News
The latest news from Northern Monkey Punter.
ROYAL ASCOT ROUND-UP
23rd June 2026
We had a solid Royal Ascot this year with most of our picks giving a good account.
My nap of the the week was Sandal’s Song in the Palace of Holyroodhouse Stakes. We had a good bet at 14/1 and despite him going off 40/1 on account of his central draw he ran a screamer to finish second behind a fortunate winner who fared better on the stalls front but weighed in 5lb light and somehow kept the race!
We had a good bet on Binhareer in the Wokingham but he was never put in the race and had a troubled run, finishing just out of the frame, although our backup bet in the race, Double Rush (9/2) won, so we covered our stakes.
Other highlights for the week were Mission Central defying a drift (14/1 SP, 9/1 Adv) to win the King Charles III, Ombudsman (11/8) sluicing up in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, Ayobayyah getting up late in the Kensington Palace (10/3), and Scandinavia coming out on top in a thrilling tussle with Trawlerman in the Gold Cup.
Some of our placed horses also ran blinders in defeat - including Ruiva (20/1) who was third in the Queen Mary, More Thunder (9/2), who narrowly failed to land the Queen Anne, Gstaad (3/1) just coming up short behind Bow Echo in the St James’s Palace, then Goliath (rider lost irons) and Satono Reve (touched off in a photo) suffering narrow defeats on the Saturday in the Hardwicke and QEII Jubilee Stakes, respectively.WORLD CUP 2026
7th June 2026
Are you World Cup ready?
Although horse racing remains the main focus of NMP and accounts for the majority of our turnover, I am also sending out World Cup 2026 bets for NMP members.
We had 2022 World Cup winners Argentina onside at 11/2 in Qatar four years ago (our main ante post pick was Brazil, however) and our 100/1 outsiders Morocco gave us a proper run for our money after we got them onside via an email sent to members once the tournament started - we also backed them to be eliminated in the semis so even though they were no match for France in their semi and we missed out on big EW money for them reaching the final, we still collected a nice 14/1 win after they dumped out Spain :-)We had an even better Euro 2024 as main bet Spain obliged for us at 8/1 and for those able to access the novelty specials flagged up on my website - Spain to win and Rodri to be named player of the tournament copped at 60/1 and Lamine Yamal to be named young player of the tournament at 10/1 also landed (the original article is here)!
I have ante post bets picked out in the outright, top goalscorer, Group B, Group D, top Asian team, last 16 and ‘to reach QF’ ante post markets so far. I’ll look to add more before the tournament starts on Thursday and will be sending out matchday bets during the tournament if and when anything is of interest.
Please visit the NMP sign up page for details of my current membership options.Curragh double landed!
24th May 2026
We landed a nice double at the Curragh this afternoon. City Of Memphis (5/2) won the Group 2 Landwades Stud Stakes in style for the first leg, swooping down the outside of the field under Billy Lee.
We then ticked off the second winning leg when Precise (4/1) usurped the odds-on fav (and stablemate), True Love, in the Irish 1,000 Guineas, romping home by over two lengths after showing a lovely turn of foot inside the final furlong.
Precise had been easy to back after Ryan Moore picked True Love, but Precise had been drawn on the wrong part of the track on her last run at Newmarket (1000 Guineas), for which she'd also had an interrupted prep, and she turned the tables on her HQ conqueror in style today for a lovely win for NMP members!
