Yes the Ferrari is going, I’ve had it 6 years so it’s time to let it go, whilst it still holds some value. Going back to a Porsche 4S
Would you point out their mistake?? Talking Horses: Proof punter-bookie relationship has changed for ever Whether or not Geoff Banks was cheated out of money at York, fractured state between bookmakers and those betting is beyond repair Greg Wood please log in to view this image Geoff Banks’s satchel was £3,375 lighter than it should have been when he left York racecourse on Saturday, he said in a post on social media, and the high-profile racecourse bookie was understandably hacked off. “Unsavoury end to York with one of my team confusing a payout of £375 with £3,750,” he wrote on X. “And the ‘punter/thief’ took the money. We informed the police and gave a description. There’s no excuse for this.” A subsequent report in the Racing Post suggests that the punter who made off with the cash may have been aware that Banks had laid a £1,000 bet at 11-4 on Tropical Storm, the winning favourite in the Roses Stakes, in addition to their own bet of £100 at 11-4. That implies in turn that Banks may have fallen victim to a hastily conceived – but still potentially criminal – act of fraud, rather than a failure by the punter to point out a mistake. But a sin of omission is a sin all the same, and Banks was disappointed that many responses to his original tweet were less than sympathetic. “It’s not the same battle between the old enemies that it used to be,” Banks told the Racing Post. “The betting public expects bookmakers to play fair and we expect the same, and then someone goes and does this; I think it’s abhorrent. “People seem to think that it’s something to make fun of or that we deserve it, but they haven’t considered the impact this has had on my staff member and on how the relationship should be between a bookmaker and a punter. That fairness seems to have gone, and that’s a great shame. It is always easy to be misty-eyed about the past, and the odd rogue (or three) has cropped up on both sides of the bookie/punter relationship from its earliest days. A contemporary account of Derby day in the mid-19th century reported that racegoers would hold hands to form a circle around their bookie of choice to stop them running away, while the fake bookie “John Batten” fleeced racegoers to the tune of £10,000 in the unregulated “Hill” enclosure at Epsom in 1997. At the same time, though, a great deal has changed in betting in recent decades, and certainly since Banks’s father, John, was in his mid-1970s pomp as one of the most fearless and flamboyant layers that the betting ring has seen. As such, he was an exponent of an approach to betting and bookmaking that had been developed a century earlier by William “Leviathan” Davies, who earned his nickname from the monstrous bets he was willing to lay. Davies was the first bookmaker to gain celebrity status, and his reputation depended entirely on trust – on his part, that bets were honestly struck and on his customers’ side, that he would be good for the money should they win. please log in to view this image Bookmakers at Newbury endure a slow day, with most punters’ experience of betting now being online, especially through their phones. Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images Davies famously lost £30,000 – the equivalent of about £3.2m today – to John Bowes, the owner of West Australian, when Bowes’s colt won the Derby in 1853, and insisted on paying Bowes in cash in the winner’s enclosure to cement his reputation as a bookie you could trust. For some of us, meanwhile, his legacy remains to this day. Davies retired to Brighton, and when he died in 1879 – a few hundred yards from where I am writing this column – he left a bequest to the local corporation to buy and preserve the much-loved Preston Park on the outskirts of the city. From Davies’s time until the early 1960s, the racecourse ring was the only place where anyone could legally bet in cash, but even after the legalisation of off-course cash betting, which launched a betting-shop boom, there was still a personal element to the bookie-punter relationship. Punters would tend to bet in the same shop, alongside the same group of fellow punters, from one day, and year, to the next. Even as recently as the mid-1990s, the bookie was still the old enemy, but you were often on first-name terms with the staff. Fast-forward a quarter of a century, however, and most punters’ betting experience has been transformed. A significant and ever-increasing majority of betting turnover is online, the big gambling conglomerates that dominate the market prioritise risk-free casino products over betting on sport, and any punter who shows signs of making the game pay – or even simply not losing enough to cover their “cost of acquisition” – is routinely closed or restricted after a handful of bets. The punters have changed. They shop around for prices, as most consumers do when they can, and bet without any human interaction at all (bar the regular complaints to customer service that a £20 bet has been restricted to pennies). But when it comes to explaining why the relationship has fractured, the bookmakers have changed far more. Banks, of course, operates at the track, which is almost the last redoubt of a personal relationship between punter and bookie. And to my mind at least, whether or not his punter was actively trying to pull a fast one, if he held on to £3,375 that he knew he had not won that would certainly make him a cheat. The significant number of keyboard warriors who seem to think that Banks is fair game is a sign of the regrettable extent to which online gambling has changed the whole game for good.
VIP TUESDAY Sending this early I reckon both go off shorter! 4.00 RIPON - MUSICKA - 8-1 - 1 point EW We backed MUSICKA in the class 4 handicap at York a month ago at 22-1 when running off a mark of 71. It was a good effort to out run the odds and we took the EW place money. We tried him again two weeks ago at Epsom Downs when he went off at 2/1 after finding strong market support. I seriously do not know how we didn’t win it - we went 1/16 in running before being collared on the line by ASHWIYAA. Both horses were well ahead of the rest of the pack and we have been nudged up 2lbs for that effort so we must win from a mark of 74 for this race. With that said the price is right at 8-1 and there are 4 places paid for most bookies that will hopefully cover us if we fail to get our head in front. It’s been nearly 10 races now since MUSICKA last got into the winners enclosure - the horse last won off a mark of 76, so there’s no reason to think we can’t get up in this company, despite other horses being less exposed. The main positive for this race is in my opinion is DANNY TUDHOPE taking over in the saddle in replace of Ben Robinson. No offence to Ben, but TUDHOPE is in cracking form of late - his strike rate sits at 18% throughout the past fortnight, he’s rode 7 winners from just under 40 rides. I’m hoping for another good run from MUSICKA to make up for last months loss. 7.25 STRATFORD - RONNIES RULES 11/10 - 1 point win Although a short price for this race, RONNIE RULES has to be considered a good bet with value in the price at 11/10. He's bidding for a four timer whilst dropping in class. He won his last race in style by 5 lengths and eased down - he never looked in any trouble at all. Ge has solid bumper form in Ireland over 3 miles so this step up in trip is not really a concern. The Skeltons picked him up and seen to be preparing this one for chasing. There’s only really FISKARADO and REMUS in the line up that could potentially trouble him here. This is a class 5 race and looks easier than his last outing. Ben Sutton will ride again with his 7lb claim so although he is top weight by nearly a stone - most of the is negated by his riders allowance. I’d like to see the horse get to the front and lead as he didn’t like being challenged for it in his previous races - that saw him hang and edge to to the right costing him ground (with that said he pushed on and still won that by 5+ lengths as well) Will probably go off odds on this one. TOTAL POINTS SUGGESTED 2.
VIP WEDNESDAY Good morning! 2.15 - CATTERICK - NALA STAR - 5/2 - 1 point win A bit of a drift for this one but it’s a long way to travel for the horse not to win today and she has a good chance to break her maiden after filling up the runner up spot on her first 3 outings. A return to 5 furlongs and applied cheek pieces today might well be enough to shed that maiden tag. 3.50 CATTERICK - JOHN KIRRUP 9/2 - 0.5 WIN The first one I was going to post today was JOHN KIRUP. I’ve been trying to land on this fella all year - he’s not cost us much in all fairness as he continues to place in each race off big double digit prices. So despite not winning, we have still made a small profit from him. He was 7-1 last night when I had him picked out… he’s into 9/2 now which is annoying as we don’t have our usual EW cover. With that said, the markets spoke well for him, he’s now 6lbs below his last winning effort and he’s bound to go in soon. I’ve had a smaller win bet on than usual as we have unfortunately missed the EW value that was available last night. If he drifts back out to 7-1+ I’ll probably stick another 0.5 on but I think that's unlikely at this point. 4.25 CATTERICK - SONNING 17/2 - 0.5 EW This is my only tracker horse for the day. I’ve left him alone for a few months but it’s time to get serious with this one now after his most recent effort here at Catterick. Although only 4th in a 7 runner race - it was a blanket finish and he was desperately unlucky not to get a clear run. He would have won the race if it was run with any pace and he did not find that trouble in running. In addition to that he flopped the start. There's a few pace setters for him to aim at here in this large field so his chances will improve in this 15 runner race. Lots suggest his mark is more than workable now. There’s a few we have backed this year running in this one including the hat trick seeking JAMIH who is also 17/2… ROBEAM ran well LTO off a massive price of 100/1 to finish 2nd in behind MYBOYMAX the other week but we saw MAX flop yesterday so it would be a big risk backing ROBEAM in my opinion even at 20/1 as the form in that race simply isn’t that strong. He will be held up for another late run and could find himself in the places if a few of these lot falter. 6.10 WORCESTER - LETTERSTON LILY 9/4 - 1 point win AL GASPARO is a shorter price fav than LETTERTSON LILY - the key to the selection in this race is the GALWAY listed contested at the end of the July which was won by GALE MAHER. This horse got the best of our selection by 4 lengths LTO. LETTERSON LILY lost little in defeat and at 4 lengths behind GALE MAHER was a lot closer than AL GASPARO got in that listed race at Galway (he finished nearly 20 lengths off) - Cromwell has brought this Irish raider over for this one but surely LETTERSON LILY should be the favourite? AL GASPARO looked incredible on his maiden hurdle debut at KILLARNEY in May but he beat absolutely nothing. Not one horse has come out to win from that race - so although it looked good on the eye, I’m not sure it’s as impressive as the distance suggested. Sean Bowen will ride for us again here and I think we can get back to winning ways. TOTAL POINTS SUGGESTED - 3.
VIP Hope we got the price on BEELEY last night as it’s odds on now. Best win today for us as owes us a win!!! Few more for today but looks quite tough this afternoon. We will do one or two for the racing league later. 2.18 CARLISLE - ANNANDALE 8-1 - 0.5 EW Don’t go mad with this one as he’s been useless for a while… ANNANDALE last won a race in 2021 of a mark of 85. We are now approaching 30 races without a win and to be honest I had all but given up hope on this one. Goldie off loaded the horse to the Jardine yard a few years back but interestingly decided to buy him back a few months ago. Neither trainer has been able to spark much interest with this one and although I track him, I’ve not tipped him for ages. There’s been no real reason to to be fair - most runs in the past year have been lacklustre but we have seen signs of an improved horse in the past few months. This is to be expected now the mark is down to a rock bottom 59… This is 26lbs below last winning mark and in addition to this we have a 3lb claimer on board today. He has been quite lightly raced over the past year and is still only 6 years old. A run at Redcar last August saw a second place off a mark of 65 and more importantly his most recently run off 59 here at Carlisle saw a much more improved version of him. Main concern today is the trip - I think he’s probably best over 1 mile 5 and this is unusually short for him as he takes on a mile today. EW value is there - surely has to get up soon. 4.15 - NEWBURY - GEO 3/1 - 1 point William Buick rates an interesting jockey booking for GEO this afternoon who makes handicap debut. She showed plenty of promise in her two novice runs here at Newbury (both times 4th) in healthy fields of 12 runners. Her effort at Windsor wasn’t the best but she lost any chance of a place due to being bashed about mid race and she honestly looked like she was saved after that. I watched that race back again this morning and have stuck the winner PREANKA into the tracker who was very impressive. GEO has been given a mark of 71 for her handicap debut, it looks workable for a yard that usually do very well with their 2 year old mares. 5.55 NEWBURY - MURASHAH 11/2 - 0.5 EW This horse is as short as 7/2 on most bookies only paying 4 places whereas 365 has him up at 11/2 with 5 places paid so I feel that is excellent value for an EW go. We are covered by 5 places if he flops but to be fair he made a good start to his racing career with a novice win at Haydock showing a good attitude to win in a bunched finish. I’m not sure what happened to him LTO at Kempton as other than getting away slowly, there wasn’t any obvious excuses for such a flat run. He went off fav and finished 6th of 12 - but was never troubling the leaders. With that said a few good horses including SUMMER OF LOVE came out of that race so I do feel we can forgive him for that. Charlie Hills is struggling for winners at the moment so hopefully this one can get him back into the winners enclosure. If you can’t get the 11/2 and EW protection I would probably look to swerve this or reduce your bet amount. TOTAL POINTS SUGGESTED - 2
VIP Good morning guys it’s heavy ground at FFOS LAS today so might throw up a few surprises - I probably would have bet that THREE DONS in the last but it’s odds on now. I’ll be keeping my eye out for a drift on it but it’s looking unlikely. Can’t really see what beats that today! 3 here to get us started - going to see what else I can find now across the cards will definitely be a couple more! 1.55 FFOS LAS - FLUERIR 3/1 - 1 point win Drifted a bit this one but I can’t pin point why. Yes the horse was last at Bath last tine out when up in grade but he’s back in class 4 company today and running off the same mark where he beat his rivals by a good 5 lengths on G-S ground. It’s heavy today at the course and the favourite doesn’t have the best record in these conditions. I’ve tracked FLEURIR for a while, it’s a decent horse for the Varian team and I reckon it runs well today. 3.40 FFOS LAS - DRUSILLA 9/4 - 1 point win Runs with a penalty after winning here last week on heavy ground. The penalty will make the task more difficult today but probably would have won the race by a more significant distance if not for drifting left badly in the final furlong. Won’t get away with doing that today in a tougher race. Carson rides again, the others don’t have heavy wins in the locker. Carson will need to get a good start to lead and make all from the from which is how the horse is usually seen to best effect. 5.30 SALISBURY - THE ACOT 5/1 - 1 point EW - 3 paid 365 still have this at 5/1 was 6/1 half an hour ago but being supported and rightly so. THE ACTOR is a class 2 winner at Newmarket. He’s been running in tough handicaps at Goodwood and even was tried in the Group 2 Coventry stakes at Ascot. He was 3rd here in a listed race in July. This race is a novice class 4… I’m baffled how an unraced favourite is 4/6 for this race in SARAB STAR… it must be an absolute rocket? How is it 4/6? I’m not sure, might be wrong but surely THE ACTOR should be the fav for this race? TOTAL POINTS SUGGESTED 3.
