Mark Your Card replace Daily Bargain at the top of the Besttipping table after strong June display

2019-06-30

Mark Your Card replace Daily Bargain at the top of the Besttipping table after strong June display

Five months ago, Mark Your Card were languishing at the foot of the Besttipping table, but now they are back in pole position, after posting a June profit of 44.4 points. The four-time champs finished well clear of Steve Daily Bargain with First Favourite, the two Personal Info services and Probets also securing June profits.

Mark Your Card’s yield, their best since last December, was built around several high-priced winners, most notably a pair of 20/1 advices who defied the odds: Carlovian (York, 13 June) and Raffle Prize, successful in the Queen Mary Stakes under Frankie Dettori at Royal Ascot (19 June). Also catching the eye were Lofgren, a winning 14/1 advice at Cartmel on the last day of the month and Light Breeze, triumphant at 10/1 at Navan on 1 June.

Back in February, Mark Your Card posted a second consecutive losing month, and were plumb last. Never before, in five and a half years with Besttipping, had they suffered such ignominy. But recovery was swift and June’s yield was the fourth month of profit on the bounce.

Mark Your Card are now in a much more familiar position: at the head of the table with a six-month yield of 67.2 points. That means a slender 8.4-point lead of Steve Jones’ Daily Bargain with Sprint Specialiser third on 21.1 points.

It is, of course, far too early to speculate on the eventual outcome of this year’s race; mid-year leaders have a mixed record in the second half of the year with five of the last ten failing to convert June’s supremacy into overall success. However, on the four occasions Mark Your Card were ahead at half-time, only once did they fail to end the year as champions. The exception was in 2017 when Daily Bargain came from behind to claim a second Besttipping crown.

So far, 2019 has been a steady year for Daily Bargain. A six-month yield of 58.8-points is some way below the mid-point figure for 2017 and ’18, but given that this has been a difficult year all-round, it’s far from being a disaster. June’s return was a healthy 16 points. A spectacular start meant that after just seven days, a monthly profit was guaranteed. Don’t Let Go (7/1, Kilbeggan, 2 June), Quick Breath (12/1, Kempton, 5 June) and Motahassen (14/1, Haydock, 7 June) all prevailed with another 7/1 chance Beeno adding to the coffers with victory at Cartmel (28 June).

First Favourite were again in cautious mode, but as the month’s only selection was a winner, there were few complaints. The horse in question was Japan, who followed his third place in the Derby with an easy victory in the 12-furlong King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot (21 June) at odds of 6/4.

Two winning 9/4 advices, Gravistas (Newmarket, 8 June) and Blue Point (Royal Ascot, 22 June), secured another month of profit for Personal Info’s Saturday-Only service. The yield of 1.1 points was the seventeenth positive return in the last 22 months – a remarkable record bettered only by Personal Info’s mainline service who made it eighteen winning months during the same period, thanks to a five-winner June haul.

Steve Jones’ Probets also earned a small June profit with five winning selections out of 25. No fewer than nine of the remaining 20 advices finished second including an agonising sequence of five runners-up in succession between 17 and 21 June. Oh, what might have been.