Sport is made for betting

Newmarket 1610 May 7 Maiden Stakes 5f, Class 4, 1m0.54s (slow by 2.94s) Good to Firm Way of Wisdom. Mar 26, bred in house by Godolphin. Dam full sister to star Aussie mare Miss Finland (Golden Slipper and Oaks winner). Parked on the shoulder of the leader, challenged and took control in the last furlong. Margin not big but looked to have gears left. Yet another juvenile winner for Charlie Appleby. Kit Marlowe . Feb 25, half-brother to at least nine winners. Fractious in the gates. Away well, settled rail-side of the leader and close up. Made move inside 2f, stuck to the task well but not good enough to beat the winner. Qaaraat . Fourth on debut at Newbury Apr 21, strong race, behind Gold Town. Broke well, straight to the front. Challenged on both sides inside 2f, couldn't match them but not beaten far, nor slaughtered for the result. Red Roman . Mar 8, 30k gns yearling. Settled behind the leader, poised to strike but couldn't go with them when it mattered. Kept on wel...

Newmarket 1610 EBF Maiden Fillies Stakes 5f, Class 4, 1m0.88s (slow by 3.28s) Good to Firm (Good in Places) Formidable Kitt - Feb 16 foal. Well-bred, out of Royal Ascot winning 2yo and half-sister also won on debut. Jumped beautifully to take early lead, always under a nice hold. Found plenty when challenged (two taps with the whip) and wasn't stopping at the line. Backed confidently and had worked very well at home. Jockey Richard Kingscote said he expected her to win by a few lengths. Only a small filly, impressive. Take Shelter - Feb 11, 21k gns yearling. Dam peaked at OR88, won three races on AW. Jumped well, sat in the breeze down middle of track. Loomed to challenge the winner but unable to get past. No shame in that, think the winner is pretty handy. Ziarah - Apr 23, €140k yearling. Dam unraced half-sister to very useful sprinter Hot Streak. Stablemate of runner-up and wore a hood. Slowly away, settled back of the pack but only 3L off the lead. Tracked stablemate i...

Newmarket 1420 EBF Novice Stakes 5f, Class 4, 59.89s (slow by 2.29s) Good to Firm Sound and Silence - Mar 29 foal. Brother to handy 2yo who won first two starts and peaked at OR100. Dam unraced half-sister to very useful G1 winner Ibn Khaldun. Bounced out of the gates, straight to the lead. Happy to let others take over 3f out so long as he had clear space ahead of him. Cruising while others were being pushed along at the 2f, urged when challenged at the furlong and found enough to win without being pushed too hard. Nice win. Never Back Down - Feb 2, £100k yearling by precocious sire. Sat back, pushed along at halfway, came down middle of track and threatened to take control at 1f before the winner reacted. Areen Faisal - Mar 29, €80k yearling, half-brother to six winners. Green early, dropped out to equal last after a furlong, ran home very nicely after penny dropped. Eye catching. The Love Doctor - had th experience of running second in the better Brocklesby division bu...

Interesting discussion in today's Racing Post about 'plagues' of betting shops in city centres. Councils and residents are getting sick of them, the big bookies love them and can't get enough retail shops. Why I hear you ask? Racing's share of the gambling pound is ever decreasing, more and more punters are betting online and you rarely see anyone in the betting shops that already exist... except standing around the FOBTs (Fixed Odds Betting Terminals) or glorified slot machines. And that's what brings in the profits for the bookies. Racing, football and any other sport they show in the shops are mere sideshow value to the evil machines. Every licensed betting shop in the UK can have four FOBTs (little wonder Irish betting shops are struggling in comparison without them), which have much higher prize limits than pub fruit machines. Sources at the biggest High St firms have told me that they consistently make up to £1m per DAY across their network of outlets ...

Saturday's card at Newmarket featuring that impossible Cambridgeshire means the Scoop6 will rollover again, with £540k in the win fund and £232k in the bonus fund for next week. So tough were the Scoop6 races and the results they threw out, nobody lasted past the fourth leg and just one place dividend was paid. The lucky punter was the only one to name a placegetter in every leg, and claimed the whole place fund off £75,648 for his £2 stake. He didn't get one winner, just six placegetters. Nice work... much better than the all-up!

This is supposedly a very good three-day meeting at Newmarket, yet in the final three races at headquarters today, there are 10 runners in total. That is shocking! Before withdrawals, there were just 13 acceptances. Any non-Group race which can't reach six final declarations should be scrapped. If the racing industry wants more money from the betting industry, then they have to stop delivering such shoddy product. The Tote, the biggest supporter of racing, is a lame duck when field sizes are like this - who is going to pay 4% per runner in a four-horse race?? This happens time and again throughout the year, with farcical two horse races regularly happening during the National Hunt season. Racing mightn't like being a 'servant' to the betting industry but the simple fact is that racing is funded from betting, thus they need to smarten up their act. If industry head honchos want to moan about not getting enough funding, perhaps they should get their house in order... Newm...

Today's feature article in the Racing Post is all about the new project board charged with reinvigorating racing in Britain - Racing for Change. On the one hand, it is something the industry needs to drive it forward. On the other, it's a body full of chairmen and bigwigs who have had a big say in getting the industry where it is now. Some of the proposals: - Identifying key fixtures to clearly emphasise start and finish of premier Flat season Doesn't the Lincoln at Doncaster, soon followed by the Craven meeting at Newmarket already mark the start of the season? The Champions Day meeting at Newmarket virtually finishes the season already. - Create new showcase finale, to crown the champions of the Flat season The likes of Ballydoyle and Godolphin control racing in Britain because they pick and choose where their horses run (and how those races are run) in order to create more commercial value for their breeding operations. The champions are unlikely to run a dozen times in ...

.. don't let anyone tell you any different! I liked this one today, I'd seen her win at Yarmouth last year (she threw the rider going to the stalls, ran a lap of the track and still won the race!) and marked her down as something special. She did come up quite short today, I was hoping for 5/1 or so, so the drift didn't surprise although it was bigger than expected. Officially 4/1 out to 13/2 on course, but she didn't play up at the gates so the layers were barking up the wrong tree.

Cracking day of racing at Flemington, the home of the Melbourne Cup today. Group 1 Newmarket Handicap over 1200m. Group 1 Australian Guineas over 1600m, for 3yo. Group 1 Australian Cup over 2000m at wfa. Weekend Hussler has the boom on him in the Newmarket, but he's taking on the older horses here down the Flemington straight six. The grey colt Light Fantastic will start a clear favourite in the Guineas while the Australian Cup field has no obvious standout. The champion 2yo and 3yo filly of her year Miss Finland has been disappointing in open class, this is a fairly weak field, but has the bubble completely burst on her?