Leicester Apr 29 2yo race review

Leicester 1455 Sat Apr 29
Novice Stakes
5f, Class 5, 1m0.80s (slow by 1.90s)
Good to Firm (Good in places)

VIDEO REPLAY UNAVAILABLE

Never Back Down. Narrow runner-up in high rating race at Newmarket 11 days earlier. Led from the start, responded well to pressure to hang on.

Haddaf. Feb 1, €85k yearling. Closely related to numerous 2yo winners. A little keen early, settled behind winner, unable to get past him in final furlong. Decent debut.

Dragons Tail. Apr 29, €30k yearling. Slowly away, made move at furlong pole, kept on without threatening.

Jedi Master. Sixth on debut at Leicester 22 days earlier. Handy to the pace, found little in final furlong.

Plundered. Apr 15, €60k yearling. Settled close to the speed, urged along near halfway, soon weakened.

Misty Breese. Mar 20, 38k gns yearling. Dam won classic in Norway. Close to the pace in running but found nothing when it was time to go for home.

Bahuta Acha. Poor on debut at Beverley 10 days earlier, no better here. Never in the race.

Colorado Dream. Feb 7, 50k gns yearling. Dam unraced but half-sister to G1 winners over middle and staying distances. Slowly away, green and never in the race. Breeding says this one might take time.

KEY POINTS
Winner followed through from handy debut, nice run from second horse but purely taking other reviews at face value without any vision to review.

Comments

It's all gone Pete Tong at Betfair!

The Christmas Hurdle from Leopardstown, a good Grade 2 race during the holiday period. But now it will go into history as the race which brought Betfair down. Over £21m at odds of 29 available on Voler La Vedette in-running - that's a potential liability of over £500m. You might think that's a bit suspicious, something's fishy, especially with the horse starting at a Betfair SP of 2.96. Well, this wasn't a horse being stopped by a jockey either - the bloody horse won! Look at what was matched at 29. Split that in half and multiply by 28 for the actual liability for the layer(s). (Matched amounts always shown as double the backers' stake, never counts the layers' risk). There's no way a Betfair client would have £600m+ in their account. Maybe £20 or even £50m from the massive syndicates who regard(ed) Betfair as safer than any bank, but not £600m. So the error has to be something technical. However, rumour has it, a helpdesk reply (not gospel, natur

Spot-fixing - you will never, ever be able to stop it

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lay the field - my favourite racing strategy

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Sport is made for betting

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