Equinties - another one for Scotland

Sponsored by UK Meds.

Gm Equinauts

I think I've reduced the horses I own to 8 now. I'll quickly go through them.

The most recent addition is my little chestnut filly, arrived last week and born out of a lovely Juddmonte bred mare I bought from Eve's. Here they are featured on the Opening Show's Home Schooling section:

I also own a valuable showjumping broodmare, 4 new 2yo's repping BGP Capital and of course, last but not least, Rocky, my showjumping dinosaur.

(Good Lord I love this horse so much).

Rather than a flex or weird way to say my opinion on things racing is more valuable than most on Racing Twitter,  it's simply to evidence how my involvement in horses extends far beyond my writing this predominantly betting focused newsletter. My whole life is oriented around these animals.

So here's my view:

I love racing but I do NOT agree with the current format of the Grand National, I hated Saturdays race, in fact I hated last years race and I think it needs to change. Quickly.

I'm not saying cancel it. I'm saying change it, because unless you have a distinct lack of empathy or moral conscience, you can't seriously tell me that first circuit was right. 

I think most of the people who voted NO in this poll are lying. Not many voted tbf, but those who did probably follow the edgy, enigma of a handle off a cliff (Blazing Khal slips in tow).

Have you own opinion. 

The sport and its followers doesn't need to develop a spine. It needs to develop a brain.

On to business... play the TOTE Fantasy.

Find out league using code: QHZ36G. 

Let's dive tf in.

The National

The 2023 Aintree Grand National has been and gone and it certainly wasn’t short of talking points. 

Let’s start with the winner, CORACH RAMBLER, who emulated the late, great ONE FOR ARTHUR as he became Lucinda Russell’s second winner in the world’s most famous race. 

The nine-year-old travelled so so easily well into the race under a calm Derek Fox to pick off the field, remaining on the bridle after the last before kicking on to complete the grueling test. 

And, at the traditional post-National press day, he seems to be taking the fame of winning the UK biggest race in his stride. 

His ability has fast made him the pride of Scotland. Huge congratulations goes to his connections, Lucinda Russell, Peter Scudamore, and The Ramblers. 

While we are talking about the good things, let’s celebrate some of the other National runners who did everyone proud. 

However, more than ever this year, the Grand National was full of tribulations. 

Firstly, the protestors who promised to ruin the race nearly did as they managed to actually get trackside.

This caused a delay to the race and in the blazing sun of Aintree, with many thousands in attendance shouting, cheering and just generally enjoying themselves, many of the horses became hot and worked up.

Would the running of the race been any different if the protestors hadn't been there? No one knows but one thing for sure is, and anyone who lives and works around horses will know this, horses are sensitive animals who need routine and the protestors disrupted this.

Trainer Sandy Thompson who lost HILL SIXTEEN at the first fence has some strong beliefs over the protestors actions:

My view is we can't blame the protestors for the shit show that was this years National and anyone with a degree of empathy and morality will know what happened in that first circuit wasn't right. It was actually f*cking dumb.

Horses getting loose, falling, getting trampled on. It was chaos and I winced at every fence and so did the horsey people I watched it with. That isn't right. 

That said, the second circuit was a fine watch. Nothing dangerous happened and we saw a great finish and even better success story.

So where do we go from here? Well, plenty think that many more adjustments need to occur. Smaller field sizes, reduction/increase in fence height, shorter/longer run-up to the start, all has been suggested. 

But, only time will tell until we know what will occur in the future. When Kevin Blake went on TalkTV to defend the case of horse racing, he used a term “acceptable risk”. 

We all have risk in our life, whether that be getting into our cars for work or walking down any street in town, there is always a percentage of risk to what we do, knowingly or unknowingly. 

Horse racing and the governing boards around the sport need to look at what is acceptable risk for our sport and our perception, because tweets like this (which has now been deleted)

from a well-known person in the wider-sporting atmosphere, a tweet that has been seen nearly 600k times which is just 400k shy of the impressions for ITV’s Tweet celebrating CORACH RAMBLERS victory, doesn’t help our case against the anti's. 

So, who is our new sponsor?

UK Meds is an online clinic where you can get medications delivered to your door. Handy if you can’t be arsed to have those awkward convos with your doctor face to face!Our bets not getting you hard? Tough crowd...but UK Meds can help:

Struggling with the Monday hangover? UK Meds has just won the distribution rights to MYRKL.

MYRKL is a miracle pill that makes you feel fresh the next day, after the fun of the night before.

I'm serious. It works and that's the only reason they're sponsoring the newsletter. I swear by it so much, I reached out to UK Meds asking if I could work with them - and here we are now, plugging it to you.

Use discount code BGP10 for 10% off everything*

*Discount can be applied on anything except Saxenda. 

Bumper preview

No time for a full preview but on a blood basis SPEED DAVIS 2/1 and CRACKING RHAPSODY 16/1 are the selections in their respective races for division's 1 and 2 of the Kelso bumper.

Risk on

Bet's will be posted on twitter

Staking and banking

There was a lot of positive feedback recently from people benefitting from our staking advice. Well, and general bank roll tips too. So we'll keep it here as a reminder.

If you want to take punting seriously and use racing as a value add to your life, keep a betting bank, protect it at all times (none of this 'ah we're on a bull run, I'll stick a few stupid bets on') and stick to risking the % stakes, upping notional as the bank grows. Betting banks will change your punting forever. 

Help keep a healthy bank by betting less and using the TOTE Fantasy game to feed the chimp.

Create your stable and use code QHZ36G to join the BGP league here: