10th April

Welcome back to the blog, I’ve had a couple days break from the blog as I’ve been busy doing other things, on days like today when there are 7 meetings I don’t necessarily think that I have missed much in the way of betting opportunities, as funny as that may sound, as the weather has been poor which makes the ground unpredictable which in my opinion is one the of the most important variables to consider in horse racing. Rather I think I have dodged a difficult day, much as the racing entertained today.

I must say thank you to both Andrew (The Value Bettor) and Jason (High Class Equine) for their comments over the last couple of days. I’m not sure how the blog is coming across at the moment so to get some outside perspective on the way things are going is necessary for me to improve on what I’m doing here. I’m sure my writing skills will improve as we go on and it will become possible for people to read into how I’m actually feeling about things, I’m not sure if I’m coming across in the correct way at the minute as maybe, it seems, that I’m rather down on things at the moment. That isn’t true, I’m annoyed at myself yes, but I’m rather optimistic too that over the coming months I will provide some good reading material and most importantly some good profits!

For now I’ll be happy just to keep people interested without doing too much damage to my betting bank!

And so after a very busy couple of days we move on to tomorrow which hosts just the two flat turf meetings, with only a few races of interest rather than a potential host of meetings like today it is rather more manageable and I’ve hopefully found a couple of decent bets for the meetings…

I think Sam Lord showed enough last time to prove that he is worthy of some interest now returning to the flat, now rated at 72 he is 6lbs lower than his last turf win which was the last time he was tried on the surface in 2009. Since then he has been shown some promise over the jumps but has lost his way over the last few months. Timeform have previously noted that he seemed a better horse on the flat which was shown in his consistency, the trip and the ground if it gets soft won’t do him any harm and he should show a good account if building on his recent run at Wolverhampton. I won’t stake too heavily on though as Paddy Aspell has only had 6 winners on turf in the last 5 seasons. His win and place strike rate gets significantly better  when looking at trips normally ran on the other code though so there is some hope at least as it is being ran over 2m 1f ;)

 At 25/1 he is simply too big a price…

15:50 Pontefract

Sam Lord 0.25pt EW 25/1 B365, VCbet

Veiled Applause also runs tomorrow in the 17:25, he looked a good bets last time but it was on a day I missed blogging. He was well backed that day at Doncaster due to his course form and also he is now on a decent mark. Michael O’connell takes over on the saddle tomorrow and he has a decent strike rate for John Quinn and the horse dropped another lb although offset now due to a 3lb jockey allowance rather than the 5 last time. He was returning from a long lay off last time and now with that run under his belt I’d expect to him come on for it, the course is a little bit of a worry though as he has not placed once on his tries here although they were better races than these so there may not be too much to read into that. I don’t fancy tipping him at 5/1 but think he should run well.

I missed out on the price of Jack My Boy at Yarmouth, seems that you have to be very quick nowadays (!) but I still think that at the price there is still some value. He should strip fitter now after returning from a break and look thrown in on old form , I don’t think he deserved to be winless last year as he was just unfortunate to have bumped into a couple of improvers. In 2010 he ran in listed class and also won a grade 2 with an official rating of 93, as I alluded to above he has shown last season that the ability is still there. He is quite versatile on with the going so it shouldn’t be a problem should it turn soft by tomorrow evening. Matthew Cosham is decent value for his 5lb claim and has a good SR for David Evans. Blinkers replace a visor tomorrow too which is a bonus as he has won twice in them, the race doesn't appear to have much pace in so an easy lead is a distinct possibility and I don't think any of them have the ability to pass him should that happen.

16:45 Yarmouth

Jack My Boy 0.75pt EW 13/2 VCbet 6/1 generally

Good luck with any other bets.