Adelaide.

Good post on "Sport Is Made for Betting" about the cricket. A thoroughly great come back for England who 200 odd runs behind after the first innings made 517/1 in their second innings to claim the draw. How the Australians miss Warne and McGrath, and thank god they decided to hang up their pads.

Personally I think that England can get the twenty wickets needed to win the next test and a lay of the draw at such low odds should be taken. There are five whole days and at 2.16 this price must trade higher. Both Austrailian batsmen (Haddin and Hussey) who put together that record breaking partnership said that the bowling they came up against in the first hour of the second day was the toughest they have faced. We didnt get the rub of the green and who knows what would have happened if we had had the review that we needed to get Hussey out LBW within that first hour? There have been some funny results in Adelaide none more so than Englands last Ashes match there when England after declaring at 551 for 6,managed to get bowled out for 129 in the second innings and lost the match by six wickets. I expect plenty of runs and plenty of wickets to, I also expect the team to bat first's price will steam in.

Well a bit of chilly weekend for sure but no snow down on the coast where I am but plenty elsewhere in the UK. Obviously the weather killed a lot of the horse racing leaving me with just two bets, which both came the dreaded fourth place so no easy pickings there.

This gave me more time to concentrate on the weekends football matches to try and earn a crust. I got involved in a few matches on both days and though a couple of games went against me I managed to pick up a decent profit (for me!)


Both Soccer Insight and Premier Betting had winning weekends as well.

Memories.

When I was a lot younger I used to love listening to sporting events on the radio, curled up under the sheets late into the night. I used to have some provisions that were needed like a bit of chocolate and maybe some lemonade and a torch.

To this day I remember listening in awe to a World Heavyweight title fight between Muhammad Ali and Leon Spinks. The commentary, the roar of the crowd, the whistles, the excitement being generated that I could feel coming down the air waves the feeling that this was happening so very far away in another country but here I was in my bed under the sheets being a part of this event. This was the first event I can remember listening to but it has stuck with me to this day and upstaris in my attic with loads of junk is an official programme from that night in 1978 in Nevada where Ali lost his title. My Dads business partner had flown out to see the fight and brought it home for me and boy did I treasure it. I feel that with the radio you can have your own thoughts, ideas, visions of whats happening and you can bring this all together by using your own imagination. Its a bit like reading a book and then seeing the film, we all come out of the cinema saying that the book was better because of our own personal interpretation.

The same can be said about the Ashes Down Under. As a boy this was a major highlight for me I used to love the way the commentators spoke, the love that they had for the game and the silly comments and banter that went on. I had the radio on all night and would drift off listening to thier dulcet tones.When I got my first girlfriend I hatched a plan to stay with her the night without my parents knowing but on arriving at her place I noticed that she didnt have a radio in her bedroom and at that time the Ashes were being played. So I went all the way back home to get my little portable so I could keep upto date with the game. On arrival my mother had a face like thunder as she told me that my cover had been blown and I wasnt going anywhere that night. So instead of losing my virginity I was listening to us losing a test match.

So tonight as per last night I am watching Sky with the sound down and listening to Five Live to Geoffrey and Jonathan feeling like they are lost old friends and still managing to have that relaxed and happy feeling that I had years ago, and I tell you what, it still seems more exciting just listening.

The last couple of days have been good. The Market Examiner obviously read my last post and pulled his finger out and got me a 10/1 winner though he had two losers today. But a profit of £200 and maybe the start of the comeback?

I have had only three bets but managed to find a 10/1 winner today.


And Betfair is green !

Next Year.

So a very slow few days for me. Nothing really tickled me on the horses side of things with some pretty low grade stuff and small fields. The Market Examiner's woes continue with another five losers since my last post . Unless I get a free subscription next month I wont continue with this service. As I put in my last post I needed to have a think and plan for next year and what I am going to do. Horse wise over the years I have followed many tipsters and on other blogs many people still do but its not really the way forward.

JPs blog had many services and when you add in the subs it costs a fortune and then there are the shrinking prices and the trouble in getting the bets on. Thats just the start of the worries as then if the service flounders you are counting the cost and ultimately thats what happened to him and many others before him. His tipsters performed for a while then then they all seemed to hit a bad patch together and he seemed to do a lot of dough. So you flit from one to another until you have a decent run and think "I'm on to something here" so the stakes are increased and encouraged as you think " Its the eighth wonder of the world compounding, if this keeps happening at the same rate as at the moment, then my profits soar and Bobs your uncle and all that. Unfortunately it doesnt work like that, just like the "If I can increase my bank by just 1% a day in about a month my bank will have doubled and then in a year , well I'll be rich and all my worries will be over....

So for me starting from next month I shall just be following my own bets and the bets I get from my tipster friend Terry. Nothing else because in the end all these guys come and go under different guises trying to get you to part with your hard earned. I feel that this has come about more so because of the amount of crap I get bombarded with on email from system sellers and scammers. For example yesterday I went through all the system 3 games that Ian Erskine has sent though this season to check the results.He has had nineteen winners , one break even and three losers. Now laying at average odds of 7/1 means a loss for the season. I wrote to him to which I have had no reply and asked if I was doing something wrong or were these the results. Now I know I am not doing anything wrong you are basically laying 1-1 it aint rocket science but I was hoping for a reply so he would just admit it and say " Yep you are right but these things happen when gambling and I am sure we will turn it around" Or at least some kind of response. But this has not happened so I left two comments on his blog asking the same which have not been shown. So good luck to him mind you he has asked me in an email to join his newsletter for how much a month I dont know cos I deleted it. I imagine like all his stuff its going to open my eyes to the world of betting and scammers, and give me the do's and dont's. Hmmmm....

So to him and to me and anybody else who cares to listen have a read below if you can make out the small print.
I remember when I joined The Secret Betting Club (which I am not a member of anymore) about three years ago. They have a "Hall of Fame" for the top tipsters and these are the cream and I thought right I shall subscribe to these and make a fortune myself.

The first one was Asian Handicapper who actually three months later pulled there site as their results were awful, and there was Blue Sky Racing. I think he is still around but again terrible results and terrible customer service. The Tipping Legends with JC who from emails I have exchanged is a lovely guy , but again after an intial purple patch last year wasnt profitable and has wound up recharging his batteries for the next four months. He split from his racing partner Roger Green who is still going on now. Talking of which it looks like another blog has gone "Tipsters Uncovered" who was following Roger Green and Zafforzi . Zafforzi had five losing days and have closed to re evaluate and taken the site down. I gather they blamed it on Betfair SP not being able to handle the amount of money coming in from there bets. They were the new holygrail.

Anyway the point of the post is just for me to put it down what I want to do and planning a course of action for it. It might sound a negative and poor post, but over the last few years its been a learning curve and an expensive one at that, but with the amount of time I will free up I want to study some trading and try to specialise in one particular area. I have ideas and I have hopes, and I shall put in the hours and gain the knowledge to do it.There is nothing stopping me but myself.

So stick around for the ride.

Mystifying.

A bit of a strange weekend for me as I had a multitude of bets and finished about £ 20 down. It must have been the busiest I have been for a long long time, and the pressure of trying to get so much done especially with the early racing starts didnt really help me.

It was really mystifying going through all the results and got me to thinking about where I am headed to next in my journey. I suppose the only positive is that I am not losing loads of money when things are going against me but really could do with a boost from somewhere for the end of the month. I have been treading water for the last seven days which is really no good and have now slipped behind my target. Results wise The Market Examiner lost another £ 200 and is now down 26.5 points for the month, my tipster Terry had a nice winner on Saturday at 11/2 so winning me £ 200. My own bets I had three winners all at pretty low odds but still gaining me £150. Bet Catalyst came up empty handed losing £ 180. I also layed a couple of horses and lost £ 275 there. I think there is a pattern emerging here of giving and taking !

Darts was good as I won £ 185, and what comes back from Beaton on Saturday to beat Taylor and then tonight as Waites came from 8-0 down to beat Wade in the final.

Football was profitable to the tune of about £ 80 but could have been five times that if Liverpool had scored a fourth goal. Leading 3-0 at half time I thought I was quids in but the game fizzled out and no more goals came. I did join Premier Betting this week and all four games were winners so that was a great start though and won me £ 197.

So as you can see a bit of a messy weekend and I shall decide this week what to do to make it easier for myself for these busy periods and how to go forward.

Brilliant Stuff

What an amazing ride in the first race of the day at Mussleburgh today. I was amazed watching the race and the Racing Post sums it up much better than I ever can:

"Matt Crawley produced a miracle ride at Musselburgh to bring home Lastroseofsummer in front despite the conditional losing his irons at the eighth flight of the opening maiden hurdle over 2m4f.

Crawley's saddle slipped down the back, resulting in the loss of stirrups, but, incredibly, the 7lb claimer was not only able to stay on board but actually ride the four-year-old filly to an 11-2 victory.

Elation at victory was short-lived as he returned to earth with a bump when finally succumbing to gravity and falling off the winner after the line.

But Crawley returned to a warm reception from the public, who backed Lastroseofsummer down to 11-2 from 9-1, and received a "brilliant" response from his weighing-room colleagues. He explained: "My stirrup went down the back. I tried to get it back but the tack went to one side so I had to kick the other one out.

"She was going well so I carried on going."

When asked how he managed to defy gravity and ride without irons for the rest of the race, he said: "I don't know how I did it - instinct just kicked in."

He added: "She jumped better with me on her back than when I was up in the air - she got into the rhythm of it."

Lastroseofsummer was matched at 1,000 for £35 in Betfair's in-running market"

I have never seen a better example of horsemanship and he throughly deserved the applause when he arrived back in the winners enclosure. As for the layers at 999/1 , oh the pain....

So no updates for a few days as its been really slow for me and really slow for the two tipsters I follow. Terry has only had a couple of tips this week both losing and The Market Examiner is just not performing and is down another £ 225 since my last post. Add to that my own bets which are just not cutting the mustard at the moment and I have managed to give another £300 to the bookies.

I have managed to cover the losses with some trading on Betfair, but I really need to get some horses winning over the weekend to push me on as I have had a pretty static week.



Good luck if you are betting over the weekend and roll on Sunday when we get the tennis going again, just dont bet on this game tomorrow Anzhi Makhachkala v FC Saturn Moscow in the Russian Premier League, in fact I would steer clear of all the games. Some very moody odds especially with the Champions Zenit at 5/1 .

Hankey Pankey.

Well todays sporting event was the two champs of darts going head to head in Wolverhampton at the Grand Slam Of Darts. We had Phil " The Power" Taylor and Ted " The Count" Hankey. You could see the difference as Hankey raced into a two nil lead in the first to five match but then the presssure started to tell as he realised that in their first ever meeting he was winning. As many players do when playing Taylor he started to feel the heat even though he is a World Champion in his own right. It then turned into a right ding dong of a match as Hankey led 4-3 and had two shots at double nineteen to win the match but neither landed near as he started to bottle it. Taylor then stepped up and banged in the double to send it to the final leg.

Hankey with the throw started off brillantly and carried on in great style to nail a double five and win a belter of a match 5-4. Some great trading in the darts tonight and could have been better for me if Barney had hit 1.20. He traded at 1.21 and my lay was sitting at 1.20 but it never got matched as he then went onto lose 5-3 to Colin Lloyd.

Todays laugh came from the Elite section of Ian Erskines blog and this is what was said;

"Saturday we had Man City as the first FTS straight forward for me out at 2.0, did think Man City would be more adventurous against a side they have a great record against but the game went against us. This was followed by Athletico which was a 100% win for me and I know some of you used it as a cover to win game so got back the first game losses."

Now I havent printed any of his mails before and wont do it again but to me this is laughable. So you lost £420 on the Man City game but decide to do a martingale to get your money back. So the risk liability on the draw in the Athletico game would have been approx £ 2k which is amazing. I ask you how many people in his group are really doing this type of trading? Do they really have that sort of money to risk?

Anyway enough of that and onto todays business. Firstly The Market Examiner had five picks and all losers. Add into the mix my four selections with only one place so a total loss of £ 270.

Luckily I managed to weigh in with £ 324 on Betfair so a slightly profitable day, had a few horse lays come good and traded a few football matches not the FTS ones!

Mugs !

Yes thats what we the Great British public are for putting up with another travesty of a fight watching David Haye knock out an opponent who didnt even throw a punch in anger. If you are one of the people who paid £15 for such utter tosh than please give yourself a severe reprimand and dont do it again. I watched on Fromsport in Hd for free and still felt cheated. Talking about cheated the rumours are going round it was a fix anyway, the word was whispered in the ear in round three and down he went quicker than the proverbial lady of the night.

After this later in the night on Sky One was a true warrior and what an amazing fight between the Pac Man and Antonio Margarito, of Mexico, a man who refused to go down and by the end of the fight looked like a man who had been run over....by a tank !

Anyway some great sport with Cheltenham, the tennis in Paris , football galore and yet another big winner with Sunderland at 20/1 beating Chelsea 3-0. This scoreline was matched on Betfair at 999/1 so somebody is celebrating and somebody is getting ready to jump on a live rail somewhere.

Great tennis in Paris, really looking forward to the Finals in London the top eight in the World coming together. Ferrer should be the whipping boy, Berdych form has been terrible and I think Nadal and Roddick will struggle on the surface. Soderling won his first 1000 Masters tournament this weekend and with his indoor record I fancy him to do well along with the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time)Federer and Murray. The crowd support will push Murray on and I think that he wants to prove to the British public that he can win big titles. It should be a bumper week with lots of trading opportunities.

For this weekend I ended up about £ 200 but my god it was a struggle and I did well to get this profit. My own football system gave me lays of Dortmund who won so I went to lay 2 which was Mainz who lost and then lay one in Spain was Mallorca who drew. I joined Soccer Insight and had one winner and one loser there. The two NFLbets from Mr X both won.

The Market Examiner had a bumper day today with profits of £ 437.50 but losses yesterday of £50. I think the total for this month is now -3 points. Bet Cat had a losing weekend costing me £ 120. My own bets had a winning day yesterday of £220 but a loser today of just £25.

Ian Erskines FTS and system 3 what can you say about that this weekend? If anybody who reads this subscribes to his picks then I bet it was a proper brown trouser weekend. Finally after a good part of the season is gone I can say in proper Theo style .... "Im Out"

The results for the weekend were poor but more than that I just cannot see any profit being made following picks that even I could come up with. The lay the draw games are always big odds on favs , with high draw odds and then when the dog scores first its just wait and see if it hits the fan. The system 3 picks are laying 1-1 scorelines and again at odds of 7/1 a couple in a row mean a long wait to get back in profits. I actually think from studying the picks that your best actually backing the draw, you have a much smaller liability and if the dog does score first the odds come in not out so giving a green book opportunity. The picks for the weekend were Man City the odds were about 5.2 on Betfair laying that for £ 100 gives a £420 liability , the other games were just as bad and todays pick was 0-0 until the 93rd minute which would have been another hefty loss, and even though both 1-1 lays today were winners you would have had to wait to the 85 th minute. Its just not worth it. So thats my take on the situation.

Finally I have had £50 on Linford Christie at 12 on Betfair after laughing my way through "I'm a Celebrity." I will lay off if he gets into to 6. No copy and pastes for the weekend as to many bets and I am going to bed now.

Another Long One.

Another quickie as again I am feeling really tired after a long , long session. Got up early this morning listening to some podcasts and noting down figures for the weekends betting action. I seemed to have lots of work going on but not a lot to show for it at the moment. I hope all this hard work pays of come Saturday!

Slow day betting wise, one selection from The Market Examiner which was a loser, and just two bets from myself both finishing unplaced. So £125 in total gone. One of my two bets finished fourth when the jockey had third place in the last furlong but didnt ride the horse out which really pisses me off to say the least.

I had a couple of horse lays not go my way on Betfair but at least the tennis picked up and I finished down £2 ! I got some good breaks on the tennis and if I had held my nerve could have done better but there you go. The best win was on Llodra who beat Djokovic in straight sets.



Tomorrow we have Cheltenham so looking forward to some better racing over the next few days after the dross thats been on show this week. I think I was spoiled last weekend watching the Breeders Cup ! I am sure Dubai comes on very soon as well.

Update.

Feeling knackered tonight so a quick update. No bets from me today , nothing for me to get excited about. Just the one bet from Market Examiner which was a winner recouping 5 points back and making me £ 125.


Two bets from Terry both losers , a loss of £ 87.50.

Betfair wise was ok, had a fairly easy day with the horses , made a few quid on the Zenit/CSKA game which was a cracker of a match. The place was jumping as Zenit just needed a draw to claim the Championship but lost at home 3-1. I was impressed with CSKA who I had a bet on to win the Europa League a few months ago at 25/1. If they play like that I might get a run for my money.

Tennis wasnt so good and for the fourth day in a row I lost money there. It needs to pick up and tomorrow would be a good time to start. Llodra beat Isner in straight sets shame I didnt bet on that one.

Keeping On

Felt like a strange day today had a few PC problems and a lot of time spent just sorting out stuff, but no matter as a profit was made.

Firstly The Market Examiner had another 3 point loss for the day bringing the total to -18.5 points for the month. There was one winner but the rest of the selections all lost and to compound matters some of the losers were double point selections. A few of the choices really drifted before the off which has been a bit of a theme in recent days. My tipster Terry had just the one bet, an each way selection at 12/1 which came as they do fourth so just missing out on any profits. So a total loss of £110.

I had just the one selection which on a poor day's racing was an each way thievery job and my nag managed to get second at 18/1, winning me £ 65. I actually backed it at 10/1 and it drifted so I got the better price , which was an added bonus.


I made the profit from Betfair , where a couple of horse lays worked out and a couple of football trades went my way.

I also had a bet on Gyan to score at anytime for Sunderland against Spurs. This is probably the second time in my punting life that I have done this type of bet , but after hearing that Bent was out and looking on a few forums it seemed like a bit of value. Paddy Power was 3/1 which was better than Betfair and he obliged with a good bit of help from Gallas and Kabul.


After yesterdays post about Llodra, I checked his price on Betfair and there was another £5 available at 220 and 230 so I took that and put a lay in that got matched tonight so i dont have to wait for him to play Isner and have £975 free bet. So good news really.


Another retirement in the tennis world this being America's Taylor Dent who overcame some terrible injuries to keep on playing at the highest level, not the greatest of players but full of guts.

Ranked no. 21, Dent achieved his highest ever World ranking in August, 2008. Furthermore, prior to retiring, the professional was ranked no. 85 in the World. Taylor underwent three major surgeries in the year 2006 through 2007 as he had recurring back issues caused by injury.

Dent stated that he'd have a talk with his wife every year regarding his future. In the words of Taylor himself, "It's the deal we have had since my comeback, that at the end of the year we sit down and have a scheduled talk about whether to go forward or retire. I've been playing for 12 years now and I met a lot of my goals, almost all my goals after coming back from the surgeries and the time seemed perfect".

Additionally, he exclaimed, "I've got a son and a strong desire to be a family man. Pro tennis is a grueling schedule and it gets pretty tough after a while. My body was able to hang in there, a testament to my surgeon, but at the end of the day it's just a lot of little things".

My Lord, My Luck.

A profitable day, so keeping the ball rolling forward . Firstly another three points gone as The Market Examiner drew a blank with his selections. All of the selections ran pretty poor races and seemed to run out of steam a long time before the end of their races. The service is now down 15.5 points for the month. Terry also had three blanks so total loss of £225.

I had two bets with the big winner for me being in the 2.35 at Wolves. I layed the odds on fav at 1.7 for £250 and backed the second fav My Lord at 5/1 each way. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesnt but my horse managed to get up to beat the fav near the line to win me £380 in total.


I also had Lukey Luke who came third. This was a bit of plunge horse as I backed it at 12/1 and it went off at 5/1, still another £ 35 quid in the bank.

After my morning post I decided to have £ 25 on Llodra to win the Paris Masters on Betfair. He has had a poor couple of months but is French and I like to back home players. He likes to play indoors and I feel the surface is good for his type of game, he has a fantastic touch around the net so who knows. After looking at the draw if he can get past Isner (who he lost to last week) I can see him going far. I got him at 200 on Betfair and will look to lay of at some point if he survives.


There were no selections for my football laying system last weekend but after going through the data there should be a couple in Spain and Germany this weekend, depending on odds.

Quick Roundup.

Another cracking weekend of sport, it went like this. Kauto Star back and winning, Ruby Walsh back and not back after breaking a leg at the same meeting. Goldikova doing the business but Zenyatta what happened there? Jockey or horses fault? Lots of tears and apologies from all sides.
Paul Hanagan after a great tussle with Richard Hughes becomes the Champion Flat jockey. For a lot of the season he has been racing up and down the country and living out of a suitcase. Well done Paul now try to sit still and relax.
I shall be looking out for Peter Toole and Julie Burke this winter, two up and coming jocks.

Federer wins in Switzerland, Ferrer wins in Spain is there a pattern here? Maybe this week Monfils will win in France? Italia win the Fed Cup against the USA. Shame the Williams sisters didnt turn up but they are a law unto themselves. Heather Watson wins the biggest title of her career with victory in the Tevlin Challenger, an ITF tournament in Toronto, Canada. Is she Britains next Wimbledon hope ?

The Eagles win (Hooray) even if they do nearly throw it away with a ridiculous late 15 yard penalty for roughing the passer. The Ravens win(Hooray) and keep my NFL bets going strong.

Cricket ,Pakistani wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider has gone missing in Dubai, team manager Intikhab Alam has said.The 24-year-old's disappearance comes ahead of Monday's deciding one-day international against South Africa.Haider reportedly received a threatening message after helping Pakistan to victory in Friday's fourth one-day international.

Liverpool, Man City win ,Arsenal lose, Man Utd scrape home, have we got a decent title race this season?

I enjoy reading Green All Over Blog and Cassini has some great results concerning draws and ratings that he gives to each team. Now I have an interesting stat that I noticed a couple of weeks ago while I went through lots of European Football Data. This season, backing teams over 7/1 with Bet 365 which would probably be about 10% more on Betfair you would be showing to £ 100 stakes a handsome profit in the region of £ 7k, apart from Belgium where they have had twenty one losers in a row at last count.

In the Premiership there have been 16 losers and 4 winners giving a profit of +31 points, the winning games were Spurs/Wigan 12/1, Arsenal/WestBrom 14/1, Liverpool/Blackpool 10/1 and finally Arsenal/Newcastle 11/1. The Big leagues are Spain +18, Germany +16,Italy -9 and France +11.

In Spain Barca lost at home to Hercules who were 33/1 with Bet 365, I wonder what they were on Betfair. Anyway food for thought and it shows that this year there's a bit more competition, or maybe not?

Happy Days!

A bumper day which really fires the month ahead. A really well done to Bet Catalyst who had a great day with their three bets.I only use half stakes on their bets so my winnings of £ 1303 are half of what they will post. The three bets were a win and two each way bets combined in a trixie. The first Simenon in the 3.10 at 14/1 came third.

This was followed up ten minutes later in the 3.20 by Meanus Dandy winning at 8/1.

The third leg of the bet was the 3.40 with Russian Spirit being the choice and this won at 25/1.


This meant that the trixie was landed.


I only had two picks myself . Both where in the 12.45 called Slew Charm and Gold Reef. A crazy race where I was so busy watching Slew Charm as it was challenging two out that I didnt notice Gold Reef come from absolutely no where to win on the line. The jockey Peter Hatton rode a race timed to perfection.The Market Examiner had three picks and for the first time this week he manged to get in on the act as Captain Americo in the 2.05 won very nicely. This service is now down 9.5 points since it re started.Terry had just the one pick and this came home second at 10/1 so another profit was pulled in.

On the Betfair front I lost about £ 120 but £200 of that was laying the above horses at low prices in running in case they got caught. Nevertheless a big day with approx £ 1800 profit.

Ian Erskine had three system three games that all came through and one FTS game that I didnt get involved in but that was a winner to.

Finally well done to the unbeaten Goldikova who won tonight in great style.

Exciting Night.

Tonights the night for all horse racing fans with some amazing races for big money stakes. I shall be watching with a few cans of Stella hoping that Goldikova can do it. If you've had a bet good luck and enjoy !

From todays paper:

Zenyatta isn’t the only mare trying to set a record for victories at the Breeders’ Cup Championships today.

Irish-born Goldikova, like undefeated Zenyatta, will try to win a record third race at the event, which is being held this year at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.

Goldikova, who has 11 top-level victories in Europe -- seven against colts -- would hold the record for consecutive victories in Breeders’ Cup races before Zenyatta. The 5-year-old runs in the $2 million Mile on the turf, which she has won the past two years, about two hours before Zenyatta runs in the $5 million Classic.

“Goldikova is a very special mare,” Freddy Head, her trainer, said during a teleconference. “She’s been running against the best in Europe, the best milers in Europe for three years now, and she’s beaten them all.”

Three races later, Zenyatta will try for her record 20th consecutive win and third Breeders’ Cup title. The 6- year-old became the first female to win the Classic last year and won the Ladies’ Classic in 2008.

“The unique thing about her is she’s come from last,” trainer John Shirreffs said during a teleconference. “How she does it, I have no idea because she’s always sort of at the mercy of the pace. She’s got to go wide or she’s got to cut a corner.”

Zenyatta is the early 8-5 favorite, running from the eighth post position against 11 colts in the Classic, the richest thoroughbred horse race in North America. Goldikova, given 6-5 odds in the morning line, will try to outlast 10 colts as she leaves from the 10th gate.

Zenyatta’s Shadow

“Goldikova, if she wins this, she’s amazing,” trainer Bob Baffert said on a teleconference. “I think she was shadowed a little bit by Zenyatta. It’s going to be exciting to watch Goldikova if she can repeat because she’s an amazing animal and she gets a little bit lost when she comes to the stage.”

The Breeders’ Cup is the richest two-day sports event, paying $26 million in purses, said Greg Avioli , chief executive officer of the racing series.

Baffert, who trained Classic entry Lookin At Lucky, says the fans will be rooting for Zenyatta to win her final race before she retires.

“That mare’s done so much for racing that I get goose bumps every time I watch her run,” Baffert said. “She’s just amazing, and we all want to win, but we don’t mind getting beat by her.”

Horse of Year

The winner of the Classic often earns Horse of the Year honors. Zenyatta lost the 2009 award to Rachel Alexandra, who had won the Preakness Stakes. Shirreffs said he is confident that she can win the title this year if she retains the Classic championship.

“Her legacy’s going to be how she changed the perception and how she engaged the fans with racehorses,” Shirreffs said. “The fans really get behind her and she sort of plays to the crowd, so she’s brought a lot of people into racing.”

Head said Goldikova has a good chance of being named European Horse of the Year after being passed over last year.

“This is definitely the decade of the filly,” Avioli said.

Squeezing.

Managed to squeeze out my targeted profit yesterday though it was hard. There were two more losers for The Market Examiner which at £25 a point was £ 50 gone. Terrys only bet of the day came second but at 14/1 each way it made a profit.

Got £ 50 out of Betfair.



I had four bets with two unplaced, a 16/1 third and over in Ireland a winner.


Watched a bit of football the last couple of nights it does make you wonder. Man City are becoming the new Chelsea, with the neutrals wanting them to lose and my god they are poor for such a vastly expensive team. The fact of the matter is they have paid an exorbitant amount of money for players that really arent good enough. Last night they brought on a player (kolarov) never heard of the bloke and they paid £19 million for him from Lazio. It beggars belief !
This is the squad from their web site, look at how many players they've got.

Its not as if they even play that entertaining football, especially when compared to Spurs the night before. A great result but also a deserved one with Harry's team attacking from all sides and never trying to sit on a one goal lead against the Euro champions but taking the game to them. I hope that he gets the England managers job one day as he obviously wants it and he might be able to put a bit of fire and pride in the teams belly.

Slacking ?

As the title says I have been a bit of a slacker lately, or have I? Had the first couple of days in November off as I wanted to "take stock" over what I am doing, where I am going and whether to take anything else on board.As well as going back through past results and trying to see if there are any angles or things I could improve.

At the end of the day this is my job and I could just sit here and watch re-runs of "Friends" but like everybody else I am always on the look out for new ideas and systems across the net. To boot I have been going through a lot of tennis and some football data, which is boring and tiresome but at the same time I think needs to be done when time is free to see if any little gems can be uprooted.

For the forthcoming month I have added "The Market Examiner" to see if he can perform as per his blog. I followed in the summer months and it worked quite well apart from the odds quoted compared to mine. For the cost of £15 for the month I am happy to give it a go and see if I can get the odds quoted achieved. If this doesnt happen in 90% of the cases I will drop it because there is 10% of any edge gone straight away. For the record he is 8 points down and all horses selected have run poorly.For the eight horses I have got the price as quoted in the email apart from today where both runners price had gone within seconds of me receiving the mail.

The other service I use is back on line as Terry took last month off. He started yesterday with the one bet which was a winner , so lets hope that continues.


These are the only two horse racing guys I will use apart from my own bets of course. Yesterday I had four bets of my own and lost £ 175, but overall a profitable one.

Flat.

Out with old and as the clocks go back and the season changes so does my blog picture from Autumn to Winter. Lets all shiver our way through the next few months to Springtime and hope that the betting gods are smiling.

Had a very flat weekend making no head way. Cant really put any positive slants on it I just kept getting things wrong and the things that went right werent good enough profit wise. To add to my woes my favourite TV show "The Middle" also finished. If you havent seen it catch up with the repeats.

I lost the most money with Bet Catalyst who are running a master place system on placed horses which had as Richard put it in an email had" An unbelievable poor run." I will see if it can turnaround as results before were very encouraging.

The SBP had a losing A bet but a winning B bet on the NFL with Tampa +3.5 bringing home the bacon. On the college side of things I am not following anymore so I dont know.

The FTS had a good weekend but that was all lost and some more when a system 3 game that was picked on Saturday night finished 1-1. The system 3 has now a small profit for the season. I am still wondering where the £150k a year comes from, but Ian is helpful and does seem to want to help.

For myself I had just four bets all weekend with a couple of places for a loss of £55. I have managed to get an old Stan James account going again. Lets hope they take some bets on this one.
So I manged to drop in total £ 500 over the weekend but the month finished at over £3300 so beating the target. The last week had been a real roller coaster so I hope it can settle down a bit for now ! My own lay system performed well as all three picks AC Milan, Hearts and G Fruth all lost.

Finally thanks for the memories:

DOHA, Qatar - She fought alongside the biggest names on the WTA for over a decade, right until the end too. And following her last match of this week's WTA Championships - Doha 2010, Elena Dementieva called it a career.

After Anna Kournikova's stint at the top level in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Dementieva was the first of the current wave of Russians to make a mark, cracking the Top 20 on September 11, 2000 after a shock run to her first Grand Slam semifinal at the US Open. She stayed in that elite for 524 of the next 529 weeks, including this week, and she spent an amazing 328 career weeks inside the Top 10 (peaking at No.3 for five weeks in the spring of 2009).

Dementieva seemed to get better and better with age, her most treasured title, the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, coming at age 26, and her two Top 5 finishes coming at 27 and 28 (at the end of the 2008 and 2009 seasons).

In addition to 16 WTA titles, Dementieva reached another 16 finals, including Grand Slam finals at the French Open and US Open in 2004. Players had to go to the ends of the Earth to beat her; who could forget Serena Williams' 67(4) 75 86 win over her in the semifinals of Wimbledon last year, where the eventual champion had to save match point in what is widely regarded as one of the best matches in recent memory. Dementieva reached the semifinals or better at Grand Slams nine times, doing it at least once at every Grand Slam.

Dementieva's success wasn't just limited to singles. She won six WTA doubles titles (including the WTA Championships in 2002 with Janette Husarova) and reached another seven finals (including two US OPEN finals, in 2002 with Husarova and 2005 with Flavia Pennetta). Her doubles career-high was No.5.

But after 12 years competing at the highest level, the Russian, who celebrated her 29th birthday earlier this month, decided to bow out on the WTA's biggest stage, her last match coming against Francesca Schiavone. The 30-year-old Italian would win that match in an hour and 33 minutes on center court, 64 62.

"This year in Doha was very special for me because it was my last tournament," Dementieva told the crowd. "I'd first like to thank Stacey Allaster. We're very lucky to have you as the leader of the tour. You do so much to make our tour better, trying to take women's tennis to a different level. It has been a big honor to be a part of the tour for such a long time. I'd like to thank all the people from the WTA - it was so nice to get to know all of you and work with you for so many years. I'm going to miss you so much. Thanks to all the players for the amazing experiences, all the years I spent on the court with you. And thanks to all the people around the world for supporting me, and my fan club, I could feel your support no matter where I was in the world. Thank you for your devotion.

"Most importantly, thanks to my family, especially my mom. You've been very supportive, encouraging, inspiring... you were always there for me. It was a long way and we did it together. I love you mom.

"It's so emotional. It's hard to say goodbye. I'm going to miss you so much."

"Russia is proud to have you. You've been a great inspiration and role model for kids,"Vera Zvonareva said on court. "You've done so much, not just for Russian tennis but for Russian sport. The whole country is proud of you."

"We kind of grew up together. I've been playing with her since the juniors,"Kim Clijsters said. "It's nice to see her look forward to something new in her life. She's been one of the most professional, nicest girls on tour.

"It will be rare to see another player like her."