News
The latest news from Northern Monkey Punter.
Awesome Ascot
22nd June 2020
The dust has finally settled after an unforgettable Royal Ascot!
The meeting isn't usually one I expect to make a profit from and that was even more so the case this year with the season only a few weeks old following the resumption of racing (following the Covid-19 outbreak) and many horses heading there without a recent run.
However, NMP members enjoyed a magnificent week that saw us land a +63 pt profit smash up on a horse I have a small share in myself, Dandalla. Trained by Karl Burke in North Yorkshire and owned by the Nick Bradley Racing syndicate, I advised a strong bet on her for her debut at Newcastle. She drifted to 7/1, but won easily. We then backed her for the Group 3 Albany at Royal Ascot and she landed singles at prices up to 20/1 and 16/1, as well as landing us some juicy doubles with our other Ascot winners. She dotted up by six lengths and showed a devastating turn of foot to pull clear of the second, the well-regarded Setarhe from the Roger Varian stable.
Other NMP Royal Ascot winners were Russian Emperor (10/3), Dark Vision (12/1), Tactical (11/2), Art Power (7/2) and Palace Pier (4/1), while we had Gulliver (16/1, EW) and Silent Echo (22/1, EW) placed in the Wokingham.
Following Royal Ascot members are now anything between +112 pts (to highest advised prices) to +75 pts (to lowest advised prices) in profit for the year (the recommended betting bank is 80-100 pts depending on your attitude to risk).
The summer is traditionally the service's most productive period, so once the form has settled down in the next few weeks we'll look to kick on and put further profit on the board in 2020!
Details on how to sign up for the 2020 NMP service can be found here.
Return of UK racing after 'lockdown'
28th May 2020
Horse Racing in the UK was temporarily stopped in March following the outbreak of Covid-19.
Racing is now set to return on the 1st June 2020 (providing there are no last minute hiccups), albeit behind closed doors and without spectators, and the British Horseracing Authority (the sport's governing body) has issued a revised fixture schedule for June.
Royal Ascot is set to take place in June in its original timeslot, though the order of some of the races has been changed and horses haven't had the usual number of prep runs heading into the meeting.
Away from Royal Ascot, it is expected that some of the races will initially have their field sizes capped (around 12 runners) until the sport (and government) have confidence the virus has been contained.
The number of meetings is expected to be lower than is normal for the summer initially, though if the sport can show itself able to operate without exacerbating the spread of the virus, then the limits on field sizes and meetings may soon be lifted, especially as the nation works its way through the phases of the governments strategy to exit lockdown.
In terms of the NMP service, we have been ticking over during the lockdown by having the odd bet on the American and French racing (since the latter started back). When the UK racing returns on 1st June (soon to be followed by the Irish Racing, which returns on 8th June) we will crack on with the service as normal.
I would imagine June may be like 'April' normally is - horses are returning from winter absences and it may take a run or so for them to sharpen up. Many have been training hard at home, though these are unusual circumstances and I think it will be best to tread cautiously initially until we know where each trainer is at with their runners and their level of fitness.
Once most horses have had a run and we have some recent formlines laid down which we can analyse with confidence, that will be the time we will look to increase our stakes and betting activity.
Although we have lost all of April and May from the fixture calendar, the first Classics have been arranged and some of the other Pattern races which we have lost to date have also been reworked back into the calendar in the months ahead.
At the time of writing today we are +57 pts (to highest advised prices) to +36 pts (to lowest advised prices) from 224 pts staked on the 2020 NMP service. Bets are advised on a 0.25 - 3 pt staking scale, with an advised betting bank of 80-100 pts, depending on your attitude to risk.
We are thus well on course to double our betting bank for the year, given the progress we made up to and during lockdown.
The summer is traditionally the time of year when the service has produced its best results and there is little reason to expect this year will be any different - at least once we get the opening month or so behind us and ring rustiness is less of an issue with horses.
We still have Newmarket's July meeting and Glorious Goodwood and the rest of the top action etc to look forward to analyse and bet on - even if spectators might not be allowed back into racecourses for a while and we'll be watching everything through a TV!
Details on how to sign up for the rest of the 2020 NMP service can be found here.
Another superb Cheltenham
14th March 2020
The Cheltenham Festival is one of the main focal points of the year for us and months of preparation worked out a treat last week as we smashed in over +40 pts profit during the week and had our most successful Festival ever.
Even though Defi du Seuil, Tiger Roll, Paisley Park and even A Plus Tard suffered surprise defeats, which prevented us from landing another 20 pts+ profit, we enjoyed a fantastic week, backing the following winners and placed selections;
Winners:
Shishkin 3/1 to 11/4 (Supreme) The Conditional 14/1 to 12/1 (Ultima) Epatante 3/1 to 5/2 (Champion Hurdle) Honeysuckle 2/1 to 6/4 (Mares Hurdle) Dame de Compagnie 16/1 to 14/1 (Coral Cup) Sire du Berlais 10/1 (Pertemps Final) Simply The Betts 12/1 to 10/1 (Brown Advisory Plate) Concertista 5/1 (Mares Novice Hurdle) Al Boum Photo 10/3 (Cheltenham Gold Cup) Chosen Mate 5/1 (Grand Annual) Indefatigable 40/1 (Martin Pipe)
Place returns:
Abacadabras 5/1 to 4/1 (Supreme) Edwardstone 16/1 (Supreme) Fakir d'oudaries 6/1 to 9/2 (Arkle) Discorama 9/1 to 15/2 (Ultima) Darver Star 12/1 (Champion Hurdle) Galvin 9/1 to 8/1 (Northern Trust Novices Handicap) Lord du Mesnil 11/2 to 5/1 (NH Chase) Minella Indo 7/2 (RSA) Bachasson 33/1 (Coral Cup) Queens Brook 8/1 to 7/1 (Champion Bumper) Relegate 12/1 to 10/1 (Pertemps Final) Plan Of Attack 25/1 to 16/1 (Kim Muir) Bob Mahler 25/1 to 20/1 (Kim Muir) Billaway 6/1 to 11/2 (Foxhunters) Shantou Flyer 14/1 to 12/1 (Foxhunters)
We also had some exciting multiples which nearly hit the jackpot on Tuesday, when we had four winners and three seconds!
We now look forward to the start of the new Flat season.
Membership spaces are available on the NMP sign up page.
