Open Weekend, But Owls Make It a Hoot!

The Open Meeting at Cheltenham was this week’s centrepiece and, with sporting action thin on the ground, horse racing took centre stage here at Star HQ. So here’s all the gambling news from the last week from my betting blog.

Monday

Monday started quietly, but things kicked off at Hereford in the shadows of a cider factory with defeat for Teshali in the selling hurdle. David Pipe’s horse was the subject of a couple of five-figure bets but was never travelling and finished well beaten behind the Michael Owen-owned Khorun.

Southwell usually stages dreary AW action, but the hurdles and fences were dragged out for some ‘proper racing’. The 320 looked a match (on paper at least) between the unbeaten Nicky Henderson-trained Mish Mir carrying a double penalty (less the excellent Jerimiah McGrath’s 7lb claim) and Oliver Sherwood’s Knockalongi. It was the latter that drew all our market attention including a £60k bet at 5/6; the big bets continued to come and, ending up at 8/13, we braced ourselves. Fortunately we never had much to fear, as Mish Mir made every yard to win unchallenged.

Hereford’s maiden hurdle at 340 became the final bullet to dodge of the day with Egypt Mill Spirit and Sainglend both subject of heavy support. John Ferguson may have purchased a few carthorses for the Godolphin operation, but he can clearly pick them and train them himself as Cotton Mill sauntered to an easy victory. 1-0 to us on the day.

Tuesday

Tuesday was a very quiet day in the office, and other than a very colourful odds-on punter having a big bet on Simply Ned in the first at Sedgefield, there was nothing else to report.

Wednesday

Wednesday saw more quality NH action and probably the most exciting horse of the season to emerge so far in Peddlers Cross at Bangor. One intrepid punter invested £20k to win £2500 but this was far safer than investing in Italian or Greek banks as Peddlers Cross cruised to victory. What to do with him must be a great problem for connections, as he’s a horse who finished 2^nd in the Champion Hurdle, has the size to jump fences and looks like he will stay much further.

Our novice hurdle fans came on for Distime in the Bangor 310, supported from an early morning 5/4 into 4/6 by several big bets including a £55k effort at 10/11. This again was never in much danger. These novice hurdles are great aren’t they!

Having saying that, the 350 in the gloom at Exeter gave some respite with the 2/1 second favourite Dream Function flooring Swincombe Flame and a £50k/£40k wager to boot.

Thursday

Thursday saw a couple of short-priced favourites at Ludlow attract the money. Nicky Henderson’s Cucumber Run in the novice chase attracted plenty of big bets and our chances here took a dive when the 2^nd favourite departed at the 1^st fence. Then the race became something of a farce with both the ‘bogey’ and Basford Bob going wildly left at the fences. Our only other chance, the 14/1 poke Silver Roque, followed the herd as well. The head-on was hilarious as they weaved down the straight like an equine slalom, Basford Bob finally getting rid of his rider when taking the last sideways! Not a fun way to do the money. Don’t think Cucumber Run will run right-handed next time out!

Even more exciting was the 255 at Clonmel where Shop Dj saw some big bets, including a £30k wager at 13/8. No fewer than four of the six runners traded shorter than 1/2 on the exchanges following a succession of falls and horses being brought down over the last two fences. Shop Dj was left with the race at her mercy at the last before coming to grief and handing the race to Blazing Tempo (who we laid for chunks when beaten the time before at Down Royal). Swings and roundabouts this game!

Alas the novice hurdle brigade was out in force again. Forgotten Gold winning a mega uncompetitive event at Ludlow, being backed from 8/13 into 4/9, left us behind on the day, and left me with a painful entry to the day’s betting blog.

Friday

Friday saw the Opening day of the Open Meeting which opened with an amateur rider’s chase (I can’t use the word ‘Open’ any more!). But our opening salvoes were fired in Paris for the men’s tennis, where our tennis punters decided that their big bets should support David (hope you pronounced that Dav-Vidd) Ferrer to beat John Isner 2-1 in sets. The match was finely poised at one set all but, thankfully for us, the giant American who will be forever known for that amazing match at Wimbledon last year won the third to save us the money.

Back to the mecca of jumping and Garde Champetre going for the usual domination of Edna Bolger horses in cross country races at Cheltenham. The odds-on boys steamed into this and, for once, the money stayed in the satchels. Despite coming with a rattle up the hill after looking well beaten, our old favourite Mr PW Mullins got one home in the shape of Uncle Junior for father.

This proved to be the day’s highlight, though, as £40k wagers on Steps For Freedom and a bet of £7k each-way on Decoy left bloody noses all round. This was topped off when ‘everybody who’s anybody’ sided with Grand Crus in the novice chase at the end of the meeting against Cue Card. Any hopes of a thriller to end the day were dashed when Joe Tizzard was sent into orbit by Cue Card’s mistake at the ditch; Grand Crus sauntered to an easy victory to leave us reeling.

Saturday

Saturday was typically manic in the office and, with a free bet promotion as well, it proved even busier than usual with many old faces reappearing (amazing what something for nothing does!). Wetherby kicked off the day with the Jim McGrath-owned Residence and Spa (the Channel 4 one, not the red wine consuming ‘Croc’) proving popular in the first race. However, it was no match for Janets Pearl and the day got off to a flyer.

Cheltenham’s opener saw a cracking 3yo hurdle; the two ex-French horses Hinterland and Ozeta attracted all the money. Although Hollow Tree gave us a chance, Hinterland always held too much. With plenty of money for beaten horses this wasn’t too bad a result.

The feature Paddy Power Gold Cup (I still call it the Mackeson!) wasn’t a massive betting heat and the winner Great Endeavour proved popular with the free bet merchants (typical!). However, defeats for Star Neuville at Naas and Restless Harry in the novice chase at Cheltenham gave us a good day, which even the patriots who backed England at 5/1 vs Spain couldn’t take away from us.

Sunday

This all leads us to today and the final day of Cheltenham’s three-day mini-festival. Paul Nicholls’ horses are now hitting top gear and victories for Al Ferof and Rangitoto got us behind. This wasn’t helped either by the earlier victory of Gauvrain (the Nicholls creature Woolcombe Folly a bitter disappointment here).

Phillip Hobbs again ran smart Chepstow-winner Fingal Bay who, despite a couple of sloppy jumps, came home an easy winner- he looks a real smart prospect. Though we laid a £12k bet on the winner, each-way support for African Broadway (another easy Chepstow winner) was left behind as he dropped away tamely after making the running.

A big bet of £500 each way the 16/1 winner in the last took the gloss off that and ensured the racing profit was nil.

The romance of the FA cup is back again (being a Portsmouth fan it will be my only memories of Wembley until we reach the Johnstone’s Paints Trophy final!) and plenty of big bets were seen for both Morecombe and the draw in their contest against Sheffield Wednesday (one of the ‘sleeping giants’ of the first round). The Owls raced into a two goal lead but a careless penalty for handball gave the hosts a chance and, when they had a goal (correctly) chalked off for offside late on, it was real hearts-in-mouth time.

The sporting day was completed with the Paris Masters tennis final between local hero Jo-Wilfred Tsonga and Roger Federer. 2-1 to Federer was our tennis punters’ bet here. Federer up against a partisan tricolour waving crowd must have felt like a British lorry driver at Calais, but he silenced them in cruising to a 6-1 first set. Tsonga fought back but, despite having break points in the second set, couldn’t convert. Fed almost predictably took the tiebreak to give us a good end to a good week.

Let’s hope it can continue and I’ll update you with next weekend’s edition of my betting blog.