Autumn Update

It's been a crazy, crazy summer. Looking at the photos on my phone screams good fortune: wins for Konigin Isabella (two) and especially Sure Touch in the £100,000 Summer Plate (all for geegeez racehorse syndicates), Centre Court for Ladies' Final day, Brighton with mates, Goodwood with mates, Norfolk with family, Dorset with family (including Leon's first Bournemouth match! But especially, visiting dad/'nonno'), Germany with family, Philadelphia on business, and West Ham to watch the Cherry Reds... Yes, I've been super lucky and I don't take it for granted.

But now Leon has gone back to school - secondary, gasp! - it's time to get back to work. So here's what is in store in the coming weeks.

Infra Upgrades

Let's get the boring one out of the way first. Since we started doing the racecards (Gold) project ten years ago, technology has continued to move forward apace. Some of our code has needed a freshen up to reflect that and, crucially, we have two infrastructure upgrades we need to make. The first will update the software we use to process the data which powers the racecards, reports and tools into our database; the second will upgrade the underlying PHP version of the front end website.

Obviously, you don't need to know what that means... except that it will likely involve at least one (hopefully) short period of downtime while we make the second upgrade and check it all out.

These upgrades will happen in the next couple of weeks, naturally avoiding the period around St Leger/Irish Champions Weekend. I'll be sure to let you know when it's taking place.

New Feature

From the outset, I've been conscious that a significant gap in the Geegeez Gold offering is the ability to watch race replays. Unfortunately, for a small business like ours the cost of licensing the replays from two media companies is prohibitive; but I think I've found a way to do this by linking back to the ATR/RTV websites from our racecards.

It's not ideal - you'll be taken away from our pages each time you watch a recording - but in testing I'm really enjoying the ability to click straight through to the videos. This will be a Gold only feature, and will appear on the Card, Full Form and Result tabs after we've made the infrastructure updates.

RI > TP

Racing Insights has been a worthy successor to Stat of the Day, showcasing the daily free components of the site for registered users and helping to 'on board' new subscribers. But RI is about to undergo a bit of a facelift, transforming from a single race article to a multi-race format based around our sister product, Tix. Tix is a software tool to place smart quadpot, placepot, jackpot, placepot 7, Scoop 6 and Irish jackpot bets - and I want to help you understand why it's a better way to play.

So, starting this week, we'll pivot from RI to Tix Pix. The challenge is in not being too prescriptive in terms of the 'pix' (or picks, or selections, if you prefer) because, being pool-based bets, it's not helpful for all of us to be on the same horses. And, as importantly, the point is to show you how to use the apparatus rather than spoon feed you: we know you prefer to find your own bets, that's why you are here rather than somewhere else!

I'll be leading the charge, from Thursday I think, and it will take me a few goes to get my feet under the table in terms of an optimal shape for the articles. Once I'm happy it's where I want it to be, Chris will take over. Very excited to do more around bets I personally play on a very regular basis.

The Return of NH SR

Lots of acronyms in the post today. This one relates to our SR rating column, provided to us privately by Peter May, and, specifically, to the return of the National Hunt ratings. Every summer (May to August), NH SR goes into estivation; and every September 1st, those numbers re-emerge into the light, rubbing their eyes and scratching their... erm, anyway. They're back! You'll see them at Bangor on Friday, Stratford on Saturday, and Fontwell on Sunday. And a million times after that and before May 1st 2025. Great news.

Syndicates Update

We've been having a charmed run with our racehorse syndicates, and I shared a report from last season here. Well, since then, we've had three winners from seven runs. As alluded to at the top of the piece, Konigin Isabella rewarded our patience with a tenacious victory at Newton Abbot in a valuable race for the grade... and then followed up four weeks later. She's on a break now until the Spring when we hope she can pick up where she left off. Anthony Honeyball has done a phenomenal job with her.

Sure Touch has just been a dream to own. Since we acquired him from his previous owner via Olly Murphy (who retains two shares), he's won eight races from twelve starts! And he's progressed from an official rating of 108 to his current perch on 143. He's won his last four chases and, last time out, gave his owners a day of days when winning the £100,000 Summer Plate at Market Rasen. We were quite happy:

100,000 reasons to celebrate

Delighted connections as SURE TOUCH lands the 100k @UnibetRacing Summer Plate for @O_J_murphy91 & @CobdenHarry. pic.twitter.com/jpXFJSdLk3

— Market Rasen Racecourse (@MarketRasenRace) July 20, 2024

Plans for his next run are fluid but the Grand Sefton, over the National fences, may be on the agenda. Super exciting!

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Today it's the turn of Razzam, on something of a recovery mission at Chepstow for Mick Appleby and his syndicate owners. He won first time for us early last summer and then ran very well in two Racing League handicaps, picking up good prize money; but, since then, he's been a little disappointing. We gave him a break and, after a below par return where he boiled over pre-race and a much better try last time, we hope he can go close this afternoon (3.48). He'll have a couple more runs between now and the Autumn HIT sale at Newmarket at the very end of October, after which he'll make a nice all-weather prospect for new owners.

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And of course now we have the winter jumps team back in training. Anthony trains Coquelicot ('Cookie'), who will be having her final season, or more likely half season, before heading off to broodmare duties. She's been an incredible mare for us, winning eight races - two of them Listed class - and she's got the size and genetics to be a fantastic mum, too. Now an eight-year-old, we'll be very sad to see her move on, having had her since she was a yearling.

Also with Anthony is Dartmoor Pirate, whose season over hurdles last term was a revelation. He was relatively cheaply bought and, after a bit of a flop in a bumper at the end of October, we went straight to timber with him. He won his maiden hurdle by eleven lengths in a field of 18 (!) before running second three times to smart novices over an inadequate trip. Sandwiched in between those silver medals was his best performance: fourth of 17 in the valuable and ultra-competitive Grade 3 Novices' Final at Sandown.

He raced off the pace that day while the first three home were all ridden handily. Crucially, that race was over two and a half miles and that trip, along with the sterner jumping test provided by fences, is where we envisage his future lies. We are very excited about his prospects for this season.

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The next generation is coming through. Luna Lux, our most expensive purchase yet, was bought as a yearling at the same Arqana sale from which we acquired Cookie and, though she had a major setback in the field early on, she's made a full recovery and has waltzed through her pre-training. She's on a break now ahead of coming in for some more serious work in the Spring and, after her summer holiday next year, she'll join the Anthony Honeyball bootcamp as she gears up to racing. She has the looks and pedigree to be very, very good... but we all know it doesn't always pan out that way.

Most recently I sourced a second horse to be trained by Olly, and we've just named him Gee Force Flyer. He's actually had a year's pre-training already and shows both plenty of ability and a great attitude. Olly is delighted with him, and here he is going through his strides in early season:

Most of the lucky Sure Touch lads are involved with this fella, too, and at time of writing I have one share left (well, two, but the second has a firm claim which I'm expecting will be taken up today/tomorrow).

This is the only share in any geegeez syndicate horse available at this time and it's unlikely I'll be syndicating any more this year. If you're interested, you can find out much more about Gee Force Flyer here.

As an aside, all of the geegeez syndicates are run at 'cost'; that is, I don't take any payment for running them, communicating, doing the VAT returns, paying the bills, and so on. And I take at least one share in every horse. So I'm always [except with Sure Touch] the most heavily invested syndicate member!

Anyway, if you fancy joining us in GFF, there's that one share left. Click here to read about the horse and the plan.

Summary

So, yes, a huge amount upcoming, both on and off the website, and I'm very grateful that you'll be there to share it with us.

Matt

p.s. if you have any questions on anything I've mentioned above, or anything generally, leave a comment and I'll be sure to get back to you.

Other Recent Posts by This Author:

• Tix Picks, 10th September 2024
• Tix Picks, 7th September 2024
• Tix Picks, 6th September 2024
• Tix Picks, 5th September 2024
• What is Tix?