A Reflection On Yesterday!

Apologies for the slow response but sometimes my work gets in the way of this punting game!!!

I had a fantastic day out yesterday, great weather, top class racing and some decent company and, aside from the extortionate prices that they charge at these events for food and drink, a fun day was had. I have to apologise regarding the circumstances about the Walkon bet (this will not happen very often), and as the price never reached the proviso this will not go on the account! I did say that I would give my reasoning behind the bet and for those who are interested, here it is.

As soon as the Triumph Hurdle has finished at Cheltenham I thought that the general feeling would be to look to pile into Starluck if it runs at Aintree. If you stopped the race turning for home then you would have thought Starluck was going to win easily however by the time they jumped the last hurdle, Walkon had taken his measure. The general perception about Aintree is that it is a speed track and it favours those who have speed rather than stamina, however I like to think otherwise. Yes it's a flat track and yes it's usually good fast ground but when you look at the times of the races closely it becomes apparent that there is also a need to have plenty of stamina, given the races are usually run at such a furious pace. For this very reason I believed that Walkon was going to finish in front of Starluck and similarly I couldn't understand why Hebridean was going to turn around an 18 length beating at Newbury in December, on 7lbs worse terms!! Even allowing for the fact that it was likely to improve for the flat track and better ground,and the fact that the trainer was so bullish, didn't give this horse the same chance as Walkon like the market suggested. When I looked at the prices on Wednesday night I was hoping for about 3/1 and it was generally available at 11/4 in most places (Bet365 were 5/2 but offered 1/4 the odds first 3). I thought the race only really concerned the front 3 in the betting, although I gave Ski Sunday a shout and on this basis I couldn't see Walkon finishing out of the places, with a favourites chance of winning! From a staking point of view I was left with the question 'do I put it up win only or do I hope to achieve 3/1 and go each way?' Clearly I opted for the latter and this has cost me a few points on the account but overall you have to do what you think is best at the time and in the long run this policy will make us plenty of money.

The race couldn't have gone much better to plan for Walkon and it has won really well and more than confirmed the Cheltenham form with Starluck. The horse is another advert to the training abilities of Alan King, and when it comes to getting a horse ready for the big day he has few, if any, peers as far as I'm concerned!

Mighty Man ran a great race and has practically ran to the pound with Big Bucks, who really is an exceptional horse. I cannot see anything stopping this winning another Stayers Hurdle next year, if connections decide to stick to the smaller obstacles, but there is along way to go before then, and as we've seen before, many things can happen between now and then!!!

I am quite keen on one horse today but I've not had enough time to look at the race in enough depth as yet but I will post something up by 3.30pm if I decide to play.