The veterinary officer reported that when initially leaving the racecourse she observed that the mare was lame, however, on subsequent examination back at the stable yard, and having trotted her up without saddle or rider, Feeltherhythm appeared to be sound. Her withdrawal resulted in a deduction of 25p in the pound from all bets and also reduced to number of places for each-way and Placepot punters from three to two.
I would love to see some of the trading reports from the exchanges today. Seemed a very odd day all round especially with the Shane Kelly mounts.
I am puzzled by it all as I could not see any connection between them all but at the same time Shane Kelly had come from one mount at Southwell to ride three at Kempton who had all been off a while and had profiles of coup horses to some extent. There is nothing obvious to suggest something was up but at the same time it seemed less than innocent. I love those coups however, I know that some don't and I can understand that but I love watching them and it brings a little of the old style romance back to punting.
Here in the third world of racing, we often get riders hopping from one venue to another on the same afternoon. Nothing too suspicious me thinks, just someone trying to make a living. Sometimes they are just riding rubbish, just to get the fee. A lot of guys wouldn't survive without the riding fee.
Bluesky, according to today's paper several of the horses has connections to Barney Curley - one was formerly trained by him and was part of the big coup Curley landed in 2014. Another of the horses was trained by a former employee of Curley's.
Something was going on, but I think it was major bookmaker bluffery. The way the exchange was far out of sync with the on course betting in the NR case was interesting. It was as if the bookmakers were keeping it artificially short for a reason. The it becomes a non runner and it looks even more fishy. Massive R4 etc
As I regularly say to my regular readers on a regular basis not everyone, in racing, is like Mr Henderson.
The exchange prices tell you there wasnt a coup at all. My take is there was proper money for Seven Summits in the 5.25 at Kempton and that spooked the bookies. They then looked for some connection and came with some tenuous connection via Shane Kellys mounts, they then cut those mounts across the board it case it was a coup. They then annouce the coup to 1) make it so public that someone pulls the plug or has a word with Shane Kelly who then calls his part in it off and 2) gets some interest and some money for horses they have biggest margins on given the exchange prices. The exchange prices of all the runners was vastly over those being quoted throughout the day. The bookies actually had to push the horses out in the lead up to all the races to attact some money for them which tells you all you need to know. Their liabilily was some £15 total lucky 15 stakes for people wanting to say they were in on the gamble. No serious money or the exchange prices would have been 30% what they were.
There is a write up in the Racing Post regarding this from Bet365. A "few" accounts got on it after the prices went live at 6pm the day before, I presume when the other bookies saw this they shortened their prices for respective horses. I presume then people got caught up in the "coup" and this shortened the prices still more. Bet365 advise they dont allow a cash-out until 10am the day of the races. I wonder whether it was a few shrewdies making easy money and no risk by cashing out at 10am! Re the exchange prior to pulling out of the race the horse was 5/2 with the bookies but just shy of 7 on the exchange so Id agree the bookies were falsifying the price. Wonder how many got suckered into a lucky 15?
