Welcome to BetDaq Tip Check

Includes tips until: 28 Jan 2012

 

PJA and Personal Info set the early pace

 

January is not normally the most dynamic month of the racing season. All the big autumn and Christmas races have come and gone, and many candidates for Cheltenham Festival glory have been put back under wraps until March. There is also the weather to contend with. Many meetings are usually lost during the year’s first few weeks, and what survives is sometimes lowly stuff.

    The Cheltenham Trials Day reminds us that better racing is coming, but it would be unfair to dismiss January so readily. Overall, the weather was kind with few lost meetings.  Hurricane Rock and Big Bucks, two of the sports’ A-listers both scored facile victories. And Henrietta Knight’s return to form has been another pleasing feature of the month.

    January also, of course, heralds the start of another year of the Besttipping tipster challenge.  

    PJA All Weather began 2011 with a flourish and they have started 2012 in the same vein, posting a four-week profit of 33.2 points. Early highlights include 12/1 Rosewood Lad (Wolverhampton, 5 January), 10/1 General Tufto (Southwell, 8 January) and Art Scholar, a 9/1 winner at Kempton on 15 January.

    PJA National Hunt, who ended 2011 on a high with winning 16/1 advice, Celestial Halo, carried the good work on into the New Year. Double Dizzy became the second 16/1 advice to deliver inside three days when winning at Plumpton on 2 January. My Faithful Annie (14/1, Huntingdon, 4 January), Justazippy (8/1, Market Rasen, 22 January), Morgan Be (10/1, Newbury, 22 January) and Quicoyo (12/1, Doncaster, 28 January) all helped to ensure this was a bumper month.

    Also hot of the blocks in 2012 were Personal Info, recording a 24.9 point gain. This was the 43rd profitable month in the last 51 months – an extraordinary achievement. Folie A Deux, a successful 7/1 advice at Taunton on 7 January, set the wheels in motion. Even more impressive was All Annalena, a winning 11/1 advice at Ludlow ten days later. Overall, Personal Info enjoyed a 56% strike-rate on singles bets in January.

    For the seventh month out of eight, Steve Jones (CD Systems) recorded a profit. Jones, who topped the December table, had a tremendous spell between 13 and 21 January when, from just five advices, he found Dreamboat Lady, a 5/1 winner at Huntingdon, Swincombe Flame, the 8/1 winner of the Lanzarote Hurdle at Kempton and Reindeer Dippin, another successful 8/1 advice, this time at Haydock. These all helped towards a 12 point January profit.

    January was similarly profitable for Richard Dunwoody, who scored a major success with Gores Island, the 14/1 winner of a Doncaster novices’ hurdle for Lambourn trainer Noel Chance on 11 January.

    With little more than six weeks to go before the start of the Cheltenham Festival, there is a keen sense of anticipation. In the meantime, though, February offers some real treats including the Betfair Handicap Hurdle at Newbury, a race better known to those of a certain age as the Schweppes Gold Trophy. That race forms the centrepiece of Newbury’s 11 February card, while the following day in Ireland, Leopardstown stages the valuable Hennessy Gold Cup.

L’Hirondelle provides the festive cheer

 

L’Hirondelle, the wine, was pretty awful, but the horse of the same name helped generate some early festive cheer, when winning by a short-head at Kempton on the Monday of Christmas week.

The success of the Paul Doe-ridden gelding, a 7/1 shot, helped Personal Info to end the year in typical bookie-busting fashion. It came just three days after another 7/1 advice from Personal Info, King of Rhythm, had landed the odds at Southwell. This impressive brace helped push Personal Info’s profit for the last four weeks to almost 26% and the figure for 2009 to a healthy 74.7%.  Personal Info has notched a profit in all but three of the last twenty six months, a period during which they have posted a phenomenal 451% profit – a staggering feat of consistency.

Steve Jones continued his fine recent run. Since 23 August his Daily Bargain service has posted an impressive 50.2% profit. This month’s contributors included Poyle Meg, successful at 8/1, the aforementioned L’Hirondelle (7/1), Gap Princess (11/2) and Thoughtsofstardom (9/2). There were also three tips that finished second; success for any one of this trio would have turned a good month into an outstanding one.

Much the same could be said of Gamblers Reunited, who endured a frustrating run with seven tips finishing second during the period under review. Nevertheless there were plenty of winners, including 5/1 shot Forever’s Girl and 7/2 Lesley’s Choice. The overall result was a 5.5% profit.

Also in the black this month was PJA’s National Hunt service. As ever, the search for value unearthed some gems, none more so than 10/1 Warwick victor, Russian Flag. There was also Hello My Lovely, an 11/1 winner at Southwell on the first day of December, and Comehomequietly, a 20/1 each way advice at Ffos Las on 21 December, who finished second.

Incidentally, PJA’s Flat service has ended the year with a 99.1 point profit. Unless something dramatic happens in the last week of the year, they have also won the accolade of Besttipping’s highest points’ scorer of 2010.    

Returning to the services still active in the final weeks of the year, Bookies Enemy enjoyed a fine run at the start of the period under review with four successive winning tips. They also ended in grand style with a successful each-way treble yielding a 34.5 point haul on Boxing Day.

Mathematician posted a small profit, while Richard Dunwoody and Insideoutracing both suffered narrow losses. Insideoutracing did, however, land a handsome gamble when 14/1 Le Beau Bai scored at Chepstow on 5 December. At the time of writing Insideoutracing’s profit for 2009 stands at a very handsome 59.3%.

As this is my last posting for 2009, I wish all users of this site a very happy, prosperous and peaceful New Year.