JP's Betting Blog

Over and out !

2010-04-30T23:46:00.002+01:00

Well it was just ten days ago that I wrote a long post about "The Way Forward" for the rest of this year. Perhaps I was trying to talk myself into feeling better about things, but whatever it was, it didn't help and I've now reached a crossroads and I need to decide what I'm going to do.

It is clear to me now that the path I'm following at the moment is the wrong one - regardless of what happened in the last couple of years, I've got no confidence at all that this is going to turn round anytime soon, and it's just pointless thinking otherwise.

I've got no money coming in, the amount of cash I've got through over the last six months would give most people sleepless nights, and with every passing week the situation is getting worse.

I need to take some time out to have a think about things and try and work out the best way forward from here. I honestly don't know the answer to that at the moment !

Just about the only thing I have decided is that this is going to be my last blog post.

I've been writing here for two and a half years - over 800 posts, numerous comments in response, and over 350,000 visitors - I've been amazed by how many people look in every night to read my ramblings, and I'm very grateful for all the feedback I have received.

When I started out I never imagined I'd still be writing it after all this time, and it has been an integral part of what I've been doing over the last couple of years.

Thanks again for all the feedback - whether it's been ideas, encouragement, criticism, congratulations, abuse, or whatever else, it's been great to hear from you all.

To all those who are trying to make this game pay, I wish you all the luck in the world. I managed it for two years, and I hope I can find a way back to profitability before my bankroll runs out !

Be lucky !!!

Quiet again

2010-04-29T20:04:00.003+01:00

Thursday 29 April

Pretty uninspriring stuff again, producing just three losing bets from the portfolio - two from Fryboy and one from Nagman.

Not much else to add at the moment, with a bit of luck there'll be more to enthuse about tomorrow !

Thursday 29 April

Portfolio Results (below)...........(140)
Personal Bets / Trades..............(113)

Loss on day £253

No joy

2010-04-28T20:12:00.002+01:00

Wednesday 28 April

Not much action on Wednesday from the tipsters with three losers - one from SLH and two from Fryboy.

A few other losing Betfair trades, forecasts etc from me - day to forget really.

Wednesday 28 April

Portfolio Results (below)..............(210)
Personal Bets / Trades.................(188)

Loss on day £398

Steady day Tuesday

2010-04-28T10:32:00.003+01:00

Tuesday 27 April

Small profit from the portfolio on Tuesday thanks to Bollywood on SLH's exchange line (he also gave the second) and Woking won for Skeeve in the Blue Square South play-offs last night.

SLH's mainline bet Overrule lost, while two of Fryboy's selections - Ice Diva and Desert Strike - finished second, so just one place return on the day.

BLSC had a couple of winning bets on the Lyon - Bayern Munich game, but the Yankee advised on 4 short priced favourites came unstuck, I didn't put the Yankee on as I thought it was a poor bet - needed three winners to get the stake back, so I covered them in trebles and an accumulator instead.

Two losers from Nagman and a loser from Simplebet completed the action.

Tuesday 27 April

Portfolio Results (below)...............19
Personal Bets / Trades.................162

Profit on day £181

Better

2010-04-26T22:16:00.004+01:00

Monday 26 April

Got the week off to a good start, which hasn't happened much lately.

Star of the show was Fryboy who tipped three horses at Windsor tonight and found three winners - Getcarter 7/1, Sunny Game 13/2 and Contredanse at 3/1 (managed 11/4), great stuff.

A good day at last for SLH with Postmaster winning at Ffos Las tonight. Message went on line earlier than the advised time and the price had already gone by the time I looked, so had to back it on Betfair. Traded around a bit and managed to end up with 5.6/1 on Betfair, although it drifted pre-race and the SP was 6/1. A welcome winner though following a loser earlier in the day - Foreign King.

Three other bets today from BLSC, Nagman and Packed Pockets were all losers.

Monday 26 April

Portfolio Results (below).................688
Personal Bets / Trades....................(34)

Profit on day £654

Profit and Loss w/e 25/04/2010

2010-04-25T19:59:00.003+01:00

Running out of different ways to say the same thing at the minute.

Another losing week with £694 lost since last Sunday. All very depressing really, and something has to change soon as I can't continue to lose money like this week after week with nothing coming in. The overall loss now stands at just over £7000 since I resumed in mid-February, and the portfolio summary looks absolutely shocking at the minute with red numbers everywhere.

Dropped Tipping Legends and The Form Guru from my portfolio at the end of last week, and sods law being what it is, JC has suddenly hit a rich vein of form winning over 50 points this weekend. However, you have to make these calls as you see them, and it was the right thing to do as far as I'm concerned.

That pretty much sums things up, can't get anything to go my way at the moment - the SLH e/w double on Friday was another kick in the teeth - and I've got to admit to being pretty sick of the whole thing just now.

However, have to try and keep some sort of positive attitude towards going and just hope that things take a turn for the better. One bright spot on the horizon is that Equine Investments start their flat season next Saturday, hopefully they will provide the spark that finally gets things going for me.

Week ending 25 April

Portfolio Results............(944)
Personal Bets / Trades........250

Loss on week £694

Summary of Portfolio

Results in terms of points

Profit / Loss by day of week

Slow Sunday

2010-04-25T19:52:00.002+01:00

Sunday 25 April

Not much happening today, but with no returns on this weeks golf bets then it's a losing day. Partly mitigated by place laying KJ Choi a couple of holes into his second round on Friday at just under 4/5.

Fryboy was the only one of my racing tipsters in action today, and a place for Bo McGinty and two losers meant it was a losing day for him.

Two football bets for BLSC - a winner and a loser so no movement on the account, and the aforementioned golf losses completed the days action.

Sunday 25 April

Portfolio Results (below)...............(274)
Personal Bets / Trades...................190

Loss on day £84

Friday / Saturday

2010-04-25T14:41:00.004+01:00

Out on Friday night and a busy day yesterday so a couple of days results to catch up on again.

Will update Sunday's results and the weekly profit and loss figures tonight.

Friday 23 April

SLH's each way double on Friday pretty much summed up how things have been going this year for him, and for me. The first leg Eighteen Carat blundered his way round the hurdles track at Bangor making at least three serious mistakes. Despite that he was clear for most of the race, before being run out of it in the last 50 yards to go down by a neck. The second leg Midnight Spirit won and I made a profit of £80 on the bet, instead of the £1600 that the win double would have paid - sickening.

At least it was welcome to see him find one of these bets, rather than the short priced selections seen recently - I hope there'll be plenty more of them over the next few months.

Apart from that, Friday was pretty quiet - Fryboy had one winner from four with Flighty Frances at Wolves, BLSC had three losing horses but a winner on the Rugby League which I couldn't get on, and Nagman's only bet of the day was unplaced.

Friday 23 April

Portfolio Results (below)..............0
Personal Bets / Trades...............(16)

Loss on day £16

Saturday 24 April

My Birthday on Saturday, and at last a good winning day, although it was my other bets rather than the portfolio which contributed the bulk of the profit. No matter, made a change to get anything out of the day.

The main non-league season came to an end yesterday - the post season play-offs start in midweek - and Skeeve found two winners from two bets with Gateshead and Worcester both winning.

SLH's mainline bet Chernik ran well, was clear for much of the race, and traded odds-on during the race before being joined jumping the last and fading into third place.

Fryboy found the winner of the last race of the day - Nayassence winning the 9.20 at Wolves, but a 35p rule 4 deduction meant a small loss overall on the 4 bets he advised.

Nagman had just one selection again - Johnmanderville finishing unplaced, which was also a loser for SimpleBet who had two more losers for an eight point loss on the day.

BLSC gave Mabait at Sandown and a winning double on the football among four bets yesterday.

Saturday 24 April

Portfolio Results (below).................62
Personal Bets / Trades...................418

Profit on day £480

Results Catch Up

2010-04-22T21:36:00.004+01:00

I've now replied to all the comments which were left in response to my post on Monday night - once again many thanks for the feedback.

Need to catch up with results over the last couple of days, and it's the same story again with two more losing days - nine in a row now.

Nothing too drastic in terms of numbers but these steady losses quickly add up, and again I'm over £1000 down on the week - just cannot get anything going at all.

Wednesday 21 April

Wednesday was a pretty quiet day with just a handful of bets - oddly enough most of them in the same race, the 4.05 at Epsom where Fryboy, Simplebet and Nagman all advised losers.

SLH gave out a split stake bet on two horses in the Southwell 7.0, and Williams Wishes won the race - although Arctic Ben would have been preferable.

Three bets from BLSC - I didn't fancy Denman and so left the bet alone, had already got enough on Arctic Ben so passed on that one as well, and forgot about the only winning bet which was a double on Bayern Munich to get most corners and Aston Villa win or draw against Hull. Also included in the spreadsheet is a loser from Tuesday which was advised with Stan James, but I can't get a bet on with them.

Wednesday 21 April

Portfolio Results (below)...............(29)
Personal Bets / Trades..................(43)

Loss on day £72

Thursday 22 April

Another blank day and Nagman's tip Master Nimbus typified the recent run, challenging for victory jumping the last and crumpling on landing ! Otherwise two losers from Packed Pockets and a loser from Fryboy.

SLH put up a bet on his exchange line which baffled me. A one point back of Go Silver Bullet at minimum of 5.6 was fine, but why he felt the need to advise 1.5 points on De Boitron to cover the stake is quite beyond me. I left De Boitron alone and just backed Go Silver Bullet, and as it turned out Nelson du Ronceray came through and beat both of them !

Thursday 22 April

Portfolio Results (below)...............(231)
Personal Bets / Trades...................(67)

Loss on day £298

More of the same

2010-04-20T19:59:00.004+01:00

Thanks for the many comments left in response to my post last night - they are much appreciated and I'll get around to replying to them tomorrow.

In the meantime, just time to bring the results up to date and it continues to be hard going with two more losing days and £700 more to add to the losses.

Only winners on Monday were a short priced Isiris insider bet and a treble from BLSC, and there was nothing at all for me on Tuesday.

Things can only get better !

Monday 19 April

Portfolio Results (below).............(184)
Personal Bets / Trades..................57

Loss on day £127

Tuesday 20 April

Portfolio Results (below).............(288)
Personal Bets / Trades................(289)

Loss on day £577

The Way Forward

2010-04-19T19:37:00.002+01:00

Right, as promised, a few thoughts on where I am at the moment, and then some necessary changes to the portfolio and the staking.

It's just over nine weeks since I started up again this year with the intention of trying to make a living out of this game. I was under no illusions as to the task ahead, particularly given the way that last year ended, but I was confident that I had a good portfolio of services, was adequately bankrolled, and experienced enough to cope with the stresses and strains of doing this on a daily basis.

I still feel that way, but the seemingly relentless losses I've incurred over the last couple of months have taken their toll - probably more than I've realised.

In terms of the amount lost - then that's nothing unusual compared to the last couple of years, I've lost more than £6000 in four days before now, but when you watch every race and see things played out in front of you each day it somehow feels different.

It doesn't help that it has immediately followed the shocking run at the end of last year, and I'm sure the psychological wish to make a good start is another factor.

The results over the last six months have been very bad really - I've said before I was clearly pushing my luck by the time last November came round, but with only one losing month in the previous twelve I was trying to cash in even more, especially as November/December 2008 were my most successful months the year before.

When I consider the £18,000 loss I had in November / December, the amount I spent on my holiday, the losses since I came back, and the bills I've had to pay each month it is quite sobering to think about the amount of money I've got through in the last six months !

Have to admit that the last few weeks have been pretty stressful - I think it's one thing to try and make money out of this on your own account, it's quite different to entrust everything to the thoughts and advice of other people - as good as a lot of that advice has been over the last couple of years.

However, it has become clear that I need to take much more control over things - been on about it for long enough but my own pre race, or in-running trades will form a much bigger part of what I do from here.

Doesn't mean I'm abandoning what I've done before, but I need to take some remedial action and try and get things back on track.

The portfolio summary for this year to date is a sorry sight - with red figures everywhere, and while I've already dropped the Punter Profits NH systems and Winabobatoo recommended bets from my portfolio, I need to cull a few more.

With immediate effect, I am dropping both Tipping Legends and The Form Guru - these two services combined have lost me over 200 points in the last nine weeks, and that is just not sustainable.

I have Tipping Legends 78 points down (75 to advised prices) so far this year - and that doesn't include the 88 points they lost in the first part of 2010 when I was away. In fairness I should point out that they won 200 points between September and December 2009 , but these ridiculous swings are impossible to sustain for someone in my position, particularly for a service that pitches its prices at the top end of the market.

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know that I stopped following them at the end of August following a prolonged period of disappointing results. In September, there was a re-organisation at Tipping Legends, an adjustment to the staking plan and an immediate upturn in results which was maintained for the remainder of last year.

However, this year has been terrible - which prompted another round of contemplation from JC with the aim of re-focussing for the flat season. So far he's a couple of points in front for this month - that's despite two 28/1 winners at Aintree, but I've decided that I'm going to sit and observe from the sidelines again.

As far as The Form Guru is concerned, they are 96 points down to advised stakes and prices (!) since I re-started - I don't have figures for the beginning of the year as they aren't published anywhere, but they made a fair start from what I heard.

I'm over 120 points down this year, partly due to the recent change to stake everything 2 points win or 1 point each way, but also due to the constant problem with this service - that you can't achieve the advised prices. Quoting prices which are only available with firms such as Sporting Bet, Betfred, Skybet etc (who are bookmakers in name only) is just misleading. There have also been numerous instances of the prices not being there at all when the e-mail is received.

At £35 a month, it's not an expensive service compared to many - and I do believe that Chris knows the time of day, he's found some great winners over the last year.
However since I came back I've lost everything I won last year and after 1400 bets over the last twelve months for what is now no financial reward, I think it's time to give up the chase.

I signed up with Formbet a couple of months ago, and while their ratings sheets and the website is very good, the bets which have been recommended on the daily e-mails have proved expensive to follow - with a sizeable loss shown. I'm no longer following the bets, and I need to work out whether I can make any use of the site and the ratings in future - not made my mind up yet.

The form of SLH over the last few months has been a big concern, with no profits made since last June, following a golden period of 400+ points in less than 18 months prior to that.

I've always tried to take the long term view ever since I started doing this - as difficult as that can be at times, but it really is time that SLH kicked on again, as the current run isn't acceptable for a premium service such as this one.

I've also decided to level stake SLH's bets - either win or each way. The 3-4 point bets don't sit comfortably with me, and while level staking wouldn't have made a huge difference in the returns over the last couple of years, I prefer it to SLH's current staking plan.

Paul Jones service is just about over for this season, and while he didn't hit the heights of previous years at the festival, I'll definitely be re-subscribing when the renewal comes around in October. The new midweek service didn't really fire either, although plenty of those selected ran well and I still don't believe that photo of Imperial Commander losing to Kauto Star at Haydock !

Very much looking forward to Equine Investments getting started again on May 1st - had an amazing first year with them, and I'm hoping Laurence will pick up where he left off last season !

Nearly the end of the football season now, and Football Elite has been a star performer, with Matt producing some great results - particularly before Christmas. A return of over 20% on football betting is outstanding.

I've made a losing start with Skeeve, but he clearly knows the score as far as the non league scene is concerned - the biggest issue for me is getting the prices, but as long as the edge is big enough - which I think it is, then I should do OK here.

I'll keep going with Birdie Golf, although it seems a long time since that great night with Ryan Moore last summer. However I've just added the Betting Zone golf tips and will stake all these at the same level.

Of the services I've recently started trialling , some of these look very promising and I'll make a final decision on which ones I will continue with over the next few weeks.

That's how I see things at the moment - it's been a tough few weeks for me, and for anyone who is following a similar path.

I do still believe I can crack it this year, my only target when I came back was to remain in the game - and that remains the target.

Profit and Loss w/e 18/04/2010

2010-04-19T13:15:00.005+01:00

Another losing week with over £1700 lost during the last seven days. As I said in the last post, I can't allow this situation to continue unchecked and there will be changes made starting immediately.

Here's the weekly round up -

Week ending 18 April

Portfolio Results............(1726)
Personal Bets / Trades.........(14)

Loss on week £1740

Summary of Portfolio

Results in terms of points

Profit / Loss by day of week

Another Weekend Washout

2010-04-19T12:27:00.003+01:00

Another very bad weekend and I simply cannot let this situation continue without taking action to try and halt the slide. I'll put up the details of what I intend to do here later today, as well as a response to Changing Days' comment the other day regarding how I feel about things at the moment. First though, here's the latest tale of woe.

Saturday 17 April

Bad day with a loss of over £1300 across the portfolio and my personal trades. Nine losers from The Form Guru, all unplaced, was the main reason - including four in the Scottish Grand National.

SLH's poor run on the main account continued with Glingerbank finishing third at Ayr, although both of the lays on the exchange line were successful - still another losing day for SLH.

Paul Jones picked out two in the Scottish National, but That's Rhythm was an early faller and Mobaasher never figured.

Tipping Legends had Gone To Lunch in the Scottish National - ran a great race but found one too good in the shape of Merigo. Also selected Mobaasher in the race and had two other losers on the day.

Dingle View won for Fryboy, which covered the stakes on the other three bets and so a small profit on the day for him, while SimpeBet and Packed Pockets both had one loser each.

Nagman had a winner with Captive Audience which won at 3/1, and their Scottish National pick Dom D'orgeval finished fifth - caught right on the line to lose fourth place by a nose. Some bookies paid out five places, including B365 which Nagman advised, but not the one I used !

Skeeve had three out of seven correct on his non-league picks, but a loss of over £200 for me, while the BLSC and FLC bets more or less broke even.

Saturday 17 April

Portfolio Results (below)..............(980)
Personal Bets / Trades.................(351)

Loss on day £1331

Sunday 18 April

Level day on Sunday, and got a break with a late goal finally going my way when Sampdoria scored an injury time winner to beat AC Milan. That was for Football Elite, but Matt's other bet was a loser as Parma lost at home to Genoa.

Very quiet day on the horses - SLH's account bet Midas Way just managed to sneak into third place near the line - it wasn't pretty, the horse looks a complete dog !

Three losing bets from BLSC, although had Arsenal not capitulated against Wigan, it would have been a profitable day.

Golf wise, Betting Zone tipped up YE Yang who won the China Open at 14/1 (was late getting these on and had to take 14 on Betfair). They also tipped Heath Slocum at 70/1 for the Verizon Heritage. He was in the lead halfway through his final round, until the wheels came off big style and he missed the places by one shot - so frustrating ! Nothing from any of the Birdie Golf tips at the weekend.

Sunday 18 April

Portfolio Results (below)..............140
Personal Bets / Trades................(165)

Loss on day £25

Giving it away

2010-04-16T22:50:00.003+01:00

Friday 16 April

A profitable day for the portfolio, but a losing Insider Bet for Isiris and a couple of bad trades on Betfair by me ensured that I'm booking another loss today.

A better day for The Form Guru today with Al Co winning and big priced places for Minella All Star and Avonteur. I didn't notice that I wasn't fully matched on the place bet on Avonteur, which cost me around £20, as well as having to take under the odds anyway for the place.

SLH advised a lay of Kennel Hill for the second time in a couple of weeks, but this time he managed to get the horse beat - unfortunately he was pulled up injured with what is reported may be a career ending injury.

I had a look at the staking on SimpleBet last night, and realised I'd been overdoing thinks somewhat - their maximum bet is 10 points so £20 a point was too much for a service I'm trialling. Decided to cut the stakes in half from today...you know what's coming already don't you ?! Two bets, two winners and a profit of £175 on the day, half of what it would have been yesterday - I'm just not doing anything right at the minute. It was right to make the change but my timing is terrible.

Couple of winners also from BLSC with Methaaly finishing third at 11/1 and a successful bet on the corners market in the Serie A game tonight.

Three bets from Tipping Legends today, but Chaninbar couldn't repeat his Aintree victory from last week and so 7 points lost today.

Fryboy had three losers, and Nagman also came up empty when Harmony Brig lost at Ayr.

Packed Pockets gave out Sohraab, which was well backed - especially when Hugh Taylor gave it out on the ATR website as well, but finished unplaced. Not sure why the pivot table shows Snowy Morning in the results today - think I messed something up on the sheet last weekend and that's will have resolved itself now.

Busy Saturday, no doubt loads of bets - hopefully I'll be on the right end of things.

Friday 16 April

Portfolio Results (below)...............156
Personal Bets / Trades.................(348)

Loss on day £192

£240 down the BOG !

2010-04-15T21:48:00.002+01:00

Thursday 15 April

This is hard going at the minute - and I don't need to be getting 4 points under the odds when I do back a winner.

TFG had no fewer than 9 horses today - and things were looking pretty bleak when the first seven lost. So it was relieft when Wignore Hall won the Newmarket 5.20 as easy as you like. Couldn't get on at the advised 6/1 so had to do it on Betfair, nice enough winner but the SP was 10/1 ! Managed less than 6s after commission. All I needed !

Sedgwick was a winner for BLSC, and Bel Cantor ran into a place for Tipping Legends, everything else lost.

Thursday 15 April

Portfolio Results (below)............(326)
Personal Bets / Trades.................75

Loss on day £251

Struggling On

2010-04-14T22:23:00.003+01:00

Wednesday 14 April

Was out and about for most of the day today which meant I was late picking up all of the messages, and had to use Betfair to get the bets on as best I could.

I missed a few, prices had shortened and failing to get matched etc, but it worked in my favour today and saved me around £140.

Despite that it was a losing day, although there were a few winners along the way.

Nagman had a good day with two winners out of three - Rumoush and Colonel Sherman, while Blue Spinnaker traded odds on before finishing second.

SLH put up a two pointer on Burren Legend at 4/1, and given his current run, it was no surprise to check the results when I got home and find this one had finished second after trading 1.10 during the race - the winner Ouzbeck was matched at 200 !

One winner from TFG with Lenny Bee at Beverley, but that wasn't enough to cover the other losing bets.

Similarly Fryboy had one winner and two losers for a small loss on the day.

High Class Equine got their season underway with Daas Rite at Beverley, but it finished unplaced despite trading as low as even money in running.

BLSC had a winner with Wigan v Portsmouth under 2.5 goals, but three other losing bets - although I was only on one of them.

Nothing doing for Tipping Legends, SimpleBet or Packed Pockets today.

Wednesday 14 April

Portfolio Results (below).............(332)
Personal Bets / Trades.................156

Loss on day £176

Tuesday 13th

2010-04-14T01:11:00.002+01:00

Tuesday 13 April

A much better day on Tuesday with a winning account bet for Isiris the highlight. Other than that, a rare bit of good fortune when Monsieur Joe got up right on the line to win the Yarmouth 4.0 by a nose - I felt sure that Maldon Prom had just held on, as did those on Betfair who backed the second at 1.04 in the photo finish market !

Cornus was a winner for Fryboy, and thanks to BOG I got paid out at 6/1 rather than 9/2, which always comes in handy. His other two selections on the day lost.

Two from Tipping Legends - Tartan Gunna finished in the frame, while Mey Blossom was unplaced.

Nothing doing for Nagman or from Packed Pockets, whose selection Cappagh was very heavily backed in the morning to the extent that I missed the advised price, but I backed it just before the off when it drifted back out in the pre race market. I knew my fate early though, as the horse never travelled a yard.

Football Elite had a rare midweek bet with Sporting Gijon put up against Tenerife, but it the was the away side who won 2-0 to record their first win of the season on their travels and double their number of away points won in the process.

Tuesday 13 April

Portfolio Results (below)..............(191)
Personal Bets / Trades..................784

Profit on day £593

Monday 12th

2010-04-14T01:04:00.002+01:00

Monday 12 April

The start of a new week, but no change in fortune with no winners on the day. It was pretty quiet actually, with not much to get excited about. I'll just post the results and leave it at that.

Monday 12 April

Portfolio Results (below)...............(193)
Personal Bets / Trades..................(175)

Loss on day £368

Sunday 11th

2010-04-14T00:35:00.002+01:00

Sunday 11th April

A winning day for the portfolio thanks entirely to the efforts of Matt of Football Elite, who had three selections and three winners - Espanyol, Real Mallorca and Sampdoria all doing the business.

There wasn't much action on the horses with SLH selecting two against the field in the Market Rasen 2.30 - nothing doing as Hazy Oaks and Solway Blue both getting beat, the latter traded at 1.04.

Packed Pockets had one bet with Mawsem finished second at Southwell, another one to trade odds on in running.

Three bets from BLSC, two on the football and one on the horses but nothing doing with any of them - first time in a few days I managed to get these bets on.

No joy for Birdie Golf with their US Masters bets, although Ian Poulter was joint leader at halfway but couldn't sustain his challenge.

Formbet put up some bets on the Masters as well earlier in the week and I decided to back these as well - Anthony Kim advised each way at 40/1 was placed, while Nick Watney given out at 2 points each way at 66/1 had a great final round to finish 7th and just miss the places.

I've added the Sporting Life Betting Zone golf tips to my portfolio - doing these at £10 per point, but nothing doing from the picks on the Masters.

Picked out a couple of bets of my own on the Sunday night two balls, and I came unstuck big style. My two picks were KJ Choi at 9/4 against Tiger Woods, and I also laid Fred Couples against Hunter Mahan.

Choi was playing great, and putting beautifully and at one stage was five shots in front of Woods. I could of course have got out at a shot price, but I didn't feel I needed to with the way they were playing. Choi wobbled, but even then Woods three putted from about five feet on the 14th and it still looked good. However he eagled 15 to close the gap to one, and when he birdied the 18th, he tied Choi's score and my bet was lost.

Couples led Mahan by three after ten holes but then dropped shots at 11 and 12 and they were level. Mahan took the lead after 16 holes, but then disaster on 17 as Couples birdie, Mahan bogied and Couples was back in front. Pars for both at the last sealed my fate.

Sunday 11 April

Portfolio Results (below)...................279
Personal Bets / Trades.....................(625)

Loss on day £346

Grand National Day

2010-04-13T23:55:00.003+01:00

Saturday 10 April

Was back to losing again on National Day. It didn't help that Don't Push It wasn't among the list of horses I bet in the big race, although it was great to be there on the day McCoy finally ended his long wait for a National winner.

Black Apalachi and State Of Play who finished second and third would have been cracking results for me - as it was I got the place money on State Of Play who was one of two from Paul Jones ante-post.

As far as following the tipsters on Saturday, I didn't manage to get any of TFG's selections on apart from the National tips which were given out the night before or ante-post. Despite missing a winner with Tataniano and a place with Duke Of Lukka, I didn't miss out on anything overall with the Saturday bets. The ante-post bet on Big Fella Thanks at 25/1 was duly landed, but without any of my cash on it, as it was given out while I was on holiday in the early part of this year.

I did back Tataniano, as it was put up as a four pointer by Tipping Legends, and JC also had Rare Bob placed on the card.

Didn't pick up SLH's message which cost me a winner when I missed the one point win on Khyber Kim at 3/1, as well as a loser at Cheptstow - Arumun. Couple of points went begging there, but made up for that by not backing Imperial Commander on Thursday.

Losers all the way otherwise with Fryboy, Nagman, SimpleBet and Packed Pockets all coming up empty, while Formbets list made an 11 point profit thanks to Tataniano and Dee Ee Williams. Again I never bet these on Saturday.

Skeeve had a bit of a nightmare - Rushden missed a penalty which would have landed a 5 point bet on over 2.5 goals, and Braintree squandered a 2-0 lead which scuppered a 4 point double, so 17 point lost on the day unfortunately.

Saturday 10 April

Portfolio Results (below)................(698)
Personal Bets / Trades....................(25)

Loss on day £723

Friday 9th

2010-04-13T23:22:00.002+01:00

Friday 9 April

A much better day on Friday thanks entirely to Always Waining who won the Topham Trophy at an SP of 22/1.

The horse was put up by Tipping Legends and The Form Guru at 28/1. Packed Pockets gave it out early in the morning when it was available at 40/1, but that was long gone by the time I got the message. I averaged just under 25/1 after commission on Betfair, which was good enough as I had £62.50 each way on it.

As well as Always Waining, Tipping Legends gave Scotsirish in the race - who finished second at 20/1 (advised) - the exacta paid over 500/1 ! Didn't do it unfortunately. A pretty good day all round for JC, in the 4.55 he gave Bob'n'You and Carsonstwon Boy who finished second and third both at 16/1(adv).

Packed Pockets clearly had a great day, and it got even better later when Goliath's Boy won at Musselburgh. Unfortunately this was one that got away, it was less than 3/1 on Betfair having been advised at 4/1 earlier.

Another loser for SLH on his mainline with a three point bet on Escort'men going astray, two losers for Simplebet - although I never picked up the bet on Shawkantango as the battery on my phone had gone by then !

Nagman had Carsonstown Boy each way second at 18/1, I managed 4/1 for the place on Betfair, their other two selections lost.

As on Thursday Formbet sent out a list of bets with his e-mail, overall a one point loss on these, but I didn't back any of them - and I forgot about the BLSC bet on the football, which lost as well.

Friday 9 April

Portfolio Results (below)....................976
Personal Bets / Trades.......................(63)

Profit on day £913

Thursday 8th

2010-04-13T22:43:00.002+01:00

Thursday 8 April

First day at Aintree, and the meeting didn't get off to a great start with winners in short supply.

By far the best result of the day was Chaninbar, advised as a half point each way bet at 28/1 by Tipping Legends. Being at the track meant putting all the bets on via Betfair - managed just over 25/1 for the win, but less than 5/1 for the place. This meant I finished the day level on the TL bets, rather than a couple of points in front.

The Form Guru had a bad day with 19 points lost, although Sanctuaire traded 1.01 in running before emptying out to nothing and finishing third, Nacarat traded at 1/5 and Majaales ran a very good race at a big price. My new staking plan for TFG meant I actually lost 24 points on his bets.

SLH put up a four point bet on Imperial Commander, who was struggling when unseating Paddy Brennan down the back. I didn't actually place this bet - had already had it advised elsewhere, and not being a fan of backing short priced horses, couldn't see the point in backing it again.

SLH is on a poor run at the minute, and I don't like all these 4 point bets. I still haven't got around to reviewing my staking on these, but will get it done as soon as I can. However mrh-beats on his My Betting Life blog has done some research of his own on this - see the link on the right.

The SLH exchnage line was better - Me Voici advised as a place lay, duly finished out of the frame.

Another winner for Fryboy on Thursday with Thaliwarru winning at 11/2 (adv), no joy for Nagman or Simplebet, while Packed Pockets were also on a loser with Pigeon Island but I never got the bet so dodged one there.

Formbet sent out a list of highlighted horses at the top of his e-mail as he did at Cheltenham, but with so much action already I decided to pass - nothing doing really with a loss of just under a point.

Thursday 8 April

Portfolio Results (below)....................(793)
Personal Bets / Trades........................157

Loss on day £636

Wednesday 7th

2010-04-13T22:27:00.002+01:00

Been typing up results for most of today, and I've just about got there I think.

Wednesday 7 April

A losing day overall, but Fryboy had a couple of winners with Decency and Shelfah, Nagman had Wi Dud at 9/2 among his three selections, finished unplaced) and BLSC found Chjimes which also won at 9/2.

Expensive day for TFG with 7 losers, while Tipping Legends, Simplebet, and Packed Pockets also had losing days.

Wednesday 7 April

Portfolio Results (below)..................(292)
Personal Bets / Trades.......................40

Loss on day £252

Next update Tuesday

2010-04-12T19:57:00.002+01:00

Had a cracking few days in Aintree, back home late Saturday and had a few things to do since I got back. Still pulling all the results together from the last week or so, but should have everything up to date tomorrow.

Haven't made any sort of breakthrough in the last week - indeed Always Waining got me out of a bit of a hole. Didn't have Don't Push It on my National shopping list. Not sure what the overall picture looks like, but still looking for a change in fortune.

New Blood

2010-04-06T22:25:00.004+01:00

Here's a note regarding the new services I'm trialling with a view to freshening up the portfolio over the next few weeks.

I'll add links to each of these in the "Services I Use" list to the right.

Fryboy
Nagman
Packed Pockets
Simplebet
Betting Laying Sports Club / Football Laying Club

I'll be betting all of these to £20 per point and will record the results on the blog each night.

It's unlikely I'd be able to go with them all long term - but with a bit of luck I'll find a couple of worthwhile additions which will serve me well for the rest of this year.

*****

Now for the results for the last couple of days, and it was a flying start for Nagman who found the winner of the Irish National with Bluesea Cracker advised at 33/1.

I've since found out that Packed Pockets gave it out as well, but I only started following their tips today !

Formbet also sent out a preview of the Irish National in an e-mail last week highlighting the trends for the race - where Bluesea Cracker came out top, but I never got round to reading it until last night, and it wasn't sent out as a staked bet so never saw it.

Tipping Legends, The Form Guru and Paul Jones all concentrated their efforts on the Irish National as well, but none of them hit the frame.

A win treble for BLSC on the football on Monday covered most of the stakes on three other losing bets. I didn't follow the advised lay of Coventry at 6.0 - 6.6 which won.

Finally for Monday, Fryboy had a couple at Redcar. Born To Perform only finished second after arriving there on the bit 2f out (traded 1.1), and Young Gladiator finished fourth.

Today, Staff Sergeant was a winner for Packed Pockets - advised at a morning price of 4/1, eventually drifted to an SP of 7/1, but unfortunately for me only £10 of my bet was done with BOG.

King Fontaine was the only other winner of the day, for BLSC, who also had Megalo Maniac in the first at Southwell (also tipped by Fryboy). The horse finished second at 6/1. I wasn't around to watch the race and it was only when checking later that I found out it had traded at 1.01 on Betfair - my second 1.01 loser in a week !

Apart from the two winners there wasn't too much else to enthuse over but it's been a promising start for the newcomers who have provided all the winners so far this week.

As I mentoned the other night I'm off to Aintree for the three days of the Grand National meeting. The next blog update will be on Sunday evening - there'll be plenty to catch up on, hopefull there'll be some good news to report !

Best of luck for the rest of the week.

Monday 5 April

Portfolio Results (below)..................175
Personal Bets / Trades......................90

Profit on day £265

Tuesday 6 April

Portfolio Results (below)...............(222)
Personal Bets / Trades.....................0

Loss on day £222

Profit and Loss w/e 04/04/10

2010-04-04T22:31:00.005+01:00

A disappointing week with another loss, and the struggle to get any sort of momentum going continues.

As I've always done ever since I started using this approach back in September 2007, I am constantly reviewing and evaluating results and performance. I mentioned on the other post that I'm looking at making some changes - the first one today was to tweak the staking on the The Form Guru tips so that all bets are staked either 2pts win or 1pt e/w. I've got nearly a year's worth of results which suggest this is the optimal staking plan so I've made the switch immediately.

It's been a poor run of results for TFG since I restarted. This service has always been prone to major swings in fortune but this has been the worst run I've encountered - however things have improved recently, and I've made 55 points since the start of Cheltenham so I'm looking forward to getting a decent run going.

Tipping Legends have been on a horrific run of results so far this year - with 166 points lost in the first three months. That said the four months prior to that made 200 points profit. Luckily for me, I came back part way through the bad run so my own losses are 66 points so far this year.

Clearly a 166 point drawdown will cause serious damage to any betting bank, and to confidence, and has prompted another re-think from JC. Some of the details are on the TL website, as well as in an e-mail sent out to all subscribers. It is to be hoped that the change in approach has the desired effect. I intend to continue following the Tipping Legends bets, at least for now, but need to see a major upturn in performance over the next few months.

I had hoped to spend a bit of time today looking at my results for SLH over the last couple of years to see whether adopting a level stakes approach (ie 1pt win or 0.5 e/w) would be more profitable. I haven't managed to do this yet, but will try and get it done over the next couple of days.

As you know, I've recently dropped the Punter Profits NH systems and Winabob from my portfolio, and have been thinking about replacements for them. I am going to try out three or four services to small stakes over the next month or so and see which ones, if any, I want to add. I'll give full details of the ones I'm looking at in the next day or so and will post results on here as well - was going to do it tonight, but it's getting late and I've run out of time.

Looking ahead to the coming week, it's the Grand National next Saturday, and I'll be making the trip to Aintree for all three days. Really looking forward to it, it's been a bit of a slog since I came back from holiday and it'll be good to get away for a few days.

Will be travelling over on Wednesday afternoon, so after Tuesday the blog will not be updated until next Sunday.

Enjoy the Bank Holiday tomorrow whatever you're up to and good luck with your bets next week !

Week ending 4 April

Portfolio Results...............(424)
Personal Bets / Trades..........(687)

Loss on week £1111

Summary of Portfolio

Results in terms of points

Profit / Loss by day of week

Weekend Round-Up

2010-04-04T22:05:00.004+01:00

Despite a rare winning day on Saturday, a poor day on Sunday meant another losing weekend.

A good day on Saturday for the portfolio thanks to a a couple of winners for The Form Guru, as well as a place, and a winner for Football Elite with Catania.

Skeeve's non league weekend bets started well with a couple of winners from three games on Friday, but both Saturday bets lost so it was a losing weekend here - didn't help myself though as in my haste to get the bets on I didn't pay enough attention to the advised stakes and had £100 on each, meaning I had £25 too much on a loser, and £25 too little on a winner !

I still get the Winabob newsletters even though I've not been following the bets for a few weeks now. The "home zone" bets have been going well, so I decided to have a go and combine the selections in 5 doubles - unfortunately came up empty on these. Should have just stuck with my original plan for Saturday which was to back Swindon !

Sunday was a poor day though - very frustrating for Football Elite with three 1-1 draws from three bets, Birmingham was advised as draw no bet so at least the stake was returned on that one, but an 88th minute equaliser for Real Mallorca at Almeria meant a £500 swing against me. The loss was compounded when Auxerre could only manage a draw at home to PSG - the first time this season they've failed to win after scoring first.

The only winner on the racing was from Olympian for The Form Guru. I've made a change to the way I'm staking these as from today. All bets will be staked either 2pts win or 1pt e/w - looking at the results for the last year, my returns would have improved significantly. Not today though - my new approach cost me £120 !

That's the first of a number of changes I'm looking to make over the next couple of weeks - more to follow later.

Tipping Legends played in the Musselburgh 3.50 with the main bet on Highland Legacy with a point on Bogside Theatre effectively a saver - not to be though as they finished 4th and 3rd respectively.

The Formbet picks have struggled since I signed up for this service - the ratings themselves do well most days, but the highlighted bets have not performed so far. Again this is something to look at so I can get the best out of these.

Finally, nothing doing with the golf this weekend as neither Adam Scott or Stuart Appleby reached the frame in Houston Open.

Saturday 3 April

Portfolio Results (below)..................616
Personal Bets / Trades....................(300)

Profit on day £316

Sunday 4 April

Porfolio Results (below)...............(775)
Personal Bets / Trades..................(81)

Loss on day £856

Spit roasts the rest

2010-04-01T20:46:00.003+01:00

Thursday 1 April

A winner each for Tipping Legends and The Form Guru with Spitfire and Chance du Roy doing the business for me.

Poor day for SLH's exchange service, where he advised 1 point lays on the short priced favourites in the first three races at Ludlow - and all three won !

Day off from the racing tomorrow, which is more than welcome - give me a bit of time to have a think about one or two things.

Got a couple of non-league football bets tomorrow, but I'll probably hold everything over and update again on Saturday evening.

Thursday 1 April

Portfolio Results (below)..................275
Personal Bets / Trades....................(142)

Profit on day £133

Hard going

2010-04-01T11:20:00.002+01:00

Wednesday 31 March

Some days just leave you scratching your head and wondering what's the point - Wednesday was one of those.

TFG had four each way bets yesterday - Imperial Royale (12/1 adv) finished third in the opening race at Hereford, beaten 15 lengths in third, despite trading at 1.01 in running for 10K - the horse was clear jumping the second last but was legless by the time they came into the straight.

Abey M'Boy also finished third - this one traded very short as well, matched as low as 1.08 before tiring badly over the last couple of flights.

The other two bets were unplaced, although Kercabellec finished fourth.

SLH gave Oscar Gogo on his exchange line - finished third.

Isiris had another winner - an insider bet at Kempton, but any profit I made here was lost when I layed the draw in the Arsenal v Barcelona game. Could have got out at 28 at 2-0 to Barca, but I left it and it ended up costing me £250 !

Wednesday 31 March

Portfolio Results (below)................(134)
Personal Bets / Trades.....................(2)

Loss on day £136

As dismal as the weather !

2010-03-30T19:55:00.002+01:00

Tuesday 30 March

A poor day today, with 4 losers from TFG and one from SLH on his mainline - never got a run for my money with any of them, the only one that wasn't being shoved along with a lap to go had already fallen !

Busy day on SLH's exchange line with lays on Mac Aeda and Raduis Bleu both beaten (had to lay Raduis in running as I couldn't get matched pre-race), but two backs on the 4.0 Fontwell came to nothing so a small profit on the day.

No joy either on any of my own bets and trades as a further £162 was lost.

Tuesday 30 March

Portfolio Results (below)..................(356)
Personal Bets / Trades.....................(162)

Loss on day £518

Quiet

2010-03-29T17:29:00.002+01:00

Monday 29 March

Very quiet start to the week with just one bet, Alteranthela a two point win bet for Tipping Legends - pulled up at Towcester.

Other than that, didn't get involved in anything else at all today.

Leave it at that, and see what happens tomorrow.

Monday 29 March

Portfolio Results (below)..................(50)
Personal Bets / Trades.......................0

Loss on day £50

Profit and Loss w/e 28 March 2010

2010-03-28T20:46:00.004+01:00

A decent week with a profit of £1386.

Still behind on the year, but I've managed to cut the loss in half over the last couple of weeks so at least things seem to be heading in the right direction.

Easter next weekend, which means a rare day off from the racing on Good Friday but there should be plenty of opportunities during the week.

Saying that, it seems we're not quite done with the bad weather as snow is forecast for some places on Tuesday.

Week ending 28 March

Portfolio Results...............251
Personal Bets / Trades.........1135

Profit on Week £1386

Summary of Portfolio

Results in terms of points

Profit / Loss by day of week

Close encounter

2010-03-28T20:37:00.002+01:00

Sunday 28 March

Decent day on Sunday to round off a profitable week.

TFG gave out Deadly Encounter at Doncaster, just managed to get his nose in front close home to deny Internationaldebut (traded 1.03).

SLH put up two against the field in the Wincanton 4.35 on his exchange line - Holmwood Legend and Oncle Kid filling out the first two places. It was only when they were jumping two out that I thought about a reverse forecast !

Football Elite gave Villareal in La Liga, and they made light work of Sevilla running out 3-0 winners. Watched the second half live on Sky, and it was about the most relaxing hour of viewing I've had in months.

An adjustment to yesterday's Skeeve results - typing error meant I recorded the Mansfield game as a £34 loss, actually made £31 on the game so I'll include the revised total in with today's profit.

Sunday 28 March

Portfolio Results (below)........................361
Personal Bets / Trades...........................(43)

Profit on day £318

Usual Saturday story

2010-03-27T20:40:00.003Z

Saturday 27 March

It's been a decent week up until now, but things just don't seem to click for me on Saturdays lately. I had some horrendous days towards the end of last year, and while the losses are less dramatic now - the story so far this year has been the same.

It's obviously the busiest day of the week, and the most competitive racing, so when the winners don't come I'm always going to struggle.

The only winners on the horses came from SLH on his exchange line, but they didn't cover the stakes on his main line losers.

TFG and Tipping Legends both had a busy day - but three places at decent prices were the only returns.

Formbet highlighted just one horse at the top of their e-mail but Tax Free finished nowhere.

Profitable day again for Skeeve on the non-league football, just a couple of goals away from being a really good day.

Late updating this tonight as I was waiting for the Real Mallorca v Barcelona - where Football Elite had put up the home side at 6/1. A win here would turn the whole day around, but despite Mallorca hitting the post in the first minute and again later in the first half, Barcelona scored midway through the second half and that was that.

Saturday 27 March

Portfolio Results (below).................(725)
Personal Bets / Trades......................0

Loss on day £725

Eddy masters his rivals

2010-03-26T19:16:00.002Z

Friday 26 March

A very good day today, thanks to a winning Isiris account bet, and a good winner for TFG with Master Eddy at Newbury.

Sambulando could have made it a very good day for TFG, but had to give best to County Zen having traded 1.1 in running.

Have to mention Punter Profits which gave out Samizdat on two of their systems, which won at 11/4 - but of course I've stopped following these now ! TFG tipped up Twentynineblack in the race which finished second.

Wasn't the end of the world though as I had a dabble on the reverse forecast, which came in when Quintero fell at the last.

Friday 26 March

Portfolio Results (below)................125
Personal Bets / Trades...................768

Profit on day £893

Seconditis

2010-03-25T21:26:00.003Z

Thursday 25 March

Nothing today with a loser for SLH on both his mainline and his exchange service which both finished second, as did the only Tipping Legends tip Manoubi - although only Manoubi ever looked like it might collect.

Punter Profits systems produced two short priced bets - a winner at 1/6 and a third at even money. I'm moving towards ditching these bets now and start looking to exploit some of the other excellent information which can be found on their site.

Couple of mentions today from EI, produced a second place at 9/1 but a made a few quid in-running on Betfair today.

Thursday 25 March

Portfolio Results (below)......................(470)
Personal Bets / Trades...........................60

Loss on Day £410

Football Elite to the rescue

2010-03-24T22:27:00.003Z

Wednesday 24 March

No joy on the racing this afternoon, but two from two for Football Elite turned the day into a profitable one.

Tipping Legends tipped up Brooklyn Brownie as he would get his favoured fast ground at Haydock this afternoon. Things didn't go as planned though, as the going turned soft and the horse was beaten with a lap to go.

Still at least I got a run, of sorts, for my money which is more than I did with Marsh Court at Warwick. The horse was playing up at the start and it was pretty clear before the tapes went up that he wasn't going to take part. Owls FC also refused to race, but that one was correctly deemed a non-runner as his jockey was dismounted. However Marsh Court did run, despite never passing through the starting gate, and so I lost my money !

This farce took place just 15 minutes after a disgraceful episode at Haydock, where Nevertika who was the gamble of the day bolted before the start, did a complete lap of the track at full pelt - was eventually caught and led down to the start where he was allowed to race. Amazingly enough, the horse was tailed off after half a mile and was pulled up before halfway - and they're trying to encourage people to take an interest in this sport. Any first timers who backed either of those two today will probably never come back, and who could blame them ?

Wednesday 24 March

Portfolio Results (below)...............158
Personal Bets / Trades..................186

Profit on day £344

Early Finish

2010-03-23T17:57:00.002Z

Tuesday 23 March

Another quiet day with just a handful of tips - no winners, but Silver Phoenix traded as short as 1.12 in running before finishing second. I've said many times before that I need to be getting something out of situations like this, and this time I managed to lay it short and get £100 out of it, plus the each way return.

SLH backed Smoothly Does It on his exchange line at Exeter, but could only manage second place behind 20/1 shot Freddy's Star.

Nothing doing on the football tonight, but I might have a look for something later - will include it in tomorrow's figures if I do get involved.

Tuesday 23 March

Portfolio Results (below)................(220)
Personal Bets / Trades.....................92

Loss on day £128

Pocket money

2010-03-22T19:15:00.002Z

Monday 22 March

I've certainly needed deep pockets since I started up again last month, but a good start to this week at least thanks to the horse Deep Pockets - a winning four point bet for SLH at Plumpton today. There was a rule 4, but a very nice return despite that.

Tipping Legends played in the 3.40 today - this was the first line of the write up...

Must admit i was very tempted by top weight Kilmackiloge given its superb record on seasonal debut, but it hasn't run well off a break the last 2 times & at the age of 11 its a risk.

Unfortunately the tip ended up being Open De L'Isle who was being niggled at after jumping two fences - Kilmackilloge won at 16/1 !

That was it as far as tips were concerned, however Equine Investments are still sending out mentions - three today included one winner, Riflessione, which added a little to a very good day.

Monday 22 March

Portfolio Results (below)................1022
Personal Bets / Trades....................72

Profit on day £1094

Profit and Loss w/e 21/03/10

2010-03-21T23:19:00.006Z

Well that's Cheltenham done and dusted for another year, and while it proved profitable it could have gone better.

A good day on Sunday ensured it was a profitable week at last, and hopefully I can build on that over the next weeks and get a bit of a run going.

I've responded to comments left during the week, so if you were waiting for a reply please have a look back.

Week ending 21 March

Portfolio Results..................364
Personal Bets / Trades............1201

Profit on Week £1565

Summary of Portfolio

Results in terms of points

Profit / Loss by day of week

Good end to the week

2010-03-21T23:03:00.003Z

Sunday 21 March

Finished off the week in good style with Fleur De Vassy winning for TFG, two out of two for Football Elite, a winner for SLH on his exchange line and another each way place in the golf for Birdie Golf.

An each way trixie with all three horses winning added nicely to the profits.

Sunday 21 March

Portfolio Results (below)..................1185
Personal Bets / Trades......................417

Profit on day £1602

Another poor Saturday

2010-03-20T21:59:00.003Z

Saturday 20 March

Very little on the racing front today, which was welcome after all the excitement of Cheltenham.

Still managed to make a sizeable loss on the football though, as all three of Football Elite's picks today finished as draws.

Skeeve had a profitable day on his non-league bets, but I got nowhere near the advised prices - I never got round to looking at the e-mail until hours after it had been sent out yesterday, just too busy with all the Cheltenham stuff.

Nothing doing with any of the racing tips which were sent out, but I managed to make £70 messing around on Betfair on the racing and the football - which I need to try and do on a regular basis.

I imagine it will be fairly quiet tomorrow, so will try and look back over the week and reply to any comments that need a response.

Saturday 20 March

Portfolio Results (below)..............(616)
Personal Bets / Trades...................71

Loss on day £545

Results Round Up

2010-03-19T22:09:00.002Z

A losing day to round off the festival, with all bar Tipping Legends struggling on the final day.

I'll just put up the results and leave it at that for today. Spend a bit of time over the next few days thinking about how it all went and how to play on the festival in future.

It was a very tough week punting wise, but I managed to come out on the right side of it. Whether the strategy / staking I used is the best one is debateable, but that's for another day.

I'll have a look over the weekend and see if I need to respond to any comments left. Thanks for the feedback, and roll on next year !

Friday 19 March

Portfolio Results (below).................(1083)
Personal Bets / Trades......................561

Loss on day £522

5.15 Cheltenham

2010-03-19T16:56:00.003Z

Gutted, SLH's tip Benedict Spirit blunders at the last, loses momentum and is beaten half a length, £240 @ 4/1 and a £1200 swing against me there.

Well this is it. 25 races down, just one to go - absolutely knackered to be honest and be glad when it's all over.

Ante post bet on Tataniano is a non-runner due to ground issue, but on NRNB so stake will be returned.

Still got Beggards Cap at 20/1 ante-post.

See how this goes.

Bets Placed

Beggars Cap £50 e/w @ 20/1
You're The Top £37.50 e/w @ 8/1
Safari Journey £25 e/w @ 14/1
Lennon £5 e/w @ 33/1
Nomechecki £5 win @ 25/1
Safari Journey £30 e/w @ 14/1
You're The Top £15 win @ 8/1
Fighting Chnace £15 e/w @ 12/1
Beggars Cap £7.50 e/w @ 16/1
Fighting Chance £15 @ 12.5
Tartak £38.30 @ 14.5
Consigliere £23.14 @ 23
Nomechecki £23.14 @ 25
Lennon £15.43 @ 34

Bets Placed £475

Gutted ! Thought sure Consigliere was coming to win the race there, traded very low in running but in the end couldn't get past French Opera, No matter though Pigeon Island came up the hill best to beat both of them. Couldn't have had that one. £475 lost there and it's been a bad half hour as two trade very low in running for no reward.

Going to have a break now - put everything together and see what the final score is. Disappointing way to finish.

4.40 Cheltenham

2010-03-19T16:14:00.003Z

SLH's lay today Bormo won at Fakenham - forgot it was running to be honest. He's got an account bet running there later as well. Hopefully he'll get back on the winning trail as he's been giving it away after a great start to the week.

I reckon I'm more or less level today after the Hunters and so looking to try and find one more winner to end the day in profit.

Martin Pipe Condition Jockeys Hurdle up next and I'm on the David Pipe trained Ashkazar ante-post at 10/1.

A few other chances as well - beginning to feel the pace now but only another hour to go and it's all over !

Bets Placed

Ashkazar £100 win @ 10/1 (ante-post)
Clova Island £25 e/w @ 16/1
Meath All Star £25 e/w @ 14/1
Fairyland £25 e/w @ 16/1
Radium £10 win @ 14/1
Meath All Star £30 win @ 14/1
Fairyland £30 win @ 16/1
Balthazar King £30 win @ 20/1
Fairyland £15 e/w @ 16/1
Clova Island £7.50 e/w @ 16/1
Ashkazar £7.50 win @ 6/1
Peveril £40 @ 8.4
Radium £20 @ 19.5
Pause And Clause £30 @ 18.5

Total Staked £492.50

Oh I'm so good at times LOLOL. Angus McNae has had a decent week on RUK and he gave a positive to Pause And Clause, so decided to chuck £30 at it. Good race for me that one with Radium second and Clova Island back in third. Plenty of grief during the race and a few of mine on the floor - all worked out OK in the end. Profit on race of about £200.

4.0 Cheltenham

2010-03-19T15:37:00.003Z

Downhill to the finish now and it's the Foxhunters up next.

Trust Fund is the ante-post bet here, but this is a fairly quiet heat for me after the excitement of the last couple of races !

Bets Placed

Trust Fund £50 e/w @ 10/1
Baby Run £25 e/w @ 13/2
Turthen £15 e/w @ 16/1
Baby Run £7.50 win @ 13/2
Chesnut Annie £7.50 e/w @ 28/1
Roulez Cool £50 @ 5.5
Sericina £25 @ 23
Turthen £10 @ 14
Gentle George £25 @ 20
Chesnut Annie £20 @ 30
Cowboyboots £10 e/w @ 60 / 16.5
Baby Run £25 @ 7

Total Staked £377.50

Run Baby Run ! Profit of around £90 on the race as Baby Run just about lasts home to beat Kilty Storm and Reach For The Top back in third.

Gold Cup

2010-03-19T14:53:00.003Z

Feel a bit sick after that ! What's happened to the ground there - half an hour of rain and it looks bottomless !

Anyway, on to the big race. Obviously not on Kauto here - Punter Profits system has picked out Carruthers ! That would help a bit LOLOL

Bets Placed

Denman £50 e/w @ 5/1
Calgary Bay (w/o big 2) £8.61 e/w @ 16/1, £3.89 win @ 16/1
Imperial Commander (w/o Kauto Star) £60 win @ 10/3
Tricky Trickster £15 e/w @ 14/1
Tricky Trickster (w/o big 2) £7.50 win @ 9/2
Carruthers £40 @ 90, £35 at BFSP
Imperial Commander £75 e/w @ 8/1
Cooldine £50 e/w @ 9/1

Total Staked £543.61

Hail the new king ! Imperial Commander eclipses Denman for a great victory. Mon Mome runs on to get third, my each way on Cooldine foiled close home. Still a profit of £700 on the race to get me back on track.

2.40 Cheltenham

2010-03-19T14:16:00.004Z

Right, this is the big race of the week for me, and Tell Massini is the one that carries my hopes.

Tipped up everywhere, hope it's a case of great minds....

Bets Placed

Enterprise Park £100 win @ 10/1 (ante-post)
Tell Massini £60 win @ 5/1, £40 win @ 9/2 (ante-post)
Tell Massini £60 win @ 9/2
Shinrock Paddy £30 win @ 9/1
Tell Massini £100 win @ 9/2
Quel Esprit £25 win @ 7/1
Tell Massini £45 win @ 4/1
Restless Harry £15 e/w @ 9/1
Tell Massini £75 e/w @ 4/1
Quel Esprit £50 @ 7
Restless Harry £30 @ 10
Shinrock Paddy £30 @ 10
Cappa Bleu £20 @ 23
Restless Harry £75 @ 9/1
Tell Massini £75 @ 9/2

Total Staked £920

Horrific !

Lost the lot there - Berties Dream 33/1 beats Najaf 25/1 with Kennel Hill 66/1 third. Restless Harry, 3rd and beaten down at the last.

2.05 Cheltenham

2010-03-19T13:43:00.003Z

County Hurdle next - used to be the getting out stakes and should be switched back to the last race of the meeting.

Just the 28 runners to pick from here, so see what happens !

No ante post interest here

Bets Placed

Tito Bustillo £20 e/w @ 9/1, £5 e/w @ 8/1
Dee Ee Williams £25 e/w @ 25/1
Secret Dancer £25 e/w @ 20/1
Mutual Friend £5 e/w @ 66/1
Bellvano £30 @ 11/1
Oldrick £15 @ 10/1
Marodima £7.50 e/w @ 50/1
Tito Bustillo £30 win @ 9/1
Arcalis £10 e/w @ 50/1
Tito Bustillo £30 @ 9/1
Noble Prince £30 @ 12/1
Tawaag £30 @ 10/1
Oldrik £10 @ 11
Any Given Day £20 @ 16
Tarkari £20 @ 17
Inventore £10 e/w @ 38 / 8
Arcalis £10 e/w @ 40/1

Total Staked £450

Thousand Stars one too good for me with Arcalis and Dee Ee Williams running blinders to get me some place money. Just seen I had another £10 e/w on Arcalis so past that race unscathed with a loss of around £25

1.30 Cheltenham

2010-03-19T12:50:00.003Z

Away we go then with day 4.

Paul Jones had a great ante-post position on this race with Mille Chief advised at 10/1, and Secant Star e/w at 25/1. Mille Chief was favourite when pulled out the other day, and Secant Star has gone lame this morning and is out of the race.

Wasn't on either bet as I was on holiday when they were give out, but gutted for him as he really puts everything into this meeting and he doesn't deserve that.

TFG have an ante-post on Alaivan at 6/1 here, but again I'm not on this one either. Will keep it onside though.

Bets Placed

Soldatino £75 @ 5/1
Carlito Brigante £30 @ 4/1
Advisor £15 e/w @ 13/2
Alaivan £50 @ 5.8
Pittoni £25 @ 12
Carlito Brigante £25 @ 5
Advisor £10 @ 11

Total staked £245

Wow, didn't think they were going to catch Barizan there. Soldatino chases down the runaway leader on the run-in to get me off to a decent start. Alaivan and Carlito Brigante third and fourth. £280 profit on race.

Tell Massini

2010-03-19T12:42:00.002Z

Tell Massini going to be the key horse for me today. Just about every service I subscribe to has put this one up !

Not long to the first race now - just waiting for SLH's message and then I'll be back with the selections for the first.

Thursday Round Up

2010-03-19T09:55:00.002Z

A relaxing evening over a couple of cold ones meant I never got all the results typed up last night so I'll put that right now.

Obviously a disappointing day on Thursday, but still nicely in front on the meeting and I'll hope to build on that this afternoon. It's a brutal looking card though, so it could go either way.

Noticed last night that Equine Investments had also put up Punching in the Southwell 3.05 - for some reason I completely missed the e-mail and the text, the second bet came through within 5 minutes and I just never noticed the first one !

Not had any of the tips through so far, but I'm sure it will be another busy day. Back later...

Thursday 18 March

Portfolio Results (below).................(1772)
Personal Bets / Trades......................340

Loss on day £1432

4.40 Cheltenham

2010-03-18T16:12:00.004Z

Reckon I'm about £1200 down at the moment, with just one more race to go today.

Fulke Walwyn / Kim Muir is the last race on day 3 of the festival. Hopefully, I'll manage to salvage something from the day. A 1-2 for Shillingstone and Boychuk would be good, as well as a place for Galant Nuit of course !

Bets Placed

Shillingstone £50 e/w @ 16/1 (ante post)
Boychuk £15 e/w @ 18/1, £35 e/w @ 20/1
Isn't That Lucky £25 win @ 14/1
Ballabriggs £30 win @ 7/1
Boychuk £15 e/w @ 20/1
Saphir De Bois £7.50 e/w @ 33/1
Galant Nuit £7.50 @ 10/1
Boychuk £7.50 e/w @ 14/1
Galant Nuit £20 @ 9.6
Nostringsattached £25 @ 15.5
Finger Onthe Pulse £15 @ 29

Total Staked £382.50

Phew, Ballabrigs running on fumes up the hill just lasts out to beat Faasel and Galant Nuit. Just had a small bet on the winner but not enough to cover losses elsewhere. Got the placepot up though - just need to make sure I put it on right, as I was rushing at lunchtime !

Will take a break now and try and get today's results up at a reasonable time tonight !

Disappointing day it has to be said, but that can always happen at Cheltenham. Been pretty unlucky with the places so far this week - Kayf Aramis and Karabak would have made a big difference to the outcome today, but both missed the places by one.

Anyway, I'll add it all up later and see how it looks going into the last day.

4.0 Cheltenham

2010-03-18T15:37:00.003Z

Time for the Plate next, and one or two plates will get smashed here if I miss out on any more place returns this week !

Not to worry, I'm doing better than many so far this week I'm sure.

Bets Placed

Taratino £25 e/w @ 20/1, £25 e/w @ 16/1 (ante post)
Song Of Songs £50 e/w @ 14/1 (ante post)
Chapoturgeon £50 win @ 12/1
Tarotino £12.50 e/w @ 18/1
I'm So Lucky £30 e/w @ 12/1
Sunnyhillboy £15 win @ 8/1
The Sawyer £7.50 e/w @ 22/1
Victorias Groom £7.50 e/w @ 33/1
Atouchbetweenacara £10 win @ 14/1
The Sawyer / Victoria Groom £10 e/w on BF
Atouchbetweenacara £25 @ 16
Jayo £25 @ 18.5
My Petra £25 @ 25

Total Staked £505

Oh dear. Total wipeout there, Great Endeavour beats Sunnyhillboy and From Dawn To Dusk with old timer Mister McGoldrick back in 4th. Placepot still alive (just) with 20p going on to Galant Nuit in the last. £505 lost there.

3.20 Cheltenham

2010-03-18T15:04:00.005Z

The last selection of the season for Equine Investments has just been beaten as Not My Choice could only manage third at Southwell.

Pivotal race of the day coming up where I need to get Big Buck's beat - or at least the places need to fall right for me. Biggest race of the meeting for me - fingers crossed !

Bets Placed

Time For Rupert £50 e/w @ 20/1 (ante-post)
Katchit (w/o Big Buck's) £50 e/w @ 12/1 (ante-post)
Karabak £62.50 e/w @ 8/1
Karabak £75 e/w @ 8/1
Sentry Duty £75 win @ 14/1
Tidal Bay £75 win @ 17/2
Time For Rupert £22 @ 22/1
Time For Rupert £23 @ 24 / £30 at BFSP
Tidal Bay £50 e/w @ 8/1
Time For Rupert £25 e/w @ 22/1
Karabak £30 e/w @ 8/1
Karabak £15 e/w @ 9/1
Tidal Bay (w/o Big Bucks) £15 win @ 10/3
Sentry Duty £80 @ 14/1

Total Staked £1035

Well can't argue with that performance, Big Buck's mighty impressive there but Time For Rupert runs a great race to be second. Gutted with Karabak - finished 4th. Not happening for me so far today. Loss on race about £575.

2.40 Cheltenham

2010-03-18T14:26:00.003Z

SLH just had a donkey get beat at Hexham - called Bamby, absolutely awful.

Anyway back to the good stuff...

Ryanair Chase next, where Voy Por Ustedes is the ante post bet, don't fancy my chances with that to be honest but got a few other bullets to fire.

Bets Placed

Voy Por Ustedes £50 e/w @ 16/1
Schindlers Hunt £30 win @ 12/1 - 14/1
Albertas Run £10 e/w @ 33/1
Poquelin £100 win @ 7/2
Schindlers Hunt £30 e/w @ 12/1
Schindlers Hunt £30 e/w @ 12/1
Albertas Run £20 e/w @ 14/1
Tranquil Sea £50 win @ 11/2
Petit Robin £25 win @ 16/1
Deep Purple £15 e/w @ 25/1
Poquelin £30 win @ 3/1
Albertas Run £15 e/w @ 16/1
Jy Vole £15 e/w @ 25/1

Total Staked £605

That's more like it ! Albertas Run wins at the Festival for the second time, with Poquelin and Jy Vole fighting out the places. Profit of around £690 on the race, gets me back towards level pegging on the day.

2.05 Cheltenham

2010-03-18T13:48:00.003Z

Off to a slow start then, but plenty of time to recover - looking at the World Hurdle though, it's going to be a struggle if Big Buck's wins !

Anyway, got a couple more to look at before we get to that - Pertemps Final up next where Macaillou and Kayf Aramis would do very nicely.

Bets Placed

Macaillou £25 e/w @ 25/1
Kayf Aramis £25 e/w @ 28/1
Macaillou £25 e/w @ 25/1
Ainama £30 win @ 8/1
Cross Kennon £15 e/w @ 25/1
Kayf Aramis £15 e/w @ 28/1
Smoking Aces £15 win @ 10/1
Don't Push It £7.50 e/w @ 28/1
Ainama £7.50 win @ 8/1
Alfie Sherrin £89.27 @ 4.8
Smoking Aces £35 @ 9
Prince Erik £18.24 @ 23
Fredo £17.48 @ 22
Silk Affair £50 e/w antepost

Total Staked £537

Forgot about my ante-post on Silk Affair there. Buena Vista beats Prince Erik, with Chamirey and Cross Kennon 3rd and 4th. Kayf Aramis finished fifth GRRRRRRR. Loss on race of about £430 - had I been able to get 5 places would have finished level there.

1.30 Cheltenham

2010-03-18T13:30:00.003Z

Running just a bit late

Bets for 1.30

China Rock £30 @ 9/1
Dave's Dream £30 @ 11/1
Hey Big Spender £30 @ 10/1
Awesome George £37.50 e/w @ 28/1 - 33/1
Jered £25 e/w @ 14/1
Hey Big Spender £75 @ 9/1
Hey Big Spender £30 win @ 9/1 - 10/1
The Hollinwell £15 e/w @ 10/1
Kings Forest £7.50 e/w @ 20/1
Tanks For That £10.89 @ 30
Rivaliste £38.80 @ 8.4
The Hollinwell £28.42 @ 11.5
Copper Bleu £21.79 @ 15

Total Staked £465

Copper Bleu wina to give me a return on the race, but how well was Hey Big Spender going when he came down. That could have been a big one. Othermix second with The Midnight Club and China Rock filling out the places. Loss of £143 on the race - placepot still alive though !

Chasing the Cheltenham Losses ?

2010-03-18T11:26:00.003Z

Looks like someone is trying to get out of the sh*t at Southwell today.

Wanting to back Bajan Pride to win 95 million !

Wednesday Round Up

2010-03-18T09:15:00.001Z

Good morning,

Apologies for not updating last night, it was quite late by the time I'd finished putting all the results together and I was pretty tired as well - there's a lot to keep on top of this week !

It was another cracking day, finished of nicely by another winner from Equine Investments at Kempton last night. It's the last day of their all weather season today, and even though I missed a large part of it due to my hoiday it's been another very profitable run.

Star turn yesterday was the Paul Jones ante post service, with Weapon's Amnesty (14/1 adv) and Sanctuaire (adv 12/1) both winning and Quantitativeeasing and Frawley both finishing in the frame.

A good day for Tipping Legends as well with Weapon's Amnesty winning for them, and The Form Guru had Sanctuaire and Peddler's Cross.

Not so good for the trends yesterday which are included in the personal bets total, along with a few other bits and pieces I put on during the day.

Already have TFG and Tipping Legends bets placed for today, so will get myself sorted out with some breakfast, shower etc and I'll be back later.

Wednesday 18 March

Portfolio Results (below)................1775
Personal Bets / Trades...................(280)

Profit on day £1495

Day Two

2010-03-17T18:02:00.002Z

Another good day, with Equine Investments bets at Kempton tonight still to come.

I'll put the figures together during the evening and update later on tonight.

Going very well so far this week, but I remember very well what happened last year over the final two days so I'm certainly not getting ahead of myself.

However, after what has happened over the last month, it would be good to get a decent run going over the next few weeks.

Thanks again for all the comments today - if any need a reply I'll try and do that over the next couple of days.

5.15 Cheltenham

2010-03-17T17:04:00.004Z

SLH's second tip of the day Solway Minstrel just got turned over at Huntingdon - traded 1.55 in running but could only finish third.

Time for the Bumper now, couple of ante-post plays with Day Of A Lifetime and Frawley both advised each way. Few other digs as well, see how it goes.

Bets Placed

Day Of A Lifetime £30 e/w @ 10/1, £20 e/w @ 12/1
Frawley £50 e/w @ 25/1
Shot From The Hip £25 win @ 7/1
Tavern Times £25 e/w @ 10/1
Shot From The Hip £60 win @ 7/1
Drumbaloo £30 @ 10
Elegant Concorde £30 @ 14

Total Staked £395

Well, big shock there. Cue Card romps home at 40/1, Al Ferof second and my ante-post pick Frawley a remote third. Frawley keeps the damage to a minimum and it's about a £30 loss on the race.

4.40 Cheltenham

2010-03-17T16:23:00.003Z

Just a couple more races to go now, and hopefully can find the winners amongst my lists.

Got a good ante-post bet here with Sanctuare each way at 10/1 - 12/1, currently 11/2 on the betting shows.

A few others to look for as well so see how this plays out.

Bets Placed

Sanctuaire £25 e/w @ 10/1, £25 e/w @ 12/1
Stars Du Grantis £12.50 e/w @ 25/1, £12.50 e/w @ 28/1
Stormy Weather £25 e/w @ 16/1
Sanctuare £30 win @ 13/2
Stormy Weather £30 e/w @ 16/1
Kudu Country £15 e/w @ 33/1
Hunterview £7.50 win @ 17/2, £7.50 on BF
Open Day £15 on BF
Stormy Weather £7.50 on BF
Notus De La Tour £30 @ 9.4
Son Amix £25 @ 18.5
Cross Appeal £20 @ 19.5

Total Staked £432.50

Well can't complain about that one Sanctuaire romps home by 9 lengths from Notus De La Tour, Orsippus and Son Amix. Only jarring note was Stormy Weather being done out of 4th place on the line which would have collected some nice each way money. Profit of around £630 on race.

4.0 Cheltenham

2010-03-17T15:33:00.005Z

Starts getting tricky from here !

Just the 28 runners going to post for the Coral Cup.

Silverhand is the jackpot horse, but anything could happen in this one.

Bets Advised

Quantitativeeasing £50 e/w @ 12/1 (ante-post)
Silverhand £50 e/w @ 33/1
City Theatre £25 e/w @ 22/1 (5 places)
Hampshire Express £12.50 e/w @ 20/1
Hampshire Express £2.50 e/w @ 16/1 (5 places)
Silverhand £15 e/w @ 33/1
City Theatre £15 e/w @ 20/1 (5 places)
Mamlook £7.50 e/w @ 20/1 (5 places)
Silverhand £7.50 e/w on Betfair
Takeroc £7.50 e/w on Betfair
Wishful Thinking £36.43 @ 12.5
Sir Harry Ormesher £32.53 @ 14
Lake Legend £20.70 @ 23
Andytown £15 @ 42
James De Vassy £10.35 @ 42
On Raglan Road £20 on BF
Spirit River £10 @ 12/1
Spirit River £15 on BF
Silver Hall £5 e/w

Total Staked £555

Missed a couple of bets off the list there, actually backed the winner but I'm sure Silverhand would have placed had he not had to jump over the falling Michael Flips at the second last when making his move. Spirit River an impressive winner from Tullamore Dew, James De Vassy and Michael Flips back in 4th. Not sure what was 5th but I don't think it was one of mine.

Got a bit of a Brucie - Quantitativeeasing was 5th and Coral pay 5 places on the ante-post bet. Just seen replay, Silverhand desperately unlucky. Second time today that one of mine brought to a standstill by a faller. Still things are going pretty well overall, so can't have it all. Lost £30 on the race.

Queen Mother Champion Chase

2010-03-17T14:59:00.004Z

Well that's perked me up a bit !

Featured race of the day and seem to have most bases covered here.

I've had a little each way nibble on Well Chief based on a note in Paul Jones' Cheltenham guide. Age and injuries have probably caught up with him now, but what about this for a profile...

Second last year, lightly raced for his age and has form figures of 111121121 over 2 miles when coming back from a break of at least 6 weeks from his last completed start.

Otherwise I'm on Masterminded for the win, also for the winning distance. Plus big each ways on Forpadydeplasterer and Twist Magic.

Ratings and Trends have Masterminded and Twist Magic so we'll see. Kalahari King or Big Zeb would be bad results, depending on the places.

Already £40 down with Petit Robin re-routed elsewhere, put up by Paul on his midweek service before Christmas.

Bets Placed

Petit Robin £20 e/w @ 33/1 - ANTE-POST, NON RUNNER - STAKE LOST
Masterminded to win by 6L+ £100 @ 2/1
Forpadydeplasterer £25 e/w @ 10/1, £50 e/w @ 9/1
Forpadydeplasterer £15 e/w @ 11/2 - (w/o Masterminded)
Twist Magic £80 e/w @ 15/2
Masterminded £100 win @ 10/11
Well Chief £15 e/w on BF

Total Staked £610

Well that didn't go to plan - Big Zeb puts in the jumping performance of his life to win with Forpadydeplasterer back in second. Kalahari King third, with Masterminded running a shocker back in fourth.

Backed Big Zeb one year too early !! Loss on race around £325

2.40 Cheltenham

2010-03-17T14:26:00.004Z

Weapon's Amnesty is a big horse for me today. Advised ante-post as well as being put up again today.

The Paul Jones' trends shortlist is interesting to say the least ! I don't really want either of the front two here - especially not Long Run.

Bets Placed

Weapon's Amnesty £50 e/w @ 12/1
Weapon's Amnesty £37.50 e/w @ 10/1
Weapon's Amnesty £37.50 e/w @ 9/1
Burton Port £30 e/w @ 12/1
Punchestowns £30 win @ 5/2
Burton Port £7.50 e/w @ 12/1
Citizen Vic £25 @ 12.5
Knockara Beau £25 @ 28
Little Josh £25 @ 46

Total Staked £430

Oh yes !!! That's why I put myself through this every day. Weapon's Amnesty travels well throughout the race and seals victory with a great jump at the last. Burton Port second with Long Run back in third. SLH put up the front two on his exchange line, but I passed on that. Profit on race about £1635. Brilliant.

2.05 Cheltenham

2010-03-17T13:48:00.003Z

Moving swiftly on !

No ante-post interest in the Neptune which is unusual. So just the bets I've placed today.

Can't really get much out of this race by the looks of it unless Some Present wins. Just a race to get out of the way.

Bets Placed

Some Present £25 e/w @ 33/1
Quel Esprit £50 win @ 4/1
Peddlers Cross £30 win @ 6/1
Summit Meeting £10 win @ 12/1
The Knoxs £7.50 e/w @ 33/1
Reve De Sivola £15 e/w @ 11/1
Peddlers Cross £7.50 win @ 7/1
Summit Meeting £15 win @ 12
Ghizao £25 win @ 23
Rite Of Passage £50 win @ 5.2

Total Staked £282.50

Bit better, got the first four home there as Peddlers Cross wins from Reve De Sivola with Rite Of Passage and Summit Meeting following them in. Just a £74 profit, but a tricky race and a fair enough result.

1.30 Cheltenham

2010-03-17T12:51:00.003Z

An 18 runner novice chase for amateur jockeys over 4 miles gets day two underway.

Happy memories of this race two years ago when it was the first of ten races on the re-scheduled card, when I was on the winner Old Benny at 25/1.

If you overlook the obvious, this looks a fiendishly difficult day - but I've got plenty of bullets to fire during the course of the afternoon and hopefully a few of them will hit their target.

OK the first race, where Mobaasher would get me off to a flying start. I'm on this ante-post at 16/1 and it's also been tipped a couple of times today.

Few other options as well, but this is wide open and I can't be anything other than hopeful of a return here.

I'm £72 down before I start as Saddlers Storm was put up as an ante post bet by Paul Jones - was advised non runner no bet at 14/1, but I could only get £14 e/w at those terms so took the bigger prices available. The horse absolutely hosed up at Navan last weekend, so it's disappointing it doesn't take it's chance here.

There will be a 10p rule 4 to the bets I placed earlier today as Synchronised was pulled out of the race this morning.

Bets Placed

Mobaasher £50 e/w @ 16/1
Saddlers Storm £25 e/w @ 20/1 £11 e/w @ 16/1 - ante post
Saddlers Storm £14 e/w @ 14/1 ante post NRNB
Mobaasher £25 e/w @ 10/1
Abbeybraney £18.75 e/w @ 8/1
Pennek £12.50 e/w @ 25/1
Abbeybraney £30 win @ 8/1
Mobaasher £30 win @ 10/1
Pennek £15 e/w @ 33/1
Noakarad De Verzee £7.50 e/w @ 33/1
Massosoit £15 e/w on Betfair
Fabalu £25 win @ 17
Tinakellylad £25 win @ 27
Pettifour £30 win @ 9.8

Total Staked £527.50

Ooh, not a good start to the day. Poker De Sivola beats Becauseicouldntsee in a driving finish with Prudenthonour in third. Mobaasher was a distant fifth, hampered by a faller down the back and never going after that. £500 loss on the first race.

Come on....

2010-03-17T12:49:00.002Z

The time to the first race seems to be dragging a bit today - maybe because I got most of the bets on very early this morning.

Just 40 minutes to go now, as yesterday just need to pick up SLH's message for today and then I'll be back with the first bets of the day.

Wednesday

2010-03-17T10:27:00.002Z

Good morning.

Well I've busy this morning as the messages from Tipping Legends and The Form Guru have already come through.

As well as those, I've also got the Formbet ratings and Paul Jones' trend e-mails to work through, and Equine Investments have just put up a bet tonight at Kempton.

Going to be a very busy day, so I better go and have some breakfast !

Back later...

Day One Round Up

2010-03-16T22:03:00.003Z

Tuesday 16 March

Just a quick round-up of all the results from today, and a very good start to the festival.

Wasn't feeling that confident going into today - it looked the sort of card where it was going to be hard to win much, but quite easy to lose plenty ! However my early pessimism was misplaced.

Managed to back the winner of every race at Cheltenham, as well as some big priced ones which made the frame. Used a combination of the outright tips and also Paul Jones overnight trends e-mails, Formbet's ratings as well as other bits and pieces I've read along the way.

Cracking day for The Form Guru with two winners advised at 40/1 and 33/1, and a very welcome change in fortunes.

Tipping Legends also had a couple of winners - Sizing Europe and Quevega, while Formbet's outright picks found Binocular and a place for Get Me Out Of Here.The ratings themselves performed very well but I already had most of the selections covered elsewhere so didn't double up on the bets.

Nothing from Punter Profits from two selections - indeed General Miller was on the floor at the very first jump of the meeting !

Paul Jones ante-post bets didn't really fire on the first day, with The Package being the best result. However, there's plenty more from Paul for the rest of the week and he reckons the next couple of days are the strongest.

Last word today goes to SLH who gave out two winning bets - Quevega in the last at Cheltenham, followed immediately by The Kealshore Kid in the next race at Sedgefield.

A long way to go, but very pleased with today. Looking forward to another busy day tomorrow, and I'll be back on here around 9am in the morning.

Tuesday 16 March

Portfolio Results (below)..................1405
Personal Bets / Trades......................190

Profit on day £1595

4.40 Cheltenham

2010-03-16T16:22:00.003Z

Final race of day one - how time flies when your having fun !

No One Tells Me was my ante-post pick from Paul Jones, but is now a bigger price than he gave it, and a lot bigger than I got ! It's top of his trends list so going to have another £25 on it.

Quevega is a bet for both Tipping Legends and SLH.

Otherwise, I've got Easter Legend at 18/1 for TFG, again another half point each way but it would be some treble if this one wins !

Also chucked away a few quid on Aura About You and Pepite De Soleil at big prices, and Carole's Legacy shows up well on Formbet ratings so I've had an each way interest.

Bets Placed

Quevega £75 @ 3.05
Quevega £160 @ 2.94
No One Tells Me £37 e/w @ 12/1, £13 e/w @ 14/1 (Ante Post)
No One Tells Me £25 @ 27
Aura About You £15 @ 40
Pepite De Soleil £10 @ 60
Carole's Legacy £15 e/w @ 20/1

Total Staked £415

Cracking result for me again with Quevega winning in great style, Carole's Legacy in second and Voler La Vedette back in third. Profit of around £345 on the race.

SLH has a bet in the 4.55 at Sedgefield. He's just had a winner with Quevega so would be great if he can get the other one as well.

Going to sign off for the afternoon, be back later tonight with a full round-up of results. Thanks for the comments received during the afternoon - bit short of time to respond, but they are much appreciated.

Hope you've all had a decent day.

4.0 Cheltenham

2010-03-16T15:40:00.004Z

Garde Champetre the most likely here, and a three pointer for Tipping Legends who've also put up a tricast here.

Monkerhostin, Another Jewel and Lacdoudal show up on trends or ratings so will be well pleased should one of those happen to put it's head in front. A New Story an each way for TFG at a big price.

Read a word for Preists Leap somewhere - can't remember where so chucked a tenner on it.

Bets Placed

Garde Champetre £75 @ 3.25
Monkerhostin £25 @ 15.5
Another Jewel £25 @ 17
Lacdoudal £25 @ 46
Preists Leap £10 @ 65
A New Story £15 e/w @ 33/1
£25 tricast - Garde Champetre / L'Ami / Sizing Australia

£205 staked

Well TFG is back - second 33/1 winner of the afternoon, just a shame only half point each way LOLOL. A New Story - hopefully it is for me from now on, beats L'Ami with Lacdoudal running a great race in third place and Another Jewel back in 4th. Made about £430 on the race.

Just re-checked and he gave A New Story at 40/1. Missed that though as Pricewise gave it as well and 33/1 was the best I could get.

Champion Hurdle

2010-03-16T14:53:00.003Z

Wide open this and as a consequence I've got another shopping list with bets on 7 of the 12 runners !

Obviously don't want Solwhit - Medermit would be the dream result, but Go Native or Punjabi would be pretty good as well.

Bets Placed

Punjabi £50 e/w @ 11/1 (antepost)
Medermit £100 win @ 11/1 (antepost)
Binocular £25 @ 9.8
Go Native £75 @ 5.6
Khyber Kim £30 @ 8.4
Punjabi £30 @ 8.4
Zaynar £30 @ 11.5
Celestial Halo £37.50 e/w @ 9/1
Go Native £25 @ 5.5

Total Staked £490

Binocular back from the dead then ! Wins at 9/1 from Khyber Kim and Zaynar. Only had a token bet on it as it was mentioned on Paul Jones trends lists, but bets elsewhere meant a loss of around £245 on the race.

2.40 Cheltenham

2010-03-16T14:22:00.006Z

Well this is one to get out of the way really. A 24 runner handicap and got about half of them one way or the other.

Bad memories of this race last year when Wichita Lineman chinned Maljimar on the line.

Bets Placed

The Package £50 e/w @ 10/1 (A/P)
Bensalem £85.45 @ 11/2, £14.55 @ 5/1
Theatrical Moment £25 @ 13.5
Ogee £10 @ 14/1, £15 @ 15, £15 @ 12.5
Bensalem £60 win @ 7
Character Building £30 @ 15
Chief Dan George £15 e/w @ 42 / 8
Nenuphar Collonges £25 @ 25
The Package £25 e/w @ 6/1
Casey Jones £25 e/w @ 20/1
Joe Lively £15 e/w @ 40 / 8.2
The Tother One £15 @ 19

Total Staked £555

Well got to be happy with that one, Chief Dan George wins at 33/1 (TFG tip) by a head from The Package with Ogee back in third place. Profit of around £440.

2.05 Cheltenham

2010-03-16T13:51:00.004Z

Seem to have most of the field covered here - I wouldn't want Osana or Riverside Theatre though.

Zaarito was given out as a bet on Paul Jones' ante-post service while I was on holiday but doesn't run here, so saved a bit there.

Bets Placed

Sports Line £50 e/w @ 14/1 (ante-post)
Somersby £60 @ 9/2
Kangaroo Court £15 e/w on Betfair
Woolcombe Folly £25 win @ 28
I'm Delilah £15 @ 36
Sizing Europe £60 @ 7
Captain Cee Bee £25 @ 4.1

Total Staked £315

Sizing Europe wins from Somersby with Osana back in third place. The favourite Captain Cee Bee was very disappointing. Inching ahead with a £93 profit there.

1.30 Cheltenham

2010-03-16T13:13:00.003Z

OK here we go then.

Obviously Dunguib is the good thing here, and as you would imagine I've haven't had any tips for it, much as everyone seems to think it will win.

Suggestions were to back with Paddy Power to take advantage of their concession, and I've done what I can there within the limitations of my account.

Best for me would be General Miller or Flat Out.

Flat Out was advised by Paul Jones ante-post with Paddy Power, but as they would only offer me £3 each way at the time, I had to take my business elsewhere !

Bets Placed

£45 e/w @ 33/1 Flat Out
£5 e/w on BF Flat Out
Get Me Out Of Here £20 e/w @ 11/2 (Paddy Power)
Get Me Out Of Here £10 e/w @ 11/2
Oscar Whiskey £30 e/w @ 12/1
General Miller £15 e/w @ 33/1
General Miller £12 win @ 22/1 (Paddy Power)
General Miller £23 win @ 38 + £40 @ Betfair SP
Blackstairs Mountain £27 win @ 10/1 (PP), £23 @ 15 on BF
Blackstairs Mountain £25 e/w @ 9/2 without Dunguib
Fiulin £10 e/w @ 200/1
Menorah £13.52 @ 12/1 (PP) £15 on Betfair

Total Staked £473.52

Well Menorah wins from Get Me Out Of Here with Dunguib only third. Oscar Whiskey just out of the money in 4th and Flat Out running a fine race to finish 5th - although no good to me of course. General Miller came down at the first. I reckon a profit of £22 on the race !

Update

2010-03-16T12:50:00.003Z

Just 40 minutes to go now, and more or less ready to go.

Had a look at the blog from last year earlier on, staked about £6000 on this day last year - must have been bloody mad !

Anyway, it won't be quite the same this time around, but there's enough to keep me entertained throughout the afternoon.

Just got SLH's thoughts to pick up now and then I'll be back with the selections for the first race.

Good morning

2010-03-16T09:36:00.002Z

Well hope you're all ready for the battle over the next four days.

Had breakfast and now working my way through Paul Jones' trends list and The Form Guru's bets for today. TFG obviously burning the midnight oil as his e-mail arrived at 1.49 this morning !

Tipping Legends e-mail due around 10.30 and Formbet's ratings have arrived just now - so a fair bit to get stuck into already.

I'm guessing this will be the quietest of the four days looking at the shape of the races, but I'll see what it looks like when everything has come through.

Back later in the morning...

Christmas Eve

2010-03-15T18:10:00.003Z

Well it's like that isn't it - and I know what I want for Christmas this year !

Anyway, the current bad run continued on Monday with just one short priced winner and a successful lay from SLH.

Punter Profits had 4 bets, a 5/4 winner and three odds-on losers. Think the time has come to ditch these short priced bets - I saw a report from the SBC last year which showed the systems had little or no edge at less than 2/1. It's pretty soul destroying backing losers at such short prices and so I'll make this change immediately - no bet if 2/1 or less.

Three losers from The Form Guru - including a second and a third, but Chris says confidence is "very high" for the week - hope he's right.

As expected there was nothing from the golf this weekend, so I'll add those losses to today's figures and no joy from a few other small bets I had today.

I'll be up early (for me) tomorrow, and I'll put a couple of messages on here in the morning before getting down to the serious business from about 1pm. Try and look in if you can. Best of luck !!!

Monday 15 March

Portfolio Results (below)................(470)
Personal Bets / Trades....................(99)

Loss on day £569

Profit and Loss w/e 14/03/2010

2010-03-14T20:11:00.003Z

Another very disappointing week, with £2448 lost by my portfolio of tipping services, altough I made a profit of £367 from personal bets and trades (this figure does include an Isiris account bet winner).

Clearly, this is not the start I was looking for as I try and make a go of doing this full time, and the pressures of losing do feel a bit different now the safety net of my wage has been removed.

However, this method has served me well over the last couple of years and I have to believe that things will take a turn for the better before long. It is essential though that I find a way of making some extra cash through trading etc to take the pressure off situations like this.

It goes without saying that next week is going to be a big one for me, with a large number of ante-post bets already placed and a very busy week expected from Tipping Legends and The Form Guru in particular.

As I mentioned the other day, I will be updating the block throughout the festival starting on Tuesday morning and then before and after every race so you can see I'm getting on.

It should be a brilliant four days of racing - lets hope we all come out on the right side of things !

Week ending 14 March

Portfolio Results...............(2448)
Personal Bets / Trades............367

Loss on week £2081

Summary of Portfolio

Results in terms of points

Profit / Loss by day of week

Still Waiting

2010-03-14T19:44:00.002Z

Sunday 14 March

Very quiet day for the portfolio today with just SLH and Football Elite in action, but still managed to post another loss.

King In Waiting was SLH's mainline tip but could only manage second place after mistakes at the last two flights. Not sure it made any difference as Moonstreaker ran all the way to the line and won well. However King In Waiting did trade as low as 1.49 in running.

He also put up two against the field in the Warwick 3.0 - with Daraz Rose at 5.0 and Calusa Crystal to cover the stake. Didn't get matched on Daraz Rose pre-race, so left it to get matched in-running, which I don't normally do. As it was Calusa Crystal won the race and I got a tenner out of it !

One out of two for Football Elite with Almeria winning 1-0 and Bologna drawing 1-1 and so a small profit on the weekend.

Will post the golf results tomorrow - Vijay Singh is just out of the money in the World Golf Championship at Doral. He's missed enough putts this week to be miles infront, so I'm not expecting him to improve on his current sixth place ! The other PGA event is only at the halfway stage after weather delays on the first two days.

Sunday 14 March

Portfolio Results (below)............(136)
Personal Bets / Trades.................46

Loss on day £90

Another Saturday Shocker

2010-03-13T19:21:00.002Z

Saturday 13 March

Not much I can say about another terrible day on the horses - yet again no winners at all, and with the way the bets will be flying around next week, I can only hope that Tipping Legends and The Form Guru in particular find their form.

The big race of the day the Imperial Cup at Sandown had no fewer than five different horses tipped up - a dry run for next week I guess, but nothing doing with any of them although Pepe Simo and Tocca Ferro ran well enough.

Nothing doing on the all weather for Equine Investments, and now only three more days to go for this season.

A winner and a loser for Football Elite - Bolton won 4-0 and Borussia Monchengladbach lost 4-0 !

A small profit from following Skeeve's non league bets. As last week, I missed a winner. Was a bit late picking up the e-mail by which time the price on the Weymouth v Welling match had dropped below the recommended minimum price of 1.55.

Also missed the bet on over 4.5 goals in the Grays v Hayes match - I don't have an account with VC and neither Hills or Paddy Power would lay the £25 @ 4/1 I asked for !

Just a note that I've decided that I'm stopping following the Winabob account bets. For whatever reason, Mike hasn't been able to convert the edge that the ratings have into selections for account bets this season. I'll still read the magazines, and see how the rest of the season plays out.

Saturday 13 March

Portfolio Results (below)....................(964)
Personal Bets / Trades.........................71

Loss on day £893

Testing Times

2010-03-12T19:00:00.003Z

Friday 12 March

I've now been back exactly 4 weeks, and clearly the first month hasn't gone as I might have hoped it would.

Mentioned the other day that this time last year on the horses I'd struggled and it was only the golf winnings that were keeping things ticking over. Just had a look back to 2008 and it was the same story - I finally got the year in profit during the Cheltenham Festival.

Have to keep a positive attitude - easier said than done at times - and believe that things will take a turn for the better before too much longer.

Another tough day today with just one short priced winner courtesy of Punter Profits, and a second place for Tipping Legends in the same race.

The Form Guru is having the worst run since I joined last May and has now dropped over 100 points over the last 4 weeks.

SLH had one bet on his mainline - Doctor Foxtrot (also put up by TFG) but despite travelling well enough through the race, he came under pressure turning out of the back straight and eventually finished second last.

Said I only had one winner today - not quite true as the SLH lay King Brex won as well. Still at least I didn't lay it at 1000 like someone on Betfair did !

No doubt a busy day in store tomorrow, and of course the Cheltenham Festival is within touching distance now.

Just a quick heads-up that I'm intending doing a live blog again this year, starting on Tuesday morning. It was well received last year, and I really enjoyed doing it despite the way things turned out.

Friday 12 March

Portfolio Results (below)....................(459)
Personal Bets / Trades.......................(187)

Loss on day £646

Onceuponatime....

2010-03-11T18:53:00.003Z

there was this great tipping service called Equine Investments !

As I mentioned yesterday, Equine are finishing their all weather season next week.

Given how most of the others are performing at the minute, I hope they'll reconsider !

Yet another winner today with Onceuponatime getting up in the shadows of the post to pip Punching. 7/2 was the advised price, but I only managed 3/1 this time.

They mentioned two other horses on the day - Eseej winning and Angle Of Attack being beaten by a short head.

SLH picked out two in the Carlisle 3.15 on his exchange line with Middleton Dene getting the better of Mr Woods.

Isiris had another main account bet winner, which is recorded in the personal bets profit, but Punter Profits failed to score with any of their three system bets today.

Tipping Legends with one loser and The Form Guru with five continue to struggle - which given the anticipated number of bets for the festival next week is worrying. Would be a good time to get back into form though !

Thursday 11 March

Portfolio Results (below).................(195)
Personal Bets / Trades.....................274

Profit on day £79

Profit !

2010-03-10T21:18:00.003Z

Wednesday 10 March

Finally managed a profitable day on the horses - although the account bets show another loss.

Fairly quiet day with only Punter Profits and The Form Guru giving anything.

Keepholdin has been an expensive horse for me this week - for the second time in three days it qualified as a bet under two of the Punter Profits systems and again it failed to produce the goods - finishing unplaced.

Star Beat was an impressive winner for The Form Guru, and ensured a profitable day for him. Things would have been much better had Spinning Ridge not found one too good in the last at Wolves - Mr Hitchens winning by a neck.

The profit came in the shape of the Equine Investments mention Dajen, which flew down the outside to win at 4/1 - which was half the price I got this morning.

Equine's all weather season ends next week, and then I won't get anything more from them until they start their flat campaign in May.

That means it's time a few of the other services started to produce the goods and get this year back on track !

Made a few quid today trading on Betfair, mainly from laying - but I've realised what I already knew, that scalping the markets is not for me - I just don't have a clue !

Wednesday 10 March

Portfolio Results (below)..............(72)
Personal Bets / Trades.................234

Profit on day £162

M'Lord Help Us !

2010-03-09T21:33:00.003Z

Tuesday 9 March

Another bad day, and it's now nine straight losing days on the horses.

The only return was for The Form Guru with Present M'Lord, who finished second to Teeming Rain in the Devon National at Exeter, the pair well clear - the same 1-2 in the race as last year.

SLH put up two in the 2.20 at Newcastle and at least one of them was trying. Have a look at the replay on the Attheraces website, and see if you can the spot the one which drifted from 5/4 to 11/4 immediately before the off.

Tipping Legends and Equine Invesments had a loser each, and Winabob's wretched season continued with another short priced away selection going down, Motherwell drawing 0-0.

Made a few quid doing a bit of trading on Betfair this afternoon but did £200 on the football tonight to undo that.

Things can only get better as they say.

Earlier, I had a quick look back to see how things were going this time last year. It's exactly a year since SLH tipped Leau Du Nil when in won at Stratford. Got half my money on at 50/1 and the rest at 33's.

Up until then I was around 3K behind on the horses - all the profits to that point had come from the golf.

It won't take much to turn things around, but I could with a good run through the next ten days !

Tuesday 9 March

Portfolio Results (below).............(445)
Personal Bets / Trades................(115)

Loss on day £560

It's Beyond me !

2010-03-08T18:14:00.002Z

Monday 8 March

A new week, but just one short priced winner and six seconds meant a small loss on the day.

The winner came from Equine Investments (again) with Beyond advised at 10/11 shortening up to 8/11 before winning comfortably.

Equine also advised a short priced each way double - minimal downside and a fair return if both won. As it turned out both horses finished second.

Punter Profits had one horse selected by two systems - and so two bets, but Keepholdin could only manage second place.

Two place returns for The Form Guru, Or D'oudaries finishing second after drifting to an SP of 12/1 - backed it on Betfair so got little more than 6/4 on the place unfortunately. Gift Of The Gods was the other one, staying on into third place.

Monday 8 March

Portfolio Results....................(177)
Personal Bets / Trades.................44

Loss on day £133

Sunday Update

2010-03-08T14:40:00.002Z

Just a quick note, Justin Rose shot 64 which was enough for him to secure third place in the Honda Classic.

I generally place the golf bets on Betfair as the win prices are usually better, but you have to sacrifice some on the place. That was the case with Rose, as I got 16/1 for the place less commission, against the 20/1 I could have got with the bookies.

Still, it was an unexpected boost as I'd given up on any returns from the golf this weekend.

Revised figures for yesterday as follows -

Sunday 7 March

Portfolio Results (below)...............137
Personal Bets / Trades..................(66)

Profit on day £71

Seven out of seven

2010-03-07T19:57:00.003Z

Sunday 7 March

Another losing day which means a full house for this week, and nearly £3700 lost since Monday.

Keep this short as I'm having one or two computer problems tonight.

One winner from four bets from The Form Guru with Noakarad De Verzee winning at Huntingdon.

SLH advised a one point each way double - Haarth Sovereign winning, but Benny Be Good could only manage second so a small loss on the bet.

One bet from Football Elite, but no joy as Espanyol and Villareal played out a 0-0 draw.

Nothing doing with three of the Birdie Golf bets this week, but Justin Rose has shot five under for his front nine and is currently one place out of the money as I write this. More than likely nothing to come, and another £50 to add to this weeks loss, but wait and see what happens later.

Sunday 7 March

Portfolio Results (below).....................(222)
Personal Bets / Trades.........................(66)

Loss on day £288

Loss on week £3,692

Brutal !

2010-03-06T20:08:00.002Z

Saturday 6 March

I think today will go down as one of the worst days I've had since I've been doing this - not in terms of the amount lost, just from the sheer unrelenting misery of it all.

The final kick in the teeth has just happened - with PSG scoring in the 94th minute with the last kick of the game to make it 1-1 !

Not a single winner on the horses, just three very short priced winners on the football - including one from my new service, skeeve - been on the waiting list for a while but have a secured a place now.

Nothing else to say.

Saturday 6 March

Portfolio Results (below)..............(1,410)
Personal Bets / Trades.....................0

Loss on day £1,410

Misaro misses out

2010-03-05T17:44:00.002Z

Friday 5 March

This is a game of narrow margins, and a short head was the difference between winning and losing today.

Equine Investments tipped up Misaro in the first at Wolves tonight, got the best of the prices having taken 9/2 against the SP of 15/8, but they've got to win and Misaro was just touched off by Monte Major.

At least Misaro got to run, which is more than the other Equine selection did. Nacho Libre was declared to run in blinkers. However connections fitted a visor instead, which wasn't noticed until the horse was down at the start - whereupon he had to be withdrawn.

My only winner of the day was Maraafeq, a selection for two of the Punter Profits systems, returning at an SP of 6/4.

SLH's expensive week continued, with a lay of La Sarrzine - a very impressive winner of the Doncaster 4.20.

Just one for Tipping Legends, with It's Crucial finishing second to get the place money.

Nothing doing again for The Form Guru, gave out foru - the best of which was Well Disguised who finished fourth.

Formbet were also on Well Disgsuised, they've got one later tonight which I'll include with tomorrow's results - last night's late bet Barodine finished third.

Five straight losing days this week, hope for better luck over the weekend.

Friday 5 March

Portfolio Results (below)..............(207)
Personal Bets / Trades..................(15)

Loss on day £222

Poor Again

2010-03-04T19:34:00.002Z

Thursday 4 March

Another disappointing day, and this week isn't going well at all so far.

Isiris had a winner (a split stake bet with three horses given in the same race), but that was where the good news ended really.

SLH lost another 4 points today, when his each way pick Aim For The Stars could only manage fourth place, an expensive week for SLH with 11 points lost since Monday.

A couple from Tipping Legends, with Song Sung Blue placing at 10/1, but Kilcrea Asla missed the money when finishing fourth - Formbet gave the same horse also.

Galoshes was a loser for Formbet, and they've got another one later on at Wolverhampton which I'll include in tomorrow's figures.

Just one place return for The Form Guru with Katalak finishing third - advised at 9/1 but drifting to an SP of 14/1, which is what I got with BOG.

Rushden won for Winabob last night which helps things a little.

A tough week so far - but hopefully it can be turned round over the weekend. Time for the pub now though !

Thursday 4 March

Portfolio Results (below)....................(497)
Personal Bets / Trades.........................48

Loss on day £449

Hopes Dehdashed !

2010-03-03T20:38:00.003Z

Wednesday 3 March

Busy day today, but ended up on the wrong end of things again.

Things could have been different though had Wiesenfurst won the 3.10 at Folkestone instead of losing by a short head. The horse came from some way back to hold a winning chance coming to the last. However, it belted the fence and could not get back to Wishes Or Watches.

After the race, I noticed that Wiesenfurst's jockey Eamon Dehdashti had won one race from 101 rides this season before today - given the way he presented the horse at the last fence, I'm surprised his record is as good as that !

Talking of jockeys, I don't make a habit of complaining about bad rides on here but seeing as I'm in the mood, what the hell was Adam Kirby doing on Buddy Holly in the first at Kempton ? An absolutely shocking ride, and another expensive one for me.

Only one winner on the day, with Marodima going in for Punter Profits and Formbet.

Newman Des Plages advised each way at 16/1 finished third for Tipping Legends.

No returns anywhere else though, with Equine coming up empty from four bets, four losers as well for The Form Guru.

Wiesenfurst was one of three losers for SLH on his mainline and his exchange bet was beaten as well.

Winabob are on Rushden & Diamonds tonight, and they are winning 1-0 at half time. They are down to 10 men though. Will include that in tomorrow's figures.

Wednesday 3 March

Portfolio results (see below)..................(725)
Personal Bets / Trades..........................(18)

Loss on day £743

Dream turns into a nightmare !

2010-03-02T18:24:00.002Z

Tuesday 2 March

Another quiet day with only three of the services in action.

Both Tipping Legends and The Form Guru put up Thedreamstillalive. Timmy Murphy took the scenic route throughout - in search of better ground no doubt - and the horse ran well enough, finishing third beaten just over three lengths.

That was the only bet for TL, while TFG's other four bets produced one place return with Hazy Oaks finishing third.

SLH advised a lay of Desperate Dex, another good spot as the favourite was beaten in to third place.

Tuesday 2 March

Results from portfolio (below)...........(225)
Personal Bets / Trades....................(10)

Loss on day £235

No joy

2010-03-01T18:55:00.002Z

Monday 1 March

The weather finally seems to have taken a turn for the better, but there was nothing for me to get too enthused about on the horses today.

Not much action from the tipsters, SLH advised a lay of Cool Friend on his Exchange Line - and got it beaten into second, which was also the fate of his tip on the mainline, Tanners Court.

Arkashan was Tipping Legends only bet of the day, but couldn't follow up his win last time out, finishing a remote fourth.

The only other tip was a minimum stakes bet for Equine Investments - Safebreaker finishing a tailed off last.

Monday 1 March

Results from portfolio (below)............(157)
Personal bets / trading...................(188)

Loss on day £345

Profit and Loss w/e 28/02/10

2010-02-28T23:30:00.005Z

A good week with a profit of £791, which just about levels things up since the re-start - I stand £26 down after today.

Steady pretty much sums the week up, with none of the wild swings which characterised the latter part of last year, and that's just what I'm looking for.

I've put up a few of the tables from the spreadsheet below.

Obviously these figures only include results from the last two weeks and will become more meaningful as the weeks go by, but as last year I want to give a detailed breakdown of the results each week, and the year to date position.

First one is a summary of the profit or loss for each service YTD ....

This one is the profit or loss in terms of points staked to advised prices, price taken and SP.

And this one is the profit / loss by day of week for the portfolio (excluding my personal bets)

Steady Sunday

2010-02-28T23:16:00.002Z

Sunday 28 February

Not too much action today with only The Form Guru and Tipping Legends putting up any selections today.

TFG looks to be back in form with Marafeeq winning at 9/2 and Happy Fleet finishing second at an SP of 11/1.

The advised price on the e-mail for Happy Fleet was 25/1 with Betfred. However 16/1 was the best price available when the e-mail came through and that's what I'll record it at, the 25/1 had disappeared half an hour earlier according to oddschecker.

Tipping Legends have had a poor start to the year, and that continued today with another three points lost, Qozak was beaten when departing at the last.

Winabob advised Spurs at even money earlier in the week and they won 2-1.

Finally, Birdie Golf got the place money again with Song-Hee-Kim finishing in a four-way tie for third place in the HSBC Ladies Championship, three shots behind the winner. In the Phoenix Open John Rollins faded after a decent start, while Kevin Sutherland missed the cut.

Sunday 28 February

Results from Portfolio (below).......138
Personal Bets / Trades................98

Profit on day £236

Got there in the end

2010-02-27T22:23:00.004Z

Saturday 27 February

A decent day for the portfolio, thanks to a late run of good results.

Football Elite had five bets today, and when the first three all lost it was looking a bit ominous. However the two evening games both resulted in wins and kept losses to a minimum.

Equine got back to winning ways with Daraldan who won the last at Lingfield.

A terrific day for The Form Guru with Clova Island (7/1 advised) and Oscar Go Go (16/1) both winning - although the 16/1 was only available with Sportingbet, I got 14/1 which was the SP. Could have been even better, but Wee Robbie was just held by the McCoy ridden Soixante having traded 1.03 in running.

One winner from two selections for Punter Profits, but nothing doing for Tipping Legends, Formbet or Winabob.

My other bets today didn't exactly cover themselves in glory as I dropped £200 on the football and £120 on the horses. However, it was profitable day overall and that's all that matters.

Saturday 27 February

Results from Portfolio (below)...............525
Personal Bets / Trades......................(320)

Profit on day £205

Not the best

2010-02-26T22:17:00.002Z

Friday 26 February

When Peveril won the opening race at Warwick this afternoon, the first leg of an each way double for SLH, hopes were raised that it could be a very good day - especially in the knowledge that Equine Investments had given out five bets.

However it all fell pretty flat after that - the second leg of the double Sandofthecolosseum could only finish third, and while it was a profitable bet it wasn't the big win I was hoping for.

Managed to get 25/1 on SLH's other bet of the day (14/1 was the advised minimum price), but it ran like it's morning price suggested it would and finished down the field.

Equine have been in great form lately as everyone knows, but for once they came up empty today.

The Form Guru had one winner, Lavenoak Lad at 5/1, among his four selections.

Punter Profits had two horses today, Fin Vin De Leu (a selection on two of the systems) but the price of 4/6 was too short for me - the horse winning - and Nous Voila, who was just edged into second place by Tom O'Tara.

Still finding my way with Formbet, again just backing the headlined selections at the top of the e-mail, but I need to make more use of the write-ups as well as the daily ratings. I'll get to grips with it over the next few days I'm sure.

Done a bit of tweaking with the pivot table created by the spreadsheet, which hopefully is a bit easier to read this time. Any feedback welcome as always.

Couple of requests for a year to date summary - I'll do the same as I did last year and include that each week on Sunday evening.

I'm not exactly flying along so far - currently £467 behind since I came back.

Friday 26 February

Results from Portfolio (below)...................(399)
Personal Bets / Trades............................(25)

Loss on day £424