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Geegeez has a couple of new features - and a new membership tier - going live this week. Let's get straight to it...
New Feature #1: Odds History
We've added odds history data so you can see the trajectory of price movement. But I wanted to present an uncluttered view of the movement, unlike other sites where there can be well over a hundred rows of data to confuse and confuddle.
So we have an opening show price usually from the night before; and then odds updates at 8pm the night before, 7am day of race, then hourly from 9am day of race... up to an hour before the advertised off time, at which we display quarter-hour price intervals.
To access the detail, click the little coloured 'graph' icon.
Looking now, for example, will show something like this:
Later in the day/after a race, it will be more like this:
Crucially, where there is no price update, there is an empty cell. It's a clean, easily consumable view of price movement.
For those who want to go a step further, we have a graph view as well. Within that are options to review movement from Opening Show, 9am day of race, or the last two hours; and you can view either best available price movement or average price movement. It looks like this:
This is on site now and is available to all logged in geegeez users, free or paid.
New Feature #2: Video Replay Links
The second new feature may have had a spoiler alert for some eagle-eyed viewers in recent weeks, as it's been in my 'super user' account for a while. As of some time today, Gold level subscribers will be able to click out to video replays of all UK/Irish races. The race replays are hosted by the rights holders (ATR/RTV) so your click take you outside of the geegeez site, but I've found it a super convenient way to watch the race replays I need.
You'll find the links in the horse form on the Card tab, to the right of the 'Date' colum:
And in Full Form in the same place:
And on the Result tab, look for the red button:
I know for some members this will be a game-changer and I'm excited to share it.
Update #3: Introducing Geegeez 'Lite'
Regular readers will know that I frequently survey site visitors to understand what's working and what's not; and what you want to see next. Having recently asked about an interim membership tier, I was bowled over by an overwhelming 'YES' response.
So, we've created something called Geegeez Lite, which includes all of our most popular and easiest-to-use features across the racecards, reports and form tools. Later today, or perhaps tomorrow, I'll share exactly what's included for Lite members, as well as pricing info.
This will be available from tomorrow morning onwards and, to celebrate its launch, I'm making what I hope is a very accessible offer. So if Geegeez Gold is a bit much for you, either in cost or feature terms, Geegeez Lite might be just the ticket.
Look out for more details later today, and a fantastic launch offer tomorrow morning.
One approach to betting on the horses is to use systems, writes Dave Renham. Some punters are drawn to racing systems because once developed they are straightforward and easy to implement. No burning the midnight oil studying the form which can definitely be seen as a plus.
Introduction
Most use a methodical approach, sticking to a rigid set of rules, and essentially users back whatever the system or systems suggest without any further thoughts. They are not swayed by the fact that the trainer may not have had a winner for a month, or that the jockey booked has not ridden a winner for the stable this year; they have a selection via their system and that is good enough. These users put their money on and have the rest of the day to themselves.
Geegeez Gold subscribers can create and then test certain systems using the Query Tool, and once a system that looks promising enough to follow is identified, it can be saved as a 'Query Tool Angle' – this means any qualifiers will appear on the racecard and in the member's personal QT Angles Report, only visible to them.
At this juncture it is worth remembering that not all people are fans of using systems. Some will say that systems lack flexibility and that they rarely perform as well ‘live’ as they do in testing. Non-system punters also believe that profitable systems have a limited shelf life and, more often than not, they are right. A perennial problem for system punters is that determining the likely shelf life of a system is virtually impossible. Horse racing and the betting market are continually changing and hence certain systems that have been profitable in the past at some point start to lose their value edge, and eventually start making losses. One of the main reasons this occurs is that the betting market adjusts, so although the strike rate essentially stays the same the prices on offer contract (shorten) and the profit margin disappears.
Therefore, as a system punter one cannot sit back on one's laurels once a collection of ‘winning’ systems has been created. We need to be constantly monitoring our results over the short, medium and long term to see whether that system should continue to be used. I wonder though, how many system punters do keep abreast in this way? It would be interesting to know.
Personally, I do not use such an archetypal system approach. I use ‘systems’ in a broader sense to create shortlists for specific races. I look for a group of rules or parameters that gives me maybe four or five horses to focus on rather than just one. It is a more general approach that works for me, closer perhaps to patterns than systems. It is far from the only betting strategy I use but it is the closest I get to using systems.
For this article I have concentrated on National Hunt racing in the UK from 1st January 2016 to 17th November 2024. I will share with you some systems that would have proved profitable to Betfair SP during this time frame. I also will share Irish data where appropriate.
System 1 – "Back so soon?"
Quick returning Last Time Out (LTO) winners
When, back in the 90s, I first looked at systems horses that returned to the track quickly (within a few days) generally performed above the expectations of punters and bookmakers alike. Maybe there was some prejudice at the time in terms of thinking that the horse had not had long enough to recover from its recent exertions. We now know that some horses actually thrive when returned to the racecourse quickly. So, onto the system:
1. Won LTO
2. Last race was 5 days ago or less
That’s it! Just the two rules. Generally, the fewer the rules the better in terms of systems. Too many rules can mean you can fall into the dreaded back-fitting trap.
Here are the overall results:
This ultra-simple system has produced a very impressive strike rate of close to 47%, especially when you consider all LTO winners in NH racing win on average only 21% of the time. Below I have graphed by year the win and each way (win & placed) strike rates for this system:
As you can see the win SR% has been over 40% in all but one of the years, while the each way SR% has been above 63% in every year bar one.
In terms of yearly returns to BSP, six of the nine years proved profitable with one break-even year and two losing years. The same yearly profit spread occurred if betting to SP, it’s just that the profits were slightly smaller each year. Finally, horses that started as clear favourite have produced 173 wins from 312 (SR 55.5%) for a BSP profit of £47.89 (ROI +15.4%).
Checking the Irish results now we see an overall profit has been made also:
Don’t be put off by the lower strike rate as the average number of runners in races in Ireland has been much higher than in the UK. In fact, Irish races involving these quick returners have averaged four runners per race more than their UK counterparts (12.6 versus 8.6). The ROI% for Irish and UK runners has been very similar and, all in all, it seems that quick returners continue to deliver both sides of the pond.
Combining the UK and Irish results gives us:
System 2 – "The Lightly Baked Baguette"
Inexperienced French-bred chasers
Breeding in terms of the country origin of the horse can give punters an edge if they have done their research. This system utilises the fact that French-bred (French bread, baguette, geddit?!) runners seem to take well to jumping the larger obstacles early in their chasing careers. Here is the system:
1. French-bred runners
2. Non-handicap chases only
3. First or second run in a chase
4. SP 4/1 or less
French bred chasers seem to mature quickly and take to these larger obstacles better, certainly when you compare them to the other two main countries of breeding namely GB and Ireland. Here is the profit and loss table:
The high strike rate means consistent results overall – the longest losing run has been just eight. Five of the nine years proved profitable, two broke even, while two showed small losses.
As with the first system I checked the Irish results over this time frame, and they too turned a small profit from a slightly bigger data set:
These figures are a smidge below the UK ones, but they still correlate well. Combining results from both the UK and Ireland we get:
Now, GB- and Irish-bred runners restricted to the same system rules have won 34% of the time (34.2% for GB, 34% for Irish) so that's quite a significant differential to the 42% for French-breds. The domestic product have also made losses of over 4% combined (GB -3.9%, Ire -4.4%) in this context. Finally, the A/E indices come out strongly in the French favour too with their figure standing at 1.03, the GB one at 0.93, and 0.92 for Irish-breds.
If you are a punter that primarily bets horses at shorter prices, this system may be one to consider.
System 3 – "Rested and ready"
The trainer lay off system
Trainer systems are popular be they course based, jockey based, etc. For instance, Trainer Track Stats is one such example.
This system combines three trainers that perform particularly well with chasers returning from a long break. The advantage of a trainer system including three trainers rather than one is that hopefully the ‘journey’ will be smoother, experiencing less ups and downs from month to month, year to year. This is of course assuming that all three trainer results don’t dip at the same time, which can obviously happen. Here is the system:
1. Chases only
2. Horse off track for 180 days or more
3. Trainer: Kim Bailey or David Pipe or Venetia Williams
Let me start by sharing the individual trainer performances with these horses that have effectively been off the track for at least six months.
As you can see, all three have done extremely well with this type of runner from good sample sizes. Williams has had six winning years from nine, Bailey seven, and Pipe a highly impressive eight. Combining their results in one give us the overall system results:
I think anyone would be happy with these results when betting in over 600+ races. It should be noted that profits to Industry SP stand at over £205 and all nine years produced a profit. In terms of BSP, here are the yearly ROI percentages:
This shows the advantage of merging three trainer systems in one. Profits and good ones every year. In terms of A/E indices only one year saw the figure dip under 1.00 indicating what excellent value these runners would have been. For the record there was only one qualifying race in Ireland as these trainers ply their trade in the UK 99.9% of the time.
This trainer system hopefully has ‘legs’ to continue in positive fashion over the next few years.
UPDATE: This system has had five winners from 15 since the article was written, for a profit of £9.79 to BSP (ROI +65.3%). Including an Ascot double for Venetia Williams last Friday and a Haydock double on Saturday. Kim Bailey weighed in at Haydock as well so three from four that day - treble paid over 130-1 SP and 177/1 on Betfair.
System 4 – "Cotswold Champions"
LTO winner at Cheltenham system
This is a system that I first wrote about for another publication back in 2015. At that time, it had been profitable over a number of years going back to 2008, and looking at this more recent data set I see a similar performance. Here are the rules (no surprises based on the system title!):
1. LTO course Cheltenham
2. Won LTO
Here are the results going back to the start of 2016:
Returns are close to 8p in the £ which is positive. Also, it makes total sense to once again check runners in Ireland for this system considering so many Irish runners win at Cheltenham. The good news is that this subset also produced a profit:
Fewer qualifiers but double the ROI%.
Let me combine both UK and Irish results to see how these runners fared overall and on a year-by-year basis:
As can be seen, the yearly results have certainly fluctuated, and if taking out 2021’s excellent returns there would have been a small overall loss incurred. Hence this system could go one way or the other in 2025 and beyond. However, as I stated earlier, it also produced a profit from 2008 to 2015 so has performed solidly over nearly 20 years now.
It should be noted that horses that win at the Cheltenham festival in March are the best group of LTO Cheltenham winners to follow. No surprises there.
System 5 – "Lightweight Winners"
LTO winners carrying bottom weight in handicap hurdles
This is very similar to a system I heard about 25 years ago; that one focused on the weight carried rather than the position in the weights, and followed low weighted LTO winners running in handicap hurdles. From memory the system pinpointed horses carrying 10st 4lb or less.
Anyway, onto the more recent system I want to share with you. Here are the rules:
1. Handicap hurdle races only
2. Won LTO
3. Bottom or joint bottom weight
I should mention that I have taken any jockey allowances / claims into account, so the system is based on the actual weight they are carrying. Here are the UK results going back to the start of 2016:
This looks a promising starting point. Let us look at the BSP Return on Investment percentages by year:
2021 was the only poor year, while four others (2016, 2018, 2022 and 2023) were close to parity, three of those four managing a tiny profit; and there were four very good years.
For fun, I looked at restricting these bottom weighted runners to those carrying 10st 4lb or less (matching the weight criteria of the old system I mentioned above). Doing that would have produced 112 winners from 511 runners (SR 21.9%) for a BSP profit of £134.84 (ROI +26.4%). This additional rule takes out about half of the original qualifiers but has increased the profit. For anyone interested in using this system, whether you add this rule or not is up to you. Some would argue it is back-fitting, but in my defence, I did mention the original system criteria earlier.
Going back to the basic system without adding that weight carried rule, the Irish results have proved profitable also, but the sample size is small:
The lower strike rate is once again down to much bigger average field sizes. The profit is small, but a profit is a profit! It is also worth noting that taking the UK and Irish results individually, both would have secured a small profit to Betfair SP Place betting.
I think some horses sitting at the bottom of the weights in handicaps are under-estimated by the betting public. Perhaps this is why this system has proved profitable in recent years.
**
Summary
It is time to wind this piece up. As I said at the outset, rigid systems are not really for me but I totally appreciate why many punters use them. The five I have shared in this article have all shown positive results over a recent time frame. The UK results have also been backed up in most cases by Irish racing results lending more credence to the angles.
Of course, as with any article I write, I can only report on past data; there are no guarantees any of these systems will make a profit over the next x number of years. Hopefully they all will – only time will tell.
- DR
https://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/VenetiaWilliams_CharlieDeutsch.jpg319830Dave Renhamhttps://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/geegeez_banner_new_170x78.pngDave Renham2024-11-27 08:28:072024-11-27 09:42:39National Hunt Racing Systems for 2024/25
I must say Storm Bert crept up on me unawares, writes Tony Stafford. Minus 2 degrees C on Friday morning, plus 15 degrees two days later. If you still dealt in Fahrenheit, that’s a difference of 31 degrees. Reach for the medication! He was a windy old bugger, was Bert, enough for the safety-first people in the Exeter, or was it BHA, management to call off yesterday’s fixture after the course had been declared fit for racing earlier in the morning.
So not the greatest of starts for a week without any supporting all-weather meetings. As I write on Sunday morning, over the coming week, there will be 19 jumping cards before the next all-weather programme, on December 1, to be staged under lights at Wolverhampton.
The official thinking must be to give the flat boys a week off before the hard slog through December, January and February engulfs their energy – if they can afford to take the time off. But that means no evening entertainment for a week. Also, granted that we don’t get remnants of the accursed Bert lingering long enough to render conditions untenable, even on such ground-friendly tracks as Kempton and Ludlow today, emergency cards could conceivably be coming into play later in the week
One slight cause for concern, certainly for northern jump racing and point-to-point enthusiasts, comes next Sunday December 1. The two jumps cards that day are at Leicester and Carlisle. The first northern point-to-point of the winter is staged on the same day, the Border meeting run on the inside of the NH course at Hexham, only 37 miles away.
The previous day, this coming Saturday, Newbury stages its biggest jumps day of the year. The Coral Gold Cup, just about established even to an old timer like me enough not to be giving Hennessy yet another posthumous mention, carries 250 grand. The whole card has a handsome £490k in total.
The same day at Newcastle, the Fighting Fifth Hurdle, now denied the services of Constitution Hill but thrillingly replaced by his recent much-publicised gallop conqueror Sir Gino, gets 115 grand, a chunk of it from BetMGM. Their advertising on the two Racing channels is almost as cringe-making as Corals with that idiotic so-called race with non-riders on faux horses brandishing their phones. Maybe Betfair will do a market on it?
Anyway, we're at the mercy of untoward weather patterns as ever, but at this stage with temperatures for the week apparently around a sensible for the time of year 10 degrees C, we should be okay.
The first prize for the Coral Gold Cup will be around £140k. This time I’m not complaining as the tracks do what they can. Yesterday’s Japan Cup at the Tokyo racecourse was worth £2,801,191 and it propelled the winner Do Deuce beyond the £10million career tally. His earlier highlight had been the defeat of Equinox when they were three-year-olds but that world champion easily had his, and everything else’s, measure from then on.
The locals had made Do Deuce the 13/8 favourite to follow on from Equinox and, after 55-year-old local hero Yutake Take allowed him to trail the field for the first eight of the 12 furlongs, he smoothly passed them all in the straight. Then he needed to repel the rallying Shin Emperor, a 26/1 shot, who dead-heated for second, a neck behind the winner, along with the William Buick-ridden Durezza.
Goliath, the King George winner at Ascot, ineligible as a gelding to run in the Arc in which Shin Emperor was unplaced, kept going well for fifth. Auguste Rodin was always in the middle of the field on his final race for Aidan O’Brien, the Derby winner finishing eighth under Ryan Moore, although only four lengths adrift of the winner.
Take was winning his country’s most important race for the fifth time, his first arriving on the legendary Deep Impact, the sire of Auguste Rodin. His wins in the Derby and Irish Derby last year will make Auguste Rodin a major attraction at €30k on the 2025 Coolmore roster alongside fellow newcomer City Of Troy (€75k), this year’s Derby winner. The jewel in Coolmore’s overflowing crown, though, is Wootton Bassett who has moved inexorably upward since his capture from France. Wootton Bassett is up from €200k to €300k after another stellar year, notably from the first crop of Coolmore-sired two-year-olds this year.
Returning to the Fighting Fifth, the market on the race has responded to the Henderson news by making Sir Gino and the Willie Mullins entry Mystical Power difficult to separate. Mystical Power beat Firefox on his last two starts last season and that Gordon Elliott hurdler is the only horse so far to have beaten the Mullins star Ballyburn, that happening in a 24-runner novice hurdle at the start of Ballyburn’s novice season.
Mullins’ decision to switch Ballyburn to fences - presumably the owners had a little say (or not?) – had an instant dividend on Saturday when he outclassed the opposition in a novice chase over an extended 2m2f at Punchestown. He hardly looked to be galloping, but the margin over the rest certainly did keep extending. It will take something special to beat him.
Now that Ballyburn is off the hurdles path, the Champion Hurdle contenders are lining up. State Man, the champ, had a reverse on the same card in the Morgiana Hurdle. With his stable-companion Lossiemouth a late withdrawal, State Man was a strong odds-on shot but could not match Elliott’s mare, Brighterdaysahead.
Throughout the racing industry – except maybe for the Mullins stable – State Man was regarded as a champion by default with Constitution Hill unable to take part. It should not have been too much of a shock for Nicky Henderson that Sir Gino could work better than Constitution Hill. He had been a massive over-achiever in all three of his hurdle runs last season.
When he came to Cheltenham second time out following an easy win at Kempton, the French import slaughtered Burdett Road by ten lengths. That horse’s all-the-way win in the Greatwood Hurdle last weekend off a mark of 133 put the performance into perspective.
Sir Gino missed the Mullins-dominated Triumph Hurdle, first two and another five in the field, but came back at Aintree. There he was a comfortable winner by more than three lengths over Kargese, who had been beaten just over a length in second by Majborough in the Triumph.
Kargese’s similarly comfortable success in the Grade 1 juvenile contest at Punchestown on her final start of the season lent further solidity to the form, if it was needed. The one question about Sir Gino, a Listed winner on his sole French start when a 21/1 shot in April of last year, was how Harold Kirk and Mullins missed him, especially as Mrs Donnelly has plenty of horses with the Irish maestro.
This is a match I can’t wait to see. It’s not the first time Henderson had a close-season quandary over whether to send his top juvenile hurdler straight over fences. He had the choice with Altior and Buveur D’Air after the pair had been first and third in the 2016 Supreme Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham. The distance between the pair was eight lengths. Both set off on novice chase campaigns, but after wins at Haydock and Warwick J P McManus’ Buveur D’Air never again ran over fences.
Instead, he seamlessly switched back to hurdles and won both the 2017 and 2018 Champion Hurdles while Altior went on his merry way as probably the best two-mile chaser in living memory. Such a shame that the real Champion Hurdler of his era never got the chance to show he might have been another Istabraq.
That gallop the other day was enough to convince Henderson to continue with Sir Gino at the smaller obstacles – for now at least – rather than go straight into novice chasing. He faces a formidable and beautifully-bred opponent on Saturday in Mystical Power, a son of Galileo out of the almost flawless mare Annie Power, winner of 15 of her 17 races.
The run that remains most firmly in the memory, unfortunately, alongside all the superb victories was one of the two losses. The banker for seemingly the whole of Cheltenham that day, she came to the last in the Mares’ Hurdle with Ruby Walsh sitting still. To general amazement and dismay, she fell.
Mystical Power is her first produce to race and he sets a pretty decent standard. With shared ownership between Mrs Sue Magnier, J P McManus and Susannah Ricci, he could hardly have more distinguished owners. But I still think that Sir Gino can match him.
As to the Coral Gold Cup, I must stay with my long-held view that a second-season seven-year-old fits the formula. I was surprised that only ten of the 31 entered – noon today will tell us how many are left in - are of that age.
One trainer never to have won it will be very keen to do so this year. Kim Bailey won his Gold Cup half a lifetime ago and must be hoping that in Chianti Classico he has another potential winner of Cheltenham’s great race.
He won a big field handicap at the Festival there last year and made a winning start to this campaign with an all-the-way stylish display at Ascot. That brought his mark to a very tough 157, but he is improving rapidly, and his jumping should help him stay at the forefront all through the three and a quarter mile trip.
In this article I am looking at some all-weather data going back to 2019 in the UK, writes Dave Renham. At this time of year, the only flat racing in Britain occurs at the six all-weather tracks, these being Chelmsford, Kempton, Lingfield, Newcastle, Southwell and Wolverhampton. The first three named all race on a Polytrack surface, the last three on a Tapeta surface.
My initial research for this piece is connected with the last time out all-weather (LTO AW) course that a horse ran and linking it to the course they raced on next time. As you might expect, certain horses tend to stick to one specific AW track. The two most likely reasons for this are either they run better there, or their stable is close to the track in question (or both). I guess trainers with smaller yards have to keep a close eye on costs, and travelling less distance is one way to save money.
All Runners: Surface Same or Different
When thinking about AW runners that have run well LTO, my perception in the past has been that I would rather see a horse running at the same AW track as they raced last time. If the horse switches tracks, then I would prefer them to stick to the same surface (e.g. Polytrack to Polytrack or Tapeta to Tapeta). If a horse did not run particularly well LTO then any switch of track or surface could be seen to be a potential positive. Thinking about this now, I realise that I have not crunched any data comparing the LTO AW course to current AW course, so my starting point is to look at just that.
Let me begin by comparing all runners between the LTO AW course to today's AW course. It should be noted that for any data connected with Southwell, I have used only runs on the new Tapeta surface which was first deployed at the end of 2021. It made no sense to include previous fibresand results.
The table below displays win strike rates, ROI percentages (to both Industry Starting Price, SP, and Betfair Starting Price, BSP), as well as Actual vs Expected (A/E) indices. I have colour coded some of the A/E indices – those in green are deemed positive (0.95 or above), those in red deemed negative (0.79 or below):
The vast majority of LTO course to ‘this time’ course stats seem much of a muchness. However, the five A/E ‘positives’ each have one thing in common – these paired courses all have different surfaces:
I concede I was not expecting this. In terms of strong positives, I would have expected to see the two courses in question either being the same course, or at least having the same surface.
Sticking with Newcastle as the LTO course, the data seem to suggest that horses perform better next time when switching to race on Polytrack. Indeed, here are the exact splits for this:
There is quite strong evidence here highlighting that if a horse ran at Newcastle LTO, one would much prefer to see it switch surfaces next time to race at one of the three Polytrack courses (Chelmsford, Kempton, Lingfield).
Let’s now compare the A/E indices of the other five courses in terms of LTO course to the today's surface and see if a surface switch is also preferable:
As an example, the first bar represents a run at Chelmsford last time and racing on Polytrack next; second is Chelmsford runners moving to Tapeta next time; and so on.
Chelmsford (Polytrack 0.83/Tapeta 0.82) and Wolverhampton (Polytrack 0.82/Tapeta 0.83) have very similar A/E figures indicating that the next time surface makes little or no difference from a value standpoint.
However, the other three tracks have slightly bigger differentials seemingly in favour of a surface switch. This is especially true for LTO runners at Southwell. This cohort, when switching surfaces to Polytrack, has produced an A/E index of 0.91 compared to 0.84 for those remaining on Tapeta. That is not quite as potent as the figures shared earlier for Newcastle, but the differences are noteworthy given the data analysed covers thousands of races.
The overall data shared to date points firmly to the fact that a surface switch offers punters better value. This has especially been the case for horses that raced at either Newcastle or Southwell LTO.
LTO Winners: Surface Same or Different
So far, I have only looked at general cases connected with all runners. But what if we restrict the research only to LTO winners? The table below has the same columns as in section one, showing win SR%, A/E indices and returns to SP and BSP. Again, I have highlighted positive and negative A/E indices – green for positive, red for negative.
Nine of the LTO to 'today' course combinations have seen LTO winners show a profit to SP; this increases to 18 when using BSP.
Looking at the negatives we see that Southwell to Chelmsford and vice versa have both produced poor results for LTO winners. This may be worth noting.
Staying with A/E indices, here are the ten ‘positives’ (0.95 or higher) grouped together:
Again, perhaps surprisingly, nine of these ten ‘positives’ involve a surface switch. In fact, if we lump together all the results of LTO AW winners, comparing horses that have switched surfaces with those that did not, we get the following results:
All the evidence is pointing to the fact that LTO AW winners that switched surface are by far the best value and also are more likely to win compared with those that haven’t switched.
Looking at the least experienced LTO winners, two-year-olds (2yos), we can see that a surface switch (regardless of which way round) is an extremely strong positive when comparing the returns to SP and BSP:
These numbers show that 2yos that won LTO on the all-weather were far better on the wallet when switching surfaces from their last run to this one. In terms of win strike rates 2yos switching surfaces won 28.3% of the time, with those racing on the same surface having won 26.9% of the time. These SR%s are quite close together, so I am thinking it is not solely the 1.4% difference in strike rates that has affected the bottom lines. My guess is that it is also due to the fact that the market has been slightly blind, offering bigger prices on these inexperienced LTO winners when they switch surface.
Surface Same or Different: Trainers
I now want to look at a handful of trainers who seem to have strong patterns when it comes to comparing the LTO course surface with the course surface next time.
George Boughey
George Boughey’s runners seem to have performed better on a Tapeta surface than on Polytrack. In fact, looking at his runners on the sand since 2019 (regardless of whether they ran on the AW LTO) he has shown a blind profit to BSP at all three Tapeta courses (Newcastle, Southwell, Wolverhampton). I want to compare his record with horses that raced on Polytrack LTO and are racing on it again next time, with those that ran on Tapeta LTO and stick to Tapeta in their follow-up run. Here are the splits:
The differences are stark and the ‘betting angle’ is clear. Boughey horses staying on a Tapeta surface require very close scrutiny. Profits have been made ‘blind’ to SP; to BSP the profit stands at £50.10 (ROI +22.7%). Those returning to a Polytrack surface look best avoided. Here are some additional Boughey stats worth sharing:
1. Horses that have started favourite racing on a Polytrack surface having raced LTO on the same surface have won 9 of their 35 starts (SR 25.7%) for losses to SP of £16.07 (ROI -45.9%)
2. Horses that have started favourite racing on a Tapeta surface having raced LTO on the same surface have won 25 races from 62 (SR 40.3%) for a small SP profit of £1.67 (ROI +2.7%); to BSP this improves to +£10.54 (ROI +17%)
3. Boughey 2yos racing on a Tapeta surface having raced on Tapeta LTO have won 14 races from 50 runners (SR 28%) for a profit to SP of £24.73 (ROI +49.5%); to BSP the figures read +£32.31 (ROI + 64.6%). Compare this to his 2yos going from Polytrack LTO to Polytrack this time – these figures read a dismal 6 wins from 53 (SR 11.3%) for an SP loss of £40.97 (ROI -77.3%)
Charlie Johnston
Charlie Johnston has only been training on his own for a couple of years, but he runs plenty of horses on the AW, so we have sufficient data to crunch. Johnston has been the reverse of Boughey when it comes to Tapeta LTO to Tapeta this time runners. He has really struggled with these horses. Of the 159 qualifiers only 14 have won (SR 8.8%) for an SP loss of £41.10 (ROI -25.9%). The loss figures would have looked much worse but for one of his winners that scored at a very unexpected 40/1. He has saddled 24 favourites with this profile and only two have won for a whopping 82p in the £ loss to SP. His second favourites have fared little better winning three from 21, losing 44p in the £.
Compare this to a near 19% strike rate with Johnston horses racing on a Polytrack surface having raced on Polytrack LTO. Backing all runners blind to BSP in this scenario would have seen one break even. Backing favourites and second favourites combined with this profile yielded excellent results unlike their Tapeta/Tapeta counterparts. These runners have scored 16 times from 46 (SR 34.8%) for an SP profit of £8.36 (ROI +18.2%).
David O’Meara
O’Meara has a good record with horses racing on a Polytrack surface having raced on Polytrack LTO. 153 horses have tried, of which 28 have won (SR 18.3%) for a profit of £30.12 to SP (ROI +19.7%). To BSP this improves to +£60.66 (ROI +39.7%).
Horses switching from Polytrack to Tapeta though have been only half as successful from a win perspective, passing the post first just 9.7% of the time (17 wins from 176). It should also be noted that horses making this surface switch for O’Meara, and which started in the top three of the betting, have incurred SP losses of over 24p in the £. In addition, horses that finished first or second LTO on Polytrack before switching to Tapeta next time have won just four times from 46 attempts.
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Concluding Thoughts
When researching huge data sets like I have for the majority of this article, the good news is we can have a fair degree of confidence with the results that are found. As a general rule, this research seems to suggest that a switch of AW surfaces from LTO run to today's run is preferable, especially when we are talking about betting value. It certainly should not be viewed as a negative. For LTO winners and especially LTO 2yo winners, a surface switch does seem a real positive. The figures shared here for both look strong and clear-cut, showing positive correlation.
So, does this mean I’ll be lumping on surface switchers this winter? No, of course not, but I will take a much keener interest in such runners than I have done in the past. Another thing this research has done is open my eyes to how punters, like me, can be blinkered in their thinking. In the third paragraph of this article, I said,
‘When thinking about AW runners that have run well LTO, my perception in the past has been that I would rather see a horse running at the same AW track as they raced last time. If the horse switches tracks, then I would prefer them to stick to the same surface (eg. Polytrack to Polytrack or Tapeta to Tapeta). If a horse has not run that well LTO then any switch of track or surface could be seen to be a positive.’
As a mathematician by trade I am a logical thinker, so what I wrote earlier made perfect sense. Well, it did at the time! Now I have researched this area I can see that, according to this recent data at least, my perception was an inaccurate one.
This process has also demonstrated to me that as punters we should be evolving and always trying to get better. If we stand still, we will fall behind the crowd. Every day is a school day!
- DR
https://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/CallumRodriguez830x320.jpg320830Dave Renhamhttps://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/geegeez_banner_new_170x78.pngDave Renham2024-11-20 08:54:222024-11-21 09:16:17A Look at All-Weather Returners
Over the past year or so at Tattersalls sales, it has become a ritual, writes Tony Stafford. Bill Gredley, cap perched defiantly atop his head, eases his way between the tables in the Tattersalls Newmarket buffet room, stops and smiles. John Hancock, my long-term associate, as usual is in the perfect spot to meet and greet those we know (and in many cases John seems to remember he knew).
Bill stops and the ritual begins. "How old, are you Bill?", John asks politely. Bill’s answer – I can never remember this part – “92!” - or is it91? John says, “So am I!” <whichever>. “Which month?”. The saga continues and until the next time, neither of these august gentlemen of the turf will remember who indeed is the older. For the life of me I cannot! Maybe December sales later this month will give us the definitive answer and I’ll make a note. <As if! Ed>
John Hancock for many years has been the doyen of bloodstock insurers and still gets the request for cover from old clients after they buy their horses. Cowboys and far more honourable types have come and gone, but he’s still here and loves every minute, although £3 for a Coke and £2.50 for Maltesers would be excessive at the Ritz never mind the sales; but we endure it for the camaraderie.
Entrepreneur Gredley was already age 60 when his great filly User Friendly went on an extraordinary year in 1992 under the care of Clive Brittain. Unraced at two, User Friendly was a 25/1 shot in that Sandown late April fillies’ maiden over ten furlongs when opening the account on debut.
Next came the Lingfield Oaks Trial, followed by three Classics and one other Group 1 victory, in the Oaks, Irish Oaks, Yorkshire Oaks and St Leger. The filly and George Duffield, her regular partner, only gave best - and then by a neck as favourite - to French-trained Subotica in the Arc. Respective Irish and Epsom Derby winners from that year, St Jovite and Dr Devious, were fourth and sixth to emphasise her merit.
In the meantime, much of the Gredley (now officially listed as the Gredley family) race planning with his trainers comes down to son Tim, a more than effective point-to-point rider and international show jumper.
Increasingly, decent Gredley flat racers, usually home-breds and many with East End names to celebrate Bill’s (I’m proud of it, too) heritage, have switched to the winter game, no doubt with Tim’s approval, and are based with a future top-five trainer in James Owen.
Last year at Cheltenham, the family’s Burdett Road, switched from Michael Bell to the former Arabian and point-to-point trainer, exploded onto the hurdling scene. He recorded impressive wins at Huntingdon and in last weekend’s (a year ago) Triumph Hurdle Trial which he won by more than six lengths.
The embryonic favourite for the Festival, he lost that position when well beaten in a return to Cheltenham in January, by future Aintree G1 winner Sir Gino. A setback ruled him out of running in the big race, but he returned to flat racing for James Owen this year and, two runs back, won a Listed race at Newmarket. Challenging Kyprios in the Champion Stayers’ race at Ascot last month proved beyond him, but he returned to jumping yesterday in the Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham and made all to collect the £60k prize.
They say lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place, but racehorse breeding often lends the lie to that adage. Now the year-younger full-brother to Burdett Road, East India Dock, is following a similar path.
The initial difference was that he was in training with James Fanshawe. He easily won handicaps at 1m4f at Salisbury and 2m at Goodwood before turning to hurdling, again with Owen. The first race proved a comfortable success at Wincanton and then it was on to follow in big brother’s footsteps at Cheltenham on Saturday.
On ground officially described as good with good to soft places, he breezed up to the leader two from home; from that point it was a massacre, trebling his brother’s winning margin in a remarkable time. His 3 min 53.82 sec was more than 20 seconds faster than Burdett Road achieved, admittedly on soft ground, and considerably faster than the two previous renewals of this race.
The record time for the Old Course’s 2m1/2f is 3 min 44.35, set in March 2022 by the wonderful Constitution Hill in the Supreme Novice Hurdle. So, almost ten seconds faster, but when you consider the brilliant Jonbon was second that day, beaten 22 lengths, we are talking in superlatives. By that measure East India Dock looks right and the time is right too!
Will Willie Mullins be worried? Presumably the team he and Harold Kirk have been compiling from France and, given that mysterious ability enhancement over the months of summer and autumn, will again be to be feared. Last year, Mullins had the first two but not necessarily the ones most expected. He supplied seven of the twelve runners and all finished in the first ten. Sir Gino abstained on that day but came back to win at Aintree. He’s one to look forward to from Nicky Henderson.
When Burdett Road won last year, he was immediately put in at a short price for the Triumph Hurdle. The initial quote for East India Dock was 12/1 – really? In my punting days I would have been on the phone in a heartbeat. You could still get 10/1 in a couple of spots Sunday evening.
Yesterday’s performance in the Greatwood by Burdett Road was spectacular enough, seeing off the hot favourite Dysart Enos by the last hurdle and then comfortably holding the flying finish of the Skelton runner Be Aware. If you needed more evidence of how good the East India Dock run was, his big brother took more than five seconds longer over the same course and distance when most of that top-class field of experienced handicappers could never get near to challenge.
His win came with Cheltenham under a pall as the immediately preceding long-distance chase suffered two fatalities, neither involving a fence. Bangers And Cash, trained by Ben Pauling, collapsed halfway through the near 3m4f contest, and then the all-the-way impressive-jumping winner, Warren Greatrex-trained Abuffalosoldier also collapsed when circling on pulling up after the race.
Reverting to Saturday, based on what my eyes told me, I also cannot wait for the next appearance of Dan Skelton’s L’Eau Du Sud. As with East India Dock, he strolled up the final hill of his valuable two-miler with Harry Skelton, such a brilliant rider, never more so than now, enjoying the view from a top-class conveyance.
He hadn’t been the luckiest in his runs in valuable handicap hurdles last winter for the 'Sir Alex Ferguson and mates' - not including Jim Ratcliff - team and could be a future Champion Chaser.
Sir Alex also owns a bit of the Paul Nicholls-trained Il Ridoto, winner of the £84k to the winner Paddy Power Gold Cup, although if Jamie Snowden’s Ga Law could have eliminated his customary mid-race horror jump, it might have been close. So while his £1 million-plus job as a Manchester United ambassador has gone down the drain – obviously Mr Ratcliff was aware of the extra National Insurance cost if he had kept him on - the racehorses are playing their part.
On Friday, amazingly, Sir Alex and best racing pal Ged Mason were celebrating a second successive victory in the Bahrain International Trophy with the Richard Fahey-trained Spirit Dancer. Fred Done of Betfred also has a piece of this one. Oisin Orr came widest of all in the straight and, just as it appeared that the classy Gosden-trained Lead Artist would follow up last time’s Group 3 win at Newmarket, he was cut down and outpaced by Spirit Dancer, who had been well behind him in that Newmarket race. Even split three ways, £472k helps significantly towards paying the training fees. For Fahey to keep the horse in such tremendous shape at age seven and targeting the right race deserves immense praise.
**
I had intended having a right rant about the decision of the third bunch of adjudicators to allow the original result of the Cesarewitch to stand. The ten strikes rule has been brought in, rightly, to appease public opinion. It is not a question of how many blows land on the horse in the place stewards deem “useful”, it's much more what the public sees. Ten is ten and ever more shall be so.
If the apprentice rider was too incompetent, tired or merely unbalanced, he still tried to give his mount a tenth strike - the one that should have broken the proverbial camel’s back and brought disqualification. As he admitted on television straight afterwards.
The BHA rules are ridiculous. Stewards on the day decide one way or another. Why do they need a different team several days later to say whether it was ten hits or not? They found it was and disqualified the horse. Nobody bar connections disagreed.
The next month another team gathered, no doubt at considerable expense and the BHA team were out-lawyered by the connections of the Irish horse Alphonse Le Grand, trained (sic) by Cathy O’Leary, Tony Martin’s sister. It seems the last of the ten strikes landed prematurely and on the “wrong” part of the horse to be regarded as a proper strike, so sorry connections of Manxman, now £48 grand worse off and the same goes for other prize earners all the way down.
I think after this fiasco, the BHA should make up the deficit from what owners and trainers understandable believed was their rightful due following the disqualification. Simon Crisford, joint-trainer with son Ed of Manxman, understandably called it a fiasco and a sorry day for UK racing. It just made me sick to the stomach. Intent to commit a crime is a crime in law. Intent to hit a horse that misses its target ought to count just the same.
Some horses are better, or better handicapped, than others and, as a result, have been able to run up winning sequences, writes Dave Renham. In this article I will uncover some profitable angles in relation to horses that have won at least their most recent two races; that is, which are chasing a hat-trick, four-timer, five-timer or more.
The focus will be horses bidding for a hat-trick plus specifically in the National Hunt sphere. I have taken data from 1st Jan 2017 to the present day (end of October 2024) for UK National Hunt racing. Profit/losses in all tables/graphs is calculated to Industry Starting Price, but I will quote Betfair SP where appropriate.
All NH Hat-trick+ Seekers
Let me begin by looking at the starting base figures of ALL horses trying to complete a third win in a row:
As might be expected, we see a strong win rate of close to one in every four starts, but losses to SP stand at over 13 pence in the £. To BSP this improves considerably but losses still exceed 4p in the £. Here is how that breaks down on an annual basis:
The results have been a little better in the last three years, but it is unclear whether this a trend or simply an anomaly. My suspicion is that it is the latter.
So, what about the type of NH contest - Chase, hurdle, or bumper (NH Flat)? Let’s see the splits:
Hat-trick+ seekers in bumpers have seen the best returns (close to parity) but in truth the sample size is modest. The chase and hurdle figures are similar to each other, with perhaps hat-trick+ seeking hurdlers a marginally better proposition than chasers.
NH Hat-Trick+ Seekers by Race Class
I want to examine class of race next. Below is a graph looking at the class of race these hat-trick+ seekers ran in comparing their win strike rates within each class:
This is interesting – from a win perspective at least it seems much harder to win in the two highest classes of race (Class 1 and 2), which stands to reason given horses have likely progressed from lesser contests. Below is a chart illustrating return on investment (ROI) by race class:
We see positive correlation between the ROI%s and the win strike rates, with hat-trick+ seekers racing in Class 1 and Class 2 events providing the worst value to punters. It should be noted that there have only been a handful of Class 6 races in comparison to the other five classes so we should not get too carried away with the 18p in the £ returns. Having said that, I did back check hat-trick seekers in Class 6 events between the years 2009 and 2016 and they proved profitable to SP in that time frame with an even better win strike rate of 43%. However, since 2018 NH racing no longer has Class 6 events except for some hunter chases.
If we focus on handicap hurdle races at Class 5 level, the lowest grade, hat-trick+ seekers have won 85 times from 253 qualifiers (SR 33.6%) for an SP profit of £15.33 (ROI +6.1%); to BSP +£37.76 (ROI +14.9%). [And once from one run since the research was completed, a 3/1 scorer at Chepstow on 6th November]
The Betting Market for NH Hat-Trick+ Seekers
The betting market is my next port of call. Below are the SP results for different price groupings:
The best returns - as is usually the case - have come from shorter priced runners (6/4 or less) and to BSP, losses for these runners stand at 1.7%, not far from break-even. The 17/2 to 12/1 group have offered the poorest value and even losses to BSP have been quite steep at 18p in the £ (-18.2% to be exact).
Horses priced 14/1 or bigger win rarely but they have proved profitable to BSP (+£160.38; ROI +24.8%). This has not been due to any ridiculously priced winners: it is basically down to 14/1, 16/1, 20/1 winners paying much more on the Betfair machine.
NH Hat-Trick+ Seekers by Days Since Last Run (DSLR)
I wanted to next check the data for days since last run (DSLR) which of course was a winning run. Here are the findings:
Horses returning to the track within two weeks have made a small profit to SP. Indeed, to BSP horses off the track for 14 days or less produced a tidy profit of £108.33 (ROI +14.4%). In addition to this, these horses have been quite consistent over the years, with their yearly strike rate always exceeding 30% and five of the eight years proving profitable to BSP. If we look at their yearly A/E indices we can see that six of the eight years saw a figure above 1.00, indicating value. Only 2021 saw a modest A/E index:
I have added a trendline (dotted) which helps further to show the consistency. It seems that hat-trick+ seekers returning to the track within a fortnight have offered punters good value in the recent past and perhaps this is an area we can exploit this winter.
NH Hat-Trick+ Seekers by Trainer
It’s time to look at trainers now. Which handlers are most adept at finding that good opportunity for their charge to continue a sequence of two or more wins? Here are the trainers with at least 50 qualifiers (ordered alphabetically):
Oliver Greenall & Josh Guerriero, Alan King, Neil Mulholland and Nigel Twiston-Davies look to be four stables to avoid in this context; their strike rates as well as returns are lower than their peers in this cohort. Below are some highlights from a few of these trainers, with some positive angles but also some negatives, too.
Kim Bailey – has a virtually identical record with his hat-trick+ seekers in handicap and non-handicap races:
The profits to BSP for non-handicaps reads +£13.34 (ROI +32.5%) and in handicaps it is +£12.53 (ROI +29.8%). His record in chases is much better than over hurdles with 16 wins from 40 (SR 40%) for a profit to SP of £26.57 (ROI +66.4%); to BSP it stands at £33.54 (ROI +83.9%).
Bailey has also done well when his runners have been fancied – horses starting either favourite or second favourite have combined to win 25 times from 55 runners (SR 45.5% for a profit to SP of £12.94 (ROI +23.5%). To BSP this improves slightly to +£15.53 (ROI +28.2%). Kim Bailey looks a trainer to keep an eye on.
Nicky Henderson – Nicky Henderson is one of the greats, a fact rarely lost on the market. Steer clear of any hat-trick+ seeker from Seven Barrows racing in a handicap. They have won just eight times from 64 attempts (SR 12.5%) for a loss to SP of £37.68 (ROI -58.9%). To BSP he was only marginally off, and losses remained at over 55p in the £.
Willie Mullins – The majority of Willie’s hat-trick+ seekers looking to complete the trio in the UK raced at the Cheltenham Festival, and they returned the Irish maestro 22p in the £ to SP and 38p in the £ to BSP respectively. He also had a 38% strike rate with horses that had won at Leopardstown last time out, returning 49p in the £ to SP and 58p to BSP.
Fergal O’Brien – O’Brien has made a profit in both handicaps and non-handicaps. He has also made a profit with his bumper runners, hurdlers, and any runner that has started favourite. However, his most eye-catching stat might be his record with fillies and mares as the table below shows:
Returns of over 63p in the £ coupled with a strike rate of over 40% is remarkable. To BSP his profit stands at £42.37 (ROI +81.5%).
Nicky Richards –Richards has excelled outside Class 1 and 2 company. In Class 3 or lower his hat-trick+ seekers have won 35.9% of the time (19 wins from 53) for a profit of £22.49 to SP. This equates to returns of 42p in the £. To BSP the profit climbs considerably to £41.19 (ROI +77.7%). His handicappers have provided all of the profits, with his hurdlers outperforming his chasers.
Dan Skelton – Skelton has a surprisingly poor record with hat-trick+ seekers. Any Skelton qualifier that starts as favourite should be treated with caution. These runners would have lost you 23p in the £ to SP, 19p to BSP. Hat-trick+ seeking chasers are also ones to about which to be wary having lost 43p in the £ to SP, 41p to BSP.
Venetia Williams – Miss Williams has sent out 71 hat-trick+ seekers in chases of which 17 have won (SR 23.9%) for an SP profit of £24.81 (ROI +34.9%); to BSP this improves considerably to +£59.37 (ROI +83.6%). However, before getting too carried away, there was an SP winner of 40/1 that paid over 70 on Betfair in the sample; taking that winner out, Venetia's figures have produced a loss. It always pays to check for skewed data.
Other NH Hat-Trick+ Seeker Pointers
I have looked at most of the key areas but, before closing, there are a couple more findings I would like to share with you. Firstly, I want to look at how far winners won by last time out (LTO) in terms of lengths. When examining these LTO winning margins I found a clear pattern. Let me share the win strike rates first – I’ve split the LTO winning margins into three groups: won by 2 lengths or less; won by over 2 lengths up to and including 5 lengths; won by more than 5 lengths. Here are the splits:
As can be seen the horses that won by further performed best on their next run, from a win percentage perspective at least. But how does that translate to profitability measures?
Horses that won by over 5 lengths LTO not only have more chance of completing the hat-trick, but they provided the best returns by some way: both to SP and BSP.
Secondly, and in my final offering for this article, I want to share the stats for hat-trick+ seekers that are racing at a track where they have a previous course and distance (shown on the racecard as 'CD') win to their name. There were 745 past CD winners of which 234 won (SR 31.4%) for very small losses to SP of £9.18 (ROI -1.2%). To BSP these runners made a profit of £80.75 (ROI +10.8%). Their A/E index stands at very respectable 0.97.
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Summary
Positives
In this article we've seen that some hat-trick+ seekers potentially offer value to punters, especially if backing to BSP (and/or, probably, to early prices with best odds guaranteed).
These include:
horses returning to the track within 14 days
horses that won by more than 5 lengths LTO
handicap hurdlers racing at Class 5 level
previous course and distance winners
Also, there are a few trainers to note positively including:
Kim Bailey
Willie Mullins
Fergal O’Brien
Nicky Richards (Class 3 or lower, handicaps)
Negatives
In terms of negatives, it seems best to ignore hat-trick+ seekers which:
are running in Class 1 or Class 2 events
are priced between 17/2 and 12/1
won by 2 lengths or less LTO
Some trainers look worth swerving in this contextand these include:
Oliver Greenall + Josh Guerriero
Alan King
Neil Mulholland
Nigel Twiston-Davies
Nicky Henderson handicappers
Dan Skelton chasers and/or favourites
So, it is time to wrap this up, and for me I am off to do some digging for my next article. I hope you enjoyed this one.
- DR
https://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/KimBailey_HenryDaly.jpg320830Dave Renhamhttps://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/geegeez_banner_new_170x78.pngDave Renham2024-11-13 08:49:012024-11-13 08:51:08Hat Trick (Plus) Seekers in NH Racing
I rarely delve into the murky world of politics and apologise for doing so now, writes Tony Stafford. But a conversation with a couple of senior and well-respected trainers over the weekend did at least offer an insight into how Rachel Reeves’ first Budget as Chancellor of the Exchequer will impinge upon the racing industry in general and trainers in particular.
The increase in employers’ contributions to National Insurance is a body blow, not least for employees. Trainer one said his increase in annual costs simply from that rise will be £40,000. The choice was to increase training fees, already dangerously expensive, or make one staff member redundant, saving £30K. A tough pick but one with an inevitable outcome.
Taken across all of racing, you might have thought this could have a beneficial effect as many trainers have been complaining since Brexit that the supply of qualified foreign staff has been significantly reduced. Yards in the big centres have been woefully short of fully qualified stable staff, but the new legion of redundant workers will hardly be the best in their respective places of work.
Staff reductions and smaller, if any, pay rises, will be the obvious result while in London tube drivers it seems will be able to work a four-day week on the same pay, courtesy of the Mayor of London.
The second trainer reckoned “a storm” is about to hit racing, after the Budget. Many country-based trainers also combine to a degree farming on their land. The change in inheritance tax rules will surely cause retaliation in some ways.
In France, by now tractors will have been lined up two by two on all the main thoroughfares, intent on bringing traffic if not to a halt, to a crawl. Coincidentally, last weekend, all racing in France was cancelled with many professionals joining a protest in Paris against the proposed increase in the tax on sports betting. €115 million was the intended haul from the new legislation. Jockeys, trainers, PMU workers and the rest were on show. Could it happen here? Doubtful.
Last weekend also featured the latest running of the November Handicap. At around the time I was getting most immersed in racing, I remember listening on the radio to a commentary on the 1962 November Handicap, in those days still run at Castle Irwell in Manchester.
It was a very big ante-post race and in the year of my favourite old-time flat horse Hethersett, the 1962 St Leger winner for Dick Hern, Towser Gosden (father of John) won the race with Damredub. It was a shock the other day when I noticed that this year’s race, although attracting a full field, carried a first prize of just over £36,000.
Inadequate records limited my research, but I was sure the race had been worth more in the past. A simple look back to 1993, one of my favourite renewals, as the Jason Weaver-ridden Quick Ransom’s victory at 6/1 was enough to win me the Sporting Life naps table that year, was enough to answer my question. Jason also won it the following year on Saxon Maid for Luca Cumani. Who’d have believed he won the race more than 30 years ago, watching him on TV working at the track on Saturday? Call him Peter Pan!
Quick Ransom picked up £24,000 for the Mark Johnston stable. The pound sterling in 1993 was worth £2.55 of today’s pounds, so the race’s real value had it kept pace with inflation should have been nearer 60 grand. Twelve years ago, when Brian Ellison won the race with Batswing it was £40k to the winner and the pound then represents £1.47 nowadays. Again, something close to £60k.
Brian Ellison has been around for a while too, so it was great that while his horse Onesmoothoperator could finish no better than 12th in last Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup, his owners still collected 85 grand. Had he been one place further back, it would have been nothing for unlucky 13th.
For Newcastle-born Ellison the Northumberland Plate win for Onesmoothoperator this June provided a kick-start to the six-year-old gelding’s explosion of earnings. Before collecting that £81,000, amusingly (or maybe not so?) less for a big-race UK win than his 12th the other day, he had run 33 times over four seasons.
David Simcock trained him at three, sent him to win his maiden first time out at Newcastle and gave him another two more placed runs there before switching less successfully to turf racing.
After six runs, he was sent to the sales and owners of Ellison’s bought him for 65,000gns. He won on December 22nd 2021 at Southwell but it wasn’t until almost two years (November 11th last year) and 18 runs later that he won another race - back at Newcastle.
It took another seven losing runs before his Plate victory, so in all just one win in 26 outings before the race that gave Ellison’s lengthy career what we thought was the fitting embellishment.
Sometimes, owners and their trainers can be over-cautious – Ellison has never been that, but to contemplate a winter trip to Australia where he easily won the £160k to the winner Geelong Cup proved his attacking policy so imaginative and rewarding. Just as St Leger winner Jan Breughel was ruled out by the exacting Racing Victoria veterinary team, so Onesmoothoperator also got an initial no, but survived a second vetting.
From Northumberland Plate to Melbourne Cup, five races earned the six-year-old gelding £326,000. His previous 33 races earned a total of £156k for three wins and 16 places.
It’s salutary to think what a significant part in his story the 57-rated Jimmy Moffatt-trained horse Yukon played. During his long losing run, Ellison sent him to Sedgefield for a maiden hurdle for which Onesmoothoperator started 2-1 on under Brian Hughes. Yukon, ridden by Charlotte Jones, was a 50/1 shot. Onesmoothoperator looked exactly that as he jumped the last hurdle level with Yukon, yet for all Hughes’ efforts, was beaten more than two lengths, seeming less than keen. He is rated 45lb Yukon’s superior.
Maybe if he had won that day, he would have been kept to hurdling and would never have seen the racecourses of Victoria.
What his history does tell us though is that many of the horses sold at the end of their three- or even two-year-old careers last month at Newmarket may have been disposed of prematurely. I know trainers who have been urged to sell horses by owners when often they believe their potential has not been anywhere near achieved.
So these horses – increasingly sold for export and the riches awaiting them elsewhere – are mostly never heard of again unless they crop up in one of those massively-endowed features over the winter.
There is still a market for jumps horses (where potential owners can get in a bid) and I’m sure that after the record amounts of rainfall in October, the big teams were getting ready for nice ground through the next couple of months.
But then two weeks ago, the taps went dry, and we had the prospect of a Premier Raceday card at Exeter on Friday when only 41 horses turned out – 12 absentees mostly citing unsuitable ground for their absence, and one race becoming a walkover. The Haldon Gold Cup with its £59k first prize, £23k more than the November Handicap, mustered five runners.
Two of Wincanton’s races on Saturday also outstripped the November Handicap prize. The Badger Beer did have ten runners and was worth £47k. The four-runner Elite Hurdle provided one of five wins for Paul Nicholls on the day and carried a £41k winner’s prize. Favourite Rubaud’s superior jumping saw off Brentford Hope, who should be winning again soon.
There was also more money on offer for the Grand Sefton Handicap Chase at Aintree, won by David Pipe’s lightly weighted King Turgeon. Fifth, staying on well up the run-in was Sure Touch, and he should be resuming normal service back on conventional tracks for the geegeez syndicate boys in red, dark blue and white.
- TS
https://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/LordMelbourne_NovemberHandicap.jpg319830Tony Staffordhttps://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/geegeez_banner_new_170x78.pngTony Stafford2024-11-11 08:05:542024-11-11 08:06:07Monday Musings: A Little Bit of Politics
It has been a while since I have looked at sire stats so, with the winter all-weather (AW) season just getting underway, I felt now was a good time to revisit this area, writes Dave Renham.
Introduction
I know from past experience that certain sires perform better on the all-weather than on turf and vice versa. Other sires have distance preferences, some come to hand early with their two-year-olds, and so on; spotting key sire patterns can therefore help our betting, especially with less exposed runners and those trying a surface (or distance or going) for the first time. My main focus in this piece will be on the racing surface, to try and uncover some patterns rather than look purely for bottom line profits. Obviously, I will share profit and loss data where appropriate, both Industry SP and Betfair SP.
I have looked at UK all-weather data going back to the beginning of 2017, although I have ignored Southwell fibresand results as that surface is defunct now in Britain and Ireland. For the record, the last fibresand race at Southwell was held on 15th August 2021. Since then, specifically the 7th December 2021, they have raced on a tapeta surface.
For those unfamiliar with sire articles, let me briefly offer some background. Sires are the fathers of the respective horses and they generally have some sort of influence on their progeny (offspring). For example, if the sire was originally a sprinter there is a good chance that his progeny will perform better at sprint distances than over, say, marathon trips. Sires also vary in quality which will obviously influence the horse in terms of inherent ability. Some sires, for example, achieve around one win in every five starts with their progeny, others are nearer one win in 20.
Let's now look at some individual sire stats with a view to all-weather racing.
All-Weather Sires
Aclaim
Aclaim had his first runners in 2021 having last raced on the track in 2017. He enjoyed an excellent racing career winning seven of his 15 starts including a Group 1 success in his last ever race. As a three-year-old he raced primarily over 6f, but his two Group wins (as a four-year-old) came over 7f. In his second year as a sire, he landed his first Group 1 success when Cachet won the 1000 Guineas, and already in his fledgling sire career there seem to be some emerging patterns. Firstly, his two- and three-year-olds have performed better over 5f to 7f than they have over further. Secondly, and importantly as far as all-weather racing is concerned, there seems to be a big difference in performance as regards Polytrack versus Tapeta.
The sample size is decent and other metrics correlate with these figures. Firstly, the A/E index sees Aclaim’s Polytrack figure at 1.08, the Tapeta figure is down at 0.83. Secondly, the PRB (Percentage of Rivals Beaten) figures for Aclaim’s Polytrack runners stands at 55.8 with the Tapeta one only 49.2. Aclaim’s current record at Southwell has been particularly poor with just 6 wins and 9 placed runners from 80 runners – the PRB figure is a lowly 41.2.
A comparison I would like to share now is comparing horses that produced a decent performance on Tapeta last time out (LTO). This table contains data for horses that won or finished less than three lengths off the winner on Tapeta last time out, specifically focusing on which surface they raced on next time after that good run on Tapeta:
Those runners switching to Polytrack have done extremely well, albeit from a small sample. The PRB figure helps to give smaller datasets more credence as it stands at a mighty 65.9% of rivals beaten. Those remaining on their seemingly unfavoured AW surface of Tapeta have really struggled to back up that good run.
Another noteworthy difference can be seen when we examine the performance of male horses versus female horses. The win percentage strike rates are in the graph below:
Male runners have outperformed their female counterparts with a strike rate that is nigh on double. As a general rule males win more often than females on the sand, but the overall difference is nowhere near this stark. Also, when we examine Aclaim’s turf gender stats we see that there is only 0.6% between their respective strike rates (male 10.9% v female 10.3%).
Aclaim is a relatively new sire but there seem to be some strong AW patterns that we need to be aware of over the coming months.
Belardo
Belardo won two Group 1s in his racing career - the Dewhurst as a juvenile, and the Lockinge as a four-year-old. As a sire his first runners graced the track in 2020 and he has performed well to date, scoring around once in every eight starts. However, there is a big difference between his record on turf and all-weather, as the table below highlights:
The win-and-place percentages correlate well with the win only percentages, standing at 35.4% for turf runners and just 28.2% for AW runners. Likewise, the A/E indices reflect this disparity, at 1.03 (turf) and 0.75 (AW) respectively. Belardo progeny when starting favourite on the sand have struggled, as one might expect, winning 11 of 55 starts (SR 20%) for hefty losses of 48p in the £ to SP, 45p to BSP.
There is also a difference when it comes to AW surface. Belardo progeny have not enjoyed the Polytrack surface whereas Tapeta win and placed figures are much stronger. The bar chart below illustrates this fact:
There is one important stat to share before moving on and that is when it comes to distance. Belardo runners are much better over further when racing on the AW as the table below shows:
If you are looking to back a Belardo runner this winter, I would focus on distances of 1m2f or more. It should be noted that we see the same distance bias with his progeny on the turf.
Dark Angel
Dark Angel’s life on the racecourse lasted just one year when, as a two-year-old, he won four times including the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket. Dark Angel is now 19 and edging towards the end of his stud career, but his fee remains high at £60,000. Dark Angel progeny seem equally effective on the all-weather and the turf which means we can be hopeful that good turf form for any of his progeny will be replicated on the sand. Indeed, horses that have been previously won and/or been placed on turf and which are now having their first run on the AW have won an impressive 24% of the time. However, backing all 176 qualifiers would not have turned a profit but it does support the earlier comment about being equally effective on both surfaces.
Dark Angel was a speedy juvenile racing primarily over 5f and 6f, and his progeny seem to prefer sprint distances, too. Here are the distance splits for Dark Angel’s runners since 2017 on the sand in terms of win percentage:
Runners over six furlongs or shorter have won twice as often as those trying trips beyond 1m3f. We see a very similar distance pattern on the turf although it is slightly less pronounced.
Dark Angel is known by anyone who uses sire stats in their betting to be a sire whose offspring perform best at sprint trips, but the AW value has been with those racing over 1m½f to 1m 2f. The graph above shows that the win strike rate holds up well, and backing all Dark Angel runners over this distance band would have yielded a profit of £65.38 (ROI +18.3%) to BSP. To SP you would have suffered very small losses but remember this is assuming we are backing all qualifiers blind without any other considerations. The A/E index for this distance group is 0.96 which suggests to me that some of these runners at least have started at value prices, possibly due in part to the prejudice about Dark Angel progeny attempting slightly longer distances. It seems clear to me that Dark Angel progeny have the scope to be effective up to 10f; anything longer and then their lack of stamina does start to come into effect.
Fountain Of Youth
Fountain Of Youth is not a particularly well-known sire, and that may be all the more reason to take note. He has not really fired as a sire just yet, and this especially true on the all-weather. Here are his turf versus AW progeny data:
The BSP profit figures for the turf do not jump out at me as much as the success rate. On the sand progeny of Fountain Of Youth have scored around 2½ times less often than they have done on the turf. Not only that but he has sired some well fancied runners on the sand despite this overall record. 57 horses sired by Fountain Of Youth have run on the AW when positioned in the top three of the betting, but only six have won (SR 10.5%) for SP losses of £31.17 (ROI –54.7%). Even to BSP the figures are dreadful showing a loss of £29.65 (ROI -52.02%). He's a sire to avoid this winter but maybe to keep a closer eye on when the grass action resumes in the spring.
Frankel
The great Frankel should need no introduction. As a racehorse he won 14 races from 14 starts, ten of those were Group 1s. He was definitely one of the greatest ever horses to grace a racetrack. As a sire he has done extremely well to date, his progeny winning over 18% of their races. On the turf his strike rate stands at 18.8%, on the AW a smidge lower at 18.2%. The main reason I wanted to highlight Frankel is the consistency his runners have displayed across the six UK AW tracks. His win strike rate across them varies only by 3.3% between the ‘best’ and the ‘worst’, while five of the six hit over 18%. The graph below shows the splits:
For the record, the lower strike rate at Kempton is mainly down to the fact that when Frankel’s progeny have run there the average field size has been bigger than at the other tracks.
Frankel’s offspring have struggled, however, once they hit the age of six. The table below shows the age stats and there has been a serious drop off once they reach that age:
Focusing in on the age six-plus group, such horses that started in the top three in the betting won just five times from 43 qualifiers (SR 11.6%) for SP losses of 68p in the £ (66p to BSP). I would be very wary of backing Frankel’s runners aged six or older this winter and market confidence would not change my mind.
Before moving on, in terms of distance preference, 1m4f to 1m7f proved the most successful by far on the sand for Frankel progeny. Horses that ran within this distance range, when starting favourite or second favourite, won an impressive 51 times from 113 (SR 45.1%) for an SP profit of £21.60 (ROI +19.1%); to BSP this improves a little to +£29.31 (ROI +25.9%).
Harry Angel
Harry Angel was a top sprinter that won five of his 12 starts comprising two Group 1 successes and three Group 2s. He had his first runners as a sire in 2022 and he has already had eight Group winners across the globe including a Group 1 success in Australia with Tom Kitten.
Let us look at turf flat versus all-weather results for Harry Angel; they make interesting reading:
We can see much stronger figures on the AW and the A/E indices correlate with 1.13 for the sand versus 0.84 for the turf. It should be stressed that it is still early days in his sire career and the gap between the AW and turf numbers may close. However, any horse that has acted on the turf is highly likely to act on the sand. Indeed, horses that finished first or second LTO on the turf, when switched next time to the all-weather, have won 11 of 26 starts (SR 42.3%) for returns of 19p in the £ to SP, 26p to BSP.
I for one will be looking out for horses sired by Harry Angel this winter.
Lethal Force
Lethal Force as a racehorse was a top sprinter winning the Diamond Jubilee Stakes and the July Cup in the same year (2013), both Group 1 status. As a sire he has performed solidly with a win rate of around one in nine, and on the turf his progeny definitely prefer a firmer surface. On good to firm or firmer his win rate improves to one win in seven.
In terms of the all-weather, like Aclaim, Lethal Force offspring seem to prefer Polytrack over Tapeta:
The differences are arguably not as strong as they were for Aclaim, but they seem significant especially considering the big sample size. The PRB figures also favour Polytrack with a 52.6% figure compared to the Tapeta figure of 48.6%. Also, if we focus on runners that started in the top three in the betting, the correlation is positive with the overall splits as follows:
Clearly, fancied horses do better on the Polytrack when it comes to the progeny of this sire.
Another stat worth sharing is that his male and female runners have performed equally well in terms of their AW strike rate. In fact, the females have shaded it (10.9% v 10.7%), and if we compare their A/E indices we see that the fillies and mares have an excellent figure of 0.99; the males are down on 0.81. Female runners have offered good value.
Lethal Force no longer stands as a sire, so make the most of the next couple of years as there will be fewer opportunities thereafter to take advantage of the Polytrack/female edge.
Wahington DC
Washington DC is another sire early in his career, but the initial stats suggest a bias to all-weather racing. Here are the current splits:
As I said previously, it is early days in terms of sire data for Washington DC, but all the positive signs are currently pointing towards the AW. The tapeta record to date is particularly good with 19 wins from 107 (SR 17.8%) for an SP profit of £40.51 (ROI +37.9%); to BSP it stands at an enhanced +£84.28 (ROI +78.8%). It should also be noted that male Washington DC runners on the AW are currently winning twice as often as female runners.
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Sires In General
To finish this article I'd like to share some general data for a bunch more sires who we should see appearing regularly on the sand this winter. I have published win percentages (Win SR%), each way percentages (win & placed %s) and A/E indices. First let us look at some gender-related stats for each:
Australia, Night of Thunder and Zoustar all see stronger male stats than female stats across the three metrics. Havana Grey is one of two sires where the trend is with female progeny outperforming males across the board, Too Darn Hot being the other. Havana Grey’s female runners have turned a small blind profit to BSP, and their performance has been particularly good on Polytrack, more especially at Lingfield.
Now let’s compare Polytrack with Tapeta stats:
Too Darn Hot is the stand-out in terms of Polytrack outperforming Tapeta across all three metrics. Blue Point progeny seem to have an edge on Tapeta. The remaining sires seem roughly as effective on both surfaces.
Finally, a look at the two-year-old and three-year-old data:
Blue Point’s three-year-olds have stronger stats across the board compared to his juveniles; likewise, Kingman. Invincible Army’s win stats suggest 3yos have completely outshone their younger counterparts but the each way stats imply something nearer parity. Calyx is a young sire, and it looks currently that his 2yos perform exceptionally well. Zoustar has figures that correlate with the fact that his 2yos are better betting propositions than his 3yos.
Sire research is an inexact science, but I hope this piece has given readers some interest and hopefully you will take some useful nuggets away to help your AW betting this winter.
- DR
https://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/frankel_2000_Guineas_830x320.jpg320830Dave Renhamhttps://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/geegeez_banner_new_170x78.pngDave Renham2024-11-05 19:44:422024-11-05 19:44:42Sires on the Sand: All Weather Stallions To Note
How fitting. City of Troy does have an Achilles (Ancient Greek hero of the Trojan wars) heel, writes Tony Stafford. Not an arrow shot from a bow out of the packed stands at Del Mar on Saturday night, just a different surface and a slow exit that consigned him to being the latest non-winner for Ballydoyle of the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
It had been in the expectation of watching City Of Troy win the 2000 Guineas – he didn’t, of course – that Michael Tabor stayed in Europe on the first Saturday in May when he previously insisted he would always go to Kentucky in preference to Newmarket if the boys had an authentic contender for the Run for the Roses.
He changed that life choice this year such was the confidence emanating from the Aidan O’Brien camp, just as he had a few weeks earlier. Then, he made a first-ever trip to Dubai for the Sheema Classic where the 2023 Derby winner Auguste Rodin had one of those off-days that sprinkle his card.
The Coolmore team had two big chances in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs – one in their name, Sierra Leone, carrying the dark blue of John Magnier, and also Fierceness, the favourite, who although owned by Mike Repole’s stable, the Coolmore team had acquired some of the racing and more importantly breeding interests, just as they had their two Triple Crown-winning stallions American Pharoah and Justify towards the end of their racing careers.
The pair were fancied to complete the 1-2 in Kentucky and Sierra Leone surely should have won in front of Derrick Smith, one of the partners, had he kept at all straight rather than doing his imitation of a naughty schoolboy.
Three noses crossed the line in concert, and it was indeed by a nose that outsider Mystik Dan held on while Japan’s Forever Young was the same distance away in a regularly impeded third place. Most people thought the second and third places should have been reversed. Fierceness, the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner, was a non-competitive 15th with no apparent excuse.
In between May and November, Sierra Leone had been beaten three times, albeit close up in the places in Grade 1 races at Saratoga: not his track, said trainer Chad Brown. Fierceness won two of those races, the Jim Dandy in July and the Travers in August, for Todd Pletcher to lay claim to being the best of the Classic crop.
On Saturday, half a dozen or so horses went off in a group at a suicidal pace in what was the fastest first half-mile ever for a Breeders’ Cup Classic. Fierceness sat just behind the front rank, while Sierra Leone was for a while almost dancing step by step with City Of Troy.
The Irish challenger in the first Magnier silks merely plodded along, but Sierra Leone in the vibrant pink second livery made rapid ground. Fierceness, with the utmost gallantry, led three furlongs from home as his fellow front-runners ran out of puff, and turned into the stretch in front; but his old adversary was full of running and won readily. Fierceness deserves the utmost respect for keeping on for second.
The Breeders’ Cup Classic has been something of a Holy Grail for O’Brien and his owners, and he and the team will have to brush themselves down and revert to winning the big races in Europe. Not that he’s a mug at this meeting, two winners on Friday propelling him to 20 and the equal of almost but not quite retired D Wayne Lukas whose Kentucky Derby win for Michael Tabor in 1995 with Thunder Gulch was the catalyst that helped forge the alliance with John Magnier.
Those two nice wins on Friday, with Lake Victoria in the Juvenile Fillies Turf over a mile and the Juvenile Turf for colts and geldings at the same trip with Henri Matisse, both owed plenty to Ryan Moore’s coolness under pressure. Lake Victoria could easily have been a victim of the inevitable first bend crowding around this tight turf course as she got knocked back a worrying few lengths.
Patient as ever, Moore bided his time and burst through to lead in the closing stages. The filly showed that the mile of the 1000 Guineas next year will not worry her. In between the seven-furlong Moyglare and Friday, she outclassed the opposition when dropping to six furlongs for the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket. Probably the only thing to stop her will be another of the O’Brien fillies, like for instance Fairy Godmother, who hasn’t been seen since Royal Ascot.
That marvellous Friday was the filling between two less agreeable moments for Aidan. While preparing his Del Mar team, 19 hours further forward on the international time scale, over in Australia the veterinary panel adjudicating on which horses should pass fit to run in tomorrow’s Melbourne Cup, ruled that the unbeaten Jan Breughel could not.
Jan Breughel last raced in the St Leger, beating fellow O’Brien Galileo colt Illinois, when still looking to have a fair bit to learn about racing. As Hughie Morrison can testify when a similar pre-race fate befell his 2018 runner-up Marmelo in preparation for the 2019 renewal, it was a crushing setback.
As was the case last week, Hughie’s vets totally disagreed with the verdict, but there is no recourse. Aidan was visibly fuming and while the Coolmore coffers can withstand the odd reverse of this kind, it’s no less galling than for a team like Morrison’s with the cost of sending horse and staff and keeping them there for several weeks being so excessive.
The man wheeled out to explain the situation was none other than Jamie Stier, the head of the temporary Australianising of the BHA at the end of the last decade. Few mourned his departure from our shores, but beware, he’s still very much out there helping to run Racing Victoria. One horse happily that did pass the scanners and “gait-evaluators” is Brian Ellison’s Onesmoothoperator, winner of the Northumberland Plate and now the Geelong Cup last week which entails 2lb extra in the Melbourne Cup. I’d love him to win the £2.35 million and I’m sure Brian will still talk to everyone if he does!
The worst moment for me of the weekend was to hear than Brian Meehan’s Jayarebe had collapsed and died after sustaining a heart attack while finishing what must have been an ultra-brave seventh place in the Turf race that immediately preceded the Classic.
Brian had plotted a masterful programme for the three-year-old, winning three of his five races and looked to have an exceptional chance. He ran an usually sluggish race, starting slowly and never getting close to the front, which became wholly understandable in the awful circumstances.
In a year when his stock has gone a long way towards where it was at the time of his two previous Breeders’ Cup Turf wins with Red Rocks and Dangerous Midge, this will be a tough blow for Brian to overcome. Let’s hope the new intake Sam Sangster acquired for the various syndicates he manages will bring another star for Meehan to work his magic on.
Talking of magic, it’s hard to believe that it’s coming up to 30 years since Kim Bailey pulled off the Gold Cup (Master Oats) and Champion Hurdle (Alderbrook) double in 1995. Kim continues to show a sure touch especially with his training of staying chasers and at Ascot on Saturday, he brought out second-season chaser Chianti Classico to win his comeback race, the Sodexho Live! Gold Cup with a pillar-to-post victory off top weight,
It's strange not to see the bustling style of David Bass on the Bailey horses but Tom Bellamy seems to have the regular gig now. He's much more a "let the horse do the work"-type pilot and it's looking good and working well so far.
Once Chianti Classico settled in the lead it was almost like a flashback to a few years back in the same race when Vindication came back from a break to win this nice prize. At age seven, Chianti Classico is the perfect profile of a Coral Gold Cup (Hennessy etc) winner at Newbury next month.
- TS
https://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/SierraLeone_BC_Classic_DelMar_2024.jpg319830Tony Staffordhttps://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/geegeez_banner_new_170x78.pngTony Stafford2024-11-04 00:11:242024-11-04 00:12:25Monday Musings: It’s Coolmore’s Classic, but not as we thought…
The National Hunt season starts to move up a gear as we roll into November, writes Dave Renham. We have the Paddy Power meeting at Cheltenham; the Grand Sefton Chase at Aintree; the Betfair Chase at Haydock featuring the first Grade 1 of the season; the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle; the Ascot hurdle, Haldon Gold Cup at Exeter, and on.
In this article I will look at November stats and trends for National Hunt racing in the UK going back as far as 2017. Profit and loss has been calculated to Industry Starting Price (SP), but I will quote Betfair Starting Price (BSP) where appropriate.
Betting Performance by Market Rank, November, 2017-2023
Let's start off by looking at the betting market and the returns to SP (ROI%). Below is a graph with an overview of the top market ranks versus the rest:
Favourites lost the least in terms of return on investment, while horses 5th or bigger in the betting have proved very poor value. To BSP, losses for favourite backers would have been only 1.56% so not far from a break-even scenario.
Favourite Performance, by Race Code, November, 2017-2023
Sticking with favourites let us see the splits when it comes to race code. For the record there were 11 races held on the all-weather that were classified as National Hunt Flat races so I have combined these results with the overall NH Flat race numbers:
Favourites in chases proved the best value – an A/E index of 0.97 is close to that magic 1.00 figure. In contrast, favourites in NH Flat races struggled a fair bit. Even at Betfair SP losses were over 12p in the £ (-12.2%). Be wary of any favourite in a NH Flat race in November which finished 2nd or worse LTO. 70 horses have started favourite after this LTO placing of which 18 have won (SR 25.7%) for a loss of £23.70 (ROI -33.9%). Losses to BSP were still steep at £19.51 (ROI -27.8%).
Favourite Performance, by Race Type, November 2017-2023
A look now at handicap market leaders versus non-handicap favs. Here are the splits:
There is quite a difference here: market leaders in handicaps got to within touching distance of a break-even situation and, to BSP, handicap jollies made a small profit during the study period of £61.52 (ROI +2.8%). Both handicap chase favourites and handicap hurdle favourites proved profitable on 'the machine'.
While I’m discussing favourites, it should be noted that of the 30 such horses in Grade 3 races in November only two have won. A small sample for sure, but one to be aware of.
Performance by Last Time Out (LTO) Finishing Position, November, 2017-2023
I want to look at LTO performance next in terms of finishing position. Here are the numbers:
Last day winners were the best of a modest bunch in betting performance terms. Having said that, if betting to BSP, LTO winners only lost 2% of stakes (2p in the £). Sticking with LTO winners, if the horse won LTO when making its seasonal debut - and was thus having its second start of the campaign - such runners recorded a profit at BSP of nearly 5p in the £.
Another LTO winner group worth noting is that of those returning to the track after less than three weeks. This cohort won 90 times from 246 (SR 27.6%) with a small loss to SP of £11.01 (ROI -1.2%), but a profit of £88.87 (ROI +10%) to BSP.
It looks worth almost blindly avoiding LTO runners that fell, were pulled up, or unseated their riders. Their figures are extremely poor (perhaps not surprisingly).
Trainer Performance, November, 2017-2023
Time to look at trainer stats now and below is a table containing the trainers with the top 20 overall win strike rates during November since 2017. This covers all runs in the month and all prices:
Eight of the 20 handlers notched a blind profit to SP, five of which (Greenall / Guerriero, Fergal O’Brien, Twiston-Davies, Venetia Williams and Symonds) were particularly impressive as they did not have big-priced winners skewing their results. The big guns of Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls had plenty of success, but neither offered value across their full runner cohort.
As I have mentioned before, we need to be careful sometimes with trainer data as big-priced winners can skew the profit figures. Hence, I have taken trainers in the above table and compared their A/E indices across two price bands – 9/1 or shorter, and 10/1 or bigger. The first graph shows the trainers whose A/E indices are higher with their shorter priced runners:
For this group of trainers, therefore, we can be more trusting in their overall figures. The A/E indices for horses priced 10/1 or bigger are generally poor. Indeed, Messrs. Greenall and Guerriero had no winners from 30 from that group, and Nicky Henderson managed a solitary score from 81 starters.
Most of these trainers have decent A/E indices with their runners priced 9/1 or shorter. Anything 0.95 or higher I would deem as positive and those trainers with that range of A/E index are shown below along with their complete stats for runners priced 9/1 or shorter:
Five of the nine proved to be profitable while the SP losses for Richards and Henderson were small.
Now let me look at the remaining trainers from the original table whose A/E indices are higher with their bigger priced runners:
Kim Bailey, Jimmy Moffatt and Tom Symonds all had decent A/E indices for both groups, whereas the other four trainers - Newland, McCain, Thomas and Thomson - did not. The overall figures for both Thomas and Thomson in the ‘all runs in November’ table showed good profits, but this graph highlights neatly that their figures were skewed. Indeed, the pair enjoyed a winner apiece at 66/1, while Thomson also saddled a 25/1 winner.
Additional Trainer Statistics
Below are some additional trainer stats that could prove useful to follow this November:
1. Paul Nicholls at Wincanton. This was especially so with horses priced 9/1 or shorter. With this cohort he had 30 winners from 79 (SR 38%) for a profit to SP of £16.09 (ROI +20.4%). To BSP it reads +£24.83 (ROI +31.4%).
2. Nicky Henderson runners priced 9/1 or shorter having their second start of the season. This group produced a 30.2% strike rate (35 wins from 116) for a profit of £23.01 (ROI +19.8%). To BSP this improved to £32.24 (ROI +27.8%). Staying with Henderson, his hurdlers at Newbury produced a 31% strike rate and returns to SP of 18p in the £, 27p to BSP.
3. Three trainers have performed particularly well with horses making their seasonal debuts and their results are shown in the table below:
None of the three have had big-priced winners skewing their results so they are worth keeping an eye out for this November.
4. Chris Gordon at Plumpton. Gordon recorded 11 winners from 39 (SR 28.2%) for a profit to SP of £4.68 (ROI +12%); to BSP £10.45 (ROI +26.8%). When his runners were in the first three of the betting the figures improved to 11 wins from 26 (SR 42.3%) for a profit of £17.69 (ROI +68%) to SP; £23.45 (ROI +90.2%) to BSP.
Trainer Performance, 60+ Runners at 9/1 or shorter, November, 2017-2023
Finally in this piece let me share a good chunk of trainer data in one table. Below are the figures for all trainers that have had 60+ runners that have started at an SP of 9/1 or less. Nine of the trainers have had their data displayed above but I have included them here, too, as it makes more sense than to leave them out. The table is ordered by win strike rate:
There are 66 trainers there, so plenty to get your teeth into!
Let’s hope the recent historical data in this piece help to point us in the right direction over the next few weeks. It would be nice to win a bit of extra money with Christmas around the corner!
- DR
https://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Rex_Jepeck_830x320.jpg320830Dave Renhamhttps://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/geegeez_banner_new_170x78.pngDave Renham2024-10-29 13:46:412024-10-22 14:41:00Statistics for National Hunt Racing in November
Who would have believed it? Three hundred and twenty-five days after buying the then five-year-old mare Via Sistina for 2,700,000 guineas at Tattersalls December sales, new owners Yu Long Investments were already in the black, writes Tony Stafford.
On Saturday at Moonee Valley racecourse, Via Sistina tackled the Ladbrokes Cox Plate over ten furlongs. She won, beating the Japanese-trained favourite, the six-year-old entire Prognosis by eight lengths in track record time, taking her earnings in Australia to £2.9 million.
It’s common knowledge that Australian trainers know how to prepare for the Melbourne Cup, Tuesday week’s (November 5) biggest prize and “the race that stops a nation”, but before we get too excited about Via Sistina’s chance in the big one, there is a small hurdle for her to overcome.
Moonee Valley and Flemington may only be 3.1 kilometres apart, so less than the Cup’s distance of two miles (3,200 metres), but the double in the same year of these two highly prestigious races has been only rarely achieved. Phar Lap, the greatest Australian horse of the Inter-War period, did it in 1930, while the dual Melbourne Cup heroine Makybe Diva did the Cups double 19 years ago. Time flies.
She was a six-year-old, and that second Melbourne Cup win proved to be her racing swansong before retiring to stud.
The Cox Plate is acknowledged to be Australia’s premier non-handicap Group 1 race and it carried just over £1.6 million to the winner on Saturday. It was Via Sistina’s fourth Group 1 victory in six starts since travelling down to Australia, to which can be added one second place in another £1.6 million to the winner extravaganza.
Chris Waller, best known for his training of Winx, never asked that great mare to go further than the 1m2f of the Cox Plate. She won the second of her consecutive quartet in the race by eight lengths, mirroring Via Sistina on Saturday, and won 37 of her 43 career starts.
Should Waller decide to go for the Cup. Via Sistina will clearly challenge for favouritism and while like Winx she has never won at beyond 1m2f, she is a staying rather than the speed type of Winx at the trip. If she runs it would add massive excitement and a completely different aspect to an already compelling race.
Two people at least that will be looking on wanly should she run, will be previous owner Becky Hillen, daughter of the late David Wintle, and her initial trainer Joseph Tuite, who handled the five grand yearling as an unraced two-year-old and progressive three/four-year-old.
George Boughey had her in his yard at the latter part of her four-year-old season and then at five, where she began the startling progression, that culminated (so far) in that Cox Plate tour-de-force. Some selling owners cannot bear watching their former horses win for the new connections. Until Saturday, Becky and husband, bloodstock agent Steve, were probably happy enough. After Saturday and maybe next week, it might be a different story.
But for Joe Tuite it can only have been two years of turmoil and what might-have-been after he relinquished his licence in late August 2022. Clearly, studying Via Sistina’s career from the comfort of my office, Tuite had a major part in developing a late-maturing filly into the colossus she now is.
Unraced at two, Via Sistina won second time out as a three-year-old, by five-and-a-half lengths in a Goodwood maiden fillies’ race. She added a Newmarket handicap off 89 by four lengths in October of that year. Such was her obvious potential at that stage, that when Tuite targeted a fillies’ Listed race at Doncaster the following month, she went off as the 11/4 favourite, but finished in the ruck, only 13th of 18.
Clearly at the start of her four-year-old season, her training hadn’t gone smoothly, and it wasn’t until August 27 that Via Sistina made her debut. She appeared in the Winter Hill Stakes at Windsor, a Group 3 race open to colts and geldings as well as fillies. She was a 33/1 shot and in finishing fourth she probably exceeded expectations.
By now though, the die was cast and Joe had already made up his mind to give up the unequal fight of trying to keep himself financially afloat. A report in the Racing Post the day after the filly’s promising return to action tells how it was almost with a measure of relief that he was finishing. The story went thus:-
Joe Tuite felt a mix of sadness and nerves as he saddled the final runner of his 11-year training career on Saturday, yet he stands by a decision to retire due to financial difficulties. Via Sistina outran her 33/1 odds to finish fourth in the Sytner Sunningdale & Maidenhead BMW Winter Hill Stakes at Windsor.
Tuite revealed he'd had a "few offers" for a future job in racing but no decision had been made.
Tuite said on Saturday morning: "It's a bit of a weird feeling – I can't really describe it. It's a bit of sadness I suppose.
"There are a lot of times where you go racing and there's not much of a worry but today I'm on tenterhooks about it all."
The trainer said a difficult season, with just two winners, and financial issues heightened by escalating costs were behind his reasons to retire.
He added: "It's definitely the right thing to do. I was down on numbers, and it was putting square pegs into round holes. I'd be worried looking down the road what the future would be like for the lower-tier of racing, that's for sure.
"It's tough but business is tough for everyone, not just racing, it's in all walks of life.
"I know my decision surprised a few people, but a few people that were closer to me weren't, as they could see the way things were going."
Within not much more than a month, Via Sistina was already showing Joe that maybe if he had held on for a short while, things might have sorted themselves out for him. Transferred to George Boughey, Via Sistina was quickly off the mark for him, running 2nd in the Group 3 Pride Stakes at Newmarket at the beginning of that October and then going across to Toulouse and picking up a provincial Group 3 in November.
She ran five times for Boughey last year as a five-year-old, starting off with a six-length win in the Group 3 Dahlia Stakes at Newmarket in May, before going across to the Curragh for the Group 1 Pretty Polly on July 1 where she beat Hughie Morrison’s slightly unlucky in running Stay Alert by two lengths.
She didn’t win again in this hemisphere, but third as the even-money favourite in the Group 1 Falmouth at Newmarket 13 days later when dropping back to a mile probably wasn’t her ideal task. Then it was 2nd, beaten a nose in the Prix Jean Romanet (ten furlongs) at Deauville before that sale-exploding run behind King Of Steel in the Champion Stakes at Ascot a year ago.
The luck was certainly just as much with Becky Hillen in terms of the timing with the December sales and all that Aussie money, barely a month ahead. Just as the luck had been notoriously absent when Joe Tuite had to make the awful decision to cut his losses and hand in his licence even as the filly he nurtured so carefully was about to come into full bloom as a late-developing racehorse.
For each of her 121 seconds of action around Moonee Valley on Saturday, Via Sistina earned her new (ish) owners £13,000.
In 11 years as a trainer in the UK, Joe Tuite had a best tally of 30, but usually picked up between 15 and 20 or so wins each year. From 1,881 runs over those 11 seasons, on the flat he won 173 races and total earnings of £1,552,585. Put another way, it represented a return of £825 per runner.
It must be salutary to think that his former inmate, the one that he brought to a position where she was equipped to make the giant strides she later managed as she had not been rushed or abused, won more in those 121 track-record-breaking seconds than he did in all those 11 years.
We keep saying it. Something’s rotten about English racing that we can afford to lose people with the skills of a Joe Tuite because he can’t manage to make it pay. Our only point in world racing seems to be to provide the proven material that can then go back to countries with many times more prize money to spread around and clean up – like Via Sistina!
One footnote. Cheltenham’s winter season proper started on Friday and Saturday and, as usual, it proved a bonanza for the Irish. They had six winners over the two days, including the first four races on Saturday. Henry De Bromhead had the 1-2 in the £100,000 featured chase, his pair mopping up £75k as they careered well clear of the rest up the Cheltenham run-in. Here we go again!
This is the second of two articles where I am revisiting run style bias, writes Dave Renham. As with the first piece, which can be read here, the focus is on handicap chases with seven or more runners, and all data has been sourced from UK NH racing between 1st January 2017 and 6th October 2024. I looked mainly at the distances of 2m1f or less and 2m3f-2m4f last time; in this follow up I concentrate on races of 2m5f-2m6f and 2m7f-3m2f.
Before getting into the numbers here is a quick recap of which type of horse fits each run style profile:
Led – horses that lead or dispute the lead early, usually within the first furlong; known as the front runner.
Prominent – horses that race close to pace tracking the leader(s).
Mid Division – horses that race mid pack or just behind the mid-point.
Held up – horses that are held up at, or near the back of the field.
Front Runners in UK Handicap Chases (7+ Runners)
Let us begin by comparing the A/E index for the ‘Led’ group (early leaders/front runners) versus the other three groups combined (Prominent, Mid Div, Held Up) across different field sizes for ALL distances.
This graph is illuminating. It clearly shows that the front running edge in handicap chases becomes stronger as the number of runners increases. The Impact Value comparison shows the same trend:
Once we get to 11 or more runners the front running bias becomes extremely potent, strengthening further still as we hit 14+ field sizes.
It’s time now to look at the stats over 2m5f-2m6f.
Run Style in UK Handicap Chases, 2m5f-2m6f (7+ Runners)
My first port of call in terms of this distance band is a comparison of the win strike rates for each run style group. It is important to note that these figures are based, as in the previous article, on the wins to runs ratio within each specific run style group. Here are the splits:
As with the first article we see a bias towards front runners, and a tapering related to early race position thereafter; but at 2m5f-2m6f prominent racers were not far behind front runners. Horses that raced further back early in the race continued though to struggle.
Let me share the A/E indices next:
There is good correlation with the wins to runs ratio here. The 1.15 figure for front runners indicates good value but it is less impressive than the 2m1f or less figure of 1.23, and also the 2m3f-2m4f figure of 1.31. Prominent racers are within 0.01 of the magic 1.00 figure. The held up A/E of 0.63 is low and has offered punters really poor value.
Onto the Impact Values now:
The same sloping pattern can be seen again, displaying good correlation across all three metrics. The 1.5 Impact Value for front runners is, like the A/E number, below the figures achieved at the two shorter distances examined in the first article (1.65/1.75). However, the front running bias is still in evidence, such types winning 50% more than might be expected.
Now I want to examine the individual course run style stats over 2m5f-2m6f. Less than half of the UK NH courses race over this trip so there are only 15 courses to share. Below is a table comparing the wins to runs ratio within each run style group, as well as their A/E indices. As with the first article I have colour coded it to help make the biases clearer. Numbers in green are positive, numbers in red are negative.
Aintree didn’t make the table due to a small sample size of races. Having said that, four of the 14 races were won by front runners and the average field size was 20. Hence, from limited data, front runners at Aintree look to have an edge.
The strongest front running biases from the other tracks appear to be at Cartmel, Kelso, Sedgefield and Taunton. Ffos Las consistently played against front runners at the shorter distances reviewed in part one, and this has again been the case. Front runners have also struggled at Leicester.
Before moving onto the longer distance races let me share the run style figures over 2m5f-2m6f restricted to horses from the top three in the betting. These stats also share potential profit and loss amounts to SP:
This table helps to show the positive correlation between the A/E indices with the ROI column. Horses from the top three in the betting that have taken the lead early have been excellent value and profitable to follow; those that raced midfield or were held up early have been very poor value.
Run Style in UK Handicap Chases, 2m7f-3m2f (7+ Runners)
Once again I’ll start by sharing the strike rates for each group (wins to runs ratio):
Even at longer distances horses that get to the front early have a strong edge. The same pattern across all run styles continues with ‘L’ outcompeting ‘P’ which in turn out outcompetes ‘MD’ with ‘HU’ bottom of the pile once more. Horses that led in handicap chases at this distance range won twice as often as horses that raced in midfield.
The A/E indices are next up:
These indices suggest that the front running bias is stronger for races between 2m7f and 3m2f than it is at those from 2m5f to 2m6f. Indeed, if one had correctly predicted the front runner(s) in each race from 2m7f-3m2f one would have profited to SP to the tune of £842.05 (ROI +31.6%). Finally let me share the Impact Values:
These values confirm how strong the bias is, so now may be a good time to compare the A/E indices and Impact Values for front runners across the four distance bands covered in the two articles:
This confirms the consistently strong figures across the board, with the 2m3f-2m4f distance edging it in terms of having had the strongest bias over the period of study. But there looks to be value and a well above average strike rate at all distances reviewed.
Back to the longer (2m7f-3m2f) distance band and let me share the run style stats when restricting to those horses that were in the top three in the betting only.
Front runners from the top three in the betting have performed extremely well showing how profitable they could have been. Again, we have terrible returns for mid division and held up runners.
It’s time now to look at the 2m7f-3m2f course run style splits looking at wins/runs and A/E indices. The format will be familiar by now:
The courses with the strongest front running biases in this distance bracket have been at Ayr, Cartmel, Catterick, Cheltenham, Chepstow, Exeter, Hereford, Hexham, Ludlow and Musselburgh, while front runners have struggled at Bangor, Carlisle and Haydock.
Overall Front Running Biases in UK Handicap Chases (7+ Runners)
There were eight courses that showed a consistently strong bias across all distances. They were Cheltenham, Doncaster, Exeter, Hexham, Kelso, Musselburgh, Sedgefield and Southwell. Two courses saw front runners at a disadvantage overall, those being Bangor and Ffos Las. The remaining courses offer front runners some sort of edge although its strength varies from track and trip to track and trip.
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Summary
That concludes this two-parter. In summary, since 2017 in handicap chases of 7+ runners, front runners have enjoyed an edge at all distances and at nearly all courses. The strength of the bias has been as strong in 2023 and 2024 as it has ever been so when analysing such races make sure you consider how the race is likely to be run from a run style / pace perspective. I have no doubt it will improve your bottom line.
And, if you're not using the pace maps on this site, you are at a distinct disadvantage to those who are. The maps on geegeez.co.uk are more accurate than any other pace maps I've used, and are worth the subscription fee alone in my opinion.
- DR
https://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Hexham_chaser.jpg320820Dave Renhamhttps://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/geegeez_banner_new_170x78.pngDave Renham2024-10-21 14:05:332024-10-22 11:02:30Run Style Bias in Handicap Chases: 2024/25 Season Update (Part 2)
Eighty-six horses, many of whose connections feared that heavy ground at Ascot would render their task hopeless, gathered on Saturday aiming to take a slice of the – for the UK anyway – lavish prizemoney on offer, writes Tony Stafford. It was British Champions Day, for four Group 1 races, a Group 2 and a one-mile handicap making up what from the stands seemed a motley six-race card and, in the end, the ground wasn’t too bad looking at the race times.
The UK administrators have clearly been beaten to the punch though by the Irish, and by their two-day feast at Leopardstown and the Curragh in September. Obviously, the French could never be budged from their also two-day sacrosanct Arc extravaganza over the first weekend of October.
So here we were again, switched from the outside flat track to the inner hurdles circuit. As I approached in the late morning, the sun finally having broken through, I passed the one-mile round start. The grass looked lush and verdant green, almost waiting for a herd of cows to come along and start munching.
Apart from Kyprios in the opener, there was no other established superstar on show although Roger Varian’s Charyn deserves to be elevated to the elite level after snaffling the day’s second biggest prize, the one-mile Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, with authority.
Saturday’s top pot, money-wise, the Champion Stakes, had been expected to be a match between the smart French-trained Calandagan and William Haggas’s improving Irish Champion Stakes winner, Economics. But in a rough race, Economics had a dreadful passage (and also reportedly bled), and it looked as though his fellow three-year-old Calandagan was home and dry, having squeezed through a gap at the rail.
But Jim Crowley on the lightly raced six-year-old Anmaat, at 40/1, also managed to thread a passage through in the dying strides to deny the younger horse and give trainer Owen Burrows a massive boost. Most of the crowd were scratching their heads, apart from my mate Steve Howard who fluked a tenner each-way and paid (with help of two of his friends) for a superb Chinese meal for nine of us on the proceeds.
To my mind, the Champion Stakes has never been the same, not benefiting at all from the switch in 2011 from Newmarket and its far less weather-susceptible surface, even conceding Frankel on his career finale the following year.
Saturday’s racing was eventful, Kyprios making it seven from seven on the season with one of his most commanding performances when collecting the G2 Long Distance Cup by an untroubled couple of lengths. What do the boys do now, we thought? Keep on collecting the same half dozen races as in 2022 and this year – 2023 was an injury-marred aberration – or retire him to stud? Not a bit of it, Aidan O’Brien said after the race, he’ll be having the winter off, coming back in the spring for the customary Navan then Leopardstown path to, hopefully, a third Gold Cup – and the rest.
The Stayers are given short shrift by the powers that be, the winner’s cheque £255,000 good enough for a non-elite race but below the other treasures on offer. £283k was the main prize for the sprinters and fillies and mares, while more than double that goes to the milers and ten-furlong stars. Takeaways for the two top prizes were respectively £737k for Anmaat and £655 grand for Charyn. Second home in the Champion Stakes was worth £279k for Calandagan while another French horse, Facteur Cheval, received £248k for his second to Charyn, both uncomfortably close to Kyprios’s take-home pay.
Calandagan had already earned eleven grand more than Saturday on his previous trip to the UK, following home City of Troy in the £703k to the winner Juddmonte International at York. When Ambiente Friendly ran on into second behind City Of Troy in the Derby two and a half months previously, he collected £334k for the Gredley family and James Fanshawe against the winner’s prize of £882,000, best in the entire UK programme.
Thus, the top reward for a runner-up spot in UK racing in 2024 has been Ambiente Friendly’s £334,000. So what? you may ask. So what, indeed. On the other side of the world, at Randwick racecourse in Sydney, Australia earlier the same day, a horse called I Wish I Win collected £337,331 for finishing last of 11! That’s 43 thousand more than Ambiente Friendly’s best second prize of the entire UK race programme and, as near as damn it, £100k more than Calandagan picked up in the Champion Stakes later that day.
The six-year-old was competing in the Everest Stakes over six furlongs. If he had finished seventh, the money would have been just the same for this six-year-old who had previously won six of his 18 races. His total earnings to date have been a touch short of £7 million.
The year-older mare Bella Nipotina won the race, and her earnings leapfrogged Saturday’s tail-ender by dint of the £3.74 million to the winner – up to £8.78 million. She has won seven of 52 career starts and is trained by Ciaron Maher. Kyprios, with 15 wins from 19 starts and only a year younger than Bella Nicolina, has earnings of £2,635,000.
Until recently, Maher shared the training billing with Englishman David Eustace, son of James and brother to Harry, who has quickly built up a strong stable in their hometown of Newmarket. David has now moved to Hong Kong, another place where the prizemoney levels must burn into the hearts of those David has left behind in his native land.
Not content with knocking off the big one, Maher also collected more than a million for third and, for good measure, added another £1.5 million for the victory of Duke De Sessa in the Caulfield Cup. Caulfield, near Geelong in Victoria, is a mere 886 kilometres south, and a nine-hour drive, from Randwick. The race is usually a stepping stone to the Melbourne Cup, run at Flemington on Tuesday, November 5.
A nice touch on the last race of the Randwick card was the £1.58 million-to-the-winner King Charles III Stakes as the King and Queen embark on their tour of Australia. Maher was second here, threequarters of a length behind winner Ceolwulf, with the favourite Pride Of Jenni.
Reverting to the Everest, and its 20 million Australian dollar (just over £10 million) total prize fund, it threw up some other amazing facts. The 11 competitors after the race had each won more than £1 million in their careers to date, several of them from only a handful of runs, especially a trio of three-year-olds. Among these was a Justify colt owned by Coolmore called Storm Boy, who finished eighth behind the winner yet beaten only two lengths.
The total career earnings for the eleven, stands at a notch over £40 million from a total of 180 runs, which I make more than £22,000 per run. When Duke De Sessa was trained in Ireland by Dermot Weld, he won around €100k for two Group 3 wins and one Listed victory.
The clue? The title name Everest is preceded by the letters TAB, the off-course near monopoly system which fuels the astonishing power of the prize money in that country. No wonder owners here beseech their horses to win nice races as three-year-olds and await the calls of the top trainers, of which Maher is no exception.
We’ve been saying it for half a century. Maybe the Prime Minister’s wife, who likes racing, might get her hubby and his party to rush through a bill to effect an off-course pool monopoly here. Actually, no rush, you have five years to do it! We’d still have one or two bookmakers on the course for colour, although when it happens, don’t try to get a hefty bet on when you go racing, having paid all the excessive costs – for everything!
*
Last week at Newmarket, Book 2 of Tattersalls sales in Newmarket was also operating at more than 100,000 guineas per horse over the first two days – of course nothing like the drama of Book 1. Maybe if the buyers had been sending their precious acquisitions of the previous week straight to Australia you could start to understand how it could happen. It won’t be the case; the Aussies are mostly too canny for that and wait to see what they can do on the track before biting.
At the other end of the scale, Book 4, starting late on Friday when most people had gone home, originally catalogued 81 yearlings. Of those, 20, probably wisely, didn’t show and of the remainder that did, 28 didn’t make their reserve prices.
In the event, 33 were sold through the ring, although others, probably out of desperation by their vendors will have found new owners later. The total official aggregate of the 33 that did change hands was £111k, for an average of just over three grand and a median of two thousand, both figures around one per cent of the Book 1 figures.
Ten found new buyers at the minimum bid of 1,000 guineas including a strong-looking Rumble Inthejungle colt bought by Henry Candy. Henry, one of the most-admired veterans of his profession, has been saying that he has no wish to retire, and that he has worked hard all his life and intends to continue to do so. I’d love that colt to win a race or two for him.
As for the hapless vendors who have nurtured their young stock with the same care as the posh studs who made all the big money, you must be totally sympathetic. To be in Book 4 is like a leper’s curse. Surely Tattersalls can either include them in a slightly enlarged Book 3 where they could have a chance as buyers are still around, or be more stringent on which horses they accept for the sale.
- TS
https://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Anmaat_ChampionStakes_Ascot2024.jpg319830Tony Staffordhttps://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/geegeez_banner_new_170x78.pngTony Stafford2024-10-21 07:13:282024-10-21 07:13:28Monday Musings: UK Prizemoney has a mountain to climb
It has been three years since I looked at run style bias in National Hunt racing, so I felt now was a good time to revisit the topic, writes Dave Renham. Personally, I use run style bias for around 50% of my National Hunt bets so it is an area that I feel is extremely important. This article is the first of a two-parter.
The focus for both articles will be handicap chases with seven or more runners. Data has been taken from UK NH racing spanning from 1st January 2017 to 6th October 2024. I have split the races into four distance bands – 2m1f or less, 2m3f-2m4f; 2m5f-2m6f and 2m7f-3m2f. In this piece I will concentrate on the two shorter distances of 2m1f or less and 2m3f-2m4f. There is a relatively small number of handicap chases at 2m2f and these have a micro-section below.
As a reminder, geegeez.co.uk offers some powerful resources and the stats I am sharing with you here are based on the site’s pace / run style data, which can be found within individual racecards, a separate Pace Analyser tool, and in the highly configurable Query Tool. The run style data on Geegeez is split into four groups – Led (4), Prominent (3), Mid Division (2) and Held Up (1). The number in brackets is the run style score assigned to each group. Below is a basic breakdown of which type of horse fits which type of run style profile:
Led – horses that lead early, usually within the first furlong or so; or horses that dispute the early lead. The early leader is often referred to as the front runner.
Prominent – horses that lie up close to the pace just behind the leader(s).
Mid Division – horses that race mid pack or just behind the mid-point.
Held up – horses that are held up at, or near, the back of the field.
Race Leaders in Handicap Chases
Let me start by comparing the win percentages for the ‘L’ group (early leaders/front runners) versus the other three groups combined (Prominent, Mid Div, Held Up) across all distances by Year:
As the graph indicates front runners have a definite edge when it comes to strike rate. It is important to be aware that the number of runners in each run style group differs: prominent and hold up categories usually have more runners within their groups. 'Leaders' is the smallest group as usually you only get one early leader in this type of race, occasionally two when there is a battle for the early lead.
These figures correlate positively with the strike rates. The ‘L’ group of race leaders have recorded consistently high A/E indices ranging from 1.09 to 1.33. The three other run style groups combined have ranged from 0.76 to 0.82. Anything above 1.00 for A/E indices suggests good value so front runners have consistently offered punters good value year in year out. Onto the Impact Value comparison now:
This is to all intents and purposes a carbon copy of the A/E graph. These initial findings already highlight why run style bias is important in handicap chases and something that needs to be factored in to your form study. It is time now to break the stats down into the distance bands as mentioned earlier. Let me start by examining the shorter distance handicap chases.
Handicap Chases of 2m1f or less
To begin with l will share the win strike rates for each group. Note that these figures are based, as before, on the wins to runs ratio within each specific group. Here are the splits:
Based on what we have seen already in this article in terms of the overall stats, these figures should come as no surprise. The ‘led’ group is comfortably clear of the rest in terms of win rates. Thereafter, the graph slopes from left to right implying that the nearer a runner is to the front of the race in the early part the better. We will see this pattern tend to recur across all race distances. Let me share the A/E indices for these shortest distance handicap chases next:
This is another demonstration of how the 'Led' group have offered punters excellent value. 1.23 is a strong A/E index figure on a significant sample size. We again see the sloping pattern from left to right, giving us the correlation statisticians are always looking for. The IV splits complete the set:
There is strong positive correlation once more, emphasizing the edge front runners have over 2m1f or less. Indeed, if you had sourced a crystal ball in perfect working order and been able to predict all the horses that led or contested the lead early in these races you would have secured a huge £1 level stakes profit of £330.21 (ROI +29.9%). This is just to Industry SP; to Betfair SP you could probably double that figure.
Now I want to examine the individual course run style stats over 2m1f or less. Courses that had a handful of qualifying races have not been included. Below is a table comparing the wins to runs ratio within each run style group, as well as their A/E indices. I have colour coded it to help make the biases clearer. Numbers in green are positive, numbers in orange or red are negative.
The strongest front running biases look to be at Cheltenham, Doncaster, Hereford, Hexham, Sedgefield, Southwell and Stratford. Other courses where the bias is still very significant include Cartmel, Huntingdon and Plumpton.
I did a little extra digging into the Cheltenham and Sedgefield run style stats because, as we know, it is all very well having a front running bias, but it is not easy predicting who will lead a race early. Looking at the Cheltenham numbers first, five of the 27 winners were top rated pre-race in the PACE section of the geegeez.co.uk racecards, while 12 of the 27 came from the top three in the pace ratings. If you had backed ‘blind’ the top three pace rated horses in all qualifying races at Cheltenham, you would have made a profit of £29.18 to SP (ROI +36%). Looking at Sedgefield, where there were more qualifying races (44), the top-rated pace horse won 12 times and backing them blind would have secured an SP profit of £16.55 (ROI +37.6%). The second rated pace horse won eight times for a profit of £28.04 (ROI +63.7%). So, 20 of the 44 races were won by one of the top two rated pace horses in the pre-race pace cards. That is extremely impressive going.
Clearly, I have delved more deeply into just two courses and distances as regards analysing the performance of the pre-race pace ratings, but the initial signs are promising. The problem with this type of research is that it is quite time consuming as you can only cross-check one race at a time. However, when I get some time, I will analyse some more.
In terms of courses where front runners ‘under achieve’, these include Carlisle, Ffos Las, Newbury, Sandown, Uttoxeter and Warwick. As punters, it is important to recognise the uniqueness of British horse racing in terms of how different course configurations can be. Courses can be left- or right-handed, sharp or stiff, undulating or flat, while the circumference and shape of each track differs too. Fences are placed in different positions and the length of run ins also varies. Some of these factors may help to strengthen or indeed weaken any front running bias.
Now it is time to switch to the next distance band.
Handicap Chases at 2m2f
Briefly, there were 86 races at this specific distance in the near eight year study period. The breakdown is below and, happily, the pattern is repeated: horses that lead do much the best, though those racing midfield have outperformed prominent runners. Hold up runners have found life difficult.
Of the five qualifying tracks with 7+ runner handicap chases at this specific distance, Kempton was by far the best performing for front runners.
Handicap Chases of 2m3f to 2m4f
I am going to start with this cohort by looking at the strike rates for each run style group as I did before. Keep in mind that these are wins to runs ratios calculated within each group.
These figures mimic closely those for the 2m1f or less distance band. Front runners would have again been a licence to print money should you have been able to predict them pre-race. Backing the front runner during this timeframe, would have made a profit of £548.82 to £1 level stakes (ROI +33.3%).
Onto the A/E indices now:
These numbers suggest the front running bias is stronger than over the shorter distance. Let’s see if the IV figures back up that assertion:
The chart does correlate with the slightly improved A/E indices. To save readers scrolling up and down to compare the two distances, the table below shows these stats in one place to make the comparison easy:
The led and prominent figures are higher for both metrics at the 2m3f-2m4f distance, while the mid div and held up figures are lower. All of this points firmly to an even stronger run style/pace bias to front runners.
Time to examine the individual course data for the 2m3f-2m4f group now, and below is another table comparing the wins to runs ratio within each run style group, as well as their A/E indices. It’s colour coded as before:
It is interesting to see that Cheltenham, Doncaster, Sedgefield and Southwell have strong front running biases again as does Plumpton. Other courses that have displayed a good edge to early leaders include Carlisle, Musselburgh, Perth and Uttoxeter. There are three courses where front runners have been at a disadvantage which were Bangor, Ffos Las and Lingfield. The Ffos Las figures for 2m1f or less were also poor for front runners.
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And that is where we will leave the first of this two-parter. It will be interesting to see how strong the front running biases are at the two longer distance groups - find out next week! Until then...
- DR
https://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Carlisle_Racecourse_Chases.jpg319830Dave Renhamhttps://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/geegeez_banner_new_170x78.pngDave Renham2024-10-15 12:43:322024-10-21 07:40:24Run Style Bias in Handicap Chases: 2024/25 Season Update (Part 1)
It wasn’t Mullins, Willie or nephew Emmet; nor Gordon Elliott; neither O’Brien, Aidan or Joseph; nor even tricky old Charles Byrnes that was slipping away silently to collect the proceeds from a 33/1 winner of the Club Godolphin Cesarewitch at Newmarket on Saturday, writes Tony Stafford. No, it was that man Martin again.
Tony of that ilk is a mastermind at, in racecourse parlance, having it off. He did under his own name in the Chester Plate (Cup consolation) in May; lost his licence but still had the brass neck to stand grinning alongside his sister Cathy O’Leary – the trainer in name – after the same horse, Alphonse Le Grande, also picked up the Northumberland Plate consolation at Newcastle in June. Martin must have had more than a little influence in Saturday’s even more spectacular coup de grace on Dewhurst Stakes Day.
I would imagine those closest to the horse won a few bob – it’s difficult not to when the SP is 33/1 and presumably in a race that was at least ten short of the optimum figure - and no better for it - they must have got longer than that in the build-up.
It was almost with glee then that on the TV coverage after the photo-finish verdict was announced, Lydia Hislop and Nick Luck counted the whip strikes administered by apprentice rider Jamie Powell and came up with ten, the magic number which would normally be construed as the borderline for disqualification.
Nothing will be finalised until tomorrow when the whip offences committee reviews a case that seemed to satisfy the local stewards and young Powell himself, namely that he did indeed hit Alphonse Le Grande ten times.
The £99k first prize will be a significant loss to the owners, the appropriately named Bet Small Win Big syndicate, but their respective sibling trainers have done them proud collecting three very tough handicaps in the UK this year. Pretty rough justice for the rider, too!
The hapless jockey is no novice. Before this year he had amassed 59 wins in three seasons at home. In that context, only seven more from 171 rides in 2024 when an acceleration might have been expected along with experience, is quite an anomaly.
But nothing like the anomaly where riding for Saturday’s trainer, or indeed her brother when he still held the licence, is concerned. Cathy O’Leary has had an almost equal number of domestic runners on the flat and over jumps in the past period. Until September 5 when En Or won a two-mile handicap at Clonmel, she had not trained a single domestic winner and, until now, it’s En Or from 37 runs. Over jumps, it’s nought from 30, so one from 67 in all.
As to the possibility of a rider/trainer(s) connection, forget it. Young Powell, as I mentioned earlier, has had 171 rides in Ireland this year, yet none from either Mrs O’Leary or her brother. I wonder if the disqualification is confirmed tomorrow whether he’ll be asked to get up on another of their plots.
Plots they surely are. One report suggested Alphonse Le Grande had been down the field in his previous race in Ireland as though it was a rubbish run. His eighth of 30 in the Irish Cesarewitch, worth almost 500k to the winner, represented a very good performance. I just watched the replay, and he was almost the only runner staying on in a race won by Aidan O’Brien’s The Euphrates
In the last furlong and a half, he passed at least half a dozen high-class handicap stayers, many like him laid out to try to win the massive prize. Had there been another 100 yards to run, he would have been fifth.
Anyway, one win in 67 at home: yet two in five for Cathy in the UK. Her Zanndabad came over for the Queen Alexandra at Royal Ascot, started 9/2 favourite and finished sixth under William Buick. Belgroprince accompanied Alphonse Le Grande to Newcastle and finished seventh behind him.
Her final UK runner in that time is probably one to write down in your notebooks or trackers. The 47-rated Jackie Brown came to Hamilton in August and was unplaced in a low-grade handicap.
Since returning home, the filly has had three runs and started 25/1 each time. First it was 14th of 17; next 5th of 12; then last week at Navan she was beaten only half a length in an 18-runner handicap. Remember the name and watch out UK, Cathy might well be coming!
If the result is amended tomorrow, it will mean that never mind the 12-horse Irish assault, the UK will have ended two years of their domination in the race with a 1-2. The Crisfords’ Manxman won the race on the far side by half a length from Ian Williams’ Aqwaam, who looked all over the winner a furlong out. Strong-finishing Alphonse Le Grande nosed ahead on the near side of a race shaped into two halves by Ryan Moore’s guiding Queenstown across as they entered the ten-furlong straight.
Ryan and Aidan had earlier had the disappointment of the withdrawal of overnight odds-on shot The Lion In Winter from the Darley Dewhurst Stakes.
In his absence, once raced, and that only a week earlier, Expanded made a brave battle of it with Godolphin’s Ancient Truth up the stands rail while Shadow Of Light, the other Charlie Appleby runner, switched over from the far side group to get up late in a battle of heads.
All three colts will probably be aimed at a Guineas, though whether it will be in Newmarket, Longchamp or at the Curragh is anyone’s guess at this stage. It didn’t appear there was another City Of Troy in there this year, but you never know and it was a great effort for Shadow Of Light to come back so soon after his emphatic Middle Park Stakes win over Whistlejacket two weeks earlier.
Saturday’s racing for the big teams was almost a half-term break after the excesses of three days of Tattersalls October Yearling sale Book 1.
The board behind the auctioneers shows several currencies in addition to the UK guineas bidding, with Euro, US dollar and Yen to the fore. I am grateful to the Blood Horse for revealing that Newsells Park Stud, owned by Graham Smith-Bernal, grossed almost three times as much as any other vendor, his lots accruing more than $23 million. That’s 17.6 million guineas!
The median figure (the middle when all 400 are laid out from top to bottom was an astonishing 250,000 guineas and the average 340,000 guineas, both records, as was the total turnover of 128 million guineas. That figure beat the 2022 record when 120 more yearlings were catalogued.
Sixteen lots exceeded one million guineas, and two buyers dominated throughout. Amo Racing, in a concerted effort to break into the territory that Kia Joorabchian described as “the province of the home-breeders like Coolmore, Godolphin, Juddmonte and Shadwell”, paid a total of 20 million for 17 yearlings.
Godolphin might be prolific breeders these days, but Sheikh Mohammed and team were also very active, even exceeding Amo Racing’s tallies with 18 yearlings at just over 22 million guineas.
Smith-Bernal, happy for the international break so he could concentrate on his lovely yearlings rather than Tottenham Hotspur FC, sold the most expensive of the lot at 4.4 million for a filly by stallion of the week Frankel, naturally to Amo.
Lots of love, as the ancient Romans and Latin scholars might have said, going around at Tattersalls. And plenty of Amo too!
- TS
https://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/AlphonseLeGRande_Manxman_Cesarewitch_Newmarket2024.jpg319830Tony Staffordhttps://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/geegeez_banner_new_170x78.pngTony Stafford2024-10-14 00:35:042024-10-14 00:35:42Monday Musings: A Mishap for Martin
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