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Equinties - make it make sense
BGP Capital
January 27, 2026
Gm, Equinauts
With the weather the way it is right now, racing might be hard to come by this week with several meetings already cancelled and Sandown having to provisionally change it’s card up just to get some racing on.
We love rain (for punting), but not this much.
Let’s dive in.
HEADLINE ROUND UP
MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!
Ah, the Gambling Commission – the tireless guardians of the punt, ever vigilant against the perils of a cheeky flutter gone wrong (LOL). In the latest episode of "Regulatory Roulette," the Commission has turned its attention on Meta (that's Zuckerberg if you didn’t know), accusing them of playing fast and loose with illegal bookmaker ads. According to the Commission’s executive director Tim Miller (speaking at the ICE Barcelona conference last week) Meta's platforms are brimming with promotions for unlicensed bookies. "If we can spot them," Miller said, "so can Meta. They're just choosing not to look”.
But here's where it gets moronically ironic: to aid this campaign against ‘the black market’, the government has promised a cool £26milli in fresh funding over the next three years. Yes, you read that right – taxpayer money to empower the Commission with new tools (like suspending dodgy domains and IP addresses tied to illegal ops).
It's all part of ramping up the fight against unlicensed gambling, which, as Miller points out, lets Meta (and others) rake in ad revenue from "criminals and scammers" while pretending it's all above board.
Isn't it rich that punters are flocking to these bookies in the first place because of the Commission's own draconian reforms? We're talking affordability checks that feel more like a full on financial investigation, obscene stake limits that tun off even the most casual bettor, and basically, a white paper overhaul that's squeezed the life ( and fun) out of the legit betting scene.
If the regulators hadn't turned the our gambling landscape into a bureaucratic shitshow, maybe punters wouldn't need to find alternative ways of getting on?
And that £26m? Well, that wouldn't be needed at all if they'd just left well enough alone – after all, a thriving, lightly touched market will absolutely not have birthed this black-market boom. But hey, nothing says "problem solved" like throwing more money at the symptoms while ignoring the cause.
A BROKEN DRAIN
‘A mountain out of a molehill’ was how Danny Mullins described the goings on ahead of the last race on Trials Day.
Maybe he’s right. And by that we mean, the mountain was the mounting time it took to finally make a decision (the race was run four minutes after sunset).
The race should absolutely NOT have gone head for if there was any doubt at all regarding the safety of the track, they should have pulled stumps quickly and sent every one home so they could conduct investigations into what happened.
The risks simply weren’t worth it for all involved.
When the race did finally got underway, they had no idea if other holes were going to reveal themselves and it was getting dark. If your view is anything other than the race should have not gone ahead, you’re simply wrong.
The fact Jon Pullin (clerk of the course), his grounds team and drain experts will spend most of the next two months with their heads in the Prestbury park soil is the only argument we need.
They’re suspecting the hole was caused caused by a broken drain which has now forced them to investigate the whole track and make sure the same won’t happen again in March.
STORM CHANDRA
If you’re reading this and look out the window right now, it’s probably tipping it down.
Limerick and Leicester have already been abandoned, whilst Newcastle has an inspection today (although it will be probably have been decided by the time this goes to press) to see if their afternoon meeting can go ahead.
Sandown’s big Scilly Isles card on Saturday has been affected too, with the track currently only just raceable on the hurdles course. But the weather forecast looks quite bearish and as such, a provisional all chase card has been provided as an option should the conditions not improve by inspection Thursday.
Spoiler alert: It’s highly likely that Sandown will be an all chase race day on Saturday.
Sandown have done this before though, so it’s nothing new.
If hurdles racing is off, races like the the big £100,000 Virgin Bet Heroes Handicap Hurdle gets scrapped (a real shame for those entered as it's a valuable prize), but two extra Class 3 handicap chases (one around 2m and another around 3m) slot in to keep the card at six races.
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