Equinties - Elite by name

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Gm Equinauts.

Yesterday we saw some fantastic performances at Sandown. Some serious stars were on display. Whether you backed winners or losers, yesterday are the kind of days that we all love in horse racing.

But we did make a mistake. The bet of the century was to take on the Derby-winning favourite at 2/9, which duly obliged, but we lost our bottle a bit on HUKUM when we heard comments from the trainer.

We wanted to take on Desert Crown and we were with Hukum, but after the comments, the bet then went to Cash. These things happen, we can hold our hands up and move on now.

Anyway, let's get stuck into the news.

The TOTE Fantasy features Sandown today. Build your stable and add it to our League using code QHZ36G.

Now, let’s dive in. 

Headline round up 

Elite performance 

We saw something very good yesterday.

The Norfolk Stakes got a new favourite yesterday as ELITE STATUS scorched to success at Sandown under Clifford Lee. Just listen to Mark Johnson’s reaction to his speed! 

He was warm in the market and backed up from his Doncaster win earlier this month - his performance was brilliant on the clocks as well. 

Everything seems to be positive about this lad. The visuals, clock, and trainer comments are all outrageous and because of this, he duly shot to the top of the Norfolk Stakes market to be 5/2 for the Royal Ascot contest. 

Elite Status vs American Rascal. Some clash this could be. 

Career-threatening injury to Derby defeater 

All the talk before the Brigadier Gerard was for one horse, Desert Crown. 

And at the two-furlong pole, it looked as if all the talk would be justified. 

However, we forgot about one horse, a Coronation Cup winner who was coming back from a career-threatening injury and racing for the first time in nearly a year. 

We didn’t forget, but we did make a last-minute switch in thinking. 

And to add salt to the wounds, even Goodey got stuck into us in our mentions. 

HUKUM was devastating in yesterday’s feature race as he strolled into the race and collared the reigning Derby champion on the line. 

Now, this was a good race, and both horses ran very well. 

DESERT CROWN pulled six lengths clear of the fourth, CASH, from one-and-a-half furlongs out from the line and has continued a good gallop, however, his potential lack of race fitness showed as he didn’t inject that devastating turn of foot into the contest.

Where as, HUKUM did. Rounding the bend it looked like it would be a hard luck story for the winner, but a great ride from Jim Crowley secured the victory and once again showed us how Owen Burrows is a fantastic trainer. 

So were next for Desert Crown? A return to 1m4f wouldn’t be a bad idea (Arc!?) but it seems connections will be licking their lips at the prospect of the Coral-Eclipse. 

BHA changes

And finally, we woke up to the news yesterday that the BHA had decided to make a change for 2024 to help out our dying fixture list, and well, it is certainly something to talk about. 

Firstly, what’s the summary of what is happening. 

-300 jumps races scrapped 

-New ‘premier tier’ of racing to be shown as a shop-window effect between 2pm & 4pm on Saturdays - only three meetings will be shown in this period of time including two premier tier meetings

-Sunday evening racing under floodlights (like they usually are in the evenings). This will use the midweek meetings and move them to Sunday

-19-day summer jumps break

Look, change had to happen, so the BHA doing something about it (alongside a committee made up of industry professionals) could go well. It’s all about time. 

The one thing here which maybe hasn’t been given much thought about is stable staff, and we refer you to a tweet from a month ago. 

Racing isn’t easy. That’s a fact and people getting into it know that. However, Sunday nights are the one relief for stable staff as they don’t have to travel 2 hours away at 9pm to see their horse finish sixth in a Class 6 handicap, only for them to finish the day at 1am. 

Bringing in the Sunday night racing looks like a misjudged error at this stage, but we will see how this develops going forward.

NEW FEATURE - YOUNG BLOOD

Notes on pedigree, attractive crosses and sales trends

1:50 Goodwood

PACKARD is bred on the same cross as exciting 2yo winner ASADNA (Bougheys) by Mehmas o/o a New Approach mare. It’s also the same cross as KNIGHT. A half-brother to Dukebox who was a good 2yo for Hannons winning his first two before going on to be listed placed. Cost 150,000 at the sales

AMBUSHED is bred by Kevin Blake by Soldiers Call who has made a good start to his stallion career and o/o a mare who placed at 2, she’s produced Listed Marygate 2yo winner SARDINIA SUNSET

DOUBLE JUMP has a speedy pedigree being by Dark Angel o/o a Marygate Stakes L. winner. She’s a half-sister to a listed winner (also by Dark Angel) who in turn has produced a Mill Reef S. winner

BATED BREEZE is by Bated Breath, not a very inspiring dam line, strangely Gary Moore bought him. He’ll need to take a big step forward from his debut but does take on some inexperienced rivals, which will give him an edge.

BARNWELL BOY is a homebred of Mrs Jane Newett by Starspangledbanner o/o an unraced Frankel mare. The second dam is multiple Gr3 winner Ladies Are Forever. Market to guide on chances

MOYET is Blue Point o/o a mare who’s a half-sister to Gr1 1000 Guineas winner Blue Bunting and a full sister to Exemplar who was Gr3 placed. Cost 85k at the Breeze Ups

Verdict:

Packard looks the part on paper and looks and is from a yard who do well with their 2yos. A lot are unraced so not financial advice.

Risk on

All bets for today will be posted on Twitter throughout the day.

Staking and banking

You need to manage risk by limiting bet size to a fixed % of your bank. The reality is, if you have an edge that'll prove profitable over say, 100 trades, but there will be times when you have a string of losses - that could be 10 losing bets in a row, it happens. 

To avoid blowing the account, managing risk to a fixed, low percentage is the only way to stay in the game.

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.

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