Junior as an account bet, which promptly flew home at a good price. However, I remember the Friday bringing back all losses when Zarkander won the Triumph Hurdle and Long Run the Gold Cup. Let's hope for something similar this year.

Finally, Pont Alexandre will go down as the new record holder for the heaviest loss I have ever suffered on one horse. Tipped up heavily by 4PA and supported too by The Sportsman Racing, it's underwhelming performance was hard to watch. Git.

One small piece of luck I did have. I hadn't realised that my Sportyy subs had expired until fairly late yesterday evening. After paying my dues, I logged in to get the selections to find I'd missed a loser. I backed the other selection, a nice 2/1 winner in the wee small hours of this morning. Not quite enough to counter missing out on a 25/1 winner, but perhaps the Gambling Gods had had enough piss taking for one day.

4PA: Staked 11.2pts, -11.2pts.
On The Nose: Staked 3.5pts, +13.75pts.
The Sportsman Racing: Staked 0.5pts, -0.5pts.

No comments:

Post a Comment