Mark Your Card close the gap after strong June show

2018-06-30

Mark Your Card have made deep inroads into Daily Bargain’s lead at the top of the Besttipping Challenge. A June yield of 38.2 points reduced the reigning champion’s advantage to less than 12 points. It was the clearest indication yet that Mark Your Card are hitting peak form, after a quiet quarter which saw the prolific service loss ground to Daily Bargain.

For their part, Daily Bargain posted a 4.0-point gain while there were also June profits for Personal Info and First Favourite.

The first week of June gave little indication of a turnaround for Mark Your Card, but the Musselburgh success of 20/1 advice Caspian Prince (9 June), set the wheels in motion. White Crest (20/1, Nottingham) and Outrageous Romana (16/1, Uttoxeter) both triumphed for Mark Your Card on 14 June and the orgy of big-priced successes continued over the next two days with Framley Garth (18/1, York, 15 June), 22/1 Bush Baby and 25/1 Ice Canyon (both at Chester, 16 June) continuing the feast.

Mark Your Card’s revelries continued at Royal Ascot as the Sir Michael Stoute-trained Eqtidaar caused an upset in the Commonwealth Cup (12/1 advice) and 16/1 Soldiers Call came home first in the Windsor Castle Stakes.

And June ended on a high thanks to the Windsor victory of 16/1 advice Majeed (30 June). The monthly yield of 38.2 points was the best Mark Your Card return since February’s 59.2-point haul. It has also reinvigorated the race to be the 2018 Besttipping champion which was starting to look like a one-tipster race as Steve Jones’s Daily Bargain and Probets services were sitting in first and second place.

Daily Bargain retain their position at the top of the table, thanks to a 4-point June yield – the fifth month of profit out of six so far this year. The month began brightly with the win of Primo’s Comet (14/1, Newcastle, 5 June), but it needed two late strikes – 7/1 Roy Rocket (Brighton, 26 June) and 8/1 Pickett’s Charge (Newcastle, 28 June) - to ensure that the month ended in profit. Nevertheless, it says something of the strength of Daily Bargain, that an 11% strike-rate can still drum up an acceptable monthly yield.

June was also a winning month for Personal Info with 13 selections winning including two at Royal Ascot – Main Edition (15/2, Albany Stakes, 22 June) and Merchant Navy (4/1, Diamond Jubilee Stakes, 23 June). The month began with another 4/1 strike when Big Picture prevailed at Market Rasen 1 June) and ended with a ninth profitable month out of the last 12.

Selections from First Favourite remain few and far between. But this is how this particular service operates, and when the result is a 75% June strike-rate and a return on investment of more than 38%, what’s the problem? There are no tips for tipping’s sake; April, for example, was a no-tip month. But the end invariably justifies the means: remember 2015 when First Favourite went through the year without enduring a single losing month.