What a coincidence!

Having gone on yesterday about trusting in coincidence in backing last year's winner Advanced to go in again in the Totesport Challenge Cup the only coincidence was that I didn't back the winner last year and didn't back the winner this year. So it goes....

On to today and Kingsgate Native is bet of the day. The drop in class could be just what he needs and it is interesting to me that he has been kept on the go into September this year for the first time since his 2yo days when he ran at Longchamp in the Arc meeting. He finished second that day on soft ground and today is the first time since he has raced on softer than good so I hope he handles it as well as he did three years ago.

Happy punting!

Trust in coincidence

I'm putting my faith in coincidence today as I tackle the big handicap at Ascot at 3.40 and hoping that Advanced can win the race for the second year in succession.

His preparation has been the same as last year except that 12 months ago he finished 8th in the Ayr Gold Cup and this year he was 4th in the Ayr Silver Cup but the real beauty lies in the other factors: he carries exactly the same weight (9.3) off exactly the same rating (99), is the same price as last year (33-1) and most tantalising of all, he is drawn in exactly the same stall (20). Having toiled away to work out the race I threw everything else out of the window and decided to leave it to fate that he will finish in the same position (1st). The only trouble is, the once difference this year is that I have backed Advanced this year and didn't last year - damn, I hadn't thought of that before having my punt....

Elsewhere I've had a bit on Santera in the 1.45 at Market Rasen. I used to have a share in this horse until she was claimed after winning a race last year and after another couple of moves she's now with the best trainer in her career - John Flint - and I think she will go on to good things. She won for me last week at 7-1 on her first ride for Flint and his son Rhys and I think she'll go in again today, although only at 7-4.

Away from the horses Plymouth need a win at Rochdale after Tuesday night's caving in at home to Brighton which came just three days after the best game in years when we beat Wednesday 3-2.

Also I'm still working on getting to Kelso during our trip to Scotland but Plan C - suggesting I buy the missus an afternoon in the pampering salon at the hotel while I disappear - has failed after she said she just needed her nails being done which will take an hour. "You can have a coffee and read the paper while you wait for me," she said. This is proving very tricky but I've not given up hope yet...

Happy punting!

Golden Day ahead

A lovely morning here in Cornwall and just about to go and cook breakfast for our guests so took some time last night trying to work out the Ayr Gold Cup and have decided to back two, but neither is drawn high which on the evidence of the Bronze Cup looks the place to be.

However, the draw at Ayr is all over the place each year and if a low or middle drawn horse wins the Silver Cup then everyone will be raving about that being the place to be. In the end I prefer to pick my horses on merit rather than place too much emphasis on the draw in this race as it varies from year to year.

My main fancy is Hawkeythenoo who has a middle draw in 16 and always pulls out all the stops on big days like this. At 9-1 he is good value I reckon. The other is an old rogue, Kaldoun Kingdom, who I backed in the Stewards Cup at Goodwood where he ran a stinker but he won the Silver Cup last year and with a useful 5lb claimber on board I reckon he's worth another go at 40-1 from a low draw.

Still working on getting to Kelso during our trip to Scotland next month but have been foiled in Plan B. This involved playing the guilt card when my wife said she and her daughter, Antonia, were going on a shopping trip next week.

"Oh, great. What time are we setting off," I asked.

"You don't want to come shopping with us," she replied and then I hit her with the guilt tactic.

"Why not. I haven't had a day out with Antonia for years. I don't want to just stay here on my own." (I didn't add, "watching ATR and R UK...")

She then called my bluff replying, "well if you want to come you'll have to let us have as much time in the shops as we want."

This called for the big move. "Well, I tell you what. You can have a day's shopping and I'll just stay here but then we'll make up for it with me having a day at the races in Scotland."

Sadly she was two steps ahead, predictably. "I knew that was coming. You went off to Newton Abbot last week without even telling me...etc etc" and it turned into a moan so a complete backfire unfortunately.

Plan C is now being devised, which involves bribery but success is by no means guaranteed and I can see a step up in cunning is called for, particularly now that I've had to twice expose my hand and been hopelessly out manoeuvred.

Back to today and off to Plymouth Argyle this afternoon against Sheffield Wednesday. Absolutely desperate for a result before we start to sink without a trace but still confident that That Man Reid can get us winning.

Hard work all round

Grim times on the punting front and can't do a thing right, missing winners I should have backed and backing losers I should have left alone.

How I could do with a day like my pal Mitchell. He came over on Tuesday night for the quiz and as we sat in his car to set off to the pub he groped around in the dark before telling me he had something to show me. "I had a good day on Sunday," he confided. "Here's my latest William Hill statement."

With that he passed over a much handled piece of paper which indeed did come from Messrs W Hill and showed his latest bet, a 10p EW Heinz costing £11.40 and which paid just over £18,000! For the first time I was literally speechless as I gazed at the total, which came courtesy of five out of six winners including one which had drifted from 5-1 to 16-1 on the day and was a massive beneficiary of Best Odds Guaranteed. They all came within an hour or so of each other on Sunday afternoon, he said. "I couldn't believe as they went in one after the other."

He was bloody useless in the quiz but to his credit the good old boy stood me a steak and chips out of his winnings and I was chuffed for him.

For me the attention is on Ayr today where I've backed Daring Dream at 7-1 in the 5.20 and he's since drifted to 8s with Hills so I hope the SP ends up better than I've taken. I've actually just booked a few days away in Scotland in October for me and the missus and my main work now is seeing that I can sneak off to Kelso on the Saturday. Unfortunately she's on the alert and as soon as I suggested she had one of the afternoons up there on a shopping trip she replied "I suppose that means there's racing on. Well, I'm going shopping next week so won't need to and we can spend the time together."

Why is it that women always want to spend time together when a chap is very happy to go off on his own, whether it's to the races or the football or just to the pub? Mind you, having said that a bloke I know in our local town whose wife has a horse moans about the amount of time she spends at the stables - what a wuss! A perfect chance to get the feet up, put on ATR and enjoy the peace and quiet I'd have thought.

Still a few weeks to work on my wife about the Kelso excursion but I can see I'll have to think up some other tactics now that Plan A has been blown out of the water so quickly.

Away from the racing the biggest thrill of the week was seeing my little grand-daughter Florence running around the sitting room at my son's house 250 miles away by the wonders of the interweb and Skype. She started walking a week or so ago and they can't keep her still now - what a star!

Casting about

Desperate times up at Donny on the punting front and very busy at the B&B so not much time for studying; just enough in fact to come up with Electric Waves as the bet of the day at 8-1. The price seems very generous to me as he's won his last three races with great authority and is clearly an improving two-year-old.

But then again, the form I'm in at the moment everything is far from certain!

Donny day two

Not much to write home about on the punting front yesterday but victory in the pub quiz for our team on the tie breaker after a hard fought draw in the main quiz. The tie-breaker was "How heavy was the biggest shark ever caught?" and there were varying suggestions until one of our number threw in that great white sharks can grow to over 2 tons!

Led by him we put down 3,000lb as the answer, to which there were titters around the pub and plenty of comments like "give over" and "you've got to be kidding." The other side guessed 160lb which again met with "that's more like it" and such like. Well, he who laughs last laughs longest and when the answer came out at 2,300lb we were able to bask is smugness! I would never have believed it I must admit but Big Paul was convinced and that was good enough for us!

Back to the punting however and things are not going well but I am brimming with confidence today over Meeznah in the Park Hill Stakes. She was runner-up in the Oaks, will almost certainly stay this distance and her trainer David Lanigan, in only his third year, is in superb form. She's not raced on ground like this so that's obviously a concern but she is my bet of the week, for what it's worth!

Happy punting!

Donny good show

Bit of a sickener yesterday to see Handsome Jack go clear of the field apart from the damn Indigo Bay who kept on to win by a neck. He was backed into 7-2 favourite, probably because he was later a Hugh Taylor pick, and I really thought we had a winner but so it goes.

In fact I had a poor afternoon's punting apart from an even money favourite and I then lost those winnings on a 6-4 shot in a nursery ridden by Richard Hills which should and could have won but was given an extremely tender ride. Obviously these young horses don't want to be given too hard a race but it is galling when you back one and it is treated more as a training exercise than an attempt to win a race.

Onwards and upwards today with the start of the St Leger meeting and I am looking forward to the race with all the ex jockeys. I think I'll probably back Pat Eddery's mount, Master of Dance, but only to have an interest in what should be a fun contest with the likes of Francome and Smith-Eccles getting the silks on.

My main bet of the day will be Captain Dunne in the Scarborough Stakes at 3.10. This race is often won by a horse ridden prominently and this one will not mind the ground so he looks worth a try at 8-1.

Getting wet

Had a good day at Newton Abbot yesterday; if anyone was watching ATR they will have seen how wet it was but that didn't dampen spirits and there was a big crowd for the last meeting of the year (most people taking advantage of NA's two-for-one ticket offer on a Monday...)

One person who wasn't happy was Tony McCoy. He got off In The Zone, trained by Jonjo and owned by JP McManus, to ride the favourite, January, in the penultimate race with Jonjo's decent apprentice Richie McLernon taking over in the green and gold. AP was at the front at the last but the young lad swept past on the run-in to win by just over a length.

I'd backed In the Zone at 4-1 and then again on the Tote, returning at 7.3, so was chuffed to bits but AP's face as he stalked past McLernon and Jonjo celebrating in the winner's enclosure showed what he thought of things. His hatred of losing is what makes him so brilliant and this really was a choker for him - if there's any justice he will win BBC Sports Personality of the Year at last this year but the British public being what it is, there is no guarantee of that.

My pal John the newsagent had backed January and it was not a good day for him - he picked out Chestnut Ben in the paddock but wouldn't back him at 50-1 because he was two stone out of the handicap. The horse was then backed into 20s and romped home in the second race.

We then met up with a lad called Tim who I had met at Ffos Las last year and who has turned his back on gainful employment to become a professional punter and he said he'd backed Chestnut Ben at 33s having seen him steadily get fitter through the year. He then tipped us Cashel Blue EW in the next, which John had again picked out in the paddock but by then we were both very keen on the favourite, Caheerloch, and stuck with him. Needless to say in which order they finished first and second.

Thankfully I came away even thanks to In The Zone and despite getting soaked it was a good day and even John the newsagent enjoyed it despite only getting back a bit of his losses on the odds-on winner of the last.

Today I have a strong fancy for Handsome Jack in the 3.10 at Goodwood. This is a very open looking nursery but he looks a real improver from his two runs on the all weather and at around 5-1 he'll do for me. Off to cook breakfast for our guests now and hopefully the wife will be out this afternoon so I can have a couple of hours in front of ATR and Racing UK!

Not a proper Saturday

Excellent to see England back in form last night but we all know it is likely to be another successful qualifying campaign followed by a dire Euro championship. Let's hope something is different in 2012 and that by then we have a team with more guts and determination than we saw in South Africa.

The problem ofcourse with these international matches is that Saturday loses its lustre and even Argyle are not playing due to some international call ups. Just as well mind, the way we've been playing, but it still leaves a massive hole. We however have a lunch invitation which normally I would be using every excuse in the book to get out of but am not having to bother, even though I've already been accused once of "just because you don't want to go" when quite properly suggesting I might need to stay behind for new guests who could arrive early...

So it looks like that is how Saturday is shaping up and once again little time for form study so keeping to just one bet today, Braveheart Move in the Old Borough Cup at Haydock. This one will love the ground and having been given a couple of runs over hurdles, Jonjo O'Neill is persisting with an autumn flat campaign and he looks set for a good run at 16-1.

Happy punting!

Transfer breadline

I suppose the way Plymouth Argyle are playing at the moment, it was too much to expect any excitement on transfer deadline day and indeed the only activity was full back Chris Barker going to Southend. So we now wait for the loan window to re-open but at least there's no game for us this Saturday after last week's lamentable 3-0 defeat home to Peterborough, who I can see winning League One.

The horses did little better for me on Saturday but yesterday I was at Newton Abbot and backed a couple of winners, at 7-2 and 8-1 so came home well in profit.

Today there is a horse at Lingfield that interests me at 9-2, Bombadero in the 2.50 maiden race. This one has had seven runs with a couple of seconds and has been a disappointing favourite more than once but John Dunlop may have found the race to get his head in front, dropping him to 11 furlongs. He has twice been ahead entering the last furlong over 12F only to be overhauled on the run to the line so this unusual distance of 1m 3f might do the trick and he is at a decent price.

Happy punting one and all!

Postscript: This damn horse should have run away with this race but having got blocked on the rail he then proceeded to throw his head about once in the clear. He then decided to run on before again messing about before finally getting going again and losing by half a length. Some horses just don't want to win and this is clearly one of them!